Who even is dhp?
DIRECTOR • PRODUCER • WRITER • PERFORMER • CULTURAL WORKER
With over 10 years in the industry under their belt, DAVID H. PARKER (they/them) has directed or collaborated with Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award-winning actors. Bringing honor to Birmingham's name, David has helped steward over $250,000 in Southern communities in and related to Birmingham. David was an inaugural Cody Renard Richard Scholar, worked on Hadestown on Broadway, worked as Associate Director on the Broadway Transfer of Fat Ham in LA, and has an upcoming interview & publication with André De Shields being co-published in the SETC Magazine.
Intersectionality informs the base of David's work, with emphasis on HIV and its subsequent stigmas, gender, and the social tensions created through the lens of Black, Queer, and Southern identity. David holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Their leadership and directing practices are rooted in systems of consent and wellness, which bloom from Leah Lakshmi's radical care; Dr. Carolina San Juan’s critical kindness; Dr. Tricia Hersey’s The Nap Ministry, a text that identifies "rest as a revolutionary act."
As a Type-A Virgo whose only real claim to fame is how they once won a beautiful baby contest... they need a surprising number of naps.
photography by Brandon Nick
WHAT'S THE PRESS GOT TO SAY?
GLAAD On "Write It Out!"
GLAAD On "Write It Out!"
GLAAD On "Write It Out!"
GLAAD: Donja R. Love's Write It Out!
(pictured: Expectations/Reality by Brian Meegan, dir. David H. Parker)
GLAAD On BQCS
GLAAD On "Write It Out!"
GLAAD On "Write It Out!"
Forbes, Teen Vogue, and The Grio on the Black Queer Creative Summit
WHAT HAS DHP RECENTLY DIRECTED/CREATED?
From its birth at a residency in Utica, Mississippi in 2023, to developments in Los Angeles and New York... to a full production in 2025? Follow FREAKZSHOW's journey up to this point!
January - July 2024: Rogue Machine Theater's Inaugural Playwright's Roundtable brought together early to mid-career playwrights to write new plays from scratch.
July 2024: FREAKZSHOW's first public reading.
September - November 2024: Fall Workshop Intensive produced by The Workshop Theater. Facilitated by Roger Q. Mason & Avi Klipfel; slated for 2025 at The Tank by producer Carlton V Bell II.
MEN ARE TRASH AND I'M A RACCOON (2025)
Written, performed, and produced by Miranda Fellow Felipe Luz, this "Campy. Heartfelt. Insane. Kinky. Raw." play was performed at the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance in December 2024; had an acclaimed run at The Rat NYC in April 2025; will perform at various festivals Summer 2025; and will open at The Tank in September 2025.
Direction and Dramaturgy by David H. Parker
THE INHERITANCE THEATER PROJECT (2024)
Made in collaboration with hundreds of the Los Angeles community.
Co-Directed by David H. Parker & Zhailon Levingston
FAT HAM (2024 Broadway Transfer)
See what the New York Times calls “a hilarious yet profound tragedy smothered in comedy,” in this Pulitzer Prize–winning take on Hamlet by James Ijames, direct from Broadway to Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award Finalists in Theatrical Excellence
Original Direction by Saheem Ali
Director: Sideeq Heard
Associate Director: David H. Parker
Starring: Nikki Crawford, Chris Herbie Holland, Billy Eugene Jones, Adrianna Mitchell, Marcel Spears, Benja Kay Thomas, and Matthew Elijah Webb
FAIRVIEW (2024)
MFA THESIS ... 8 SOLD OUT SHOWS! I directed the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Jackie Sibblies Drury in its Los Angeles debut as my MFA Thesis at UCLA. Our concept interrogated surveillance of Black communities using a middle class family as the lens through which perpetration often occurs. The production utilized live cameras, sourced visual material, as well as cinematically pre-filmed footage to set the stage for the audience and unceremoniously disrupt it.
Don't believe me? Let's ask the audience!
"For a piece I saw twice in NYC--the original at SoHo Rep, and then the remount at Theatre for a New Audience--to still rock me to the core for the third time, all these years later at UCLA is truly something to celebrate... [David's] production and every single human a part of it doing magical, spellbinding work with [Jackie Sibblies Drury]'s masterpiece. Nothing short of amazing and important." -- larryjean powell
"[The production] made me want to keep making art and loving life." -- Xavier Brown
PATIENCE (2022)
This Off-Broadway world premiere produced by Second Stage Uptown.
Written by Johnny G. Lloyd
Director: Zhailon Levingston
Associate Director: David H. Parker
Starring: Justiin A. Davis, Jonathan Burke, Nemuna Ceesay, Zainab Barry, and Mary E. Hodges
IS ANYBODY OUT THERE? (2020)
Produced by Birmingham Black Repertory Theatre Collective
Written by Carlton V Bell II
Directed by David H. Parker
Edited and scored by Aija Penix