I am a theatre director, husband, and dog dad. 
I direct plays and musicals. Old and new. Adapted and devised.

Will Clark hit a home run when I was born
so my parents decided to name me Will.
Just Will. Believe it or not, I'm not a William.

My last name is Danish.  
But it's easier to pronounce than it appears:
DET-lef-sen (accent on the first syllable).

I grew up acting, singing and tap-dancing. I caught the theatre bug at the age of nine. 

After high school I moved to NYC to study at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts. I trained at Playwrights Horizons Theatre School with incredible teachers such as Rachel Chavkin, Robert Moss, Mary Robinson, Fritz Ertl, Michael Krass, Theresa McCarthy, Elizabeth Hess, Ruben Polendo, Jessica Almasy, Dan Safer and the late Peter Bass. I graduated a year early and formed a theatre company called MultiPurposeRoom. For three years we devised and developed three full-length productions and multiple short works. 


In 2013 I was awarded the Drama League Fellowship and spent my summer in Ithaca swimming in the gorgeous gorges, directing at the historic Hangar Theatre under Interim Artistic Director, Stephanie Yankwitt.

In 2014 I was accepted at UC San Diego's M.F.A Directing program. I graduated in 2017. My incredible teachers and mentors at UC San Diego included Gábor Tompa, Kim Rubinstein, Robert Castro, Judith Dolan, Shahrokh Yadegari, Naomi Iizuka, Deborah Stein, Gregory Wallace, Kyle Donnelly, Robert Brill, Alan Burrett, Julie Burelle, Ursula Meyer, Eva Barnes and Tara Knight.

In 2019 I was accepted into the 5th Cohort of the National Directors Fellowship through the O'Neill Theatre Center, the National New Play Network and the Kennedy Center.

In 2020 I had six projects cancelled and spent much of my time reading, cuddling my dog, and developing new plays on Zoom. 

I currently live in Harlem, NYC and see and make as much theatre as I can.

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