Will Pewitt

Pewitt teaches global literature at the University of North Florida. When he is not reading or writing, he is watching Shakespeare productions with his young daughter — who may believe that televisions can only broadcast The Globe (which he thinks is a wonderful dream).

Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast.
— William Shakespeare

Will Pewitt (M.F.A.) in his work with the Department of English and Hicks Honors College as well as fields of creative writing, literature, and theater aims to create opportunities for students to engage with each other and the wider community as they cultivate their own senses of artistic expression. From dramatic projects with other institutions to “writers room” roundtables that champion each student’s contribution to the whole, these endeavors seek to explore the different trajectories student can initiate to interact and react to the creative arts in this young century.

Regularly teaching over a dozen courses in a range of disciplines and proudly earning UNF’s Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award in 2023, Mr. Pewitt is frequently looking outside standard classroom frameworks for ways that students can take what they have learned in class into new artistic productions outside the class. Whether in one-on-one independent studies on multilingual education or a handful of undergraduate facilitators teaching a political simulation or a 50+ cast/crew theater production, Mr. Pewitt’s mission at UNF is to chart the possibilities of undiscovered realms where thorough investigation meets experiential learning.

Upcoming Fall 2023 Performance

Director, Producer, and Script Adaptor Will Pewitt is leading an interdisciplinary array of students to create an original multilingual version of Shakespeare’s iconic tragedy Othello. With performances scheduled for Fall 2023, script work has been ongoing for over a full year based on the concept developed by the Director. who is faculty in UNF's Department of English and Hicks Honors College.

With a background in Arabic translation, Prof. Pewitt’s initial idea has been for each of the characters in Shakespeare’s most cross-cultural play to speak lines in what would have been their historically accurate languages. Having overseen script work for several prior UNF Shakespeare shows, this particular production breaks new ground by incorporating linguistic diversity of five separate languages — English, Italian, Arabic, Spanish, and Greek — with editing and translating involving students from all over the University working alongside the Director.

Read more about the Othello production and schedule of performances

August 2023 Performances

Ready for a romp through Shakespeare, ’80s style? Take a chill pill with Billy Shakes and a gnarly troupe of actors from UNF Shakespeare. Produced by Will Pewitt (faculty in the Department of English) and directed by Janson Cobiella, their scripting effort aims to turn the Jacksonville Arboretum & Botanical Gardens into an unforgettable night of rad hijinks and bodacious comedy as four lovers in a freakazoid love dilemma have their fortunes turned even further upside down by the tubular shenanigans of Puck, Titania, Oberon, and the world of the fairies.

Read more about A Midsummer Night's Dream production and schedule of performances