A Dramaturge at Large
By ROBERT HILL
linton Turner Davis speaks in a pleasant baritone that surely arises from constitutional civility. The newest addition to the drama faculty is recounting "parts of the iceberg of my life. All those things are really focused on creating the strongest possible theater urge that one can in a global perspective.
I don't even know how to look at theater as an isolated art form."
Davis must regard theater as "life form," having breathed, eaten and slept the profession in myriad capacities for 28 years ("Oh, I just did the math!" he laughs with a mock shudder) "on all sides of the business really, from front of house to back of house to boardroom - to janitor's closet." He is arts consultant, fundraiser, co-founder of the Nontraditional Casting Project, a New York agency that "advocates the increased employment of ethnic, female, and disabled artists in all areas of the performing and visual arts." The agency keeps an on-line databank of 5,000-plus photos and resumes, one of the first such to provide an on-line casting service and to promote diversity.
His lecturing stints have included institutions such as Berkeley, Yale, Howard, and Ohio State universities, as well as guest directing on the university and regional theater circuit. He was a distinguished block visitor at Colorado College two years ago. "I've always maintained one foot in academia, if not in the formal sense, then in just the way I approach theater from the perspective of teaching," Davis explains. "Teaching is in the blood, it's in the genes. I come from a long line of teachers in my family."
He earned degrees at Howard University in acting, directing, and in dramatic literature and criticism, then left for New York upon graduation to work as an actor-dancer-singer. His stage managing career began with the Negro Ensemble Company in 1972.
"I started as a production assistant," he recalls. "My first job there was, 'Here, here's the broom - sweep the stage.'" By the time he left the ensemble, he was production stage manager, literary manager, dramaturge, casting director, taught the play writing workshop and was a staff director.
And he was already a freelance director and production supervisor for other productions on- and off-Broadway. He was production stage manager for the original Broadway production of "Eubie" among several Broadway shows.
"The last really big show that I did as production stage manager was 'Lena Horne: The Lady and her Music.' I did the last year of the national tour of that. The production ended in London, where it performed for three months. After that I stayed in Europe for a while, just relaxing, contemplating the next move. I decided to focus most of my energies primarily on directing. Over the last 10 years, directing has been my primary focus. I'm trying to find the balance that makes me content."
Davis's pedagogical duties at CC include teaching a directing class and directing the season's first college production, "The Sleep of Reason," by Antonio Buero Vallejo, about the life of Goya during the period of the Spanish Inquisition. He is also a Pew Fellow, working with the New Federal Theater in New York as associate producer, developing new programs, fund raising and directing productions. He hopes eventually to expand the CC drama department's course offerings to include more of the literature of African American theater. "I was fortunate enough, from the time I hit New York," he muses, "to have worked on many, if not most, of the plays that have become part of the African American canon, and have very close personal relationships with most of those playwrights. Many of the texts and scripts that are now used I put together."
He is active in the International Theater Institute, an artistic arm of UNESCO, implementing "bilateral initiatives" between the ITI center in the U. S. and those in other countries. He believes this might bear fruit for the college. "Colorado College's theater department will become a university partner with ITI, which I hope will open up a broad spectrum of potential relationships internationally for our theater students - and not only theater students but the entire academic community in terms of the arts," he says.
"With the Arts Initiative, with the new building coming into play, and the way that technology is going to be embraced as it intersects the arts, there are many, many courses that can be taught, or taught in a different way. We'll just have to look at them more closely and see where those courses would best fit in terms of any given four-year phase for a particular student. So, we will be graduating very well rounded professionals, even at the - I hate the term! - undergraduate level.
"There's a very rich tradition and foundation [at CC] upon which to build and grow," Davis says. "Very fertile ground, and I think it's also enriched by the passion that I feel from the administration in terms of the arts. Not many schools have that kind of ally. That's rare."