Gabriel Dean
Education
- Master of Fine Arts from University of Texas, Austin (Michener Center for Writers)
- Bachelor of Arts from Oglethorpe University
Teaching Interests
I teach Intro and Advanced Playwriting and Screenwriting, Writing for Musical Theatre, Playwriting for Youth, Inside-Out Courses, First Year Seminars and multiple Theatre Scholarship courses including Culturally Competent Dramaturgy. I am also the creator and Artistic Director of ‘Berg New Works.
Live in draft. These three words are at the heart of my pedagogy and my own art-making. I eschew perfectionism and the right/wrong or good/bad binary in everything I do; for it’s in the gray area, the in-betweenness, the seemingly unsayable, the elusive that writers find hard-won truth, undeniable humanity, and their authentic voice.
My “live in draft” approach implicitly values process over product, engenders critique that builds up rather than tears down, invests the entire classroom in each writer’s development, and ultimately creates a sustainable, positive, asset-based approach to scholarship and artistic practice.
I also aim to put student writers in conversation with a diverse body of contemporary texts and performances – works that affirm the students’ own authorial instincts and others that are frictive, ultimately expanding the students’ understanding of dramatic narrative and performance.
Research and Scholarship
I am a Playwright who springs from ministers, murderers, rebels, addicts, closeted queens, soldiers, singers and blue-collar mill workers. I’m the first person in my family with any kind of college degree, one of the few with a high school diploma. My folks were teenagers when I bounced into their lives. We lived paycheck to paycheck, never more than a week away from breaking the bank – always the bottom of someone else’s bottom line. Though I left that world long ago, it continues to shape my writing. My work is filled with characters who stretch—beyond their circumstances, toward survival, justice, or mercy.
Whether comedy or tragedy, for young audiences or adults, set in Appalachia or Afghanistan, in film, TV, or theatre—my work is unified by a pursuit of understanding across disparate perspectives. I explore transformation: how characters move beyond judgment, cynicism, and fear toward empathy, love, and community. This isn’t sentimental idealism. In my plays, compassion is hard-won, ever-evolving, and tested at every turn.
My plays don’t offer soundbites or sermons—if you want those, watch the news or go to church. I aim for the questions that linger in your bones for a lifetime.
- Advanced Playwriting Workshop
- FYS: Wisdom in Action
- Living Writers
- Living Writers Workshop
- Playwriting for Youth
- Sociology Internship: Multicultural Office
- Spc:Contemp Dramatic Lit/Youth
- Theatre Independent Study/Research: Lifetime on Liberty
Muhlenberg Awards
- Rising Scholar Award (2025-26)
- MCTL Course Development Grant (2025 & 2024)
- MCTL Excellence in Teaching DEI (2022)
- MCTL Innovative Assignment Award (2022)
Select Honors
- Hodder Fellowship - Princeton University (2014-15)
- Dramatists Guild Fellowship (2013-14)
- Scotsman Fringe First Award at Edinburgh Fringe Festival (2025)
- Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Prize (2019)
Rift – commissioned by Luna Stage (West Orange, NJ)
INTERNATIONAL: Edinburgh Fringe Festival (2025)
REGIONAL: Luna Stage (2024), Amphibian Stage (2025), InterAct Theatre (2025)
AWARDS: Scotsman Fringe First Award, Venturous Theatre Fund Grant, National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere, Barrymore Awards for Best Actors
Heartland – commissioned by InterAct Theatre (Philadelphia, PA)
OFF-BROADWAY: 59E59 (2022)
REGIONAL: Luna Stage (2019), Vortex Rep (2019), InterAct Theatre (2019), New Rep (2019), Geva Theatre Center (2018)
DEVELOPMENT: PlayPenn, The Lark, Playwrights’ Center, Stage Left
AWARDS:National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere, Austin Critics’ Table Award
Terminus
OFF-BROADWAY: Next Door Series at New York Theatre Workshop (2018)
REGIONAL: South Camden Theatre (2022), Vortex Rep (2016)
DEVELOPMENT: PlayPenn, Oregon Shakespeare Black Swan Lab, Playwrights’ Center, McCarter Theatre, Page 73
AWARDS: Austin Critics’ Table Award, B. Iden Payne Awards for Outstanding Script & Best Drama
Triggered & Entangled – commissioned by The Amoralists (New York, NY)
OFF-OFF BROADWAY: Gural Theatre (2019), Cherry Lane Theatre (2018)
AWARDS: New York Innovative Theatre Best Original Script Nomination
In Bloom
UNIVERSITY PRODUCTION: University of Texas – Austin (2012)
DEVELOPMENT: New York Theatre Workshop Dartmouth Residency, Manhattan Theatre Club, Araca Group, Davenport Theatrical
AWARDS: Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Prize, Kennedy Center Paula Vogel Prize, Laurents / Hatcher Award Finalist, Princess Grace Award Runner-Up
Qualities of Starlight
SELECT REGIONAL: Restless Artists Theatre (2026), TAG Hawaii (2022), Theatre [502] (2016), Vortex Rep (2013), Source Festival (2012), Essential Theatre (2010)
DEVELOPMENT: Abingdon Theatre, Illinois Shakespeare Festival
AWARDS: Broadway Blacklist, Kesselring Nomination, Essential Theatre New Play Award, B. Iden Payne Awards for Outstanding Script & Best Comedy
The Transition of Doodle Pequeño –TYA play commissioned by People’s Light (Malvern, PA)
INTERNATIONAL: Club de Teatro in Lima, Peru (2024)
SELECT REGIONAL: Teatro Vision (2019), Hangar Theatre (2018)
UNIVERSITY PRODUCTIONS: New York University (2014), Northwestern University (2014); University of Texas – Austin (2011)
DEVELOPMENT: Kennedy Center New Visions / New Voices Conference
AWARDS: American Association of Theatre and Education Distinguished Play Award, New England Theatre Conference Aurand Harris Award, Lima, Peru Oficio Critico Best Play for Young Audiences Award
Our New Town –TYA musical
UNIVERSITY PRODUCTIONS: Northwestern University (2020), Wagner College (2019)
DEVELOPMENT: The Civilians R&D Group
Mario and the Comet –TYA musical
REGIONAL: Seattle Children's Theatre (2017)
DEVELOPMENT: NYU / Provincetown New Plays for Young Audiences
PRINT PUBLICATIONS
- Palabras del Cielo: An Exploration of Latina/o Theatre for Young Audiences (Volume II), Dramatic Publishing, Anthology, (Doodle), 2025
- Heartland, Dramatic Publishing, Full-length play, 2023
- "Queer Narratives in Theatre for Young Audiences," Essays & Conversations from the First 10 Years, Howlround, 2022
- The Risk Theatre Plays (Volume I), Edwin Wong, Anthology, (In Bloom), 2022
- "Jonah Pedals Out of the Whale," I Have a Story: Plays from an Extraordinary Year, Dramatic Publishing, Short play, 2021
- Terminus, Dramatic Publishing, Full-length play, 2018
- New Visions/New Voices: 25 Years/25 Plays, Dramatic Publishing, Anthology, (Doodle), 2016
- Monologues for Actors of Color: 2016, Routledge Publishing, Excerpt, (In Bloom), 2016
- Qualities of Starlight, Dramatic Publishing, Full-length play, 2014
- The Transition of Doodle Pequeño, Dramatic Publishing, Full-length play, 2012
- Pigskin, Samuel French, Short play, 2011
- Beowulf, Playscripts, Full-length play, 2008
English Literatures & Writing; Theatre & Dance
Theatre
Professional website: http://www.gabrieljasondean.com/
Contact: gabrieldean@muhlenberg.edu