“When stories die, we can’t remember who we are or why we’re here.”
Sue Monk Kidd
Who even is DHP?
With 8 years in the industry under their belt, DAVID H. PARKER (they/them) is a multi-hyphenate award-winning artist 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 an inaugural recipient of the 2021 Cody Renard Richard Scholarship Program and 2023 GLAAD Black Queer Creative Summit, a participant in the 2023 SIPP Culture White Oak Residency, and will earn their MFA in Directing from UCLA in 2024.
Since 2019, they have been an Associate Artistic Partner with Birmingham Black Repertory Theatre Collective, who has awarded David with the inaugural Community Leadership Award and The Academia Society Artistic Apprenticeship. With BBRTC they are currently co-developing The Sankofa Cycle, a series of plays for young audiences that explore folk-tales and myths in conjunction with the African diaspora across the US South.
Upcoming: "Fairview" (UCLA).
Recent credits: "Patience" (2nd Stage Off-Broadway), "Texas for Four More Years" (East West Players), "Tell Me I'm Gorgeous at the End of the World: The Last Gay Play" (UCLA), "Afro Tales" (Birmingham Black Repertory Theatre Collective).
WHAT DO FOLX SAY ABOUT MY WORK?
GLAAD Black Queer Creative Summit
Forbes • Teen Vogue • The Grio • Gaye
New York Times Review: “At the Top of His Game, and Lonely”
SIPP Culture: Residency with Birmingham Black Repertory Theatre Collective
VoyageLA Interview: “Life & Work with David H. Parker”
Playbill: “Broadway Advocacy Coalition Announces 1st Round of Cody Renard Richard Scholars”
UCLA Interview: “[The Zoo Story] drives home consequences of suppressed emotions”
Jim Cooney Interview: “Cut the Excuses and Just Be Great with David H. Parker”
Reckon South Interview: “David and Devin Creating a Southern, Black, queer renaissance”
WHAT HAVE I DIRECTED / CREATED RECENTLY?
AFRO TALES (2023)
An intergenerational development lab ahead of a full production and official publication in 2024, Afro Tales was a new original immersive musical play that combined elements of storytelling from across the African Diaspora as we followed 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
Starring: Lee Harper II, TaShara Monique, Symira Dixon, Issac Simon, and Taylore Kinsey
TELL ME I’M GORGEOUS AT THE END OF THE WORLD: THE LAST GAY PLAY (2023)
The Fire Island Pines, an intensely hedonistic and sexually liberated scene, welcomes gay men from all over—as long as they blend in. 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
Director: David H. Parker
Lighting Design: Gabe Rodriguez
Costume Design: Emma Beeman
Sound Design: Malick Ceesay
Scenic Design: Jay Tyson
Starring: Thomas Foster, Marcie Robledo, Cortunay Minor, Cole Sitilides, Gavin Leahy, and Sam Kaplan
TEXAS FOR FOUR MORE YEARS (2023)
My new original play about a Black Queer teenager reckoning with identity, family, and the stigma of HIV on a North Texas landscape developed in collaboration with the Hantext 2022 Queer + PoC Playwrights. It was produced by REACH LA and Pothos Arts & Theater House as part of a New Works Festival at East West Players in Los Angeles.
Written and directed by David H. Parker
Starring: Khalif J. Gillett, Elisawon Etidorhpa, Cortunay Minor, Paula Ali, and Makeda Lutufyo
PATIENCE (2022)
A sports-inspired fantasia, Patience is a meditation on Black excellence, next chapters, and playing a very long game alone. This world premiere play was produced by 2nd Stage Off-Broadway.
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
BLACKSIGHTERS (2022)
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? (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.
IAOT can be streamed for free on Open Television, an Emmy-nominated nonprofit platform for intersectional television.
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