David Templeton

David Templeton

David Templeton is a Bay Area playwright and award-winning arts journalist. 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. 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...
David Templeton is a Bay Area playwright and award-winning arts journalist. 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. 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, “Galatea,” had its world premiere at Spreckels Performing Arts Center in September of 2021. He is currently at work on a three-actor comedy titled "Featherbaby," a play about female boxers titled "Ghost Punch" and a collection of his previously produced fantasy plays to be titled "Monsters, Gods and Robots," expected to be published in 2022.

Plays

  • Featherbaby
    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...
    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.
  • Galatea
    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

    GALATEA is an award-winning science-fiction mystery/thriller about robots, therapy, secrets and truths, and what it really means to be human. Think of it as a cross between "My Fair Lady" and...
    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

    GALATEA is an award-winning science-fiction mystery/thriller about robots, therapy, secrets and truths, and what it really means to be human. Think of it as a cross between "My Fair Lady" and "Agnes of God," but set on a space station. In 2167, high above the Earth, 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 legendary deep-space transport vessel which disappeared over 100 years ago - with more than a thousand organic passengers aboard. Through a series of exercises designed to improve her social skills and human-like characteristics, Seventy-One learns what it means to smile, shake hands, tell jokes and laugh, though it is clear that Seventy-One is carefully guarding a secret. As Mailer slowly peels away layer after layer of the reluctant synthetic's protective programming, she begins to suspect something that could change the future of humankind, all while seeking the answer to a century-old question: what, exactly, happened on the Galatea?
  • Drumming with Anubis
    What at first seems to be a coarse, supernatural comedy about a group of mythology-loving, heavy metal fans on a drum circle retreat in the desert gradually proves to be a brutal (and brutally funny) skewering of toxic masculinity and false bravado, blended with a sneaky dissection of what makes a certain kind of man squirm. Following the recent death of their founder, the legendary DethDog drummer Joshua Tree...
    What at first seems to be a coarse, supernatural comedy about a group of mythology-loving, heavy metal fans on a drum circle retreat in the desert gradually proves to be a brutal (and brutally funny) skewering of toxic masculinity and false bravado, blended with a sneaky dissection of what makes a certain kind of man squirm. Following the recent death of their founder, the legendary DethDog drummer Joshua Tree, the members of the Friends of Anubis Neo-Heathen Male Bonding and Drumming Society have gathered for one final weekend of chanting, percussion and drinking, plus a few metal-inspired "rituals," When a somewhat clueless new member proves to be more than he seems, a whole 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). When the late rock star's young wife makes an unexpected appearance, things change again, with unpredictable consequences. Will this turn out to be the friends' best male-bonding trip ever -- or its last?
  • Mary Shelley's Body
    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...
    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: A True Story About a Very Big Lie
    Looking for a fresh, unpredictable new Christmas play without the usual greedy Victorian misers, BB gun-obsessed midwestern kids or acerbic department store elves? This critically acclaimed one-actor show takes place at Christmas present and past, as David (a guy who once believed he'd make the world's worst father) appears with a wooden box of family artifacts, and maybe a stool, to deliver a true...
    Looking for a fresh, unpredictable new Christmas play without the usual greedy Victorian misers, BB gun-obsessed midwestern kids or acerbic department store elves? This critically acclaimed one-actor show takes place at Christmas present and past, as David (a guy who once believed he'd make the world's worst father) appears with a wooden box of family artifacts, and maybe a stool, to deliver a true roller-coaster of a tale. Beginning with David's earliest memory of Santa Claus (he was four, and it was the morning he figured out there WAS no Santa Claus), to his very reluctant embrace of fatherhood (he never really wanted kids) and his growing obsession with assuring his kids believed in Santa longer than he did, and what happens when a family tragedy at the holidays threatens to derail everything. How long can David sustain his commitment to making Christmas magical for skeptical Jenna and wide-eyed believer Andy ... in spite of everything? To what lengths can one increasingly inventive dad go to make Santa Claus real? And what would happen if it all backfired in unpredictable, hilarious, heartbreaking and heartwarming ways? This is a play about the true magic of Christmas: love, and the beautiful backfires that come - Santa or no Santa, broken hearts or no broken hearts - from simply loving each other. What does any of this have to do with polar bears? You are invited to read the script and find out. We promise you it's not what you're expecting. (Wanting: Probably not appropriate for children young enough to still be writing letters to Santa).
  • Pinky
    Young love can be brutal. When a sweetly romantic teenager named Pinky appears at the local bowling alley, nerdy high-schooler David is instantly smitten. After joining David’s eccentric circle of brainy, oddball friends, Pinky reveals her life-long quest to find P.C., her nickname for Prince Charming. Determined to be the one who sweeps Pinky off her feet, David launches an outrageous scheme to prove he’s the...
    Young love can be brutal. When a sweetly romantic teenager named Pinky appears at the local bowling alley, nerdy high-schooler David is instantly smitten. After joining David’s eccentric circle of brainy, oddball friends, Pinky reveals her life-long quest to find P.C., her nickname for Prince Charming. Determined to be the one who sweeps Pinky off her feet, David launches an outrageous scheme to prove he’s the real P.C., a plan involving treasure hunts, kidnapping, and a battle against the forces of evil. Of course, every love story has two sides. Performed as a pair of simultaneous but overlapping monologues, the grown-up David and Pinky take turns telling their version of what happened, all those years ago.
  • Wretch Like Me
    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...
    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.
  • The Little Prince
    A 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...
    A 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.