Brian Dang

Brian Dang

Brian Dang (they/them) is a Vietnamese/Chinese playwright, poet, mentor, and teaching artist based in Duwamish Territory (Seattle). Brian is a proud resident playwright at Parley. For Brian, writing is an act of envisioning an eventual communing and an opportunity to freeze time as we know it.

Their writing includes "a white haunting" (Table Work Press Recommends, Princess Grace...
Brian Dang (they/them) is a Vietnamese/Chinese playwright, poet, mentor, and teaching artist based in Duwamish Territory (Seattle). Brian is a proud resident playwright at Parley. For Brian, writing is an act of envisioning an eventual communing and an opportunity to freeze time as we know it.

Their writing includes "a white haunting" (Table Work Press Recommends, Princess Grace Playwriting Fellowship Final Round 2021) and "h*llo k*tty syndrome" (Seattle King Street Station Resident Artist). Their writing additionally has been workshopped with Seattle Opera, Pork Filled Productions, Karen’s Secret Army, and Theatre Battery.

Brian was a 2020-21 Hugo House Fellow and a 2021 Tennessee Williams Scholar at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. They’re grateful for having somehow convinced the world they can read and write.

Their current works in progress include "If only I could give you the sun," an opera with Seattle Opera’s Creation Lab that reimagines Icarus & Daedalus as a nonbinary utopic myth; "This time," a sapphic love story about dreams, the death drive of labor, and murder; and "49 words I wish I could write in my family’s language," a poetry/letter collection supported through 4Culture and the 2022 Seattle CityArtist program.

Plays

  • This time by Brian Dang
    Recommendations: 4
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: drama, experimental + 5 more
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    Keyword: socialism, murder mystery + 8 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, melodrama, movement/physical, mystery/thriller, period, verse
    Keyword: socialism, murder mystery, sapphic, femmes, yearning, dreams, capitalism, death drive, labor, maids
    Jane holds a knife. It's bloody. Hester lies on a table. She's bloodied. Peregrine blows out a candle. Go back in time. Jane, Hester, and Peregrine work as maids in a 1900s manor, unable to say what they want to say, stealing moments away from work to hold time with each other. Their love bubbles under their words. We hear their thoughts they aren't yet brave enough to tell each other. They can...
    Jane holds a knife. It's bloody. Hester lies on a table. She's bloodied. Peregrine blows out a candle. Go back in time. Jane, Hester, and Peregrine work as maids in a 1900s manor, unable to say what they want to say, stealing moments away from work to hold time with each other. Their love bubbles under their words. We hear their thoughts they aren't yet brave enough to tell each other. They can't stop thinking of death. We hurtle towards it.
  • h*llo k*tty syndrome by Brian Dang
    Recommendations: 5
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: comedy, experimental + 2 more
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    Keyword: gender, body + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, experimental, movement/physical, verse
    Keyword: gender, body, form, gaze, expectations, structural oppression
    HK is a little lost. They just quit their job as a police officer, broke up with their cowboy-partner, and made a vendetta with their brother-in-law. They find themselves caught in the throes of a family drama, noir, and romance. And worst of all, nobody will stop commenting on the fact that they are wearing a Hello Kitty™ mascot costume (but it’s slightly off because of copyright laws). The world spirals out...
    HK is a little lost. They just quit their job as a police officer, broke up with their cowboy-partner, and made a vendetta with their brother-in-law. They find themselves caught in the throes of a family drama, noir, and romance. And worst of all, nobody will stop commenting on the fact that they are wearing a Hello Kitty™ mascot costume (but it’s slightly off because of copyright laws). The world spirals out of control as the stagehand won’t stop fucking up and the ensemble can’t remember who they’re playing. Eventually, pretenses, including capital letters, are trashed.
  • a white haunting by Brian Dang
    Recommendations: 4
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 6 more
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    Keyword: solidarity, activism + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, horror, movement/physical, political, romantic comedy, satire
    Keyword: solidarity, activism, internalized racism, home invasion, whiteness, LGBTQ
    Darren has invited Tchai, his date, over to his home for the first time. They’re flirting, dancing, and discussing the morality of pineapple pizza when things start to go sour: the pizza person acts really weird; the power goes out; Tchai lets his nerves get to him; and last but not least, a masked intruder wielding an axe accidentally gets invited in. As the danger they’re in becomes impossible to deny, Darren...
    Darren has invited Tchai, his date, over to his home for the first time. They’re flirting, dancing, and discussing the morality of pineapple pizza when things start to go sour: the pizza person acts really weird; the power goes out; Tchai lets his nerves get to him; and last but not least, a masked intruder wielding an axe accidentally gets invited in. As the danger they’re in becomes impossible to deny, Darren and Tchai find themselves at odds on the pressing matter of how to survive the night. While Darren insists on fighting back, Tchai seems more interested in understanding the intruder’s hidden motives.
  • Ratskin by Brian Dang
    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: drama, experimental + 3 more
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    Keyword: immigration, Asian American + 5 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, fable/folktale, fantasy, political
    Keyword: immigration, Asian American, intergenerational, magical realism, family, chinese, Vietnamese
    Brook is the granddaughter of Chinese and Vietnamese immigrants who settled in Tacoma. She has been born with a rat-tail - a mysterious appendage that has been passed down her family ever since Nu, on her way to the U.S. from China, grew a tail. Brook, at the request of Nu, has grown up with her tail with one condition: she may never leave the house and see the light of day. This tail, and its history, must be kept hidden.
  • Anton by Brian Dang
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    5–7
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    Genre: adventure, docudrama/historic + 3 more
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    Keyword: Roman, Greek mythology + 7 more
    Genre: adventure, docudrama/historic, drama, fantasy, tragedy
    Keyword: Roman, Greek mythology, mythology, Hadrian, Antinous, Sabina, Theogenes, fates, LGBTQ
    As the relationship between the 18-year-old boy wonder, Anton, and Emperor Hadrian begins to turn sexual, Anton finds himself hounded by the Fates, gaining an affinity to a hot boxer, and named heir to a throne.