DAVID HLAVSA heads the Theatre Arts Department at Saint Martin's University, in Lacey, Washington, where he has been teaching acting, directing, playwriting and film studies since 1989. A recipient of the University’s Outstanding Teaching Award, he has served two terms as Faculty President.
He is the author of Walking Distance: Pilgrimage, Parenthood, Grief, and Home Repairs (Michigan State University Press, 2015) and An Actor Rehearses: What to Do When – and Why (Allworth Press, 2006). His article, “My First Son, A Pure Memory” appeared in the Modern Love column of The New York Times. His essay, “Two Sons, One Living” appears in They Were Still Born: Personal Stories About Stillbirth (ed., Janel Atlas, Rowman & Littlefield, 2010). Hlavsa’s plays, including Pack of Lies, I’m Your Man, and Long Run, have been produced in Seattle, Chicago and New York. As an arts writer for the Seattle Repertory Theatre, he published more than twenty articles and study guides on Shakespeare, Chekhov, Synge, Pirandello, Goldoni, Feydeau, David Mamet, August Wilson and others.
Hlavsa has a BA in English/Theatre from Princeton University and an MFA in Directing from the University of Washington. Productions directed at SMU include Uncle Vanya, A Little Night Music, The Dining Room, Old Times, Brilliant Traces, You Can Count on Me, Reaching Through the Frame, Everyman, Goodnight Desdemona Good Morning Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Day Room, The Illusion, Comings and Goings and The Memorandum. Hlavsa has also served as the University's Director of Interdisciplinary Studies, developing and co-teaching courses on Political Theatre, Acting and Economics ("Dramanomics"), Saint Joan, Jane Austen on Film, Business Leadership, Acting for Teachers, and Jesus on Film and in the Gospels. At the University’s Spiritual Life Institute, he has taught workshops on Theatre as a Spiritual Path.
He lives in Seattle with his wife, Lisa Holtby, and their son Benjamin.
