Dan O’Neil is a New York based writer who grew up on a farm in northwestern Minnesota, where he learned to drive a tractor, use a chainsaw, and identify various star constellations. Recent work in development or production includes: The Nine O’Clock Problem, produced by Theater In Quarantine, the alleged children of darkness, developed through Art House Productions reading series (Finalist for Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, Semi-Finalist for Bay Area Playwright’s Festival); librettist on The House of Influence, an experimental opera composed by Alec Hall and performed in a parking garage in Harlem; Bear Slayer, presented through a Project Residency by Ars Nova, developed during ANT Fest; The Wind Farmer, which received a production at Barter Theater and was a finalist for the ACTA/Steinberg Award for Best New Play produced outside of NYC and NNPN’s Smith Prize for Best New Political play; Victor Frange Presents Gas, commissioned and produced at the Incubator Arts Project; How the Dog Runs, produced by Newman University as their first selection in a nation-wide initiative to produce new plays; Draw A Lion, a Heideman Award finalist, produced by the Brooklyn Generators and subsequently published by Smith & Kraus in their 2013 Best Ten Minute Plays collection.
His work has also appeared at Abrons Arts Center, HERE, Ugly Rhino, Dixon Place, the International Festival of Art & Ideas, Stella Adler Conservatory, Museum of the Moving Image, the Playwrights’ Center, Red Eye Theater, Prelude Festival, Target Margin Theater, Tangent Theater, Cloud City, and the Chocolate Factory.
Dan was a member of the 2018-19 Art House Productions writing group, a Playwrights’ Center Core Apprentice and Affiliated Artist, a 2014 member of Bookshop Workshops Playwriting Group, two-time winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Screenwriting Award, and winner of the Mary Marlin Fisher Playwriting Award. Leadership roles include Theater Editor of Culturebot, contributing arts writer for Exeunt Magazine, and founder and co-artistic director for Designated Movement Co. Education: BA in performance from the University of Minnesota, MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon University.