Dubbed “feisty as hell” by the New Yorker and “a great modern American playwright” by Broadway World, Gabriel Jason Dean is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter whose critically-acclaimed plays for children and adults include IN BLOOM (Risk Theatre Model Modern Tragedy Prize, Kennedy Center Paula Vogel Award, Laurents / Hatcher Award Finalist, Princess Grace Award Runner-Up); QUALITIES OF STARLIGHT (Broadway Blacklist, Kesselring Nomination, Essential Theatre New Play Prize, B. Iden Payne Awards for Outstanding Comedy & Best Original Script); TERMINUS (James Tait Black Prize Finalist, B. Iden Payne Awards for Outstanding Drama & Best Original Script, Austin Critic’s Table Award Best Production, PlayPenn) HEARTLAND (National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere, InterAct 20/20 Commission, Austin Critic’s Table David Mark Cohen New Play Award, B. Iden Payne Award for Best Original Script, PlayPenn), ENTANGLED (co-written with Charly Evon Simpson; New York Innovative Theatre Award Nomination Best Full Length Script), THE TRANSITION OF DOODLE PEQUEÑO (American Alliance for Theatre & Education Distinguished Play Award, Kennedy Center TYA Award, New England Theatre Conference Aurand Harris Award); and others. He has written book and lyrics for the musicals MARIO & THE COMET (NYU Plays for Young Audiences) and OUR NEW TOWN (Civilians R&D Group). Screenplays include GET GOMEZ with Cranium Entertainment, PIGSKIN and D'ANGELICO, TV Pilots WE BELONG (Humanitas New Television Writer Award Finalist), DEPLORABLE, RABBLE, and animated series TENDERFOOT.
His plays have been produced or developed throughout the United States at places such as New York Theatre Workshop, Manhattan Theatre Club, McCarter Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre, Araca Group, The Lark, The Flea, Oregon Shakespeare, The Kennedy Center, PlayPenn, InterAct, Abingdon Theatre, Geva Theatre Center, New Repertory Theatre, Luna Stage, The Playwrights’ Center, Davenport Theatrical, ASSITEJ International, Teatro Vision, The Amoralists, American Theatre Company, Red Orchid Theatre, Stage Left, The VORTEX, Theatre [502], Aurora Theatre, Dallas Children’s Theatre, People’s Light and Theatre, Dad's Garage Theatre, Actor's Express, Horizon Theatre, Source Festival, Essential Theatre, the Illinois Shakespeare Festival and others.
Gabriel received the Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University, Dramatist’s Guild Fellowship, and the Sallie B. Goodman / McCarter Theatre Fellowship. His scripts are published through Samuel French, Dramatic Publishing and Playscripts. He is on faculty for Spalding University’s Brief-Residency MFA Program, is a Visiting Writer in Residence and Assistant Professor of Theatre at Muhlenberg College, an alum of The Civilians R&D Group, an Affiliated Writer at The Playwrights’ Center, an Associate Artist with Monk Parrots and a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop. Current commissions with Geva Theatre, Luna Stage and the Alley Theatre. MFA: UT-Austin Michener Center for Writers. He grew up in Chatsworth, GA, a mill town in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. He currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.