David Lee White

Playwright
he/him/his

David Lee White is a playwright/performer/educator based in New Jersey. He is a lifelong devotee of using the arts to build and celebrate community through his years of training as a playwright, actor and comedian. His collaborative work with theatres and educational institutions includes farce, musicals and verbatim theatre, all created in concert with local artists, young people and community members. His work with Kate Brennan on The Infinity Trilogy, a series of YA musicals, was the recipient of a MAP Fund award, and the first musical in the trilogy, ALiEN8, is now available through YouthPLAYS. He and Brennan were also finalists for the Jonathan Larson Grant. David was also in the inaugural group of playwrights to receive commissions from the New Jersey Performing Arts Centers’ Stage Exchange Program. The result was FIXED – a play about navigating the mental healthcare system. His mental health awareness work continued with PANTHER HOLLOW, his solo show about his battle with clinical depression in his youth.

For 14 years, David was the Associate Artistic Director at Passage Theatre in Trenton, NJ which specialized in community-based work and developing new works by noteworthy, contemporary playwrights. While there, he workshopped and produced the farces BLOOD: A COMEDY and SLIPPERY AS SIN, as well as the oral history works TRENTON LIGHTS and PROFILES, co-created with Artistic Director June Ballinger. He has continued working with Passage as an artist, on collaborative projects such as THE OK TRENTON PROJECT and JANET WIDE-AWAKE (with Rich Bradford).

David also teaches Advanced Improvisation, Theatre History and Dramatic Analysis at Drexel University, where he co-created the web-series ESSENTIAL with director Bill Fennelly. He also wrote episodes of Vivid Stage's web series TOGETHER APART.

2023 marked the sixth production of ALiEN8 at the Bucks County Playhouse, as well as the premiere of CLEAN SLATE, his second musical with Kate Brennan, as a co-production between Passage Theatre and Rider University. The Spring of 2024 saw the premiere of the musical THE ANGRY GRAMMARIAN (with Jeffrey Barg) at Pier Players in Philadelphia. His screenplay JACQUELINE REMEMBERS ALL OF THIS (co-written with Maribeth Theroux and Dave Maulbeck) is currently in pre-production. The collaborations between Brennan and White will continue in 2024 with BOOK OF WONDER and ANATOMY OF A FLOOD, which is due to open at Theatre Horizon in 2026.