Award-Winning Playwright Joins CFA Theatre Arts as Assistant Professor of Playwriting

The College of Communication and Fine Arts welcomes David Davila as a new assistant professor of playwriting. Davila was attracted to LMU because of the university's devotion to social justice, and its location in Los Angeles - an ideal place to continue developing his work and contributions to the Latiné theatre canon and American theatre canon.

"I've been drawn to the historically large output of Chicano and Latiné theatre in the area," Davila says. His work as a playwright is situated at the intersection of queer culture and mestizaje; it focuses on social justice within the queer and latiné community, often interrogating systems of power through plays, musicals, opera and sketch comedy. He adds: "As a Queer Mexican-American boy raised devoutly Catholic, this institution felt like the perfect fit!"

This semester, Davila is teaching two sections of 400 level Playwriting (THEA 400), which focuses on long-term storytelling structures, and a section of Script Analysis (THEA 175), which focuses on turning students into functioning theatre creatives. "I've already been blown away by the writing my students are doing and I'm so excited to see how these new plays grow and change over the course of the year," he says.

In addition to his teaching schedule, Davila is working on many unique projects. He recently wrote the libretto for a short opera titled "MIMEO," which he worked on with composer George Lam; he is developing an interactive power play with the National New Play Network and the Latinx Playwrights Circle in New York City titled, "The Invisible Hand of God Touched Me in a Bad Place"; he has an upcoming residency at Roundabout Theatre Company, where he will be working on an interactive-climate-justice play, "everything is NOT going to be okay"; and he hopes to finish work on "Promesa," a mariachi musical he developed during a residency at Musical Theatre Factory.

Davila's scholarship, professorship, and creative endeavors all go hand in hand. One of his goals is to write a textbook on musical theatre writing - a skill that's earned him various awards and opened the doors to residencies and grants. His long list of accolades will grow in the new year as Broadway Records plans to release the album "Songs by an Immigrant Vol 3," which includes music Davila collaborated on with musical theatre composer Jaime Lozano.