David Quang Pham (he★they)

David Quang Pham is a science communicator, award-winning composer-playwright, and aspiring animation screenwriter in Washington Heights, Manhattan. As a Midwestern child of Vietnamese immigrants, they are drawn to stories about where life can go if you let curiosity take you. As a Vietnamese American scientist, Eastern fables and modern science inform his stories. His notable musicals that personify astrophysics, quantum mechanics, climatology, chemistry, entomology, and botany are respectively: Ellipses (2024 Syracuse NWNV semifinalist, 2023 Theatre About Science International Conference, 2023 Musical Theatre Factory at Signature Theatre, 2023 Milky Way Theatre Company at Theatre 71, 2022 Colorado New Musical Festival, 2022 O'Neill Theater Center semifinalist, 2021 Working Title Playwrights), Tour (2020 Downtown Urban Arts Festival finalist), The Seasoned Veteran, Chemicals in the Water, The Bookworms, and Turnover: A New Leaf (2025 Queer Theatre Kalamazoo, 2024 Great Performances Artist Fellowship Award, 2024 The Tank’s Pridefest, 2024 Theatre on the Verge at Abington Art Center, 2023 Undiscovered Countries Infinite Festival). He collaborated with Stephanie L. Carlin and Marie Incontrera on Life After (2023 NYPL Performing Arts at Bruno Walter Auditorium). He is writing Parallel University, an interactive musical, and other non-fables: The Control Freaks and The Poster Child, a TYA fantasy musical.

David Quang Pham is the 2024 Great Performances Artist Fellowship Award recipient. Milky Way Theatre Company produced a sold-out industry reading of Ellipses in Theatre 71 at Blessed Sacrament during their 2023 Off-Broadway New Works Festival. Ellipses also performed internationally at the Theatre About Science International Conference in Coimbra, Portugal. At Theatre on the Verge’s New Musicals Festival, Turnover was nominated for Best Musical and won Best Book and Best Director (Aliyah Curry). Fang Tseng recently directed The Tank’s 2024 PrideFest concert reading. Queer Theatre Kalamazoo is producing Turnover at Jolliffe Theatre from May 16-18, 2025. Milan Levy is directing this production.

After completing an astrophysics and theatre education at Michigan State University, he studied playwriting as the 2020-2021 New Play and Dramaturgy Apprentice of Working Title Playwrights, Atlanta. He was the 2021-2022 Literary Fellow of Playwrights Foundation, San Francisco. Composers Janelle Lawrence and Gonzalo Valencia-Peña mentor them, helping forge their musical styles from pop, punk, to Cai Luong. commissioned his music. His interviews with composers for Kennedy Center’s BIPOC Critics Lab are published in The Public and TheaterMania. Alexis Hauk interviewed him in the American Theatre Magazine’s Winter 2024 issue. He also consults on stories that explore STEM. His recent dramaturgical credits are Millennials are Killing Musicals by Nico Juber (2022 29-hour reading, Open Jar Studios) and Allies by Michael McGoldrick (2022 PPADC Hamilton Arts Festival). His recent stage management credit is BAS by Janelle Lawrence and Sugar Vendil (2023 JACK). He is a moderator at LMDA; a screenwriter for the We Forgot the Title sketch group; founding member of CreateTheater and the International Dramaturgy Lab; member of ΣΠΣ, ASCAP, and the Dramatists Guild. He plays trombone in the Queer Big Apple Corps, MUSE’s Sitprobe Experience, and professionally in Marching Band Casting. His moonbase is in Washington Heights. His earth is Wyoming, Michigan. Be up to lightspeed at sciencetheatre.us and @sciencetheatre

Translated from Lourdes Guzmán González: David Quang Pham (él) es un dramaturgista de la ciencia. Gracias a viajes juveniles a óperas y campamentos espaciales, ahora escribe cartas de amor a la ciencia y diseña historias desde sus ramas. Después de terminar su educación en astrofísica y teatro en la Universidad del estado de Michigan, estudió una mentoría en Working Title Playwrights (WTP) en Atlanta. Janelle Lawrence es su mentora. Su ópera subatómica, TOUR, es finalista del Festival Downtown Urban Arts 2020. Su mitología cósmica épica, ELLIPSES, es protagonizada por Singularity y sus adolescentes Galaxies y sigue su búsqueda para deshacer el Big Bang, después de que su perro Gravity lo desencadena. Este musical familiar fue desarrollado en talleres anuales con WTP junto con la dramaturgista Jordan Alexandria Ealey. Las canciones serán presentadas en la Universitdad Durban de Tecnología en octubre de 2021. En el Laboratorio Internacional de Dramaturgismo inaugural (International Dramaturgy Lab), su equipo Constellations construyó prácticas dramaturgísticas basadas en cosmología. Es miembro fundador de CreateTheater y miembro de ΣΠΣ, ASCAP y el Gremio de Dramaturgxs (Dramatists Guild).

Artist Statement

Animation and theatre are the best mediums to bring knowledge out of class and science out of labs and into the world. And throughout history, education and science literacy saved the world.

Once my parents sent me to space camp and operas as a kid, science and theatre became inseparable. From them, there were many memories that have stayed with me: the traditional Vietnamese bedtime stories and fables, educational cartoons and theme songs from PBS Kids, and teaching math and science in summer school using those inspirations. In these moments, I realized that scientific processes and human development are parallel, and that the more society is educated about it, the more they will find light and richness in the connections they form with their fellow humans. My life’s purpose became science communication.

My calculus teacher Eric Retan encouraged me to pursue storytelling when I turned his homework assignments into songs and narratives. I went on to attain an astrophysics degree and minor in theatre. After college, Reg E Gaines (Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk writer) invited me to New York when I was a finalist in his Downtown Urban Arts Festival. He encouraged me to continue writing scientific fables. Then, I studied playwriting and dramaturgy as the second Working Title Playwrights Apprentice in Atlanta and Playwrights Foundation Literary Fellow in San Francisco. My composition mentors are composers Janelle Lawrence and Gonzalo Valencia-Peña – who is also a physicist. I formally studied animation scriptwriting under David Weiss. I travel back and forth to Los Angeles to grow more acquainted with the animation industry. Now residing and producing in Manhattan for the past several years, the community – from Musical Theatre Factory and Undiscovered Countries – have come to know me as the science musical writer with work that represents Vietnamese sensibilities.

When I write, I am not just telling educational fables – I am weaving together the sentiments of children of Vietnamese immigrants and ancestors, principles passed down through generations that speak to the power of Cai Luong folk music, spirituality, respect for nature, and the strength in community. For example, my astrophysics epic “Ellipses” follows the Galaxy family and their dog Gravity causing the origin of the universe, but it is about a family splitting up during a war-like tragedy and reconnection after an eternity of healing. “Ellipses” engages the public in astrophysics, family reconciliation, and cyclical nature of violence. My plant-based comedy “Turnover: A New Leaf” follows a mother-son pair of cilantros running a salon, but it is about what it means to earn one’s green card and let your loved one make queer friends. “Turnover: A New Leaf” engages the public in botany, immigration policy, and queerness.

On our pale blue dot, I dedicate my time to writing songs and stories that weave together science communication with human stories to help the world make sense of themselves. Scientific and cultural literacy not only make you think – they get you to breathe.