BIOGRAPHY

Dan Hurlin received a 1990 Village Voice OBIE award for his solo adaptation of Nathanael West’s A COOL MILLION, and his suite of puppet pieces EVERYDAY USES FOR SIGHT: Nos. 3 & 7 (2000) earned him a 2001 New York Dance and Performance award (a.k.a. “BESSIE"). His 1992 solo QUINTLAND earned sculptor Donna Dennis a “BESSIE” for visual design, and in 1998, he was nominated for an American Theater Wing Design award for his set design for his music theater piece THE SHOULDER (music by Dan Moses Schreier). His full-length puppet piece, HIROSHIMA MAIDEN, (2004) with an OBIE award winning score by Robert Een, was awarded a UNIMA (Union Internationale de la Marionette) citation of Excellence. Other works include CONSTANCE AND FERDINAND (1991) (with Victoria Marks); NO(thing so powerful as)TRUTH, (1995); EVERYDAY USES FOR SIGHT Nos. 3 and 7 (2000) which premiered at the Jim Henson International Festival of Puppet Theater; "WHO'S HUNGRY?/WEST HOLLYWOOD" (2008) and "WHO'S HUNGRY?/SANTA MONICA," (2010), a suite of puppet pieces based on the oral histories of homeless and food insecure residents of Los Angeles, collected by Dan Froot; DISFARMER (2009) which premiered at St. Ann’s Warehouse, the making of which was chronicled in filmmaker David Soll's documentary, PUPPET; DEMOLISHING EVERYTHING WITH AMAZING SPEED (2016) which premiered at Bard’s Summerscape Festival; and his toy theater piece THE DAY THE KETCHUP TURNED BLUE (1997) from the short story by John C. Russell. Most recently, he has begun making gallery installations, the latest of which was MOTEL (2022) which was exhibited in upstate New York, Chicago, IL, and NYC.

As a performer, he has worked with Ping Chong, Janie Geiser, Jeffrey M. Jones, Annie B Parson and Paul Lazar. He has directed premieres of works by Erik Ehn, Lisa Kron, Holly Hughes, Dan Froot, John C. Russell and Brian Selznick among others. Formerly the Artistic Director of Andy’s Summer Playhouse in Wilton, New Hampshire, Dan has taught at Bowdoin, Barnard and Bennington Colleges, Princeton, University and until his retirement in 2020, he served as the Director of the Graduate Program in Theater at Sarah Lawrence College. His work has been supported by three Rockefeller Map Fund grants, as well as grants from the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, the Greenwall Foundation, the Jim Henson Foundation, the Helios Foundation, and many others. In addition to three individual artist fellowships from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, Dan has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Capital and the New York State Foundation for the arts. Dan received a fellowship from and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in choreography, a USA Artist Fellowship and the Alpert Award in theater, and the 2013 Jesse Howard Jr. Rome Prize for visual art. He has been in residence at the MacDowell Colony three times and until 2023, served on it’s board of directors.

Full CV available on request.