The Committee on Theater and Performance Studies is delighted to announce the appointment of Devon de Mayo as Director of Performance and Assistant Senior Instructional Professor.
Devon is a director, devisor and teacher based in Chicago, who has also made and studied theatre in New York, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Indonesia and Moscow.
She has directed shows at Victory Gardens Theatre, Rivendell Theatre, Steep Theatre, Theatre Wit, Steppenwolf Theatre for Young Audiences, Pivot Arts, The Hypocrites, Raven Theatre, Court Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Shattered Globe Theatre, side project theatre Next Theatre and Dog & Pony Theatre.
Outside of Chicago, Devon served as Resident Director on The Audience by Peter Morgan (Schoenfeld Theatre, Broadway, under the direction of Stephen Daldry and starring Helen Mirren). She co-wrote and co-directed Guerra: A Clown Play, a collaboration with Mexico City based artists La Piara (Performances at NY Clown Festival, Tricklock Theatre in Albuquerque, NM, Tank Theatre in New York, Adventure Stage Chicago, Links Hall in Chicago, Foro Shakespeare Theatre in Mexico City and the Bogota Clown Festival, Colombia).
Directing and devising credits include: The Whole World is Watching (Dog & Pony Theatre Co.), Infiltrating Bounce (San Antonio Luminaria Festival), The Twins Would Like To Say (Dog & Pony at Steppenwolf Theatre), As Told by the Vivian Girls (Dog & Pony - After Dark Award for Best Adaptation & Orgie Award for Outstanding Production).
Devon earned an MFA in Theatre Directing from Middlesex University in London and a BA in Drama and Political Science from Kenyon College, with further studies at the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts (GITIS) in Moscow and the Indonesian Institute for the Arts in Bali. She is a founder and Co-Artistic Director of Dog & Pony Theatre Company and an ensemble member of Rivendell Theatre.
Devon is not a newcomer to TAPS; she is a gifted teacher who has been a member of our faculty community since 2012. Her courses include Movement for Actors, Bodies at Work: Art & Civic Responsibility, Women in American Plays, BA Colloquium, and the TAPS Core. This quarter, she is leading a new course collaboration with playwright Calamity West, called New Play Development. Devon’s embrace of TAPS’s culture of arts practice as research alongside her remarkable record of engaged, exciting production makes her an ideal Director of Performance. Please join us in welcoming her to this new role.