David Lee White is a New Jersey based playwright and educator that has worked with Passage Theatre, McCarter Theatre, Dreamcatcher Rep, PlayPenn, Rider University and Drexel University as well as many other theatres and theatre programs in the NJ/NY/PA area. His work runs the gamut from crowd-pleasing comedy, political satire, oral-history based docudrama, musical theatre, educational theatre and mental health advocacy. He has also worked to promote NJ area playwrights by organizing developmental opportunities through The Passage Play Lab and The Witherspoon Circle.

In 2016, David was commissioned by the New Jersey Performing Arts Center’s Stage Exchange Program and Passage Theatre to create the play FIXED, based on interviews with mental health care professionals and people suffering from bi-polar and schizo-affective disorders. The play premiered at Passage Theatre in May, 2017. Previously, his play BLOOD: A COMEDY was seen at Passage Theatre (2009) and Dreamcatcher Rep (2012). His play SLIPPERY AS SIN also received its world premiere at Passage in 2011. The one-act play WHITE BABY was originally produced at Passage Theatre, then at Emerging Artists Theatre in NY. His solo show PANTHER HOLLOW was performed at Dreamcatcher Rep, The United Solo Festival in NY, The New Jersey Fringe Festival, Passage Theatre, Arcade Comedy Theatre in Pittsburgh, Point Park College and Drexel University. In 2015, David created the show FIVE MINUTES TO PLACES for the McCarter Theatre Education Program’s Comedy Conservatory.

David also worked with Passage’s Artistic Director June Ballinger to create the mainstage shows TRENTON LIGHTS and PROFILES, which made use of interviews with Trenton residents on the topics of race, identity and history in Trenton, NJ. Since 2005, he has been creating oral-history based plays with Trenton area teens based on social and cultural issues. IF I COULD IN MY HOOD I WOULD… was about inner-city gangs, FIRE GIRLS took on the issue of girl-bullying and URBAN CENTRAL examined the 1967 race riots that took place a Trenton Central High. Subsequent shows in this vein include GET OFF THE BUS and BOBASHELA. He created “Stoop Theatre” with the Trenton High drama club and created the show THIS TRENTON LIFE which was the subject an Emmy-Award nominated broadcast on PCK Media’s STATE OF THE ARTS. He continues to teach playwright to students at Trenton Central High through McCarter Theatre’s education program.

David currently has several other works in development. His play WAYS TO BE HAPPY received a reading in the Hive Exposed series in NY in March of 2015. Other plays include THE FESTIVAL QUARTET (readings at Bristol-Riverside Theatre and Writer’s Theatre of New Jersey) and ROCKET SEX MAGIC – a comedy about real life rocket scientist/occultist Jack Parsons (reading at Writer’s Theatre of New Jersey) His musical LIVE STREAM, with composer Sarah Donner and co-creator Adam Immerwahr, was workshopped at Bristol-Riverside Theatre as part of their America Rising series. A second musical, THE ANGRY GRAMMARIAN with composer Jeffrey Barg, was recently given a reading at Pulley & Buttonhole Theatre. In the summer of 2017, David created the show ALIEN 8 with composer Kate Brennan for McCarter Theater’s education program. David and Kate are also currently writing a one-act musical for Dreamcatcher Rep to be performed in the Spring of 2018 and they will return to McCarter’s education program in the summer of 2018 for a new full-length musical.

For fourteen years, David Lee White was the Associate Artistic Director and Resident Playwright at Passage Theatre in Trenton. He also ran the Passage Play Lab which aided in the development of plays by New Jersey-based playwrights. In 2016, the Play Lab became an independent entity known as The Witherspoon Circle, which helps develop, workshop, publish and raise awareness of New Jersey area Playwrights. David also served the curator of the Rider University New Play Festival , was an instructor at PlayPenn in Philadelphia and is currently on the theatre faculty at Drexel University.