David Johann Kim Receives 2025 Dominic Orlando Playwriting Award

The Dominic Orlando Fund, which was created in 2022 following playwright Dominic Orlando's passing in 2021, has announced the third recipient of the Dominic Orlando Playwriting Award: David Johann Kim. The four finalists for the award were Terry Guest, Goldie Patrick, Vickie Ramirez, and Gab Reisman. Kim will receive a $10,000 unrestricted Award.

This announcement is preceded by the news that the 2025-26 cycle of the Award will receive financial support from Venturous Theater Fund, a donor-advised fund at the Tides Foundation. Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis, an organization that Dominic had a longtime association with, will remain the fiscal sponsor for the Award, which will increase next cycle as well. More information about this new partnership is available here.

Kim is the author of "The K-Town Trilogy," which is made up of his application play, "Pang Spa," and "Two Stop," along with a third play in progress. "David Johann Kim's play 'Pang Spa' knocked me out when I first read it," says Advisory Board member Victoria Stewart. "On one hand, it's a call back to a play that would've been at home onstage in the 1940s Federal Theater Project, a well-made ensemble piece where people yell to their upstairs neighbor and have reveries about the past. But Kim has peopled his play with modern new characters and a deep well of empathy that draws the audience in and takes them on a moving journey. We are excited to see the Dominic Orlando Award fund the continuation of Kim's K-town plays."

Kim says, "The Dominic Orlando Playwriting Award will allow me to clear my schedule to focus on writing only for at least two significant chunks of time in the next year. That time is priceless to a writer like me."

Kim, in fact, had a personal relationship with Dominic Orlando. "I was fortunate to be in Chalk Rep's writer's group with Dominic before the pandemic, and I was inspired by his work. I am proud of my unconventional career path in (and out of) the theater as actor, deviser, filmmaker, and playwright, and I'd love to achieve the kind of boldness and concision I remember from his writing." He also hopes to acknowledge his many artistic homes and sources of inspiration. "I was so fortunate to fall in love with play development at renowned new work incubators like The Magic Theatre, Berkeley Rep, The Public, NY Theatre Workshop, The Lark, and to carry that passion forward at EST/LA, Chalk Rep, The Road, Circle X, and East West Players."

Kim was nominated for the Award by Amy Ellenberger at Chalk Rep. "Over the last ten years," Ellenberger says, "David Johann Kim has become a beloved fixture in the Los Angeles theatre community as a playwright who has not only been developing his own craft but who also supports and nurtures the work of his peers and community. With a passion for dramaturgy, his plays are meticulously researched while equally embedded with heart and compassion."

Dominic Orlando began his career in theater, co-running the No-Pants Theatre Company, a small independent company in New York where he wrote, directed, and produced many of his plays. In 2003, he moved to Minneapolis on a Playwrights' Center Jerome Fellowship, where he then stayed for many years, creating work with myriad local theaters, including the company he co-founded, the Workhaus Collective. In 2015, he moved to Los Angeles and began a successful career writing for television, working on numerous series, including "Them," "The OA," "Mindhunter," "Outer Range" and "Nightflyers." Orlando died on November 17, 2021.

The Dominic Orlando Fund was created in the spirit of Orlando's life and work to support writers with an "unconventional career" who have forged their own paths by producing their own work, running their own independent companies, and/or artists who have taken artistic risks without finding significant financial or material support from large institutional theaters or philanthropic organizations. There is a special interest in recognizing writers who have made a continued commitment to smaller-budget theater companies and ensembles and helped them push the boundaries of what theater and playwriting can be. The recipient in 2023 was José Casas, and the recipient in 2024 was Christian St. Croix.

In the summer of 2024, a select group of smaller-budget and new work-focused theater companies were invited to nominate playwrights for the Award, resulting in a list of 28 nominees. These writers were all invited to apply, and an initial evaluation round was conducted by playwrights, directors and long-time collaborators of Orlando. The Fund's Advisory Board then made the final selection of David Johann Kim.

Applications for the 2026 Award will open in September 2025, and the Advisory Board will invite both direct applications from eligible playwrights and nominations from organizations. All instructions and eligibility details will be posted at that time on the Playwrights' Center website. For more information about the award, please contact Fund Administrator Julia Brown at dominicorlandofund@gmail.com.

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