Dakota Parobek

Dakota Parobek

Dakota is a playwright, poet, and composer from Louisville, Kentucky. Their work has been produced in Louisville Kentucky (Actors Theatre of Louisville, Walden Theatre Alumni Theatre Company) and Chicago (Mercy Street Theatre Company, Jackalope Theatre Company, Nothing Without a Company) and published by Imagined Theatres. They hold an MFA in Playwriting from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop.

Plays

  • Blue Whale Variations by Dakota Parobek
    Cast: 
    6–9
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: loss, grief + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, experimental
    Keyword: loss, grief, non-linear, music
    After the death of her mother, Paula and her father Al struggle to navigate their grief while their neighbors Charlie and Andy adjust to their new home, all under the looming shadow of a mysterious Blue Whale. Blue Whale Variations is an investigation of the precariousness of identity, love, and the construction of meaning in the shadow of loss.
  • MERRILY by Dakota Parobek
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: docudrama/historic, experimental + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: anarchism, capitalism + 5 more
    Genre: docudrama/historic, experimental, political, tragedy
    Keyword: anarchism, capitalism, memory, loss, grief, collage, found text
    Emma Goldman (Anarchist) and Wilbur Wright (Capitalist) wade through history in search of long lost loved ones. As their past lives collide and coalesce, the integrity of memory begins to unravel.
  • Smile Medicine by Dakota Parobek
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    8–14
    ·
    Genre: comedy, pageant + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: mental illness, grief + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, pageant, tragedy
    Keyword: mental illness, grief, loss, found text, music, collage
    After the sudden loss of their best friend, Good-dog, Sad-bird must adjust to their new life in a world of Angels, Anarchists, Aliens, and the ghost of a disgraced Russian scientist. As Sad-bird searches for their place on earth, Good-dog searches for his place among the stars. Smile Medicine is an exploration of mental illness and grief through humor, lamentation, and music.

Recommended by Dakota Parobek

  • Wild Man by K.T. Peterson
    17 Dec. 2023
    “ Wild Man is as sprawling as it is intimate, as gumshoe-thriller as family drama, as hazily eerie as it is hilarious. Peterson's wide palette of sensibilities present us with the evergreen-shrouded town of Buttonwood, Oregon, a vivid landscape of generational betrayal, Red Scare paranoia, small town wonder, and (crucially) deep, deep love. Inhabited by the Longwood family, their neighbors, and the whirring media-circus hovering heavy above them all, Wild Man's characters are rich with all the delicious complexities one would expect from K.T.'s work. Wild Man is like a roundhouse kick to the heart from a highschool heartthrob. ”