Steven Dietz


Steven Dietz is an American playwright, theatre director, and teacher. Dietz has written over 40 plays and adaptations, including God's Country, Lonely Planet, and Bloomsday. Dietz taught in the MFA Playwriting and Directing programs at the University of Texas at Austin from 2006 to 2018.

Life and career

Steven Dietz was born in Denver. He attended Kennedy High School and studied theatre arts at the University of Northern Colorado. After his studies, he moved to Minneapolis and worked as a writer and a director of new plays at The Playwrights' Center and other local theaters. His first play was Brothers and Sisters in 1981. Dietz moved to Seattle in 1991.
From 2006 to 2018, Dietz was faculty at the University of Texas at Austin in the Department of Theatre and Dance. At UT/Austin, Dietz created an annual new play showcase, as well as co-created a new MFA Directing program. Among his students were Luke Leonard, George Brant, Martin Zimmerman, and Abe Koogler.
Dietz is described as a versatile and prodigious playwright: Robert Faires wrote in 2008, "His output is prodigious, some 30 plays in 25 years, and at a point when other playwrights might be winding down, he still steadily generates a couple of plays a year." Dietz's plays are frequently produced in regional theaters.
Dietz's play *Shooting Star* was adapted by Dietz, Kirk Lynn, and Meg Ryan for the film What Happens Later.

Awards

Dietz is the recipient of the PEN Center USA Award in Drama ; a grant from the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays ; and the 2007 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Play. He was awarded a New Play citation in 2016 from the American Theatre Critics Association for Bloomsday.
According to the Theatre Communications Group, Dietz was in the top 20 most produced playwrights in the 2019-2020 season and the 2024-2025 season.

Personal life

As of 2018, Dietz is married to fellow playwright Allison Gregory. They live in both Seattle and Austin, Texas.

Works

Original plays (by year of first production)

  • Brothers and Sisters
  • Railroad Tales
  • Random Acts
  • Wanderlust
  • More Fun Than Bowling
  • Painting It Red
  • Burning Desire
  • Foolin' Around with Infinity
  • Ten November
  • God's Country
  • Happenstance
  • After You
  • Halcyon Days
  • To The Nines
  • Trust
  • Lonely Planet
  • Handing Down the Names
  • The Nina Variations
  • Private Eyes
  • Still Life with Iris
  • Rocket Man
  • Fiction
  • Left to Right
  • Inventing van Gogh
  • Last of the Boys
  • The Spot
  • September Call-Up
  • Yankee Tavern
  • Shooting Star
  • Becky's New Car
  • Rancho Mirage
  • Mad Beat Hip & Gone
  • On Clover Road
  • Bloomsday
  • This Random World
  • Drive All Night
  • The Great Beyond
  • The Ghost of Splinter Cove
  • ''How a Boy Falls''

    Plays adapted from other sources

  • The Rememberer
  • Silence
  • Dracula
  • Force of Nature
  • Go, Dog. Go! – a musical adaptation co-written with his wife, Allison Gregory.
  • Over The Moon
  • Paragon Springs
  • Honus & Me
  • Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure
  • Jackie & Me
  • American la Ronde
  • Dracula: Mina's Quest
  • Murder on the Links
  • Gaslight
  • ''Peril in the Alps''

    Screenplays

  • ''What Happens Later''