Southern in the City
DAVID STALLINGS migrated from the South (Georgia, Texas and New Mexico) to NYC over ten years ago and has been working consistently as a playwright, actor, and producer both in the city and regionally. The author of 15 full length plays and numerous shorts, David's plays have reached audiences across the US. Barrier Island, his play about the 2008 Hurricane Ike that hit his home-town of Galveston, TX., received its regional debut at Acadiana Repertory Theatre in Lafayette Louisiana. His play about the Louisiana oil spill, Dark Water, received its World Premier in NYC in March 2014 with MTWorks at the 14th Street Y and was the proud winner of the New York Innovative Theater Award for Best Original Full Length Script.
As a writer, David is influenced by his Southern roots and contemporary politics. For example, his play, The Re-Education of Arizona, deals explicitly with the affect of Arizona's brutal profiling policies and their immediate influence on the local Hispanic communities. As well as bringing an informed Southern voice to theater, David also focuses on female protagonists and relationships within family dynamics--with a dash of poetry and magical realism for good measure. He has worked with several theater companies including The Culture Project, Intravenous Theatre, Prospect Theater Company, Boo-Arts and Oberon Theater Company as well as having had readings of his work across the country from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Boston, Massachusetts.
In 2006, he co-founded Maieutic Theatre Works (now Manhattan Theatre Works) with his play, Folie a Deux: Insanity in Pairs as their inaugural production. Brandon Voss of HX Magazine called the play, “Riveting” and named Stallings as the “playwright and actor to watch”. Other plays include Anaϊs Nin Goes to Hell (1st Prize Winner Boston Theatre Works Unbound Festival 2007, Winner of the Arthur W. Stone New Play Award Louisiana Tech University 2009, Semi Finalist for the Princess Grace Award 2008), Arpeggio (produced Fall ‘07 at the 45th Street Theater, NYC), The Stranger to Kindness (Winner of Planet Connections Playwriting Award Short Form and Best Production of a One Act Play for the 2011 production at The Robert Moss Theater), and The Family Shakespeare (produced Spring 2011 at the June Havoc Theater, NYC). On MTWorks’ 2008 NYC Fringe production of Anaïs Nin Goes to Hell, the Village Voice said, “Thank the gods for David Stallings’ ‘Anaïs Nin Goes to Hell’… a uniquely polished presence at the Fringe”, and The New York Press said, “For a play about women but written by a man, it captured the greater female psyche.” David has a BFA in Theater from the College of Santa Fe, NM. He is also a member of the Dramatists Guild. Recently he has taken over as the Associate Artistic Director & Theater Manager and Producer at the Theater at the 14th Street Y in Manhattan.
As a writer, David is influenced by his Southern roots and contemporary politics. For example, his play, The Re-Education of Arizona, deals explicitly with the affect of Arizona's brutal profiling policies and their immediate influence on the local Hispanic communities. As well as bringing an informed Southern voice to theater, David also focuses on female protagonists and relationships within family dynamics--with a dash of poetry and magical realism for good measure. He has worked with several theater companies including The Culture Project, Intravenous Theatre, Prospect Theater Company, Boo-Arts and Oberon Theater Company as well as having had readings of his work across the country from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Boston, Massachusetts.
In 2006, he co-founded Maieutic Theatre Works (now Manhattan Theatre Works) with his play, Folie a Deux: Insanity in Pairs as their inaugural production. Brandon Voss of HX Magazine called the play, “Riveting” and named Stallings as the “playwright and actor to watch”. Other plays include Anaϊs Nin Goes to Hell (1st Prize Winner Boston Theatre Works Unbound Festival 2007, Winner of the Arthur W. Stone New Play Award Louisiana Tech University 2009, Semi Finalist for the Princess Grace Award 2008), Arpeggio (produced Fall ‘07 at the 45th Street Theater, NYC), The Stranger to Kindness (Winner of Planet Connections Playwriting Award Short Form and Best Production of a One Act Play for the 2011 production at The Robert Moss Theater), and The Family Shakespeare (produced Spring 2011 at the June Havoc Theater, NYC). On MTWorks’ 2008 NYC Fringe production of Anaïs Nin Goes to Hell, the Village Voice said, “Thank the gods for David Stallings’ ‘Anaïs Nin Goes to Hell’… a uniquely polished presence at the Fringe”, and The New York Press said, “For a play about women but written by a man, it captured the greater female psyche.” David has a BFA in Theater from the College of Santa Fe, NM. He is also a member of the Dramatists Guild. Recently he has taken over as the Associate Artistic Director & Theater Manager and Producer at the Theater at the 14th Street Y in Manhattan.