David Templeton

David Templeton is an award-winning Bay Area playwright and arts journalist, and is the co-host of the nationally streaming podcast "You Don't Know Peanuts: The Untold Stories," the only officially-sanctioned "Peanuts"-themed podcast. He wrote his first play in second grade, started his own theater company while in high school in Southern California, and after entering journalism as a profession, served as a theater reviewer in Northern California for 16 years. In 2006, he was granted a fellowship to the NEA Arts Journalism Institute in Theater and Musical Theater (sponsored by the University of Southern California School of Journalism's of the Annenberg School for Communications).
His play "Galatea" was the recipient of a 2022 Steinberg/ATCA New Play citation award, after receiving...

David Templeton is an award-winning Bay Area playwright and arts journalist, and is the co-host of the nationally streaming podcast "You Don't Know Peanuts: The Untold Stories," the only officially-sanctioned "Peanuts"-themed podcast. He wrote his first play in second grade, started his own theater company while in high school in Southern California, and after entering journalism as a profession, served as a theater reviewer in Northern California for 16 years. In 2006, he was granted a fellowship to the NEA Arts Journalism Institute in Theater and Musical Theater (sponsored by the University of Southern California School of Journalism's of the Annenberg School for Communications).
His play "Galatea" was the recipient of a 2022 Steinberg/ATCA New Play citation award, after receiving honorable mention in the 2021 William Glickman New Play Awards. It went on to win Best Original Play and Best Production in the Bay Area. Templeton has won awards for his writing of “Wretch Like Me,” which has had runs at the San Francisco Fringe Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, in Scotland. In addition to “Polar Bears,” his other plays include “Pinky,” “Drumming With Anubis,” “Mary Shelley’s Body” (the latter adapted from his novella of the same name, published in the 2016 anthology “Eternal Frankenstein.” David’s newest play is a three-actor comedy titled "Featherbaby, which will have its world premiere in August of 2025. He is currently at work on a play about female boxers (title: "Ghost Punch"), a sequel to "Drumming with Anubis" (title: "Drumming With Morgana"), a comedy-thriller ("The Rabbit") and a new autobiographical solo show ((title: "Space Junk.")/ A collection of his previously produced fantasy/science-fiction/horror plays, with the title "Monsters, Gods and Robots: Four Plays of the Weird and Fantastic," will be published by Word Horde Books in 2025.

Scripts

Galatea

by David Templeton

Synopsis

Winner, American Theatre Critics Association New Play Citation, 2022
Winner, Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Best Original Play, 2022
Winner, Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Best Bay Area Production, 2022
Winner. Will Glickman New Play Award, Honorable Mention

A mystery/drama about a robot and her therapist, GALATEA is something of a cross between "My Fair Lady" and "Agnes of God," set on a space station in...

Winner, American Theatre Critics Association New Play Citation, 2022
Winner, Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Best Original Play, 2022
Winner, Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Best Bay Area Production, 2022
Winner. Will Glickman New Play Award, Honorable Mention

A mystery/drama about a robot and her therapist, GALATEA is something of a cross between "My Fair Lady" and "Agnes of God," set on a space station in 2167. A multiple award-winning science-fiction mystery/thriller, GALATEA takes place on a single set high above the Earth, as robotics specialist Dr. Margaret Mailer conducts a series of sessions with the synthetic Seventy-One, the only surviving member of a crew once assigned to the Galatea, a deep-space transport vessel which disappeared over 100 years before. As Mailer slowly peels away layer after layer of the reluctant synthetic's protective programming, she grows closer and closer to discovering what, exactly, happened on the Galatea, while gradually suspecting a unsettling truth that could change the future of humankind.

Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award - Citation Winner 2022
San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Awards - Winner Original Script
Will Glickman New Play Awards - Honorable Mention 2021

Featherbaby

by David Templeton

Synopsis

WORLD PREMIERE PENDING

Featherbaby is a rambunctious, foul-mouthed Amazon parrot (portrayed by a performer in a green suit), whose life is upended when its human "other-other" Angie, a crime-scene photographer with a dark sense of humor, begins a relationship with Mason, a part-time competitive jigsaw puzzler. Twists and turns abound as the uber-territorial Featherbaby launches a full-on war against Mason. But...

WORLD PREMIERE PENDING

Featherbaby is a rambunctious, foul-mouthed Amazon parrot (portrayed by a performer in a green suit), whose life is upended when its human "other-other" Angie, a crime-scene photographer with a dark sense of humor, begins a relationship with Mason, a part-time competitive jigsaw puzzler. Twists and turns abound as the uber-territorial Featherbaby launches a full-on war against Mason. But when something unexpected occurs, the two competitors for Angie's affections find themselves in an altogether different kind of relationship, one that calls into focus questions about the meaning of bonding, friendship, competition, respect and love.

Drumming with Anubis

by David Templeton

Synopsis

Outstanding World Premiere Play Theatre Bay Area Finalist 2019

This raucous supernatural comedy about a group of myth-obsessed, heavy metal fans on a drum circle retreat in the desert starts off with a bang (literally) and quickly segues into a brutally funny satire of toxic masculinity, obsessive fan culture and the Men's Movement.
Following the death of their founder, a legendary DethDog drummer named Joshua...

Outstanding World Premiere Play Theatre Bay Area Finalist 2019

This raucous supernatural comedy about a group of myth-obsessed, heavy metal fans on a drum circle retreat in the desert starts off with a bang (literally) and quickly segues into a brutally funny satire of toxic masculinity, obsessive fan culture and the Men's Movement.
Following the death of their founder, a legendary DethDog drummer named Joshua Tree, the members of the Friends of Anubis Neo-Heathen Male Bonding and Drumming Society gather for one last weekend of chanting, smoking, drinking and drumming, along with a few metal-inspired "rituals." When a clueless new member proves to be more than he seems, a series of life-altering surprises - including at least one other unexpected guest - begin to unfold. Before it's over, the group will face a long night of the soul (hotdogs optional). This award-winning two-act is both a skewering of toxic masculinity and false bravado, and a sneaky dissection of what makes a certain kind of man squirm, with a strong female character written to challenge the notion of a supporting performance by basically taking over the show (effectively upstaging an actual Egyptian god) half-way through.

Mary Shelley's Body

by David Templeton

Synopsis

FINALIST: Outstanding Solo Performance, San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle Awards Finalist 2017

Mary Shelley is dead. So why is she trapped in this graveyard, at her own tomb? Why is it storming overhead, with thunder and lightning, but no rain? And why can't she stop talking? In this tour-de-force play for one female actor, the writer of 'Frankenstein' delivers a ghostly monologue that encompasses...

FINALIST: Outstanding Solo Performance, San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle Awards Finalist 2017

Mary Shelley is dead. So why is she trapped in this graveyard, at her own tomb? Why is it storming overhead, with thunder and lightning, but no rain? And why can't she stop talking? In this tour-de-force play for one female actor, the writer of 'Frankenstein' delivers a ghostly monologue that encompasses her loves and losses, the inspiration behind her greatest work of literature, and the secrets she hoped to take to the grave. Now that she's there, much to her irritation and witty rage, she finds those secrets have followed her. 'Mary Shelley's Body' (perfect for Halloween or near June 16, the night Mary Shelley had the dream that inspired 'Frankenstein), presents a stormy collision of romance, horror, history and unforgettable storytelling.

Polar Bears

by David Templeton

Synopsis

Best Solo Show San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Association Finalist 2019
Six productions in the U.S.

David never wanted kids, but always knew that if he did have children, he would do a better job at keeping their belief in Santa alive than his parents had done with him.
When he does find himself the father of two, he attempts to do just that. It backfires, of course.
This critically acclaimed one-actor...

Best Solo Show San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Association Finalist 2019
Six productions in the U.S.

David never wanted kids, but always knew that if he did have children, he would do a better job at keeping their belief in Santa alive than his parents had done with him.
When he does find himself the father of two, he attempts to do just that. It backfires, of course.
This critically acclaimed one-actor show takes place at Christmas present and past, as David (who ultimately develops The Santa Rules, a long list of instructions that all the adults must follow) appears with a wooden box of "historical artifacts" to deliver a whopping, holiday roller-coaster of a tale. When his wife dies just before the holiday season, he pushes his Santa obsession to new heights, with unexpected results.
Alternately heartbreaking and heartwarming, the play is told in a single act. The title, with the theme of polar bears introduced gradually early on, suddenly makes sense part way through in a major moment in the show.

Pinky

by David Templeton

Synopsis

David loves Pinky. Pinky likes David. They are both big fans of Cocteau's "La Belle et La Bette." When Pinky gives David the Herculean task of somehow "sweeping her off her feet," he takes up the challenge the way any teenage D&D obsessive with a strong belief in love at first sight would: by recruiting his friends to help him stage an epic real-life fairytale. Performed as a pair of simultaneous but overlapping...

David loves Pinky. Pinky likes David. They are both big fans of Cocteau's "La Belle et La Bette." When Pinky gives David the Herculean task of somehow "sweeping her off her feet," he takes up the challenge the way any teenage D&D obsessive with a strong belief in love at first sight would: by recruiting his friends to help him stage an epic real-life fairytale. Performed as a pair of simultaneous but overlapping monologues, two 40+ adults, a writer and an actor, take turns telling their version of what happened between them all those years ago.

Wretch Like Me

by David Templeton

Synopsis

Award-winning one-actor-show about a one-time born-again teenage puppeteer and how he was saved from being saved. Weaving together true remembrances from the author's childhood and teenage days, and encapsulates the experience of a lonely child finding an alternative family amongst a group of blissed-out Christians in the 1970s, and how his path took him into an epic, and frequently hilarious, crash course with...

Award-winning one-actor-show about a one-time born-again teenage puppeteer and how he was saved from being saved. Weaving together true remembrances from the author's childhood and teenage days, and encapsulates the experience of a lonely child finding an alternative family amongst a group of blissed-out Christians in the 1970s, and how his path took him into an epic, and frequently hilarious, crash course with his own soul. Filled with vivid characters (over a dozen) and stunningly emotional twists and turns, this show has been performed by the author at Fringe Festivals and theaters over 100 times, and now is being made available for other actors to tackle in new ways.

Little Prince

by David Templeton

Synopsis

A groundbreaking two-actor adaptation of the beloved book by Antoine DeSaint-Exupery. Set in the desert in front of a broken airplane, an aviator and a mysterious child work to repair the aircraft before water runs out, while the boy gradually encourages the cynical man to participate in bringing the Little Prince's remarkable story to life. NOTE: This play can only be produced in Canada and UK, and other...

A groundbreaking two-actor adaptation of the beloved book by Antoine DeSaint-Exupery. Set in the desert in front of a broken airplane, an aviator and a mysterious child work to repair the aircraft before water runs out, while the boy gradually encourages the cynical man to participate in bringing the Little Prince's remarkable story to life. NOTE: This play can only be produced in Canada and UK, and other countries where the book is in the public domain. This play cannot currently be staged in the United States or France.