Professor Area Head, Theatre Theory/History and Performance Studies Executive Director, UGA Arts Collaborative David Saltz is Head of the Theory/History area in Theatre and Performance Studies and Executive Director of the UGA Arts Collaborative. He served as Head of the Department of Theatre and Film Studies from 2004 to 2022. A specialist in performance theory, theatre history, digital media, and directing, his research focuses on the philosophy of theatre and performance and the intersection of live performance and digital media. He was Principal Investigator of Virtual Vaudeville (NSF, 2002–2005), a large-scale project using 3D modeling, game engine mechanics, and motion capture to simulate nineteenth-century vaudeville performance. He established UGA's Interactive Performance Laboratory and has directed productions and created interactive sculptural installations exhibited nationally. His work has achieved several firsts, including the first documented use of real-time motion capture in live theatre (The Tempest, 2000) and the early integration of robotics in a leading role (Commedia Robotica, 2012). His work has been covered in The New York Times, American Theatre, and Variety, and is a central case study in Steve Dixon's Digital Performance, the definitive scholarly history of the field. He is co-author (with Sarah Bay-Cheng and Jennifer Parker-Starbuck) of Performance and Media: Taxonomies for a Changing Field (University of Michigan Press, 2015), co-editor (with David Krasner) of Staging Philosophy: Intersections of Theatre, Performance and Philosophy (Michigan, 2006), and co-editor (with Martin Kagel) of Open Wounds: Holocaust Theater and the Legacy of George Tabori (Michigan, 2022). He co-directed the NEH Institute on Digital Technologies in Theatre and Performance Studies and has published widely in scholarly journals and books. Dr. Saltz serves as President of the National Association of Schools of Theatre (NAST), having previously held multiple elected positions on its Commission on Accreditation and Executive Board. He has served as Secretary of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education and as editor of Theatre Journal (2006–2009). He received a Sandy Beaver Special Teaching Award in 2008. Before joining UGA, he taught at Stony Brook University and The College of William and Mary. Education Education: Ph.D., Stanford University (Theory/Criticism and Directing) B.A., Yale University (Theatre Studies, Psychology and Philosophy) Research Research Interests: Digital Performance Performance Philosophy Modern and Postmodern Drama Performance Art Interdisciplinary Arts Grants Grants: Virtual Vaudeville: A Live Performance Simulation System (NSF) Institute for Digital Performance in Theatre and Performance Studies (NEH) Selected Publications Selected Publications: “Radical Empathy: The Ethics of Enacting the Ethnic Other.” The Analytic Philosophy of Theatre, edited by Michael Bennett. Routledge, 2025. Open Wounds: Holocaust Theatre and the Legacy of George Tabori. Co-edited with Martin Kagel. University of Michigan Press, 2022. “Plays are Games, Movies are Pictures: Ludic vs. Pictorial Representation.” The Philosophy of Theatre, Drama and Acting, edited by Thomas Stern. Rowman and Littlefield, 2017. Performance and Media: Taxonomies for a Changing Field. Co-authored with Sarah Bay-Cheng and Jennifer Parker-Starbuck. University of Michigan Press, 2015. “From Semiotics to Philosophy: Daring to Ask the Obvious.” Performance Philosophy Journal 1.1 (2015): 95-105. “Theater.” The Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, Revised 2nd Edition, Vol. 4, edited by Michael Kelly. Oxford UP, 2014. “Media, Technology, and Performance.” Theatre Journal 65.3 (2013): 421-432. “Editorial Comment: Digital Media and Performance.” Theatre Journal 61.4 (2009): 1-3. “Performance and Interaction.” Blackwell Companion to Digital Literary Studies, edited by Ray Siemens et al. Blackwell, 2007. “Editorial Comment: Performance and Cognition.” Theatre Journal 59.4 (2007): 547-551. Staging Philosophy: Intersections of Theatre, Performance and Philosophy. Co-edited with David Krasner. University of Michigan Press, 2006. “Infiction: The Role of Fiction in Theatrical Performance.” Staging Philosophy: Intersections of Theatre, Performance and Philosophy, edited by David Krasner and David Z. Saltz. University of Michigan Press, 2006. “Editorial Comment: Film and Theatre.” Theatre Journal 58.4 (2006): 543-546. “Un carnevale modernista: Beckett tra teatro, video e installazioni.” Ateatro: webzine di cultura teatrale. Spring 2006. “Virtual Vaudeville.” Vectors: Journal of Culture and Technology in a Dynamic Vernacular. Winter 2005. “Performing Arts.” Companion to Digital Humanities, edited by Susan Schreibman, Ray Siemens and John Unsworth. Blackwell, 2004: 121-131. “Virtual Vaudeville: A Digital Simulation of Historical Theatre.” Performance Documentation and Preservation in an Online Environment. Performing Arts Resources 24 (2004): 30-37. “Character,” “Theatricality,” “Stage Directions,” and “Play.” Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance, edited by Dennis Kennedy. Oxford UP, 2003. “The Art of Interaction: Interactivity, Performativity and Computers.” Performance: Critical Concepts, Vol. 4, edited by Philip Auslander. Routledge, 2003. "The Collaborative Subject: Telerobotic Performance and Identity." Performance Research 6.4 (Winter 2001): 70-83. "Live Media: Interactive Technology and Theatre." Theatre Topics 11.2 (Fall 2001): 107-130. “Why Performance Theory Needs Philosophy.” Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism 16.1 (Fall 2001): 149-154. “What Theatrical Performance Is (Not): The Interpretation Fallacy.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 59.3 (Summer 2001): 299-306. “The Reality of Doing: Speech Acts in the Theatre.” Method Acting Reconsidered, edited by David Krasner. St. Martin's Press, 2000. “Wittgenstein en escena” [“Wittgenstein on Stage”]. Animus 1 (January 2000): 78-84. “Beckett’s Cyborgs: Technology and the Beckettian Text.” Theatre in Cyberspace: Issues of Teaching, Acting, and Directing, edited by Stephen A. Schrum. Peter Lang Publishing, 1999. “Theater.” The Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, Vol. 4, edited by Michael Kelly. Oxford UP, 1998. “The Art of Interaction: Interactivity, Performativity and Computers.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 55.2 (1997): 117-127. “Pinter (a Dialogue).” Cycnos Journal 14.1 (1997): 3-5. "Beckett’s Cyborgs: Technology and the Beckettian Text." Theatre Forum 11 (Fall 1997): 38-48. “When is the Play the Thing?: Analytic Aesthetics and Dramatic Theory.” Theatre Research International 20.3 (Fall 1995): 266-276. “Radical Mimesis: The Pinter Problem Revisited.” Comparative Drama 26.3 (Fall 1992): 318-336. “How to Do Things on Stage.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 49.1 (1991): 31-45.
