David Templeton

"All in Favor" is a comedy-drama set in 1976 at a suburban High School in Los Angeles County. As Bicentennial fever grips the U.S., a diverse class of 13 advanced art students race against the clock in a basement at their high school, working to beat rapidly-nearing deadlines and their own disagreements and personality clashes to complete a class Bicentennial Project, a massive tile mosaic portraying the signing of the Declaration of Independence. When their visionary student leader drops out after a freak medical emergency, the team is thrown even further off course. Adding to the setbacks, the new kid brought in from the waiting list to keep their number at 13 (one for each of the original colonies) turns out to be a genius at organization — but one who is terrified of conflict and chaos. Against all odds, the team must pull itself together enough to get back on track, with the very real possibility that they might not finish in time to have their massive art piece installed on the exterior of the art building. Then, a member of the School Board puts a sudden hold on funding for the installation, unless the students agree to make the artwork "more American." What that means, and what kinds of compromises it could take to meet the ambiguous demand, throw the students into a philosophical and artistic debate about the meaning of American independence, unrestricted speech and artistic freedom. With all of this hanging over them, the students must choose sides in determining how to proceed, whose voices matter the most, and what they're each willing to sacrifice in order to have people someday see their masterpiece in the light of day.

WINNER: 2025 Outstanding Overall Production - SF Bay Area Theater Critics Circle

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.

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 "Pygmalion" and "Agnes of God" (with a touch of "The Flying Dutchman"), 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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.