Sean Dunnington

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About Sean

Sean Dunnington is a queer Jewish playwright, screenwriter, and civic artist living between Manhattan and Honolulu. Raised in a rural cowboy town on Hawai’i Island, Sean taught himself how to belong by writing his own stories. Sean’s work has been produced and presented Off-Broadway and in regional theatres nationwide, as well as libraries and galleries, state museums, public radio stations, and LGBTQIA+ centers. Select plays include “Authoritarian” (Tisch Goldberg Theatre), “The Children’s Farm” (Magic Theatre), “Flat Fish” (LabTheatre), “Zap” (Lounge Theatre), “Small Minds” (The Worms), “Hawaiian Shake” (University of Redlands), and “The Undocumented” (Manhattan Repertory Theatre). Sean’s award-winning debut feature film “My Partner” has premiered in over twenty festivals worldwide, including the Hawai’i International Film Festival, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, and Beijing Queer Film Festival. Sean has been in artistic residence with the East-West Center, Ka Waiwai Collective, The Orchard Project, and the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa’s Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Center. He’s been a fellow with the Dramatists Guild Foundation, Creative Labs Hawai’i, California Arts Council, LYRIC Center for LGBTQQ Youth, National Collaborative for Health Equity, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Sean founded Tree Moss, the first-ever national collective for emerging Hawai’i playwrights, which supports and cultivates new Hawai’i plays. Sean’s commitment to democratizing storytelling practices and frameworks has led him to facilitate over a hundred writing workshops and story circles for non-profits, public schools, and community centers across Hawai'i, including the Hālawa Correctional Facility, Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, and the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative. Sean has returned to his hometown on Hawai’i Island every summer for the past decade as the Program Director of the Kahilu Performing Arts Workshop, an annual theatre arts education program dedicated to empowering Indigenous and low-income youth. Sean's belief in the expansive potential of playwriting extends beyond the stage to maps and communal healing processes. Sean has integrated playwriting with maps, crafting dozens of StoryMaps that visually depict queer belonging through narrative geography. He also actively contributes to Restorative Justice Initiatives, EDI Committees, and Racial Healing Circles, employing playwriting as a tool for individuals to voice their own narratives and foster mutual understanding amongst one another. Sean received his BA in Applied Playwriting from the University of Redlands’ Johnston Center for Integrative Studies. He will soon graduate with his MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

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