Timeline of Professional Writing

2022

October, 2022: David’s one-man show, Electric Love, was produced by Eleventh Hour Theatre in Greenville, SC. The play was directed by Meghan Reimers and Jessica MacQuarrie.

March 18, 2022: David’s full-length play, Alas and Other Remedies, received a staged reading at The Leaf Institute in Greenville, SC. The reading was directed by Jessica MacQuarrie and was produced by Eleventh Hour Theatre Co.

2021

Fall, 2021: David’s one-act play, A Roof of Slate, was selected as a semi-finalist for the new works festival at Greenville’s Centre Stage.

2017

Fall, 2017: David was commissioned to write a play exploring the themes of the Protestant Reformation. The play pitches a fraught Martin Luther against an earnest Nun. The play will be produced at Bob Jones University in October, 2017 (Greenville, SC). 

Spring 2017: David’s 10-minute play, Winning with Shakespeare, won the Atlantic Stage's New Voice's Playfest. The play received a staged reading in April at the Atlantic Stage (Myrtle Beach, SC.) 

2016

Fall 2016: David’s 10-minute play, The Match, was produced by Showtimers as a part of the celebration of the Roanoke Star.

2015

April 17-26: Tesseract Theatre—St. Louis, MO / Tesseract Theatre in St. Louis, Missouri, commissioned David to write a short play to pair with their production of Tira Palmquist's ge of Bees. David's short play, Separate, was produced from April 17-26.

2014

July 12: Mill Mountain Theatre—Roanoke, VA / David’s 10-minute play, Winning with Shakespeare!, was produced at Mill Mountain Theatre in Roanoke, Virginia as a part of a festival of original 10-minute plays. 

March 17-19: Rodeheaver Auditorium—Greenville, SC / The Remnant--a Resurrection story with Tableau Vivant--was produced in Rodeheaver Auditorium in Greenville, SC.

The Remnant Living Gallery Program 2014

February 6: Rodeheaver Auditorium—Greenville, SC / They Hear the Distant Thunder  was produced for a second time in Rodeheaver Auditorium in Greenville, SC.

2013

November 16: Centre for Creative Practices—Dublin, Ireland / David was commissioned to write a second monologue, "The Gardner," for The Breakaway Project’s “Connecting Creativity" Dublin production. The monologue was performed by Diana O’Connor in November in Dublin, Ireland . The show was live-streamed to a theatre audience in NYC and was directed by Helena Byrne & Karen Davidson Perrins.

August 16: Centre for Creative Practices—Dublin, Ireland / David was commissioned to write a monologue, "The Edge of the Cold Sea," for The Breakaway Project’s “Connecting Creativity" Dublin production. The monologue was performed by Evelyn Shaw in August in Dublin, Ireland. The show was directed by Helena Byrne & Karen Davidson Perrins.

September 5-8: KROC Center—Greenville, SC / Gramercy, an original, full-length free adaptation of Everyman, attracted funding and was independently produced in Greenville, SC at the downtown Kroc Center.

July 21: Roanoke VA / Gramercy, an original, full-length free adaptation of Everyman, has been awarded a staged reading during The Playwright’s Lab’s annual Exposed! festival of original plays.

July 10: Roanoke VA / A Roof of Slate received a staged reading during at Mill Mountain Theatre’s Centerpieces Reading Series. Todd Ristau, Head of Hollins University’s M.F.A. Playwriting program, directed the production.

April 28-30: Greenville, SC / The Shadow of the Cross: an Easter Montage will premiere during Greenville’s largest Easter-themed celebration. Directed by PhD. candidate (Regent University), Paul Radford, this one-act play uses monologues, scenes, and tableau vivant (Rembrandt, Michelangelo, etc.) to explore the biblical account of Christ’s Passion.

January 31: Greenville, SC / Break the Knot (2006) was produced for a second time in Rodeheaver Auditorium Greenville, SC. The original production was recorded by Bob Jones University’s Press Distance Learning and was featured in their catalog.

2012

September 11: Rodeheaver Auditorium—Greenville SC / Alas: a wedding song received a University production in Greenville, SC. The play explores the longing for unconditional love, the fallenness of humanity (often seen through violence), and the redemptive mystery just out of reach. It follows two sisters, a broken family, and what happens when one act of violence leads to tragedy for all.

March 12-17: Performance Hall--Greenville SC / Gramercy: everywoman in transit, an original, full-length adaptation of Everyman, premiered in Performance Hall on the campus of Bob Jones University. The play was created during Todd Ristau’s signature class, “First Drafts,” that David took as a part of his M.F.A. work at Hollins University.

February 2: Rodeheaver Auditorium--Greenville SC / Midnight Vesper Dream, a collaborative, play-making project. David organized, edited, and wrote portions of this original, collaborative stage play, incorporating student writing and acting improvisations, cultural artifacts and research from the Greenville community, and personal narratives. The play was groundbreaking for the Bob Jones University audience, both in form and content. Of particular note was the bold exploration of racist policies from South Carolina and Bob Jones University's past. The play ultimately explored hope, highlighting how the Gospel message of the Scriptures restores and redeems sinful people, places, and institutions.

2011

January: Roanoke VA / David was invited to submit work for the national Faith-Broome playwriting residency at the University of Oklahoma.

June: Roanoke VA / Gramercy: Everywoman in transit, an original, full-length adaptation of Everyman, was accepted into Studio Roanoke’s annual Exposed! festival of original plays and awarded the festival ending, showcase position. Due to prior plans, I was unable to participate in the festival, but the play did receive a warm and positive response from the festival organizer.

October 21, 2011: Greenville, SC / I wrote and staged Charlie Sheen and the Wolves that Circle the Earth with Fire, an original 10-minute farce, for Greenville’s experimental 11th Hour Theatre group.

2010

July 21-24: NYC / Leading Ladies [Eleanor, monologue]. Produced by Larissa Dzegar; directed by Samantha Wellen. Leading Ladies featured monologues by writers from around the country showcasing the “strong women in all our lives.” The show was produced at the Theater Lab in New York City (137 West 14th Street), a place for organic, artistic theatre to be explored and produced. “When I received the call for submissions, my mind immediately went to the class exercises in character and monologues I had experienced during my first summer at Hollins University. Taught by Todd Ristau, the program director, the class broke new ground in my understanding as a theatre artist. I wrote a monologue entitled Eleanor that made use of extensive research into the sex trade in this country; I hoped to explore exploitation and its effect on the eternal concept of love. I was thrilled when the monologue was chosen to be a part of a professional production.” Leading Ladies featured the talent of several MFA acting graduates including, Ashley Adelman, Kerri Evans, Larissa Dzegar, Geiselle Fauntleroy, Molly McAdoo, Shubhra Prakash, Portia Lee rose, Rebecca Smith, and Rashida Stewart. “It was an incredible experience to see my work produced and performed at such a high level. The actors were credentialed and experienced, and gave life and truth to the words.”

June 25, July 2, 9, and 16: Roanoke VA / Four original works (2 monologues, 2 scenes) performed at Mill Mountain Theatre during No Shame Theatre, a weekly, nationwide theatrical event encouraging original and provocative writing. The monologues, titled “Ted” and “Allison,” were first drafts for a longer play idea on the notion of love and family. “Exit Line,” performed on July 9, ironically explores abuse through comedy and the way we often neglect to acknowledge its presence in our lives and relationships. “Breakup,” performed on July 16, attempted to ask how we leave relationships that will destroy us.

March 17, 18, 19: Greenville, SC / Some Fell Among Thorns, (one-act)directed by Erin Naler, PHd candidate in Aesthetics at the University of Texas at Dallas. Some Fell Among Thorns was fully produced by Bob Jones University’s Theatre Arts Department, (https://www.facebook.com/BJU.Dramatic.Arts) as a faculty showcase. It was the signature event as the department’s first-ever 24-hour playwriting festival and capped off a week of activities for the theatre majors. Graduate theatre majors collaborated with Erin to design the set, the costumes, and the publicity. Guests from in-town as well as the campus family attended the production and commented freely during the talk-back sessions that followed the performances. “The production was an incredible experience for me as a writer; Erin and I collaborated on several revisions of the script, working through various ideas and changes in rehearsal. The audience reaction was mixed; many students had never experienced theatre that provoked (or attempted to); many had only experienced family-room melodramas. If nothing else, the events encouraged BJU’s on-campus attenders to be a more involved audience. The feedback was valuable as a writer and collaborator; Erin and I took questions and discussed publicly how the play changed and grew during the rehearsal process. This encouraged further audience reaction and comments continued after each production into the night and even spilled out onto the sidewalk after the theatre was closed for the evening.”

March 17, 18, 19: Performance Hall--Greenville, SC / A Roof of Slate, (one-act); a staged reading, directed by Ron Pyle, head of the Dramatic Production department (now the Dramatic Arts department) at Bob Jones University. This staged reading at Bob Jones University kicked-off the University’s first ever 24-hour playwriting festival. Local actors from Greenville, South Carolina were cast in the roles. “The reading was an excellent opportunity for me to hear this work out-loud, gauge audience reaction, and consider points where the events grew too confusing or too static. After each performance there was a talk-back session with myself and the director; students and guests from in-town stayed each night to ask questions and give feedback. The comments were supportive and helpful. Coming from my first summer of graduate work as an MFA playwriting candidate at Hollins University, the reading was an incredible opportunity to mesh the history, theory, and creative work I’d experienced as a student with the real-world reaction of local theatre-goers in Greenville.”

February 3: Rodeheaver Auditorium--Greenville, SC / My Brother's Keeper (2005) was produced for a second time in Rodeheaver Auditorium Greenville, SC.

2009

July 24, 25, and 26: Roanoke, VA / They Hear The Distant Thunder (one-act). They Hear the Distant Thunder was chosen to be a part of Exposed! A festival of new works. The festival is sponsored by the Hollins University Playwright’s Lab and housed at Studio Roanoke, a new theatre in Roanoke, VA dedicated to “new plays and the people who make them.” The festival features staged readings and extensive feedback sessions with MFA candidates, local theatre artists, and guest artists flown in from all over the world. “My staged reading received generous support from the program and fellow students. The feedback was much less intimidating than I had expected and greatly encouraged me as a writer, while at the same time pushing me out of the “rut” or comfortable place I’d been inhabiting. Overall it was a prolific and uplifting experience, an experience that challenged my artistic vision, ideas, and desires. It remains a seminal and grounding event in my writing career.” Guest artists who commented included Bob Moss (founder of Playwright’s Horizons, former artistic director of Hangar Theatre, Ithaca NY), Larry Pontius (award-winning Playwright), Craig Pospisil (prolific playwright, editor of Outstanding Men’s Monologues and Outstanding Women’s Monologues Vol. 1, published by Dramatists Play Service), Jason Grote (playwright, teaches playwriting and screenwriting at Rutgers), and Bonnie Metzgar (artistic director of About Face Theatre, former Associate Producer at the Public Theatre; Bonnie teaches in the Brown University Graduate Playwriting Program and is Artistic Director of the New Play Festival at the Brown/Trinity Rep Consortium

Summer: Roanoke VA Two original works (2 scenes) performed at No Shame Theatre

Spring David was accepted as an MFA candidate in Playwriting at Hollins University’s Playwright’s Lab.

2008

June and July: Abergele, Wales and Oulton Broad, England. / As If in Heaven, directed by David Burke (PhD, SIU Carbondale). During an 8-week, academic tour David led to England and Scotland, he performed As If in Heaven,an original one-person show on the life of missionary and Olympic athlete Eric Liddell. The one-person show runs approximately 60 minutes and incorporates music, poetry, and cultural events of the time period. Many may be familiar with the Olympic gold medal Eric Liddell won during the 1924 Olympic games, but few know the story of his mission and humanitarian work in China as a doctor and evangelist among China’s rural poor. Caught up in the Japanese invasion during World War II, Eric was interned in a prison camp and died of a brain tumor before the war’s end. David researched the project and wrote the show for his MA thesis in Performance Studies. Always under revision, the project echoes his life-goals of helping the least among us, those harmed by war, poverty, and those who feel no sense of transcendent hope.

March 27-29: Greenville, SC / This is My Word, a one-act Easter play. Directed by Bob Jones University faculty member, Anne Nolan, this one-act play incorporated a contemporary story-line with tableau vivant (Rembrandt, Michelangelo, etc.) and an original score. “Writing this play forced me to consider how wordless-scenes with living art could help tell a story. I learned so much as I integrated music, art, and dramatic scenes into a unified dramatic structure. The process is exhausting (two-years from concept to production); there are so many elements that must be incorporated, so many collaborators to connect with it’s difficult to maintain the authenticity of the original vision. But through the process I learned valuable writing and theatre-making skills.” (http://livinggallery.bju.edu)

Jan. 27: Greenville, SC / They Hear The Distant Thunder; produced at BJU in Greenville, SC. “I wrote and directed this one-act play for the on-campus arts program. Over 3,000 students and faculty saw the production. Being the director kept me from making many re-writes and perhaps rushed the script to the stage too soon; but overall the experience was a tremendous education.” David continued to revise the play after the performances and submitted the work as a part of his advanced work applications.

2007

Jan. 14: Greenville, SC / Break the Knot (one-act) David wrote the play and collaborated with local Shakespeare Guru, Jeff Stegall on the production. Jeff is the founder and artistic director of The Greenville Shakespeare Company, a non-profit company founded to bring enlivened productions of Shakespeare to summer audiences in the Greenville area.

2006

Sept: Greenville SC / David adapted and performed in Twain for Twain, a two-person adaptation celebrating the major works of Mark Twain, specifically Huck Finn.

2005

Summer, 2005: Greenville, SC / My Brother’s Keeper is published by BJUPress, Greenville, SC.