Di Lobontiu

Di Lobontiu is a Romanian American playwright, actor, administrator, and educator based in Brooklyn. They are interested in exploring the intersections of masculinity, dominance + oppression, failure and loneliness. Di’s work has been supported by the Foundation for Contemporary arts, MacDowell, Fresh Binder Productions, the Workshop Theatre, the Paragraph Workspace for Writers (Jane Hoppen LGBTQ Residency), and the Puffin Foundation. Recent writing includes If You're a Man at Night, You Gotta Be a Man in the Morning (The Tank 2026, The Brick 2024), Bump-->Set-->Spike-->Bruise (Winner, Concord Theatricals Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival), My Cousin Nelu Is Nelu Is Not Gay (Ars Nova, The Brick), and Rentabutch (Dyke Theater Co.). MFA: Brooklyn College. www.dianalobontiu.com.

Di Lobontiu is a Romanian American playwright, actor, administrator, and educator based in Brooklyn. They are interested in exploring the intersections of masculinity, dominance + oppression, failure and loneliness. Di’s work has been supported by the Foundation for Contemporary arts, MacDowell, Fresh Binder Productions, the Workshop Theatre, the Paragraph Workspace for Writers (Jane Hoppen LGBTQ Residency), and the Puffin Foundation. Recent writing includes If You're a Man at Night, You Gotta Be a Man in the Morning (The Tank 2026, The Brick 2024), Bump-->Set-->Spike-->Bruise (Winner, Concord Theatricals Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival), My Cousin Nelu Is Nelu Is Not Gay (Ars Nova, The Brick), and Rentabutch (Dyke Theater Co.). MFA: Brooklyn College. www.dianalobontiu.com.

Scripts

Bump-->Set-->Spike-->Bruise

by Di Lobontiu

Synopsis

Mo (short for Maria, short for the *Virgin* Mary) likes to hit hard. Kat (short for Ekaterina Gordeeva - oh brother) likes to rhyme. They wind up as volleyball partners. At 10, 13, 16, and in infinity, they wind up as volleyball partners: growing their garden of queer charm, cultivating their bruised volleyball forearms, and resisting their love for each other.

Well, until...

Mo (short for Maria, short for the *Virgin* Mary) likes to hit hard. Kat (short for Ekaterina Gordeeva - oh brother) likes to rhyme. They wind up as volleyball partners. At 10, 13, 16, and in infinity, they wind up as volleyball partners: growing their garden of queer charm, cultivating their bruised volleyball forearms, and resisting their love for each other.

Well, until...

If You're A Man At Night...You Gotta Be A Man In The Morning

by Di Lobontiu

Synopsis

Disgraced Olympic swimmer Ryan L*chte is dying of loneliness, trying to milk attention from his robot wife Deirdre, a Cyclops Michael Ph*lps, and terrifyingly/gorgeously…YOU! Can someone help this man??

Disgraced Olympic swimmer Ryan L*chte is dying of loneliness, trying to milk attention from his robot wife Deirdre, a Cyclops Michael Ph*lps, and terrifyingly/gorgeously…YOU! Can someone help this man??

Decay Chain

by Di Lobontiu

Synopsis

A child sketches a drawing of their family with plutonium they found on the street. The child turns their entire family into radioactive goop. The child is thinking: maybe I can finally pursue my art now (they sketch). The child miraculously survives, but is forced to live a series of dwindling half-lives, all connected by the disastrous effects of radiation (and the destabilizing Entity of Art). A failed cult...

A child sketches a drawing of their family with plutonium they found on the street. The child turns their entire family into radioactive goop. The child is thinking: maybe I can finally pursue my art now (they sketch). The child miraculously survives, but is forced to live a series of dwindling half-lives, all connected by the disastrous effects of radiation (and the destabilizing Entity of Art). A failed cult leader, a rat king, a radioactive exposure test dummy, a teaching artist, a drone pilot… as their lives become smaller and smaller and smaller they must confront the dreaded end of the decay chain: stability.

Rentabutch

by Di Lobontiu

Synopsis

Desperate to escape the straight mainstream, Sal(ly) joins the Rentabutches, a group of butches who rent themselves out for manual labor but are more interested in werking it than in working. Sal tries to find their place within this supposed haven for dykes, navigating between the militant Souls of Every Butch Who Came Before (literally) and the jockstrap-clad, consent-obsessed, content-crazed butches at...

Desperate to escape the straight mainstream, Sal(ly) joins the Rentabutches, a group of butches who rent themselves out for manual labor but are more interested in werking it than in working. Sal tries to find their place within this supposed haven for dykes, navigating between the militant Souls of Every Butch Who Came Before (literally) and the jockstrap-clad, consent-obsessed, content-crazed butches at Rentabutch.

My Cousin Nelu Is Not Gay

by Di Lobontiu

Synopsis

Wouldn’t it be nice if I weren’t the only gay person in my family? I wrote this play so I wouldn’t have to be. This is a mildly to moderately vengeful two-person show in which Diana (a lightly fictionalized version of myself) spills their guts in a series of solo-show-style confessional monologues about being a lesbian Romanian immigrant in America, while their cousin Nelu (a massively fictionalized version of...

Wouldn’t it be nice if I weren’t the only gay person in my family? I wrote this play so I wouldn’t have to be. This is a mildly to moderately vengeful two-person show in which Diana (a lightly fictionalized version of myself) spills their guts in a series of solo-show-style confessional monologues about being a lesbian Romanian immigrant in America, while their cousin Nelu (a massively fictionalized version of my real cousin) tells the audience his story about being a raspberry farmer in the Transylvanian countryside whose farm is a front for the mafia. Nelu is NOT gay. Except in this show.

DUCKY

by Di Lobontiu

Synopsis

It's Christmas. It's Brooklyn. The tens of thousands of roommates are watching Being John Malkovich downstairs. It's goddamn despicable. And Ducky (part duck/part detective) is trying to resist the seasonal urge to jump off of their apartment building and either fly south for the winter, or go splat on the pavement. Is this the year they finally do it?

It's Christmas. It's Brooklyn. The tens of thousands of roommates are watching Being John Malkovich downstairs. It's goddamn despicable. And Ducky (part duck/part detective) is trying to resist the seasonal urge to jump off of their apartment building and either fly south for the winter, or go splat on the pavement. Is this the year they finally do it?

Sfânta: Hell Bent on Heaven

by Di Lobontiu

Synopsis

A solo show based on the Romanian Orthodox Saint Teodora de la Sihla, but BEFORE she became a saint. Back when she was just a young lesbian novitiate trying to strike it holy in 1680’s Romania. Teodora just wants to be holy already so she can be revered by pilgrims and perform over-the-top miracles. In the process she discovers that she’s evil, she likes women’s hips, and she has accidentally poisoned the whole...

A solo show based on the Romanian Orthodox Saint Teodora de la Sihla, but BEFORE she became a saint. Back when she was just a young lesbian novitiate trying to strike it holy in 1680’s Romania. Teodora just wants to be holy already so she can be revered by pilgrims and perform over-the-top miracles. In the process she discovers that she’s evil, she likes women’s hips, and she has accidentally poisoned the whole convent.