DANIEL BORN | Playwright

“I never made a conscious decision to ‘become a playwright’…I just started writing plays and it seemed to answer a need.” – DB

Photo Credit: the late Jim Luhning

Daniel Born is a resident playwright of the Midwest Dramatists Center of Kansas City, and a member of The Dramatists Guild. As a graduate from the University of Kansas with a degree in Philosophy, most of Daniel’s plays/readings have been in his hometown of Lawrence, KS, but his work has also seen stages in Nebraska, Missouri, California and Texas and Edinburgh, Scotland. His one-woman show “Bang”, about Joan Vollmer (the wife of William Burroughs), was a semi-finalist for the O’Neill and his drama “Let My Mind Flash with Blades”, about the poet H.D. and Sigmund Freud, was a semifinalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival.

CONTACT DAN

Photo Credit: the late Jim Luhning

“…I wrote sketch comedy, ten-minutes, and labored over a couple of full-lengths that I realized, much later and rather abashedly, were metaphorically autobiographical.” – DB

plays

“Playwright Born’s gift is his ability to craft dialogue between and among characters that makes them alive and distinctive in our imaginations. ” – CTX Live Theatre

poster for Bang, a play by lawrence ks playwright Daniel Born

Step into the final moments of Joan Vollmer’s life with Bang!, a haunting and powerful play by Daniel Born. Returning to EdFringe in August 2025, Bang! is a gripping monologue delivered by the apparition of Vollmer, moments after she was shot by William Burroughs, her common-law husband, in Mexico City in 1951. As she waits for the ambulance to arrive, she reflects on her turbulent relationship with the infamous writer, the passionate circle that sparked the Beat movement, and a murder within that close-knit group of artists…foreshadowing her own tragic end.

Purchase your Bang! tickets by clicking the button below!

GET TICKETS

“Poetry can’t change the world.
It will change theirs.” – DB

Experience the raw, transformative power of human connection in The Wonder Drug, a riveting new play by Daniel Born. Premiering at the EdFringe Festival in August 2025, this daring drama explores the journey of two men brought together by an experimental empathy-enhancing drug. With humor, vulnerability, and searing emotion, they navigate the unexpected bonds that reshape their lives. Daniel Born directs, featuring a talented cast including Connor Eastman and Todd Schwartz. You won’t want to miss this unforgettable theatrical journey.

Click below to purchase your tickets to The Wonder Drug!

GET TICKETS

Dan is honored to announce that his short play, ‘The Many and Only’ has been selected for a reading in the upcoming Midwest Dramatists’ Conference in Olathe, KS. The readings are free and open to the public. Many excellent playwrights from across the country will be there to hear their plays read and discuss them afterwards. If you’re in the area it is well worth attending.

“These are the thoughts of a dying woman, but they are also a defiant defence of herself and her life and her choices and her tragedy. She swings an empty glass liquor bottle like a weapon, she sits alone on a too tall chair with her legs dangling like a little girl. Through Bang we see Burroughs through Vollmer’s eyes, and we hopefully see her too. Bang is a form of justice for Joan Vollmer and Dan Born and Linda Gaumnitz are to be deeply commended for this. She deserves it.” – Luke ‘Luca’ Cockayne

Night shift at a walkie-talkie factory. They’ve got it pretty good, as long as no one messes up. They make their quota. They try not to make waves. Their boss is a free spirit who thinks poetry can solve problems. A sudden change puts this to the test.

This moving and funny dramedy captures the struggles and camaraderie of these night-shift workers as they navigate their unexpected predicament.

Bang is a monologue delivered by the apparition of Joan Vollmer, immediately after she was shot by William Burroughs, her common law husband, in Mexico City in 1951. As she waits for the ambulance to arrive, she reflects on her relationship with the famous writer, on the passionate nucleus that launched the Beat movement, and on a murder in that close-knit group of artists, presaging her own death.

Hilda Doolittle was an American poet who went by the name of H.D. Along with Ezra Pound she founded the Imagist school of poetry, a movement of delicate and precise language that was one of the first casualties of the First World War. During the buildup to the Second World War, she suffered a breakdown and travelled to Vienna to be psychoanalyzed by Dr. Freud. The Nazis had just consolidated power in Germany, next door. Let the healing begin.

The Man Without a Country is the fictional story of a young Army officer, Philip Nolan, who fell in with the plots of Aaron Burr during the early years of the 19th century. The story, written in the darkest days of the Civil War, became an immediate and enduring sensation. This stage adaptation enlarges the role of Aaron Burr, who is portrayed as a damaged and charismatic politician, and introduces the role of Nolan’s fiance, Aurora, a vital presence during both his actual and figurative trials.