Photo: Kristin Newbom

W. David Hancock at a French production of one of his plays.

A fortuitous circumstance or a play by W. David Hancock ’84? Sometimes, it can be difficult to tell. “I like creating the feeling that you stumbled across this magical world that nobody else knows about,” says Hancock, who has spent two decades creating scenarios that blur reality and fiction. His play, Master, was named a best theatre performance of 2017 by The New York Times. In some works, the audience determines the performance, as in 1998’s The Race of the Ark Tattoo, set in a flea market, where the story unfolds according to which objects audience members touch.

Hancock’s unusual perspective on drama stems from his days at Bucknell, where he started an animal behavior major before switching to theatre. “I look at my plays as live experiments,” says Hancock, who researched baboon kinship behavior. “Watching how an audience can change an event really fascinates me.” For Master, he collaborated with an African-American artist to create Uncle Jimmy’s oeuvre, and worked with a diverse cast to explore the racially charged themes evoked by Twain’s book. “It’s important to interrogate yourself and your privilege and not be afraid to go deep,” he says.

He’ll restage the play next year in London, working with a new artist to examine England’s legacy of colonialism. Starting later this year, he will also tour Europe with a new work, Cathexis, which he describes as a “participative judicial-theatrical event” set in “an interactive tribunal of the future.”