Dan Giles

Dan Giles

Dan Giles (he/him) is a New York City-based playwright originally from Massachusetts.

His plays have been produced and developed with Ensemble Studio Theatre, New Light Theater Project, Next Door at New York Theatre Workshop, First Floor Theater (Chicago), Haven Theatre (Chicago), FaultLine (San Francisco), the Great Plains Theatre Commons (Omaha), the Kennedy Center (DC), and others.
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Dan Giles (he/him) is a New York City-based playwright originally from Massachusetts.

His plays have been produced and developed with Ensemble Studio Theatre, New Light Theater Project, Next Door at New York Theatre Workshop, First Floor Theater (Chicago), Haven Theatre (Chicago), FaultLine (San Francisco), the Great Plains Theatre Commons (Omaha), the Kennedy Center (DC), and others.

​Awards include the New Light New Voices Award, an Alfred P. Sloan Screenwriting Award, and the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Prize for Comic Playwriting. This year, he's one of three American playwrights selected for the East by West UK/US Playwright Exchange Program, through which he'll develop new work in a cohort with three Scottish playwrights at An Tobar & Mull Theatre (Scotland), Citizens Theatre (Glasgow), EST (NYC), and Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater (Cape Cod), with support from Playwrights' Studio, Scotland and Arch 468 (London).

MFA Carnegie Mellon. Alum of Youngblood, the collective of playwrights at Ensemble Studio Theatre. dangilesplaywright.com

Plays

  • You're Not Here
    Long after they should be sleeping, four lonely people chase desire to the same East Flatbush apartment. As they discover who they are to each other, the illusions that brought them together begin to fall apart. A nocturne for lovers and strangers, and those who are both.
  • Polar Bear in a Fish Tank in a Mall in China
    On the set of a reality TV show deep in the snowy mountains, seven gays compete for the love of one bachelor. But when one of them vanishes, they discover that game isn't what it seems, and that the house is full of secrets: a curse, a conspiracy, a monster. Stalked by an implacable terror, each must decide for himself: did he come here to make friends? Or to win?
  • Mike Pence Sex Dream
    In the aftermath of the 2016 election, newlyweds Gary and Ben find their marriage put to the test. Ben wants to fight the power. Gary wants to climb the corporate ladder to comfort and safety. When an unscrupulous client makes him an irresistible offer, Gary sets down a path of violent delights that will lead to violent ends. Mike Pence Sex Dream is a romantic travesty about bringing home the bacon and fucking a pig.
  • Breeders
    Two men, Dean and Mikey, prepared for ages to have a baby, but now Dean’s doubts gnaw at him. Two hamsters, Tyson and Jason, are abruptly pregnant with nine babies, and now Tyson’s fears nibble at her. Nobody was planning to eat anyone. Things just got out of hand.
  • How You Kiss Me Is Not How I Like To Be Kissed
    Kiss her, poorly. Decide to take him home anyway. Define the relationship. Set sensible boundaries. Confess secrets. Meet her dad, blow it. Fall in love casually, strangely, effortlessly. Negotiate monogamy. Take him to IKEA, regret it, survive it. Fight about work. Fight about family. Fight about marriage. Make a life together. Fall out of love as easily as you fell in. Now what? How You Kiss Me...
    Kiss her, poorly. Decide to take him home anyway. Define the relationship. Set sensible boundaries. Confess secrets. Meet her dad, blow it. Fall in love casually, strangely, effortlessly. Negotiate monogamy. Take him to IKEA, regret it, survive it. Fight about work. Fight about family. Fight about marriage. Make a life together. Fall out of love as easily as you fell in. Now what? How You Kiss Me Is Not How I Like To Be Kissed explores the pursuit of romantic love in the lives of two people who want desperately to believe in it.