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Dan Giles (he/him) is a playwright from Massachusetts. He is a second-year fellow in The Juilliard School's Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program.
His plays have been produced and developed at Ensemble Studio Theatre, Next Door at New York Theatre Workshop, New Light Theater Project, First Floor Theater, Haven Theatre, The Great Plains Theatre Commons, and others. He is a recipient of the Clifford Odets Ensemble Commission from the Lee Strasberg Institute/NYU, the New Light New Voices Award, the Alfred P. Sloan Screenwriting Award, and the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for Comic Playwriting. He’s been a finalist for Ingram New Works at Nashville Rep, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Pipeline, The Lark, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Lighthouse Works, the Kennedy Center's John Cauble Award, and the Playwrights Center Core Apprentice Fellowship; and a semifinalist for the Terrence McNally New Works Incubator at Rattlestick, the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, the Princess Grace Award, and some other stuff. He received an honorable mention for the 2024 Relentless Award. He is an alum of Harvard College (AB in English), the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama (MFA), and Youngblood at Ensemble Studio Theatre. Contact djgiles47 [at] gmail.com |
Recent Work
The Charioteer
Shortly after Charly visits her estranged brother at college, he vanishes off the grid to live in a radical environmentalist commune. Ten years later, he needs her help. But first, she needs answers. The Charioteer is a coming-of-age story about the inevitability and difficulty of change. (1w, 1m)
The Pittsburgh Free Press
When a junior reporter decides to pursue a story against her editor’s wishes, her actions have unforeseen consequences for the alt weekly where she works, and for the staff doing everything they can to keep it alive. The Pittsburgh Free Press explores the community that forms between people doing work they believe in— how it can give you the most meaningful years of your life, and how it can break your heart. (8w, 4m)
The Dog Walker
After his friend’s suicide, a dog walker goes looking for comfort and finds himself entangled in an older couple’s marriage. As their intimacy increases, new hungers disturb old wounds. The Dog Walker is a love story, a coming-of-age story, and a ghost story. (2w, 4m)
The Estabrook School
Every Tuesday at recess, four white teachers meet in a second-grade classroom for their anti-racist reading group. This week, Jenny lost her shit. The Estabrook School is an ensemble comedy about the pleasures and dangers of empathy. (2w, 2m)
Shortly after Charly visits her estranged brother at college, he vanishes off the grid to live in a radical environmentalist commune. Ten years later, he needs her help. But first, she needs answers. The Charioteer is a coming-of-age story about the inevitability and difficulty of change. (1w, 1m)
- workshop dir. Matt Dickson, The Juilliard School (2025)
The Pittsburgh Free Press
When a junior reporter decides to pursue a story against her editor’s wishes, her actions have unforeseen consequences for the alt weekly where she works, and for the staff doing everything they can to keep it alive. The Pittsburgh Free Press explores the community that forms between people doing work they believe in— how it can give you the most meaningful years of your life, and how it can break your heart. (8w, 4m)
- workshop dir. Jake Beckhard, Lee Strasberg Institute/NYU (2024)
- reading, The Juilliard School (2024)
The Dog Walker
After his friend’s suicide, a dog walker goes looking for comfort and finds himself entangled in an older couple’s marriage. As their intimacy increases, new hungers disturb old wounds. The Dog Walker is a love story, a coming-of-age story, and a ghost story. (2w, 4m)
- honorable mention, Relentless Award (2024)
- semifinalist, Terrence McNally New Works Incubator at Rattlestick (2024)
- reading, The Juilliard School (2023)
The Estabrook School
Every Tuesday at recess, four white teachers meet in a second-grade classroom for their anti-racist reading group. This week, Jenny lost her shit. The Estabrook School is an ensemble comedy about the pleasures and dangers of empathy. (2w, 2m)
- Clifford Odets Ensemble Commission, Lee Strasberg Institute/NYU (2024)
- finalist, Ingram New Works, Nashville Repertory Theatre (2024)
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