she/they

Assistant Professor

Theatre & Dance

Shannon Davis (she/they) is a director, storyteller, educator, and community connector originally from Wisconsin. Shannon is now joining the Colorado arts community after spending over a decade in the San Francisco Bay Area as an arts leader and theatre maker. She is known for her intercultural theatre works that blend ancient texts, devising, satire, and puppetry to challenge dominant narratives and uplift stories often excluded from dominant theatre traditions. She holds a BA in Theatre and Vocal Performance from the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater and an MFA in Directing and Acting from UW–Madison, where she specialized in directing intercultural theatre for social awareness. With roots in Theatre of the Oppressed, Davis uses the transformational tools of theatre to raise consciousness, restructure harmful systems, and foster community healing. She strives to practice active decolonization and anti-racism in all her artistic and educational processes. She has recently served on the Cal Shakes Artistic Circle, was Director of Community Connections at American Conservatory Theater, a Guest Artist/Lecturer at UC-Berkeley, and as a co-founder of both Bay Area Native Theatre Artists (BANTA) and the Bay Area Theater Accountability Workgroup. She was most recently a visiting professor at Saint Mary’s College of California. Her directing and teaching credits span a wide range of organizations and institutions, including: New Native Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, American Repertory Theatre, American Indian Community House, A.C.T. (American Conservatory Theater), Native Writers Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Theatre of Yugen, Freestyle Love Supreme, California Shakespeare Theater (Cal Shakes), San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Marin Shakespeare Company, Aurora Theatre Company, AlterTheatre, In The Margin, Brava Theater, PlayGround, Playwrights Foundation, Shotgun Players, Anchorage Opera, MoxieArts NY, Theatre Battery, Ohio University–Tantrum Theatre, Ashland New Play Festival, Forward Theatre, Renaissance Theaterworks, and others.