Dean Poynor is an emerging playwright based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he is pursuing an MFA in Dramatic Writing at Carnegie Mellon University. Dean is currently working on a new drama about Christian professional wrestling.
Personal Statement
My work takes place at the intersection of ecstatic religious faith and the daily grind. I write about the human moments of reconciling the sacred with the mundane. As a result, my characters struggle with vocation – their calling in this world – and the closer they get to that, the closer they are to finding themselves. My stories embrace the messy journeys we all take to tease out the meanings of real and fake, winning and losing, and the subtle and shifting nature of good and evil. By examining these things, my hope is to better understand the pull between the visible world we cannot ignore, and the imaginative Spirit we cannot fully deny.
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Bio for Dean Poynor
Dean is glad to be starting his second year of school this fall at Carnegie Mellon University's MFA program in Dramatic Writing. During his first year, he wrote the full-length drama PARADISE KEY which received development workshops at the school. This play was selected as the winner of the 2009 Trustus Theatre Playwrights' Festival, and will receive a staged reading in Columbia, SC this August, and a full production there in August 2010. Also during his first year, Dean wrote the screenplay SALK which was selected as the winner of the 2009 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award and was recognized with a grant for $25,000.
Dean is the author of the full length, two-person comedy, COMPANY TIME which was developed under luxurious circumstances, thanks to workshops at the Players Theatre, NYC, and readings with Trustus Theatre. His full-length drama, LOSING SLEEP was the winner of the 2008 Helford Prize in Drama ($10,000) from Jacksonville State University. It was developed after a long germination period at the Iowa Summer Writers Festival, and received its first reading at Trustus. Subsequent readings include the Texas Repertory Theatre in Houston, and Ten Grand Productions in New York.
His 10-page play, MORAL SUPPORT was selected for the Emerging Voices Playwriting Competition at the Lincoln Theatre in Washington, DC, and his short play THE TASTE OF FREE COFFEE, was an Official Selection for the St. Genesius Playwrights Festival, 2007, in Seattle, Washington, where it received its initial reading.
Dean's playwriting comes from a conviction that collaborative artists, pursuing human truth, can make a lasting impression on their audience.
In addition to playwriting, Dean has acted in numerous roles, including Bug by Tracy Letts (Peter Evans), Take Me Out by Richard Greenberg (Mars Marzac), Wonder of the World by David Lindsay-Abaire, among others. He has also self-produced works throughout the Southeast.
Dean graduated from Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL, with degrees in Philosophy and Communications (Theatre). Since then he has studied theater around the country with The Actors Center (New York), Shakespeare and Co. (Lennox, MA), SITI Co. (New York), and Dell Arte International (Blue Lake, CA). Dean has a special interest in physical theater, including clown and mime, and this has played a large part in his development as a writer. Also his background in live improvisation performance and comedy has helped to hone his timing and dialogue. Dean can be seen on occasion performing improv with The Barstool Philosophers (Chicago) and The We're Not Your Mother Players (Columbia, SC). He is a member of the Playwrights Center and the Dramatists Guild of America.
