Lisa Sanaye Dring

Lisa Sanaye Dring

Lisa is currently the Tow Foundation Writer-in-Residence with Ma-Yi Theater Company. Her play SUMO was produced by La Jolla Playhouse and Ma-Yi Theater Company in 2023 and won Broadway World San Diego's award for Best New Play. Their play Kairos is receiving an NNPN Rolling World Premiere this season with East West Players, Know Theatre of Cincinnati and Theatre Nova.

She was honored as a...
Lisa is currently the Tow Foundation Writer-in-Residence with Ma-Yi Theater Company. Her play SUMO was produced by La Jolla Playhouse and Ma-Yi Theater Company in 2023 and won Broadway World San Diego's award for Best New Play. Their play Kairos is receiving an NNPN Rolling World Premiere this season with East West Players, Know Theatre of Cincinnati and Theatre Nova.

She was honored as a recipient of the 2020/21 PLAY LA Stage Raw/Humanitas Prize. The Wicked One (formerly known as The 626 Project) was a finalist for the Relentless Award, a finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, a finalist for the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference and a semi-finalist for the O'Neill Playwrights Conference. Kaidan Project: Walls Grow Thin, a play she co-wrote with Chelsea Sutton, was nominated for 7 Ovation Awards including Best Production (winner of 5).

Lisa's work has been developed/produced by La Jolla Playhouse, The New Group, The Geffen Playhouse, Ma-Yi Theater Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Skylight Theatre, East West Players, Circle X, SCF @ Son of Semele, Playwrights’ Arena, Rogue Artists Ensemble, The Motor Company and Theatre of NOTE. They were a member of The Geffen Writers' Room as well as East West Players’ Playwrights Group, and were a Yaddo, Macdowell and Blue Mountain Center fellow. She co-directed and co-wrote Welcome to the Blumhouse Live, which was nominated for a 2021 Emmy.

Plays

  • Kairos by Lisa Sanaye Dring
    Recommendations: 6
    ·
    Cast: 
    2–4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: future, scientific break-through + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, romantic comedy, science fiction
    Keyword: future, scientific break-through, immortality
    Kairos is the story of two people falling in love during a tectonic shift in society. Their nascent relationship is tested by the advent of Prometheus, a procedure that grants immortality to a select few. What happens to commitment, meaning and care when linear time breaks open?

    Originally developed as part of The Geffen Writers' Room.
  • Happy Fall: A Queer Stunt Spectacular by Lisa Sanaye Dring
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    5–10
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, immersive + 1 more
    Genre: dark comedy, immersive, movement/physical
    Unipersonal Parabount Lisney Studios welcomes you to Happy Fall, A QUEER STUNT SPECTACULAR!

    Go behind the scenes of one of the most dangerous jobs in Hollywood and witness the lives of real stuntmen as they navigate getting (and having) to be the strongest, straightest, hardest man in every room! Experience death defying stunts of both the mind and body as people are forced to squash themselves...
    Unipersonal Parabount Lisney Studios welcomes you to Happy Fall, A QUEER STUNT SPECTACULAR!

    Go behind the scenes of one of the most dangerous jobs in Hollywood and witness the lives of real stuntmen as they navigate getting (and having) to be the strongest, straightest, hardest man in every room! Experience death defying stunts of both the mind and body as people are forced to squash themselves into heteronormative definitions of what it means to be a Tough Guy!

    Based on true life stories collected from interviews with actual stunt performers, this interactive show is high octane, super physical and mega puppet-y.
  • SUMO by Lisa Sanaye Dring
    Recommendations: 9
    ·
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: drama, fable/folktale + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: Japanese, wrestling + 6 more
    Genre: drama, fable/folktale, movement/physical
    Keyword: Japanese, wrestling, sports, sumo wrestler, Asian American, LGBTQ, masculinity, Men
    SUMO is a story about the pursuit of the impossible. Six fighters train, eat, love, play and ultimately compete, carving themselves and one another into the men they dream of being.
  • Hungry Ghost by Lisa Sanaye Dring
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama
    Dean and Amanda move to a home in the forest to start a family. They are burgled by the hermit, a man who lives in the woods and steals for survival. Dean, struggling with the alienation of pregnancy, starts to see the hermit—a Stevie Nicks and hot Cheetos-loving trickster— who is not only invisible to everyone else, but also claims to be her future child.

    Originally developed as part of the...
    Dean and Amanda move to a home in the forest to start a family. They are burgled by the hermit, a man who lives in the woods and steals for survival. Dean, struggling with the alienation of pregnancy, starts to see the hermit—a Stevie Nicks and hot Cheetos-loving trickster— who is not only invisible to everyone else, but also claims to be her future child.

    Originally developed as part of the Humanitas/Stage Raw Award.
  • Seven Hoshi by Lisa Sanaye Dring
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    7
    ·
    Genre: adventure, comedy + 5 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, dark comedy, docudrama/historic, drama, fable/folktale, science fiction
    A psychedelic, time-jumping story of seven sisters reaching through devastation to grasp what's on the other side.
  • The Wicked One by Lisa Sanaye Dring
    Recommendations: 5
    ·
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: drama, political + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: Asian American, Asian immigrants + 3 more
    Genre: drama, political, tragedy
    Keyword: Asian American, Asian immigrants, Laos, mental illness, immigration
    The Wicked One is the story of a mother faced with a brutal decision. Based on a true story out
    of Rosemead, California, a terminal cancer diagnosis forces a first-generation Laotian immigrant
    to confront her son's schizophrenia. The Wicked One explores the piercing isolation
    experienced by single mothers, the shame around mental illness that often plagues Asian
    families, and...
    The Wicked One is the story of a mother faced with a brutal decision. Based on a true story out
    of Rosemead, California, a terminal cancer diagnosis forces a first-generation Laotian immigrant
    to confront her son's schizophrenia. The Wicked One explores the piercing isolation
    experienced by single mothers, the shame around mental illness that often plagues Asian
    families, and the heft of having to carry your culture with you in a foreign land.

    Finalist for the Relentless Award, semi-finalist for the O'Neill Playwrights' Conference. Developed with The New Group and Circle X Theatre Co. Initially written as a part of The Vagrancy's Blossoming Series.
  • The Sea by Lisa Sanaye Dring
    Recommendations: 3
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: drama
    ·
    Keyword: trigger warning: discussions of child sexual abuse
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: trigger warning: discussions of child sexual abuse
    A woman falls in love with a man. They start a family and she discovers something about that love which shakes the core of her being.

  • __________ // ________ // ___ or Louisville // Kentucky // USA by Lisa Sanaye Dring
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, political
    ·
    Keyword: speculative fiction, Politics + 3 more
    Genre: dark comedy, political
    Keyword: speculative fiction, Politics, border, boundaries, consent
    In the not-so-distant future, a politically polarized America splits into two nations. Part of the new border carves around [Louisville], separating the blue city from an otherwise red [Kentucky]. Two neighboring families find themselves on either side of this divide, unearthing old and new questions of boundaries, ownership, and what it means to call a place home.

    _________ // _________ // ___...
    In the not-so-distant future, a politically polarized America splits into two nations. Part of the new border carves around [Louisville], separating the blue city from an otherwise red [Kentucky]. Two neighboring families find themselves on either side of this divide, unearthing old and new questions of boundaries, ownership, and what it means to call a place home.

    _________ // _________ // ___ takes place in Louisville, Kentucky for its premiere with the
    fabulous folks at Actors Theatre of Louisville. But it could take place in Detroit, Austin, Reno,
    Oklahoma City—any blueish city in a reddish state.

  • Big Ones by Lisa Sanaye Dring
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy
    ·
    Keyword: earthquake, all gender
    Genre: dark comedy
    Keyword: earthquake, all gender
    Big Ones is the story of people who probably definitely love each other as they encounter tectonic distress. Set in the hills of Mt. Washington at 3am tomorrow morning, two siblings and a significant other deal with emergency water supply, old wounds, online dating and Mom after The Motherfucking Big One hits.