Dane Eissler
Samuel Beckett's "The Lost Ones" at Rowan University, photo by Kevin Monko
Dane’s primary focus is to challenge traditional theater making practices by rediscovering a holistic sense of play in the process as a means of revitalizing contemporary theater making. By settling into formulaic processes dependent on commercial demand, suffocating traditionalism that diminishes the integrity of theatrical works, and elitist gatekeeping of creative practices and resources, the playfulness, resourcefulness, and risk-taking of a majority of American theater has been extinguished, leaving behind a scorched wasteland of artistic stagnation. How can contemporary theater-makers learn from and recapture the essence of childlike play, curiosity, wonder, risk, and failure in the creative process? How can interdisciplinary and experimental art forms provide insight into a new wave of Avant Garde theater making? How can the artistic culture of minority groups, counter cultural movements, and non-Western cultures provide ethical inspiration for alternative modes of creation through the lens of activism, tradition, and the subversion of the mainstream?
- Peter Shaffer's "Equus" at Rowan University, photo by Kevin Monko
- Tennessee Williams' "Stairs to the Roof" at EgoPo Classic Theater, photo by Dave Sarrafian
Dane Eissler is a theater maker, visual artist, and educator based in Philadelphia, where he has worked with Azuka Theatre, B.R.A.T. Productions, Blind Faith Productions, and, most frequently, EgoPo Classic Theater. EgoPo credits: Lead curator of 2024-2025 Queer Revolutions season; directed Buried Child, UND3RGR0UND, Alice: not your child's wonderland, and The Nose; co-directed Stairs to the Roof and The Ways of White Folks (Barrymore nominated); production designed And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens and Rockaby; assisted with development of and costume co-designed Ramayana; and performed in Lydie Breeze Part 3 and The Seagull (Barrymore, Outstanding Production). In Chicago, Dane was the founding artistic director of A Dead Whale Productions, and worked with Rough House Theater, Whiskey Rebellion Theatre, Women of the Now, MTV- and SAG-nominated Megan Stalter's Freakfest, and The Annoyance Theatre. Dane has directed and designed for the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival. As a recipient of the 2024 Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts, Dane will study puppetry in Indonesia with Papermoon Puppet Theater and participate in their international puppetry festival Pesta Boneka. Dane is an Adjunct Professor at Rowan University teaching acting, Avant Garde theater, and Queer theater.