Thomas Murray

I come to the teaching of data communication and community engagement from an arts background. I am a practitioner of documentary theatre, where live actors voice non-fiction narratives sourced directly from interviews with real people. We dramatize qualitative research and data in a way that becomes compelling to an audience.

As a teacher of performance, I’ve worked in all kinds of classrooms. I previously directed the Storycatchers Theatre ensemble for incarcerated youth at the Illinois Youth Center at Warrenville. During my graduate studies in applied theatre, I taught introductory coursework in performance to undergraduates majoring in electrical engineering, computer science, chemistry, and mathematics. The empathetic imagination required to inhabit a character’s story was a departure from their core curricula, but it was wonderful practice for public science communication!

Here at Equitech Futures, I apply my practice of public dialogue toward building rich and interconnected communities of young innovators. We build the trust necessary to take these leaps together through narrative exercises and collaborative projects.

Beyond Equitech Futures, I am a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab and The Midwives Artistic Collective. I was the founding artistic director of Waltzing Mechanics, an ensemble for documentary performance, and the creator of EL Stories, a non-fiction performance series which ran for eight years at Chicago's Greenhouse Theater Center. I have been honored with fellowships from the National Academy of Sciences and Ping Chong + Company, an artistic apprenticeship with Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and an outstanding alumnus award from Ball State University. My original plays and interviews have been published in ArtsPraxis by New York University and Conversations in Community Change by Virginia Tech.