Allan BakerA University of Texas graduate and long time resident of Austin, Allan has long been an advocate for the gay/lesbian/bi-sexual and transgender community of Texas. He served as chair of the Austin Lesbian/Gay Political Caucus for ten years and as a member of the Board of Directors of Equality Texas...the state’s only statewide glbt political and community-building organization...for eleven. Retiring after a career in environmental health in 2002, Allan focused on political activism, serving also as treasurer of the Texas Equity PAC, a statewide political action committee committed to electing gay-friendly legislators in Texas. In 2002 he received the Human Rights Campaign’s Political Activism Award at Austin’s HRC Black Tie event. Allan began writing in 2004 and has since written ten plays, all with gay characters and themes. His first play was All the Saints, a full-length, modern re-telling of Dumas’ Lady of the Camellias and Verdi’s La Traviata, with gay characters. This play was given a well-received staged reading at Zach Scott Theatre Center in Austin in January 2008. Allan’s first one act play, Five Minutes, set in the World Trade Center on 9/11, was named “Best of the Fest” for the FronteraFest short fringe festival at Hyde Park Theatre in Austin in 2006 and was selected for the Emerging Artists Theatre’s Fall Festival of Short Plays in New York City in November 2006. Nominated by Emerging Artists as part of a nation-wide competition, Five Minutes was again produced in New York City as part of the Samuel French, Inc. Festival of Off Off-Broadway One Act Plays in June 2007. Allan’s third play is Voices, a one act involving the conversation across four generations of five members of a family, all residents of a cemetery in Texas. A shorter version of Voices was produced as part of the FronteraFest short fringe festival at Hyde Park Theatre in Austin in 2007. The current version was a finalist for Emerging Artists Theatre’s 2009 Spring Festival of Short Plays in New York City. Allan has written a second full-length, modern re-telling of a story found in opera: Eskandar, inspired by Bizet’s Carmen and the Shahnameh of the 10th century Persian poet Firdowsi. The play is set in today’s Afghanistan. Allan’s play, ...last and always, based on the final scene of his award-winning Five Minutes, was a finalist for the San Luis Obispo Little Theatre’s Fall Festival of Ten Minute Plays in 2008 and was produced by NativeAliens Theatre Collective as part of their Short Stories 10 program during New York City’s Pride Celebration in June, 2009. In January and February, 2011, this play was again produced in New York City, by Turtle Shell Productions, as part of their Ninth Annual 8 Minute Madness Playwright’s Festival. In 2008 and 2009 Allan wrote a trio of one act plays focusing on critical moments in the relationships of three gay couples: Click, A Midsummer Night’s Conversation and A Midwinter Night’s Conversation. His most recent short play is Beauty, about a beautiful woman and a beautiful painting. This play has been selected for Valley Repertory’s LabWorks 15 Minute Play Contest in Enfield, CT in February of 2012. Allan’s most recent play is Dex & Abby, a sweet, funny and moving 90 minute play about a gay couple and their two dogs. In April, 2010 a program of four of Allan’s short plays (Click, Voices, Five Minutes and A Midsummer Night’s Conversation) was produced together as Connect: Four Short Playsfor three weeks at the Off Center theatre in Austin. On June 5th, 2010 Connect was given an encore performance at the Rollins Theatre of the Long Center in Austin as part of Austin’s Pride 2010 celebration. In September, 2011, Click and A Midsummer Night’s Conversation were produced by Uptown Players as part of the Dallas Pride Performing Arts Festival at the iconic Frank-Lloyd Wright designed Kalita Humphreys Theatre, in Dallas. 4711 Spicewood Springs Rd., #159, Austin, TX 78759 Click Here for a PDF of Allan's Bio. |