STOMPing Back to Worcester

Daysha Williams ’17 keeps the beat onstage on national tour

Daysha Williams ’17 arrived in Worcester in February with a Nor’easter in the forecast and a table at Da-Lat awaiting her. It was like coming home. 

Williams was back in the city with the touring company of STOMP, an inventive and explosive stage show in which the performers bang everyday items—from trash can covers to broomsticks to grocery carts—to create a percussive theatrical experience of music and movement.

“I drum on everything but a drum,” she says. “By the end of the show, you’re dripping with sweat. You leave everything on the stage.”

The Brooklyn native enjoyed the stop at the Hanover Theater and Conservatory for the Performing Arts, where STOMP performed to packed houses. The show’s enduring popularity means Williams and the STOMP cast have played to full rooms across the U.S., as well as on an international tour that included Canada and Dubai. 

“It’s electric to look at the faces in the audience when they seem to be asking, ‘How did they do that?’ When kids come to the show, they go crazy. I love it.”

Williams appeared in director Spike Lee’s 10-episode Netflix series based on his groundbreaking 1986 film, She’s Gotta Have It,  and has done extensive theater work. During her Clark days, she helped run a theater program for students at Claremont Academy.

She was working in residence on Step Show: The Musical, a theater piece grounded in traditions of Black culture and requiring intensive singing and dancing, when the STOMP opportunity arose. Williams auditioned successfully, earning a spot in a five-week training regimen to learn the drumming and dancing techniques that bring the show to raucous life. Over the last year, she’s toured in cities large and small, coast to coast.

“Traveling takes a lot of getting used to, and it’s tough being away from my husband,” she acknowledges. “But I’m working with people I enjoy, and if you’re going to go on tour, do it now. This won’t last forever.”