Undermain Theatre Announces The 2022 Recipient Of The Katherine Owens/Undermain Fund For New Work, Brian Dang

Undermain Theatre has announced the 2022 recipient of $10,000 from the Katherine Owens/Undermain Fund for New Work to playwright and poet Brian Dang for their ongoing work and to commission the future production of their play, This time for the Undermain stage.

For 39 years, Undermain Theatre has been bringing new work for the theater to the Undermain stage in Dallas and beyond. In 2019, after the passing of Undermain's founding Artistic Director and guiding force Katherine Owens, Producing Artistic Director, Bruce DuBose, and the Undermain Theatre Board of Trustees established the Katherine Owens/Undermain Fund for New Work. Its mission is to carry on Katherine's lifelong commitment to poetic, thought-provoking new work and provide a continuing influence in the American Theater scene by funding theater artists in their pursuit of creating new works for the American stage.

Brian Dang (they/them) is a Vietnamese/Chinese playwright, poet, and teaching artist based in Seattle. They are a proud resident playwright at Parley. For Brian, writing is an act of envisioning an eventual communing, an opportunity to freeze time as we know it, and a reaching for joy.

Their plays include This time (NPC Finalist 2022, Many Voices Fellowship Semi-Finalist 2022) and a white haunting (MAP Theatre, Princess Grace Fellowship Final Round). Their writing has been supported by 4Culture, Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, and workshopped with Seattle Opera, Pork Filled Productions, Mirror Stage, Sound Theatre, and Theatre Battery. They teach poetry/theater with Writers in the Schools, Arts Corps, and more.

Brian would like to acknowledge that This time was written in the community of others: the cohorts at Sewanee (led by Liliana Padilla and Lloyd Suh), Hugo House (led by Laura Da' and Ruth Joffre), Swim the River (led by Karen Hartman). And "my heart goes out to Parley (led by Rebecca Tourino Collinsworth), through which all my work flows." brianeatswords.com

The funding will come from the Katherine Owens/Undermain Fund for New Work in order to support the continuation of the work Katherine fostered during her 36 years as Undermain Theatre's founding Artistic Director.