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Will Davis (director)
Will Davis is an American theater director and choreographer from California. He earned a BFA in Theater Studies from DePaul University and a MFA in Directing from The University of Texas - Austin. He is currently working as an artist-in-residence at Brooklyn Arts Exchange in New York City.

Career
Will has developed and performed works in many places across the United States. He participated in a writer/director lab at the Soho Repertory Theatre in Manhattan as well as a directing fellowship at New York Theatre Workshop, both of which are off-broadway theaters. In 2016, he took over the role of artistic director at American Theatre Company in Chicago becoming the first transgender person to lead a non-profit organization that did not have a defined LGBTQIA+ mission. In addition, Will has also worked on pieces at Clubbed Thumb in New York, the Olney Theatre Center in Maryland, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C among others.

Works and Style
As a director, Will focuses on creating new and exciting works of theatre without playing to the constraints of a certain genre. In an interview for the Chicago Reader he stated that he is, "not worried about whether folks can categorize the work". Many of Davis' works incorporate casting that go against traditional gender norms. Though his works are not bound by gender constraints, he is also not necessarily trying to fight against them saying, "It's not about trying to gender-f*** something...it's about trying to tease out the core of these characters as I see them". One example is with his production of Jaclyn Backhaus' Men on Boats, where he used a cast entirely of non-cisgender-male actors.

Some of Davis' other productions include Orange Julius, about a Vietnam veteran dealing with exposure to Agent Orange and his relationship with his queer daughter. Colossal, a show about a star athlete at the University of Texas who tries to balance the line between his love for football and his fathers' love for dance. Will also worked on Sorry, Robot a musical set in a world where robots have become everyday technology used as personal assistants.

Critical Reception
Davis' works have received positive reviews in major publications including the New York Times and Washington Post. Ben Brantley of the New York times wrote of Will's production of Men on Boats, "And the cast, the director and the design team...delightfully recreate the rhythms, rush and terror of life on the water." . Similarly Peter Marks of the Washington Post had praise for Davis' production of Colossal, "We’re kept apprised of just how precious every moment is — in life, as in a play — by an overhead scoreboard that ticks down the production’s game-simulating four quarters. ". Currently Davis is working on a version of William Inge's show Picnic.