William W. Lewis
Scholar /Educator / Performance Maker
Will is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Directing and Performance at Purdue University. He is an interdisciplinary scholar/artist whose work focuses on the fields of intermedial, postdramatic, and devised performance. His research explores the role of digital interactivity on contemporary audiences and the implications of constant connection to media on how we teach theatre-making. In his creative practice he implements site specificity, gaming, interactivity, and social media to explore ethics and politics in the 21st century. His focus on better understanding the needs of contemporary students immersed in digital culture pushes him to consider innovative ways of creating new forms of theatre and applying these forms to his teaching and mentoring the next wave of leaders in the field of theatre and performance.
Will currently serves as ATHE’s Focus Group Representative for the Directing Program and will continue in this role through 2022. He has trained in devised theatre with SITI Company in New York City, interactive performance making with Blast Theory in the United Kingdom, and worked as a workshop director on new play development for NYU Tisch. He has directed Off-Off Broadway, in Los Angeles, and regionally. His performance work has been recognized by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (Quantified Self) and the Kennedy Center College Theatre festival (Woyzeck: The Endless Cycle 1.0). In 2019 he became an Associate Member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC).
He has published articles and reviews focusing on digital interactivity, practice as research, and political performance in Theatre Topics, Performance Research, The International Journal of Performing Arts and Digital Media, GPS: Global Performance Studies, Theatre Research International, and New Theatre Quarterly. His recent book chapter in New Directions in Teaching Theatre Arts argues for new ways of teaching theatre-making that focus on interdisciplinary methodologies from theatre, computer science, and UX design. He is also a vocal advocate for the blending of theory and practice by utilizing performance as research (PAR) methodologies. Part of this advocacy includes serving as the founding co-editor of the online journal PARtake:The Journal of Performance as Research whose readership consists of scholars and artists from over 120 countries worldwide.
He completed a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, a MA in Theatre History and Criticism at CUNY Hunter College, and a BFA in Performance at the University of Memphis.
