Dominic Orlando (1963-2021) was a TV writer and playwright who pursued the life of an artist from an early age. He began his career in New York theatre, where he co-founded the No Pants Theater Company in 1992, a company that aimed to explore large-scale mythological and spiritual stories of America. After New York, he relocated to Minneapolis on a Jerome Fellowship in 2003. He was awarded a second Jerome and a McKnight — all through The Playwrights' Center, where he was a Core Writer until 2011.
While based in Minneapolis, Dominic worked with Theatre de la Jeune Lune, The Guthrie Theater, The Jungle, History Theatre, Theatre Forever, Teatro del Pueblo, The Red Eye, and co-founded the Workhaus Playwrights Collective, which had a mission to support the uncompromising vision of its authors. Workhaus has produced over two dozen world premieres, including his Short Play About Globalization, A Short Play About 9/11, and The Sense of What Should Be. With Workhaus and Jeune Lune he co-created Fissures: Lost & Found, commissioned by Actors Theatre of Louisville and premiered at the 2010 Humana Festival. Other commissions include Berkeley Rep, The Guthrie, History Theatre, Arts Emerson, Nautilus Music-Theater, and Caliber Media/Aviation film, where he developed the screen version of his play Danny Casolaro Died For You. Danny premiered at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre on Cape Cod and had a second production at Timeline Theatre in Chicago. Other productions include The Nature Crown (Guthrie), The Working Boys Band (The History Theatre), and The Reagan Years (Workhaus Collective). Around the country Dominic worked with New York Theatre Workshop, HERE, Kitchen Dog, Crowded Fire, Aurora Theatre, Playwrights Foundation — around the world, The Tokyo Festival for the Arts, The Pasinger/Fabrike in Munich, and the Prague International Fringe.
He also pursued a career in television and wrote for shows like the Amazon series “Them,” “Outer Range,” FX’s “Retreat,” “The OA” from Netflix, “Mindhunter” and “Nightflyers,” a series based on the work of George R. R. Martin. According to Orlando’s family, he died just hours after preparing for the first day of a TV writers room. The Dominic Orlando Fund has been created by friends and the Playwrights’ Center to support writers who create their own unique path in the arts.
