Rick Davis                                          director---writer---teacher


Associate Dean, College of Visual and Performing Arts
Artistic Director, Center for the Arts

Artistic Director, Theater of the First Amendment
Professor of Theater
George Mason University

rdavi4@gmu.edu
(703) 993-2192 (phone)
(703) 993-2191 (fax)

current and recent GMU course syllabi---
 

 

2001-present: Associate Dean, College of Visual and Performing Arts and Artistic Director, Center for the Arts, George Mason University; Professor of Theater.

2000-01: Interim Director, Institute of the Arts, George Mason University

2000 : Artistic Director, SummerArts 2000, a professional summer festival theater in Flagstaff, Arizona, under the auspices of Northern Arizona University.

1991-present: Artistic Director of Theater of the First Amendment and Associate Professor of Theater, Institute of the Arts, George Mason University.

1990-91: Associate Artistic Director, Center Stage.

1986-90: Resident Dramaturg, Center Stage.

1983-1988, Assistant Professor of Drama, Washington College.

1988-91, Adjunct Lecturer in Drama at Washington College, Johns Hopkins University, Goucher College.

1983-85, co-founder and Associate Artistic Director, American Ibsen Theater, Pittsburgh.

1984,85, Instructor of Drama, Carnegie Mellon University Summer program.

1980-present: freelance theater artist (directing, dramaturgy, design, performance, writing/translating).
 

2005: Three Hotels, Theater of the First Amendment (TFA)
2003: A Light in the Storm, Kennedy Center/Theater Lab
2002: A Light in the Storm, Kennedy Center/National Tour
2001: A Light in the Storm, Kennedy Center/Theater Lab
2000: Galileo, SummerArts 2000
2000: The Lady from the Sea, TFA
1999: The Memorandum, TFA
1998: Doctor Faustus, TFA.
1997: Crystal (world premiere by Anna Theresa Cascio), TFA.
1996: Betty the Yeti (by Jon Klein), TFA.
1996: Sweet Ike (world premiere by Frederick Gaines), TFA.
1995: John Gabriel Borkman (premiere of new translation), TFA.
1994: Boomtown (east coast premiere by Steven Dietz), TFA.
1994: The Living (east coast premiere by Anthony Clarvoe), TFA.
1993: Cellophane Xerox (world premiere by Frederick Gaines), TFA
1993: Rushmore (world premiere by Anna Theresa Cascio), TFA.
1992: Live Wire (Federal Theatre Radio plays), TFA.
            broadcast on National Public Radio's "NPR Playhouse", Jan. 1993.
1992: The Cocktail Hour, Players Theatre Columbus.
1991: Candida, Center Stage.
1991: Democracy! (world premiere one act by Joseph Brodsky), Center Stage Cabaret.
1989: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Delaware Theatre Company.
1983: Cradles (world premiere by Anna Theresa Cascio), American Ibsen Theater.
 
 

2006: Mozart's Leading Ladies, The IN Series, Washington, D.C.  (Tivoli/GALA Hispanic Theatre)
2005: Mediterranean Valentine, The IN Series, Washington, D.C.  (National Museum of Women in the Arts)
2004: El Amor Brujo, The IN Series, Washington, D.C. (National Museum of Women in the Arts)
2001: Zarzuela!, The IN Series, Washington, D.C.  (Clark Street Playhouse)
1999: Opera Under the Stars, Opera Idaho.
1999:  Idomeneo, The IN Series, Washington, D.C.  (Hand Chapel)
1997:  La Boheme, Capital City Opera, Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.
1997:  La Boheme, Opera Idaho, Boise.
1995:  Gianni Schicchi/The Old Maid and the Thief, Lake George Opera Festival (NY).
1995:  The Coffee Cantata , Virginia Consort/Charlottesville Bach Festival.
1994:  Hansel and Gretel, Boise Opera (Opera Idaho).
1994:  Young Artists Showcase, Lake George Opera Festival.
 

2003: The Million Dollar Fight (Dolores Whiskeyman), Theater of the First Amendment
2000: The Ruling Passion (Sherry Kramer), Theater of the First Amendment
1997: The Happy Prince (Elizabeth Wong), Kennedy Center.
1997: Larry's Resolution (John Morogiello), Rep Stage (Columbia, Md.).
1996: The Inside (Jonathan Tycko), Writers' Center (Bethesda, Md.).
1996: Chancellorsville (John Morogiello), Kennedy Center/Fellowship of the Americas (as dramaturg)
1996: Sweet Ike (Frederick Gaines), TFA.
1994: F-64 (Christina de Lancie), Carnegie Mellon Showcase of New Plays (Pittsburgh).
1994: Lorenzo (Paul D'Andrea), TFA.
1993: Available Light (Heather McDonald), TFA.
1992: Joined at the Head (Catherine Butterfield), Showcase of New Plays.
1992: Cellophane Xerox (Frederick Gaines), TFA.
1991: Personal Effects (Douglas Post), Showcase of New Plays.
1990: Spinning Into Blue (Sally Nemeth), Showcase of New Plays.
1989: Rushmore (Anna Theresa Cascio), Showcase of New Plays.
1988: A Credit to the Family (Tony McKay), Showcase of New Plays.
Directing: more than 35 college and university theater productions since 1983, including Shakespeare, Ibsen, Beckett, Brecht, Goldoni, operas, operettas, musicals, and contemporary drama. Dramaturgy: more than thirty productions since 1980 as dramaturg at Center Stage, American Ibsen Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre, off-off-Broadway, and elsewhere. Performance: as actor, roles since 1983 include Krogstad (A Doll House, American Ibsen Theater), Lind (Love's Comedy, American Ibsen Theater), Leontes (The Winter's Tale, Washington College), Arnholm (The Lady from the Sea, Washington College), Pirelli (Sweeney Todd, George Mason University); as singer,  performance includes recital, choral, medieval/renaissance, and operatic repertoire.  Design: lighting and/or scenic design for more than forty productions since 1977 in summer stock, civic, and college/university theaters. 1999: Writing About Theater, by Christopher Thaiss and Rick Davis. Allyn and Bacon.
                This book is the first text to address, in a comprehensive fashion, the writing tasks encountered by students of theater and drama, including dramatic criticism, theater history, play analysis, dramatic theory, and the theatrical essay.

1995: Ibsen: Four Major Plays, translated by Rick Davis and Brian Johnston.  Smith and Kraus.
                These translations (A Doll House, Ghosts, An Enemy of the People, and Hedda Gabler) have been successfully produced in professional and academic theaters throughout the US. including Berkeley Rep, Center Stage, Alliance Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, San Diego Stage, and others. 

An additional Davis/Johnston collaborative translation, John Gabriel Borkman, was premiered by TFA and is published by Smith and Kraus in Ibsen, Four Plays, Vol. III. (1998).

The Davis/Johnston translations of A Doll House and Hedda Gabler appear in the Norton Critical Edition of Ibsen's Plays (2003).

(see above for Ibsen translations.)

Love's Comedy, opera libretto based on Ibsen's early play; music by Kim D. Sherman.
                workshop staging of Act I, Lake George Opera Festival, 1994.  Full staging of selections, Opera Idaho, 1999.
Life Is A Dream, translation of Calderon, 2003.  Commissioned and workshopped by Voice and Vision Theater, New York.
The Constant Prince, translation of Calderon, 2003.
The Great Theater of the World, translation of Calderon, produced by George Mason University, 2002; Belhaven College, 2006.
The Phantom Lady, translation of Calderon; produced by the Bowman Ensemble, Baltimore, 1990.
The Fan, translation of Goldoni, produced by West Virginia University, 1993; The Bowman Ensemble, 1989; Washington College, 1983.

More than forty articles for magazines and journals including American Theatre, Theater, Theater Three, Ibsen News and Comment, and the publications of Center Stage, the Guthrie Theater, Dallas Theater Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music (On The Next Wave), Delaware Theatre Company, American Ibsen Theater, and other regional theaters.
 
 

Private Pilot since 1993.  For more information on the wonderful world of general aviation, click here for the excellent web page of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.  A wide range of aviation subjects is also covered on Avweb.

Amateur Radio Operator (Extra Class) since the late 1960s, current callsign N3FDR. Active in Skywarn and other public service and emergency communications activities in addition to general messing around with radios.