Brian Dykstra: About the Artist
Brian’s playwriting credits include Forsaking All Others (Pentameters Theatre, London, Powerhouse Theater, Los Angeles/Dramalogue Critic’s Choice and an L.A. Weekly Pick of the Week), STRANGERHORSE, Clean Alternatives (Both at The Kitchen Theatre and others), Hiding Behind Comets (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park – then seven other productions including 29th Street Rep in NYC and Zeitgeist in Boston), A Sane Policy (Commissioned by NYSF/Public Theatre), Spill the Wine (GayFest, NYC). He is a core artist at The Lark and an alum of the writer’s workshop out of which came two plays: A Play On Words (Kitchen Theatre, Ithaca, NY and 59E59, NYC) The Two of You, (The Kitchen Theatre). Brian has performed four of his one-man shows Cornered & Alone, The Jesus Factor, Ho! (A Xmas Show For Adults), and Selling Out. He earned his MFA from Rutgers University where he studied with William Esper and Maggie Flanigan. Awards: Lester Bangs First Person Journalism Award, Edinburgh Fringe First, National Theatre Conference Stavis Award, “The End of the World as We Know It” award for performers who consistently take risks with their art. He’s currently working on a play about how white men screw up everything called Art Thieves, another play about how social media screws up relationships with a working title of Body & Pole, and two musicals, one based on The Learned Ladies with composer Ray Leslee and Crazy, Make Crazy with songwriter/composer Terry Delsing.
Brian is also an HBO Def Poet.
As an actor, he has been onstage from Broadway to London to San Francisco and points in between. Broadway: Lucky Guy (with Tom Hanks) directed by George C. Wolf. Favorite roles include Rooster Byron in Jerusalem at San Francisco Playhouse (SFBACC Award Nominee), LBJ in All The Way and Mark Rothko in Red at Repertory Theatre of Saint Louis (both Kline Award Nominee), Mr. Cutter in Clean Alternatives, among many others.
His most recent Shakespeare credits include King John in King John at The Folger Shakespeare Library in D.C., Lord Capulet, Benedick, Don John, Sir Toby, Macduff, Banquo, Costard, and Pompey Bum, etc. in various theatres here and there.