Photo by Alison Balletta

Dan Caffrey is a playwright, musician, teacher, and pop-culture critic who graduated from The University of Texas at Austin's M.F.A. Playwriting program in 2020. Prior to that, he lived and made new theatrical work in Chicago for more than a decade, where he co-founded the Tympanic Theatre Company (RIP) and served as its Artistic Director from 2007 to 2015. He's currently based in Brooklyn after a stint teaching playwriting at the Tony Award-winning Alliance Theatre in Atlanta.  

His work draws heavily from wildlife, horror, and various otherworldly elements. He's interested in how these external, often non-human forces can upend his characters' views of humanity, pushing them to confront more internal threats such as secrecy, repression, insecurity, and fear. Most recently, his stories have focused on the physical and psychological effects of the climate crisis, including the zero-waste world premiere of his play The Amphibians at Weber State University and River Watchers, an immersive theatre experience on a moving 14-person canoe in Brooklyn's Newtown Creek (co-created with Dina Vovsi and Jens Rasumussen). Other work includes the plays Matawan, KAIJU, Universal Monsters, and Sow and Suckling, and “Mortality Rate,” an audio drama commissioned by 20th Century Studios as a tie-in to the Stephen King film The Boogeyman. 

​Dan is a proud alumnus of the 2023/2024 Civilians' R&D Group. He has been a three-time O'Neill Finalist and seven-time Semi-Finalist, two-time Finalist for Princeton University and The Civilians' The Next Forever project, Princess Grace Finalist, Jerome Fellowship Semi-Finalist, shortlisted for the Alpine Fellowship's 2021 Theatre Prize, Resident Artist at Tofte Lake Center, M.F.A. Scholar at the Sewanee Writers' Conference, and his work has been published in several anthologies by Smith & Kraus, including The Best Women's Stage Monologues 2021. His plays have recently been developed/produced by Gloucester Stage, Think Tank Theatre, the Atlantic Acting School, Hot Playwright Summer, The Workshop Theater, The Orchard Project, American Records, Mixily Presents, Greenbrier Valley Theatre, JOOK, Jarrott Productions, Kitchen Dog Theater, Hot Kitchen Collective, Genesis Ensemble, Sundown Collaborative Theatre, The Road Theatre Company, Otherworld Theatre Company, Cry Havoc, and Pegasus PlayLab, as well as many colleges and universities all around the country. His play "A Seed" was part of the 46th Annual Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival, produced by Concord Theatricals. His play "Duckass" was part of the 2022 festival, making it to the final 12. ​

Dan has also written for a variety of pop-culture publications, including The A.V. Club, Consequence, Pitchfork, and Vox. His first book, Radiohead FAQ, is currently available from Backbeat Books (an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield). He co-hosts The Losers' Club: A Stephen King Podcast (recipient of Joe Bob Briggs' Silver Bolo Award For Excellence In Horror Media) and Halloweenies: A Horror Franchise Podcast, in addition to recording music with Mae Shults under the name Methodist Hospital. Dean of American Rock Critics Robert Christgau hailed their debut album, Giants, as one of the best of 2018.

Have fun exploring this site, and please feel free to reach out and say hi!