Dale Dunn

Dale Dunn

DALE DUNN

Dale is a playwright, dramaturg and teacher living in Santa Fe, NM. Her latest full-length play, THE BIG HEARTLESS was a semi-finalist in the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, the Ashland New Play Festival, and the Actor's Theater of Louisville's Humana Festival. It received a workshop production at Relative Theatrics in Laramie, Wyoming in April, 2018 and...
DALE DUNN

Dale is a playwright, dramaturg and teacher living in Santa Fe, NM. Her latest full-length play, THE BIG HEARTLESS was a semi-finalist in the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, the Ashland New Play Festival, and the Actor's Theater of Louisville's Humana Festival. It received a workshop production at Relative Theatrics in Laramie, Wyoming in April, 2018 and enjoyed a sold-out run at W21 in Santa Fe in 2019. Her most recent short work, GUN PLAY, first produced at The Seven, Fusion Theater's 10-minute Festival in 2017, went on to be included in the Samuel French OOB Festival and the Tout' Tout Court Festival in Montreal in 2019. She was recently commissioned by Relative Theatrics for Play at Home, a national initiative to inspire joy and togetherness in this time of unprecedented isolation that is the corona virus pandemic: https://www.playathome.org. She received her MFA from Columbia University’s School of the Arts and is a member of the Dramatists Guild.

Plays

  • Smiling in Place by Dale Dunn
    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: comedy, drama + 2 more
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    Keyword: pandemic, isolation + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, fantasy, movement/physical
    Keyword: pandemic, isolation, fear and hope
    A surprise visitor helps a family in quarantine discover the secret to finding hope in difficult times. A time-traveling exploration to be read at home with masks and lots of opportunities to make some noise!
     

  • Gun Play by Dale Dunn
    Recommendations: 7
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: drama, political
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    Keyword: gun control, abuse
    Genre: drama, political
    Keyword: gun control, abuse
    The stakes are raised between an abused woman and her husband when he brings a gun into their home.
  • The Big Heartless by Dale Dunn
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: conservation, teenage tough-love programs + 2 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, political
    Keyword: conservation, teenage tough-love programs, wolf reintroduction, euthanasia
    Mac, a wildlife biologist, has retreated to the backwoods of Montana to work with the controversial Wolf Reintroduction Project. Though savoring his reclusive lifestyle, Mac tolerates interruptions from his elderly neighbors and their teenage granddaughter.  But when Mac's nephew and a friend blow in, seeking refuge from a tough-love reform school, the characters’ isolated worlds collide. The Big Heartless...
    Mac, a wildlife biologist, has retreated to the backwoods of Montana to work with the controversial Wolf Reintroduction Project. Though savoring his reclusive lifestyle, Mac tolerates interruptions from his elderly neighbors and their teenage granddaughter.  But when Mac's nephew and a friend blow in, seeking refuge from a tough-love reform school, the characters’ isolated worlds collide. The Big Heartless explores our tendency to lock up or kill anything we fear or don’t understand.  
  • The Language of Love by Dale Dunn
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: romantic comedy, translation
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    Keyword: looking for love, the beauty of the Spanish language + 2 more
    Genre: romantic comedy, translation
    Keyword: looking for love, the beauty of the Spanish language, online dating, the power of poetry.
    A woman in search of love online, discovers it's right there at her local bar when an impassioned student of Spanish recites a Pablo Neruda poem that casts an enchanting spell.
  • DWI (Driving While Innocent) by Dale Dunn
    Cast: 
    2–3
    ·
    Genre: drama, experimental + 1 more
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    Keyword: drunk driving, coping with grief + 1 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, political
    Keyword: drunk driving, coping with grief, trauma ghosts
    A couple searches for a thread of sanity to hold onto after their teenage daughter and four of her friends are killed by a drunk driver who is found innocent at his trial.
  • Our Place by Dale Dunn
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, political + 2 more
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    Keyword: homelessness, mother daughter relationship + 1 more
    Genre: dark comedy, political, satire, science fiction
    Keyword: homelessness, mother daughter relationship, future limits
    In the not too distant future, where it's every man and woman for themselves, a mother and her daughter move in to government housing and discover they are not alone. How they deal with the situation speaks to our willingness to push others out of the nest, if necessary, to save ourselves.
  • Body Burden by Dale Dunn
    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: Atomic age, Los Alamos + 2 more
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama, political
    Keyword: Atomic age, Los Alamos, Oppenheimer, radioactive experiments
    Kate Pendleton is on the road, going nowhere. She has recently lost a baby, a husband and her job. She ends up back at her childhood home in Los Alamos, New Mexico, where she is taken in by her divorced parents: Fran, a mother in denial, and Will, a father fighting bouts of inexplicable rage. With the help of an old friend from the nearby pueblo of San Ildefonso, as well as the ghost of Robert Oppenheimer,...
    Kate Pendleton is on the road, going nowhere. She has recently lost a baby, a husband and her job. She ends up back at her childhood home in Los Alamos, New Mexico, where she is taken in by her divorced parents: Fran, a mother in denial, and Will, a father fighting bouts of inexplicable rage. With the help of an old friend from the nearby pueblo of San Ildefonso, as well as the ghost of Robert Oppenheimer, and a time-traveling Girl Scout, Kate sets out to piece her life back together, uncovering the hazards of growing up in the birthplace of the atomic bomb.