“When stories die, we can’t remember who we are or why we’re here.”
Sue Monk Kidd
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, as well as Princess Grace, Audelco, and OBIE-winning artists. Bringing honor to Birmingham's name, David has helped steward over $250,000 in Southern communities in and related to Birmingham.
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's 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.
David holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).
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.
Photographed by LaQuann Dawson
WHAT'S THE PRESS GOT TO SAY?
Write It Out!
CanvasRebel Interview
Write It Out!
GLAAD: Donja R. Love's Write It Out!
(pictured: Expectations/Reality by Brian Meegan, dir. David H. Parker)
GLAAD
CanvasRebel Interview
Write It Out!
Forbes, Teen Vogue, and The Grio on the Black Queer Creative Summit
WHAT HAS DHP RECENTLY DIRECTED/CREATED?
From being born on 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!
written, directed, & produced by David H. Parker
co-produced by Carlton V. Bell II
key art by Khalif J. Gillett
January - July 2024: Rogue Machine Theater's Inaugural Playwright's Roundtable brought together early to mid-career playwrights, some of whom are returning to theater after finding success in film and television, 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 (2024/2025)
Written by Miranda Fellow Felipe Luz, this "Campy. Heartfelt. Insane. Kinky. Raw." play was performed at the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance. RSVP to get your tickets to our performance at The Rat NYC next month!
Written by Felipe Luz
Directed by David H. Parker
THE INHERITANCE THEATER PROJECT (2024)
Made in collaboration with hundreds of community co-creators, Los Angeles became the stage for this new theatrical event created to hold the beautiful complexities of the city.
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)
A sports-inspired fantasia, Patience is a meditation on Black excellence, next chapters, and playing a very long game alone. This Off-Broadway world premiere was produced by 2nd Stage.
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)
Is Anybody Out There? is a premiere virtual dance opera that explores a new medium combining traditional theatre and experimental film while its characters grappled head on with isolation, sexual expression, and their own morality.
Produced by Birmingham Black Repertory Theatre Collective
Written by Carlton V Bell II
Directed by David H. Parker
Edited and scored by Aija Penix