{"id":27284,"date":"2026-03-04T17:03:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T22:03:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/?post_type=story&#038;p=27284"},"modified":"2026-03-06T10:00:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T15:00:05","slug":"daysha-williams-17-follows-drumbeat-back-to-worcester-with-stomp","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2026\/03\/04\/daysha-williams-17-follows-drumbeat-back-to-worcester-with-stomp\/","title":{"rendered":"Daysha Williams \u201917 follows drumbeat back to Worcester with STOMP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n<p>Daysha Williams \u201917 arrived in Worcester a couple of weeks ago with a Nor\u2019easter in the forecast and a table at Da Lat awaiting her. It was like coming home.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Williams was back in the city with the touring company of <a href=\"https:\/\/stomponline.com\">STOMP<\/a>, an inventive and explosive stage show in which the performers bang everyday items \u2014 from trashcan covers to broomsticks to grocery carts \u2014 to create a percussive theatrical experience of music and movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI drum on everything but a drum,\u201d laughs Williams on a call from a tour stop in Fort Myers, Florida. \u201cBy the end of the show, you\u2019re dripping with sweat. You leave everything on the stage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Brooklyn native enjoyed the stop in the Hanover Theater and Conservatory for the Performing Arts, where STOMP performed to packed houses. The show\u2019s enduring popularity means Williams and the STOMP cast have played to full rooms across the United States, as well as on an international tour that included Canada and Dubai. Since debuting 35 years ago at the Edinburgh Festival, the show has been a musical theater staple with cross-generational appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Daysha-Williams.avif\u201d\" alt=\"\u201cDaysha\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Daysha Williams \u201917<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s electric to look at the faces in the audience when they seem to be asking, \u2018How did they do that?\u2019 When kids come to the show, they go crazy. I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Williams\u2019 road to STOMP included a meaningful stop at Clark. Arriving as a first-year student, she intended to pursue a career in public relations or the law. Then she took a First-Year Intensive course, \u201cHow to Act Right On and Off the Stage,\u201d with Ray Munro, professor of theater arts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She was hooked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI decided I was going to take a class with him every semester for the rest of my college career,\u201d she recalls. After declaring a theater arts major, Williams dove in, acting in Clark stage productions and working on stage shows with the student dance club Hip Hop Collabo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Outside of the classroom, she and Theater Professor Danny Balel collaborated on \u201cTeaching Creativity in Main South,\u201d a program that taught dance, acting, and improvisation to high school students at Claremont Academy, just up the road from Clark. When funding was cut, Williams brought the program to Clark\u2019s Little Center, where she oversaw it under the direction of Professor Gino DiIorio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In her senior year, Williams responded to a New York casting call for director Spike Lee\u2019s 10-episode Netflix series based on his groundbreaking 1986 film, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2017\/03\/06\/daysha-williams-17-has-gotta-have-an-acting-career\/\">She\u2019s Gotta Have It<\/a>.\u201d She not only earned a part, but during production, she nailed her lone scene, earning the nickname \u201cOne Take Wonder\u201d from the director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re both from Brooklyn, and for some reason I just knew we\u2019d work together at some point,\u201d Williams says of Lee. \u201cI remember thinking, \u2018You\u2019ve been waiting to work with one of the greats. Today is the day.\u2019\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After graduation, Williams stayed in Worcester for a year and a half to teach the Claremont students. She enjoyed living just off the Clark campus, frequenting the mom-and-pop shops and sampling the Vietnamese restaurants (visiting Da Lat on Park Avenue was high on her itinerary when she came back with STOMP).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Life was comfortable \u2014 maybe too comfortable. She received sound advice from Munro, who&nbsp;encouraged her to step beyond the familiarity of Worcester and bring her talents into the wider world.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt was like, \u2018Okay, Daysha, time to go,\u2019\u201d she recounts with a laugh. \u201cI loved where I was, and I was having a blast. But Ray convinced me I needed to do this while I was young and had the energy. And I\u2019m really happy he did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Williams returned to New York and began auditioning, which she learned is something of an art in itself. \u201cI looked at an audition as a rehearsal. My attitude was, \u2018Okay, let\u2019s just play and have some fun.\u2019 It took all the pressure off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She was working in residence on \u201cStep Show: The Musical,\u201d a theater piece grounded in traditions of Black culture and requiring intensive singing and dancing, when the STOMP opportunity arose. Williams wasn\u2019t familiar with the company, but 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\u2019s toured in cities large and small, coast to coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cTraveling takes a lot of getting used to, and it\u2019s tough being away from my husband,\u201d she acknowledges. \u201cBut I\u2019m working with people I enjoy, and if you\u2019re going to go on tour, do it now. This won\u2019t last forever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Daysha Williams \u201917 arrived in Worcester a couple of weeks ago with a Nor\u2019easter in the forecast and a table at Da Lat awaiting her. It was like coming home. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":27290,"template":"","meta":{"story_color":"var(--clarku-color-deeper-red)","story_headerImg":27290,"section_label":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[225],"displayed_author":[235],"featured":[493],"topic":[232,584],"class_list":["post-27284","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-humanities","displayed_author-jim-keogh","featured-primary","topic-alumni","topic-theatre-arts"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Daysha Williams \u201917 follows drumbeat back to Worcester with STOMP | ClarkU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2026\/03\/04\/daysha-williams-17-follows-drumbeat-back-to-worcester-with-stomp\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Daysha Williams \u201917 follows drumbeat back to Worcester with STOMP\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Daysha Williams \u201917 arrived in Worcester a couple of weeks ago with a Nor\u2019easter in the forecast and a table at Da Lat awaiting her. It was like coming home.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2026\/03\/04\/daysha-williams-17-follows-drumbeat-back-to-worcester-with-stomp\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ClarkU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-06T15:00:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/STOMP-performance-shot.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1066\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"737\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" 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