David Drake (born June 27, 1963) is an American playwright, stage director, actor and author. He is best known as the author and original performer of ''

The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me ''The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me'' is a semi-autobiographical, one-man show, written by Obie-winning actor and playwright David Drake. Broken up into a series of stories, Drake abstractly documents a gay man's journey of self-discovery, while al ...

'', for which he received a '' Village Voice''

Obie Award The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards originally given by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City. In September 2014, the awards were jointly presented and administered with the A ...

, a 1994

Drama-Logue Award The Drama-Logue Award was an American theater award established in 1977, given by the publishers of Drama-Logue newspaper, a weekly west-coast theater trade publication. Winners were selected by the publication's theater critics, and would recei ...

for "Outstanding Solo Performance," and a Robbie Stevens Frontiers Magazine Award for the same. Nominations include a 1994 LA Weekly Theater Award and a Lambda Literary Award nomination for "Best New Play of 1994" (published by

Anchor Books Vintage Books is a trade paperback publishing imprint of Penguin Random House originally established by Alfred A. Knopf in 1954. The company was purchased by Random House in April 1960, and a British division was set up in 1990. After Random Hous ...

Biography

Born as David Drakula in Edgewood, Maryland, and raised in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was d ...

, he later began going by the name David Drake. He has Romanian roots. Drake has contributed articles to the ''

Advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. Different countries' legal systems use the term with somewhat differing meanings. The broad equivalent in many English law–based jurisdictions could be a barrister or a solicitor. However, ...

'', ''

TheaterWeek ''TheaterWeek'' was a favorite magazine among theater artists and theater lovers. It covered Broadway, off-Broadway, regional, and educational theater with articles that included profiles of actors, directors, designers and behind-the-scenes looks ...

'', and ''

Details Detail(s) or The Detail(s) may refer to: Film and television * ''Details'' (film), a 2003 Swedish film * ''The Details'' (film), a 2011 American film * ''The Detail'', a Canadian television series * "The Detail" (''The Wire''), a television epis ...

''. One of the longest one-actor plays in

Off Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

history, ''Larry Kramer'' has received over thirty productions in nearly a dozen countries, and the published version was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award. In 2000 Drake starred in a movie version of ''The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me''. The movie was directed by

Tim Kirkman Tim Kirkman is an American screenwriter and director. Kirkman's feature film debut, '' Dear Jesse'', was released theatrically by Cowboy Pictures in 1998. A documentary film about the political and personal parallels between the gay filmmaker ...

and was filmed at Baltimore Theatre Project. David Drake has appeared in the feature film '' Philadelphia'' and on the stage in ''

Vampire Lesbians of Sodom ''Vampire Lesbians of Sodom'' is a satirical play written by Charles Busch. It features a series of vignettes that deals with the lives of two eponymous immortal vampire lesbians, a creature known as The Succubus who is also known as La Condessa o ...

'', ''Pageant'', '' The Boys in the Band'', and ''A Language of Their Own''. He now lives in

Provincetown, MA Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States Census, Provincet ...

, where he is artistic director of The Provincetown Theater.

Credits

Print

*''The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me'', New York : Anchor Books, 1994, 112 pages,

Stage

*Pageant *''

'' *''

'', Summer 199

*''Son of Drakula'' As a director, David has directed Eric Bernat's ''Starstruck'', ''That Woman: Rebecca West Remember'', starring Anne Bobby, and ''The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac'', written and performed by Taylor Mac, which won a Herald Angel Award, A Latest Award, and an Argus Angel Award. In May 2009, his production of James Edwin Parker's ''2 Boys in a Bed on a Cold Winter's Night'' played to sold-out houses and rave reviews as part of the Dublin Gay Theatre Festival. He is currently working on directing ''Songs My Mother Never Taught Me'', written and performed by Deborah Karpel, which premiered at the

Ruhrfestspiele Ruhrfestspiele (Ruhr Festival) in Recklinghausen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, is one of the oldest theatre festivals in Europe. Founded after World War II, the festival is a major annual cultural event for the Ruhr area. It always starts on 1 ...

in Recklinghausen, Germany, in June 2009. In July 2009 he participated in the Sundance Institute Theatre Lab, workshopping Taylor Mac's five-act musical ''Lily's Revenge''. This was his second trip to Sundance, having directed the workshop of Edmund White's ''Terre Haute'' in 2005. He is a frequent collaborator of New York producer Paul Lucas, for whom he has directed ''that Woman'', ''The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac'', ''Stand Up/Lie Down'', and ''Songs My Mother Never Taught Me''. He is currently the artistic director of the Provincetown Theater.

Film

References

External links

*
Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Drake, David 1963 births Living people 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights American theatre directors American gay writers American gay actors American LGBTQ screenwriters Male actors from Baltimore People from Edgewood, Maryland American LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights American male dramatists and playwrights American people of Romanian descent 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American LGBTQ people