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movement direction. choreography.

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directing

movement direction.choreography

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about.

Daniel Banks has directed at such venues as National Theatre of Uganda; Belarussian National Drama Theatre; Market Theatre, South Africa; Playhouse Square, Cleveland; Bay Area Playwrights Festival; NYC and DC Hip Hop Theatre Festivals; Oval House and Teatro Technis (London); Bishop Arts Theatre Center (Dallas); and HERE Arts Center, Queens Theater in the Park, The Public Theater, and John Houseman Theatre (NYC). He worked as choreographer/movement director at Shakespeare in the Park/NY Shakespeare Festival, Theatre for a New Audience, Maurice Sendak’s The Night Kitchen, Singapore Rep, and La Monnaie (Brussels).

Daniel is the co-director of DNAWORKS, an arts and service organization dedicated to dialogue and healing through the arts, engaging topics of representation, identity and heritage. Current projects: The Real James Bond…Was Dominican by/with Christopher Rivas (touring); Dreaming Emmett by Toni Morrison, a lost play about Emmett Till that has not been produced since 1986; and The Secret Sharer (recipient of the 2019 MAP Fund Award), an adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s novella, considered an early LGBTQ text, exploring fragility, tenderness, and intimacy in times of personal duress and societal discrimination.

Daniel served on the dramaturgical team for Camille A. Brown & Dancers (Black Girl: Linguistic Play and ink). He is founder of the Hip Hop Theatre Initiative, promoting youth self-expression and leadership. He is Associate Director of Theatre Without Borders and was a recipient of the Sallie B. Goodman Retreat at McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ. Daniel is editor of Say Word! Voices from Hip Hop Theater and co-editor of Casting a Movement: The Welcome Table Initiative. He is the recipient of Theatre Communication Group's 2020 Alan Schneider Director Award and twice recipient of "400 Most Influential People" in Fort Worth, TX.

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bio.resumé

testimonials

Daniel is one of my favorite artists. As a director, he brings a profound understanding of passion, history, community, and action. He staged my play with such skill & vision,

I'm still inspired by that production several years later. As a mentor, his guidance is invaluable. As an educator, he empowers his students to create from the heart

with a sense of purpose, intellect, determination. #teamdaniel

- Christina Anderson, Playwright

One of the best things about working with Daniel as a director was his seemingly effortless leadership. He explained dramaturgy in simple language and didn’t boggle down my overloaded brain that was trying to tell a story and keep it on track. His approach to telling a story validates identity and defines playwriting as an individualized craft so that the playwright can take ownership of it.

For example, Daniel begins the process of developing new work by insisting
that he and the playwright sit down, one on one, and read the play aloud.
This reading lifted anxieties and vulnerability because it established the kind of
trust and security that I needed to move forward with an intense drama that put
gay Chicano men on stage. Together we addressed and readdressed the
elements of my play so that I could better develop my style and
techniques to get to the core of what I was saying and have it be heard.

- Law Chavez, winner of the 2011 National Latino Playwrights Award,

Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival

Daniel Banks is this generation's Peter Brook and Lloyd Richards wrapped into one. Banks' directorial genius is steeped in humanity and a purposeful reality.

- Denise Woods, Voice/Dialect Coach for August Wilson's
Gem of the Ocean with Phylicia Rashad, Mark Taper Forum

Daniel Banks directed me in a one-man show, Corpus Christi, which we developed and worked on for quite some time together. Daniel is both a superlative teacher AND director, and to this day that experience sticks with me as one of the most deeply meaningful and growth-filled creative endeavors I have had. This is largely due to Daniel and his God-given gift for working with student actors and helping to bring forth from within them that which they did not know they possessed. His influence and special talent helped tremendously to prepare me for life as a working actor, and it is not hyperbole to say that I credit my experience working with him for much of what has led to my significant (if relatively modest) successes thus far professionally.