DAVID STALLINGS (he/they) has an extensive national and international career in the Arts as an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, actor, singer, emcee, and artistic director.
As an actor, David has appeared in over 100 productions from musical theater to Shakespeare and contemporary drama. Most recently David has played Tobias (Sweeney Todd), Lord Goring (An Ideal Husband), Lord Henry (The Picture of Dorian Grey), Lady Macbeth (Macbeth) as well as having originated numerous roles in original works in New York City.
Author of over fifteen full length plays and numerous one-acts, his work is influenced by the collision of his Southern roots and progressive politics, while uplifting marginalized characters by presenting them as the protagonists in his narratives. The spectrum of his prose dances between naturalism and poetic dialogue; the fantastical and the intimately familial.
An advocate for LGBTQIA+ representation on stage, his play The Baby Monitor (Doric Wilson Award nominee at IDGTF) has received productions in New York, Dublin, Belgrade, Rome, and Cagliari; as well as developmental readings across the United States. Due to the success of this play, he has been invited to speak at panels on queer rights along noted activists, lawyers, and politicians creating change around the world; including participating in Belgrade’s Pride March and their first Pride Theater Festival at the National Theater.
His concern for the future of our planet lead him to write Dark Water; recipient of the 2014 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Full-Length; the play deals explicitly with the BP Oil spill off the coast of Louisiana told from the point of view of the animals; Brechtian in style, this epic eco-political drama has received productions in Manhattan and St. Lawrence University. Continuing the theme of how climate can affect socio-economic change and family dynamics, his plays Barrier Island, The Seawall, and A Song for St. Michael’s – better known as “The Galveston Trilogy” – center on or around the effects of hurricane Ike to the coastal town of Galveston. Barrier Island has received numerous productions across the United States and has been optioned and adapted by Stallings for television.
Our culture’s obssession with celebrity is one of the central themes in his play Arpeggio, which received a production in midtown Manhattan with a live band on stage.
Not to be limited by contemporary genres, his love for the classics and for noted historical feminist figures can be seen in such plays as the award-winning New York International Fringe Festival success Anaïs Nin Goes to Hell (1st Prize Winner Boston Theatre Works Unbound Festival, Winner Arthur W. Stone New Play Award Louisiana Tech University, Semi-Finalist Princess Grace Award; New York Innovative Theatre Award Recipient Outstanding Costumes [Revival Production]); The Family Shakespeare, inspired by the censuring Bowdler family; Folie A Deux: Insanity in Pairs, inspired by the Papin Sisters and Leopold/Loeb cases; On Egdon Heath, inspired by the works of Thomas Hardy; and Leonora, a new adaptation of A Doll’s House set in Jamaica during independence.
It is no surprise and a natural progression that David has melded the past and present in his most recent play, They Shoot Unicorn Mermaids Don’t They?, set in September 2020 in New York City, this political fantasy is a love-song to the Arts, and a cry for change in America.
Productions of David’s work have received funding and support from MidAtlantic Arts/US Artists International, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Puffin Foundation, US Embassy, among others. Festivals his work has been a part of include the New York International Fringe Festival, The International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, The Belgrade Pride Festival, OnStage! Festival in Rome, Lucido Festival in Cagliari, The FRIGID Festival, the Duo Multicultural Arts Center Pride Fest, among others.
David is a company member with Rising Sun Performance Company, and creative partner with Different Translation. He is the former artistic director of Manhattan Theatre Works, and The Theater at the 14th Street Y. Other companies he has worked with include The Culture Project, Prospect Theater Company, Manhattan Theatre Works, Oberon Theater Company, Parsnip Ship, Shadowland Stages, Wallace Theater, Santa Fe Opera. His play Anaïs Nin Goes to Hell was published by Original Works Publishing, and a selection of his other work can be found on New Play Exchange. He is a member of Actors’ Equity Association and has a BFA in Theater from the College of Santa Fe, NM.
As an actor, David has appeared in over 100 productions from musical theater to Shakespeare and contemporary drama. Most recently David has played Tobias (Sweeney Todd), Lord Goring (An Ideal Husband), Lord Henry (The Picture of Dorian Grey), Lady Macbeth (Macbeth) as well as having originated numerous roles in original works in New York City.
Author of over fifteen full length plays and numerous one-acts, his work is influenced by the collision of his Southern roots and progressive politics, while uplifting marginalized characters by presenting them as the protagonists in his narratives. The spectrum of his prose dances between naturalism and poetic dialogue; the fantastical and the intimately familial.
An advocate for LGBTQIA+ representation on stage, his play The Baby Monitor (Doric Wilson Award nominee at IDGTF) has received productions in New York, Dublin, Belgrade, Rome, and Cagliari; as well as developmental readings across the United States. Due to the success of this play, he has been invited to speak at panels on queer rights along noted activists, lawyers, and politicians creating change around the world; including participating in Belgrade’s Pride March and their first Pride Theater Festival at the National Theater.
His concern for the future of our planet lead him to write Dark Water; recipient of the 2014 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Full-Length; the play deals explicitly with the BP Oil spill off the coast of Louisiana told from the point of view of the animals; Brechtian in style, this epic eco-political drama has received productions in Manhattan and St. Lawrence University. Continuing the theme of how climate can affect socio-economic change and family dynamics, his plays Barrier Island, The Seawall, and A Song for St. Michael’s – better known as “The Galveston Trilogy” – center on or around the effects of hurricane Ike to the coastal town of Galveston. Barrier Island has received numerous productions across the United States and has been optioned and adapted by Stallings for television.
Our culture’s obssession with celebrity is one of the central themes in his play Arpeggio, which received a production in midtown Manhattan with a live band on stage.
Not to be limited by contemporary genres, his love for the classics and for noted historical feminist figures can be seen in such plays as the award-winning New York International Fringe Festival success Anaïs Nin Goes to Hell (1st Prize Winner Boston Theatre Works Unbound Festival, Winner Arthur W. Stone New Play Award Louisiana Tech University, Semi-Finalist Princess Grace Award; New York Innovative Theatre Award Recipient Outstanding Costumes [Revival Production]); The Family Shakespeare, inspired by the censuring Bowdler family; Folie A Deux: Insanity in Pairs, inspired by the Papin Sisters and Leopold/Loeb cases; On Egdon Heath, inspired by the works of Thomas Hardy; and Leonora, a new adaptation of A Doll’s House set in Jamaica during independence.
It is no surprise and a natural progression that David has melded the past and present in his most recent play, They Shoot Unicorn Mermaids Don’t They?, set in September 2020 in New York City, this political fantasy is a love-song to the Arts, and a cry for change in America.
Productions of David’s work have received funding and support from MidAtlantic Arts/US Artists International, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Puffin Foundation, US Embassy, among others. Festivals his work has been a part of include the New York International Fringe Festival, The International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, The Belgrade Pride Festival, OnStage! Festival in Rome, Lucido Festival in Cagliari, The FRIGID Festival, the Duo Multicultural Arts Center Pride Fest, among others.
David is a company member with Rising Sun Performance Company, and creative partner with Different Translation. He is the former artistic director of Manhattan Theatre Works, and The Theater at the 14th Street Y. Other companies he has worked with include The Culture Project, Prospect Theater Company, Manhattan Theatre Works, Oberon Theater Company, Parsnip Ship, Shadowland Stages, Wallace Theater, Santa Fe Opera. His play Anaïs Nin Goes to Hell was published by Original Works Publishing, and a selection of his other work can be found on New Play Exchange. He is a member of Actors’ Equity Association and has a BFA in Theater from the College of Santa Fe, NM.
