![Headshot of David H. Parker taken by LaQuann Dawson.](http://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/0cd433d3-83f4-45d0-8aa0-098859728ca0/CC466012-F340-4AB5-A4BB-EF6EC663904A.jpeg/:/rs=h:1000,cg:true,m)
“When stories die, we can’t remember who we are or why we’re here.”
Sue Monk Kidd
Sue Monk Kidd
With 9 years in the industry under their belt, DAVID H. PARKER (they/them) is an award-winning director, playwright, poet, and cultural worker, from Birmingham, AL, a blue island in the US South’s sea of red. Intersectionality informs the base of their work, but the intersection of Blackness and Queerness is always at the top of their priorities.
David was a recipient of the inaugural 2021 Cody Renard Richard Scholarship; invited to the inaugural 2023 GLAAD Black Queer Creative Summit; invited as a participant in the 2023 SIPP Culture White Oak Residency; invited to train at the Highlander Research and Education Center where the likes of Rosa Parks and Angela Davis trained historically; is a member of the 2024 inaugural Rogue Machine Writers' Roundtable; and is an incoming Co-Artistic Director at Birmingham Black Repertory Theatre Collective for the 2024-2026 seasons.
David holds a Master's of Fine Arts in Directing. They have worked as a Teaching Associate at UCLA as well as guest teaching artist engagements with the University of Oregon and University of Alabama at Birmingham's Arts in Medicine.
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.
GLAAD's 3rd Annual #GLAADHonors Celebrating Black, Queer Storytelling (2024)
Forbes, Teen Vogue, and The Grio on the inaugural Black Queer Creative Summit (2023)
For six months this year, 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.
Our story followed a couple on their way to a Juneteenth Seder thrown by some well-meaning friends trying to marry the cultural inheritances of Juneteenth and Passover. 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 this city.
Co-Directors: David H. Parker & Zhailon Levingston
Written by: Jamal K. Wade, Darian Dauchan, Sarah Cohen & the LA Community
National Team: Jon Adam Ross, Ariel Warmflash, Dr. Rebecca Schorsch, Denise Manning & Ellie Kahn
See what the New York Times calls “a hilarious yet profound tragedy smothered in comedy,” in this Pulitzer Prize–winning take on Hamlet, direct from Broadway to Los Angeles.
Written by James Ijames
Original Director: 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
MFA THESIS ... 8 SOLD OUT SHOWS! In Plainfield, New Jersey, the Frasier family lives a nice Black life in a nice house in a nice neighborhood, and the matriarch, Beverly, just wants to throw the best party for her Gemini-of-a-mother. The cake is in the oven, aunty Jasmine’s wine is on ice, and the cheese plate is full fat, baby! But little does the family know that all eyes are on Beverly’s daughter Keisha as some unexpected party guests stick their noses where they damn well don’t belong.
Written by Jackie Sibblies Drury
Directed by David H. Parker
An intergenerational development lab, Afro Tales is a new original immersive musical play that combines elements of storytelling from across the African Diaspora as we follow Jakai, a young Black kid who needs the help of several famous (and infamous) folk-tale & fable characters from West Africa to Alabama while on an epic emotional journey to find himself.
Written by Aija Penix and Carlton V. Bell II
Directors: David H. Parker and Devin Ty Franklin
Choreographer: Jacqueline Lockhart
Tell Me I’m Gorgeous at the End of the World: The Last Gay Play, a 2022 Yale Drama Series Finalist and 2-time Eugene O'Neill Conference Finalist, is about the (sometimes literal) earth-moving influence that Black and brown Queer people have when they try to exist in white spaces not only unintended for them, but in which they are rendered completely invisible.
Written by Aaron Coleman
Directed by David H. Parker
Stage Manager: Alexandria Hamilton
Lighting Design: Gabe Rodriguez
Costume Design: Emma Beeman
Sound Design: Malick Ceesay
Scenic Design: Jay Tyson
My original play about a Black Queer teenager reckoning with identity, family, and the stigma of HIV on a North Texas landscape. It was workshopped and produced by REACH LA and Pothos Arts & Theater House as part of a New Works Festival at Los Angeles' East West Players.
Written and directed by David H. Parker
Starring: Khalif J. Gillett, Elisawon Etidorhpa, Cortunay Minor, Paula Ali, and Makeda Lutufyo
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
Winner of the 2022 George Burns and Gracie Allen Award in Comedy, Blacksighters stars Birmingham-grown best friends Radney and Nyah as they both enter the Write4Change poetry contest. But once they do, they realize they couldn’t have more different writing and advocacy styles. What will they realize about each other before the day is done?
Directed, edited, and written by David H. Parker
Starring: Devin Ty Franklin and Briana Lené
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 Theater Collective
Written by Carlton V Bell II
Director: David H. Parker
Cinematography: Dez Wilson
Edited and scored by Aija Penix
Starring: Devin Ty Franklin, Rachel Simonne, and Michael Charles
TELL ME I’M GORGEOUS AT THE END OF THE WORLD (2023) photo by Makela Yepez, lighting by Gabe Rodriguez, costume by Emma Beeman. Actor: Cortunay Minor.
DIRECTING RESUME
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