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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), Carnegie Mellon School of Drama (MFA), and Youngblood at Ensemble Studio Theatre. Upcoming
Contact [email protected] |
Recent Work
The Charioteer
Charly’s older brother has always been her hero, even when he forgets that she exists. When she goes to visit him at college, she hopes to start a new chapter in their relationship. But shortly after, he vanishes off the grid to live in a radical environmentalist commune. Ten years later, he needs her help. But first, she needs answers. Across fault lines of politics and family, Charly and Owen must figure out who they are to each other if either of them is going to survive what’s in store. What do you do when the person who taught you right from wrong is also the person who hurt you most? The Charioteer is a taut, tender two-hander about how to fight with—and for—the people you love. (1w, 1m)
The Pittsburgh Free Press
A young journalist uncovers an explosive scandal—a story with the potential to upend local politics and launch her career. Then her editor kills it. When she pursues her scoop anyway, her decision has unforeseen consequences for the alt weekly where she works, and for the staff of misfits doing everything they can to keep it alive. An epic ensemble dramedy set within an endangered civic sphere, The Pittsburgh Free Press dramatizes the vulnerability of idealism and the malleability of truth. (8w, 4m)
The Dog Walker
His life in shambles, a young dog walker goes looking for love and finds it in bed with his older client. Harry is handsome, erudite, and charismatic, and he has everything Jay doesn’t: a Brooklyn Heights address, a chosen family, a rich husband. But as Jay becomes entangled in Harry’s world, new hungers disturb old wounds. Soon Jay realizes that if he wants more, he must risk losing what little he has to get it. A queer coming-of-age story about sex, money, and death, The Dog Walker explores how desire can change who you think you are. (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. As their collective identity crisis unfolds, will any of them emerge unscathed? Who will they be on the other side? And are these the questions they should really be asking? The Estabrook School is an ensemble comedy about the pleasures and dangers of righteousness and empathy. (2w, 2m)
Charly’s older brother has always been her hero, even when he forgets that she exists. When she goes to visit him at college, she hopes to start a new chapter in their relationship. But shortly after, he vanishes off the grid to live in a radical environmentalist commune. Ten years later, he needs her help. But first, she needs answers. Across fault lines of politics and family, Charly and Owen must figure out who they are to each other if either of them is going to survive what’s in store. What do you do when the person who taught you right from wrong is also the person who hurt you most? The Charioteer is a taut, tender two-hander about how to fight with—and for—the people you love. (1w, 1m)
- Resident Artist project, the cell theatre (upcoming 2026)
- workshop dir. Matt Dickson, The Juilliard School (2025)
- semifinalist, O'Neill National Playwrights Conference (2025)
The Pittsburgh Free Press
A young journalist uncovers an explosive scandal—a story with the potential to upend local politics and launch her career. Then her editor kills it. When she pursues her scoop anyway, her decision has unforeseen consequences for the alt weekly where she works, and for the staff of misfits doing everything they can to keep it alive. An epic ensemble dramedy set within an endangered civic sphere, The Pittsburgh Free Press dramatizes the vulnerability of idealism and the malleability of truth. (8w, 4m)
- workshop dir. Jake Beckhard, Lee Strasberg Institute/NYU (2024)
- reading, The Juilliard School (2024)
The Dog Walker
His life in shambles, a young dog walker goes looking for love and finds it in bed with his older client. Harry is handsome, erudite, and charismatic, and he has everything Jay doesn’t: a Brooklyn Heights address, a chosen family, a rich husband. But as Jay becomes entangled in Harry’s world, new hungers disturb old wounds. Soon Jay realizes that if he wants more, he must risk losing what little he has to get it. A queer coming-of-age story about sex, money, and death, The Dog Walker explores how desire can change who you think you are. (2w, 4m)
- reading, The Juilliard School (2023)
- honorable mention, Relentless Award (2024)
- semifinalist, Terrence McNally New Works Incubator at Rattlestick (2024)
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. As their collective identity crisis unfolds, will any of them emerge unscathed? Who will they be on the other side? And are these the questions they should really be asking? The Estabrook School is an ensemble comedy about the pleasures and dangers of righteousness and empathy. (2w, 2m)
- Clifford Odets Ensemble Commission, Lee Strasberg Institute/NYU (2024)
- finalist, Ingram New Works, Nashville Repertory Theatre (2024)
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