Dan O’Brien is a playwright, poet and librettist. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in drama and performance art. O’Brien’s play The Body of an American received the inaugural Edward M. Kennedy Prize for drama inspired by American history, the Horton Foote Prize for outstanding new American play, the PEN Center USA Award for drama, the L. Arnold Weissberger Award and was shortlisted for an Evening Standard Theatre Award in the U.K. The Body of an American premiered at Portland Center Stage, directed by Bill Rauch, and received its European premiere in an extended run at the Gate Theatre in London directed by James Dacre. In 2016, The Body of an American received an off-Broadway production at Primary Stages in co-production with Hartford Stage, directed by Jo Bonney. Previous plays by O’Brien have premiered at Second Stage Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Wilma Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Geva Theatre Center and elsewhere. O’Brien’s debut poetry collection, War Reporter (Hanging Loose Press, 2013; CB Editions, 2013), received the U.K.’s prestigious Fenton-Aldeburgh First Collection Prize and was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for best first collection. His second poetry collection, Scarsdale, was published in 2014 by CB Editions in the U.K. and in 2015 by Measure Press in the U.S. His third poetry collection, New Life, was published in 2015 by CB Editions in the U.K. and in 2016 by Hanging Loose Press in the U.S. O’Brien’s libretto for Jonathan Berger’s Visitations was commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Visitations premiered at Bing Concert Hall at Stanford University, directed by Rinde Eckert, and received its New York City premiere at the Prototype Festival in 2014. Dan O’Brien: Plays One is forthcoming from Oberon Books in the U.K. in 2017. Originally from New York, O’Brien lives in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter.
