David Z Saltz

David Saltz is Head of the Department of Theatre and Film Studies, and Executive Director of Ideas for Creative Exploration (ICE). His primary research focuses are performance philosophy and the interaction between live performance and digital media. He was Principal Investigator of Virtual Vaudeville, a large-scale research project funded by the National Science Foundation to simulate a nineteenth century vaudeville performance on the computer. He has explored the use of computer technology extensively in his own work as a director and teacher. Along those lines he established the Interactive Performance Laboratory at UGA, has directed a series of productions incorporating real-time interactive digital media, and has created interactive sculptural installations that have been exhibited nationally. His recent work focuses on robotic theatre and his work in this area has been featured in the New York Times and Huffington Post. He has published numerous articles in scholarly journals and books in the philosophy of theatre and performance and on digital technology. He is author, along with Sarah Bay-Cheng and Jennifer Parker-Starbuck, of Performance and Media: Taxonomies for a Changing Field (University of Michigan Press, 2015), and coeditor (with David Krasner) of the book Staging Philosophy: Intersections between Theatre, Performance and Philosophy (University of Michigan Press, 2006). He was editor of Theatre Journal from 2008-2010. Dr. Saltz received a Sandy Beaver Special Teaching Award in 2008. He has served as Secretary of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education and is a member of the NAST Commission on Accreditation. Before coming to Georgia, Dr. Saltz taught at State University of New York at Stony Brook and The College of William and Mary. He received his PhD in Drama from Stanford, and his BA from Yale.