Former FALA theater teacher to lead Sedona’s revived program

Not many people can say they moved away from Los Angeles before landing their first role on television.

Since Anne Cuevas, the incoming Sedona Red Rock High School theater director, moved from Los Angeles to Flagstaff about five years ago, she is one of them.

As a long time theater director who loves to teach, she doesn’t audition for many roles in film. When performing, she usually has professional theater gigs.

When filmmaker Heidi James began looking to film her new movie, “Quads & The Kicker,” at Cuevas’ old school, the Flagstaff Arts and Leadership Academy, she was excited.

“She was walking around there one day, scoping it out, and I kiddingly told her, … ‘Well, I’m going to send you my head shot and audition tape,’ and she’s like, ‘No, you should.’ She’s like, ‘There’s actually a part in the movie that you’d be really good for.’ So I did, and I got the part.”

She spent most of June on set, filming her role as awhimsical theater teacher.

“It was so freaking cool,” she said.

Hiring

While being a movie actor would be cool for students, Sedona-Oak Creek School District Superintendent Tom Swaninger, Ed.D., said, it’s not the reason the district chose her to continue the program.

“Most of our students won’t become professional actors, and that’s perfectly OK,” he recently wrote. “The true value of theater extends far beyond the stage. The teamwork, creativity, confidence, communication skills and comfort speaking and performing in front of others are lessons that will benefit students for the rest of their lives.”

Born and raised in Chicago, Cuevas has a bachelor’s degree in theater and a master’s degree in education, but it’s her standup comedy background that she says allows her to best connect with students.

“When you’re able to riff with the kids,” she said, “obviously you have to build some trust before you can start doing that — but … having that skill to work a room and keep the kids on their toes” works well in a classroom.

“We were looking for a true program builder,” said Swaninger, who will be the interim principal for SRRHS following former Principal Heather Isom’s departure to be principal of Cactus Shadows High School in Phoenix. “For that to happen, our theater director needs to be enthusiastic, energetic, knowledgeable, and, perhaps most importantly, able to connect deeply with our students. Anne immediately checked all of those boxes.”

History

Cuevas liked acting and comedy, so teaching was the safer job to start out with, she said. The second she earned her master’s degree, she said she moved to Los Angeles and got a job.

“I was like, ‘I’ll just do it for a year and see what happens,’ and then I started teaching, and I loved it. Working on productions with students was the best thing ever, so then I just kept doing that.”

She stayed in LA for the better part of two decades before her then-10-yearold son, Stryker, missed his dad who had returned to Flagstaff, where he had grown up.

So, Cuevas decided to transplant to Flagstaff, which was very different from where she was living in LA.

She spent a couple years teaching at Flagstaff High School, then switched to part-time at FHS and parttime at FALA.

“FALA needed just someone to teach their advanced acting class,” she said. “They wanted someone to be able to put on professional quality-shows. So that’s why I was doing both, and then unfortunately Flag High [two years ago] decided to cut their theater program completely down to like one class, and I’m like, ‘well, no, I want to do this full time.’”

The FALA Governing Board announced the school’s closure on April 24 due to district’s “inability to meet payroll and facility obligations, years of financial struggle, enrollment decline as the decisive factor,” according to its Governing Board’s April 24 meeting minutes.

The board voted unanimously to close the school over the summer, and not reopen in the fall.

The decision was “devastating,” Cuevas said.

“I was like, ‘I don’t want to do anything else,’” she said. “I know a lot of my colleagues at FALA were like, ‘well, this is a sign, I think this is our time to say, “OK, I’m done teaching.’”

Possibilities

After FALA’s announcement, Cuevas wasn’t sure what she’d do, but a friend who also used to work at FALA got a job at Verde Valley School in the Village of Oak Creek.

“She was the one that sent me the post [of]that position opening [at SRRHS], and … I was sort of sweating. I’m like, ‘oh my god, there’s an actual theater position.’”

The former SRRHS theater director, Cae Collmar, began in fall 2025, announced her resignation in May.

Before Collmar, the program had been dormant for several years.

“We’re hoping to build on the momentum of bringing theater back to our campus last year,” Swaninger wrote. “With a relatively small student population, our programs are often right on the edge of either making progress or losing momentum, so generating and sustaining student interest is absolutely critical.”

Cuevas’ position, like Collmar’s, is financially supported by the Sedona-Oak Creek USD Educational Foundation, according to foundation president Randy Hawley, who’s also the SOCSD Governing Board president.

“What stood out to us most about Anne was her genuine passion for students,” Swaninger wrote. “She understands that theater isn’t just about putting on a great performance … it’s about helping young people discover confidence, find their voice, take risks, and become part of something bigger than themselves.”

While Cuevas said it was cool to be in James’ film, the coolest part was that several of her FALA students were extras.

“Maybe she’ll put me in her next movie, and then the Red Rock kids can be extras in that one,” she said.

Cuevas’ hiring was approved during the June 9 SOCSD Governing Board meeting, during which the consent agenda stated her start day would be the teachers’ first day of school, Monday, Aug. 3. The first day of school for students is Thursday, Aug. 6.