BA, University of Alabama. MFA, Sarah Lawrence College. A New York-based multi-hyphen artist from Huntsville, Alabama, committed to connecting communities and inspiring joy through theatre and music, Davis has worked over the past decade as a director, teacher, writer, performer, producer, and designer at colleges, regional theatres, New York Musical Theatre Festival, and New York International Fringe Festival. He is the author of plays, poetry, and original musicals, such as Huckleberry Haywood, Bird Brain, Bad Kiss, Little Trees, Rusty the Robot, Stargazing With Helen Keller, and Lights Out in Cootah County, as well as an original shadow puppetry adaptation of A Christmas Carol. Davis has toured the United States for three seasons with TheatreWorks USA and can be found daily as a singing hologram on Broadway at Ripley’s Museum in Times Square. He is a founder and artistic director of CitySalt Theatricals, an ordained minister, ASCAP songwriter, and a member of the Actors Equity Association. SLC, 2017–
Undergraduate Courses 2022-2023
Theatre
Music and Theatre Practice: Creating Community
Open, Component—Year
Theatre and music nurture the souls of the artist, ensemble, production team, and audience far beyond the room where it happened. From mainstream Broadway megahits to intimate avant-garde experiments, creative performance has the power to unite us through shared experience and emotion. As theatre practitioners, we have a unique opportunity to inspire transformations and heal our communities. How do we use our creativity to confront issues like loneliness, justice, food scarcity, racism, isolation, balance, homesickness, and care? Through case studies, collaborations with other campus groups, and investigating our own ideas, this class will form initiatives to create community through music and theatre at Sarah Lawrence and beyond.
Faculty
Graduate Courses 2022-2023
MFA Theatre
Music and Theatre Practice: Creating Community
Component—Year
Theatre and music nurture the souls of the artist, ensemble, production team, and audience far beyond the room where it happened. From mainstream Broadway megahits to intimate avant-garde experiments, creative performance has the power to unite us through shared experience and emotion. As theatre practitioners, we have a unique opportunity to inspire transformations and heal our communities. How do we use our creativity to confront issues like loneliness, justice, food scarcity, racism, isolation, balance, homesickness, and care? Through case studies, collaborations with other campus groups, and investigating our own ideas, this class will form initiatives to create community through music and theatre at Sarah Lawrence and beyond.
Faculty
Previous Courses
Theatre
Creating Community Through Musical Theatre
Open, Component—Spring
This new course is about discovering original work through the lens of both traditional and nontraditional musical theatre forms that speak to our department, campus, and world. Our goal will be to play and devise new pieces that may build bridges and transform conflict into thoughtful, constructive conversations. Through investigating the work of Michael Rohd’s Hope Is Vital training, we will use music, lyrics, games, physical theatre, writing, found text, and visual art to create our ensemble’s vocabulary for theatremaking. The culmination of this creative process will inspire new campus initiatives that encourage community-building at Sarah Lawrence. As a final practicum project, each student will contribute to the conception of a performance piece, event, program or special project that sings a song of collaboration, confrontation, community, and healing in our own backyard.
Faculty
MFA Theatre
Music and Theatre Practice: Creating Community
Component—Year
Acting and musical storytelling can transform our communities far beyond the room where it happened. From mainstream Broadway mega-hits to intimate avant-garde experiments, creative performance has the power to unite, inspire, and heal. How do we use our creativity to confront challenging issues in the world around us? Through acting techniques, musical theatre, case studies, and investigating our own ideas, we will discover new ways to create community on campus and beyond.