Dean Linnard

I’m thrilled to announce that soon I’ll be returning to Berkeley Repertory Theatre (where I was a part of Dave Malloy’s “Octet” in 2022). I am among the over 100 local and national artists who will come together in the Summer Residency Lab of The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep’s Center for the Creation and Development of New Work.

I will be workshopping a piece called “Least of My Children” that is very near and dear to me. Originally composed almost 40 years ago my late father, Loren Linnard, “Least of My Children” was miraculously rediscovered in a dusty old box during the pandemic after lying dormant since its creation. The opera was written during and about the AIDS crisis: it’s a stirring and timely meditation on love, family, heartbreak, miracles, and prestidigitation. 

I’m collaborating with director Caterina Nonis, music supervisor Andy Peterson, and actor Jen Anaya on revitalizing this forgotten queer Classic for the present day. The entire team is overjoyed to be continuing our development process at Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor in July! More information about “Least of My Children” can be found here. 

 

Next up, I’m playing the lead role of Arnold in Harvey Fierstein’s seminal queer Classic “Torch Song” at Marin Theatre Company in beautiful Mill Valley, California. It is an honor of a lifetime to step into Harvey’s shoes (or bunny slippers – if you know you know) and inhabit the role he originated over 40 years ago. Directed by the fabulous Evren Odcikin, we run May 9th – June 2nd. A video preview of the show can be found here. Tickets and more information can be found here. Reviews below:

Here’s what the critics had to say about my performance:

“Dean Linnard as Arnold delivers a commanding, tour de force performance in Marin Theatre’s compelling and captivating staging of Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song … [W]hat we get from this award-worthy performance is a genuine, believable look at the heart and soul, at the hopes and dreams, and at the hurts and angers of a drag queen we quickly come to love.” Eddie Reynolds, Theatre Eddys

“Linnard’s standout performance masterfully portrays Arnold’s loneliness and struggle to gain respect and honesty with cunning wit and exaggerated humor.” Patricia L. Morin, Front Row Review

“As Arnold, Dean Linnard is pitch perfect. His performance is compelling, deftly mixing hilarity and pathos—and every moment with him rings true.” Otto Coelho, Theatrestorm

“Bay Area native Linnard is amazing in his portrayal of the lovelorn Arnold … Linnard is tall and lean, which has him looking amazing in the drag queen’s gorgeous sequined gowns … Watching Linnard’s “Arnie” evolve is worth the price of admission.” Chuck Louden, Stage and Cinema

“Linnard delightfully depicts Arnold as a melancholy torch singer. He’s a gay revolutionary who simply wants to be a good parent. Linnard’s Arnold, a masterwork of complex comedy, is also a call to arms.” Barry David Horwitz, Theatrius

“Brilliantly channeling this funny, cynical, and often bitter character is Dean Linnard, an award-winning actor making his Marin Theatre debut. And what a debut it is – Linnard is captivating every moment he’s onstage and carries the weight of the production with an incandescent performance.” Steve Murray, Broadwayworld

“Making his Marin Theatre debut, Linnard shines in a quilted green bathrobe as the ever anxious Arnold Beckoff. Delivering his lines with a hint of Fierstein’s raspy Brooklyn baritone, Linnard’s Arnold is a force to behold as he navigates his way through a world that seemingly has no place for him … Presented with boundless energy, deft comic timing, and plenty of pathos, the heat of Fierstein’s words continues to burn bright in the capable hands of a cast that continually rises to the challenge of bringing to life this zany, substantive meditation on the gay experience.” Zack Ruskin, San Francisco Chronicle

I’m currently playing MAX in Portland Stage Company’s production of “The Play That Goes Wrong” here in beautiful Portland, Maine. It’s a joy to clown around with this incredible cast of fools, with the incomparable director Kevin R. Free at the helm. We run through February 25th; more info and tickets here.

Asolo Rep, a West Coast Premiere, and more! 2023 has been a thrilling year of creative adventures: I spent a season as part of the repertory company of Asolo Rep in Sarasota, Florida, performing in “The Three Musketeers” and “Chicken & Biscuits”. I played the title role in a staged reading of Euripides’ ancient Greek play “Ion” at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, directed by Carey Perloff. And I played Kit Marlowe in Aurora Theatre Company‘s West Coast Premiere of Liz Duffy Adams’ play “Born With Teeth”, which was recently named by the San Francisco Chronicle as one of the Top 10 Theatre Productions of 2023. Here’s what San Fransisco Chronicle Theatre critic Lily Janiak had to say about my performance in her best theater of the year article:

“We Bay Area theater mavens have long noted the exceptional promise shown by actor and Berkeley native Dean Linnard — in “Groundhog Day” at San Francisco Playhouse, in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at California Shakespeare Theater. But Aurora Theatre Company’s West Coast premiere of Liz Duffy Adams’ two-hander, imagining the collaboration by William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe on the “Henry VI” trilogy, established him as a star. He sharpened every line of already taut dialogue, showing how each beat was an attack, a faux retreat, a come-on, a baring, a garrisoning. A play became a dance.” Lily Janiak, San Francisco Chronicle

I have deep appreciation for the above companies for being my artistic homes over this past year. As for 2024? Oooo mama, there are some exciting things in store. Watch this space …

I’m currently one half of the two-person play “Born With Teeth” at Aurora Theatre Company in California. I’m playing Kit Marlowe opposite the great Brady Morales-Woolery as Shakespeare. We are the second production ever of this glorious play (following its world premiere at the Alley and Guthrie), and it’s been an absolute privilege to work with director Josh Costello and playwright Liz Duffy Adams. We run September 1st – October 1st. Tickets for both in person and virtual streamed performances can be found here.

Here’s what the critics had to say about my performance:

”Dean Linnard is magnetic as Marlowe, volatile, overbearing, bawdy, self-aggrandizing, seductive and combative. He’s also feverish, rocket-fueled with nervous energy … Shakespeare and Marlowe are irresistible. Every moment between the two is electrically charged, whether with danger, sexual tension or just writers lingering lovingly on language. It’s a wonderfully funny, sexy and suspenseful play that’s thrilling from beginning to end.” Sam Hurwitt, The Mercury News

“Aurora’s two actors effortlessly wring every morsel of comedy and inner angst from the tightly woven script … Dean Linnard as the already-famous Kit stalks his prey, taking full possession of the room.” Jean Schiffman, Local News Matters

“Kit, played with a delicious venom by Linnard, is very much the aggressor in this dyad … Both actors give gripping, energetic, thrilling performances. They use the stage almost like a boxing ring, circling each other, stalking each other, testing the other’s limits over and over again.” Patrick Thomas, Talkin’ Broadway

“The two actors are magnetic … Linnard, as Marlowe, churns out torrents of feelings, switching personalities like a schizophrenic on speed … “Born With Teeth” rekindles our passion for theater and poetry.” Patricia L. Morin, Theatrius

“If you’ve seen Dean Linnard perform at Cal Shakes, San Francisco Playhouse or elsewhere, you can probably still picture his wildly eloquent eyes. They flicker, flash and blaze. Whatever they’re conveying on the surface, there’s always something more roiling underneath … In “Born With Teeth,” … Linnard has a show that gives full expression to his artistic prowess. As the imperious and mercurial Kit Marlowe, Linnard whirls like a dervish, lets whole weather systems pass across his face and swaggers like a rock star … In one pregnant pause, when Kit assesses whether Will’s worth more to him as collaborator or hunted bounty, it’s almost as if silently, without moving a muscle, Linnard morphs from bad-boy writer to inquisitor, torturer and executioner, then back again … When Linnard delivers actual “Henry VI” lines, he’s like a sorcerer who’s at last gotten his magic staff.” Lily Janiak, San Francisco Chronicle

I am currently in Sarasota, Florida performing in two shows at Asolo Repertory Theatre. I’m playing Porthos in “The Three Musketeers” directed by Peter Amster, and Logan in “Chicken & Biscuits” directed by Bianca LaVerne Jones. The two shows run in rep through April. Tickets and more information can be found here.

 

“Tambo & Bones” at Playwrights Horizons, “Octet” at Berkeley Rep … it’s been an extraordinary year! In the Winter, I had the immense good fortune to perform in the world premiere of Dave Harris’ play “Tambo & Bones” at Playwrights Horizons Off-Broadway. Then I headed West for the out-of-town tryout of Dave Malloy’s musical “Octet” at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. I ended the year playing Lemml in Paula Vogel’s masterpiece “Indecent” at San Francisco Playhouse. I am so grateful to these incredible companies for being my artistic homes in 2022. On to the New Year!

I just finished playing Lemml in Paula Vogel’s exquisite play “Indecent” at San Francisco Playhouse in California. The show was the best reviewed production in San Francisco Playhouse’s 20 year history.

Here’s what the critics had to say about my performance:

 

“The linchpin of Vogel’s historical melodrama is Lemml, played by the unforgettable Dean Linnard … Linnard physically embodies the Jewish story—personally and politically—in a stunning performance.” Barry David Horwitz, Theatrius

 

“I loved the cast. Scratch that. I adored the cast. Every damn one of them. Dean Linnard is something close to perfection: spectacularly wide-eyed as the youthful Lemml, thrilled to be a part of theatre even in the smallest way, yet gritty and filled with righteous anger when he feels betrayed.” Patrick Thomas, Talkin’ Broadway 

 

“Lemml the stage manager is really the heart and soul of the play … Dean Linnard exudes intensity as Lemml, unfailingly kind, seemingly selfless and quietly zealous about this one particular play … Even in his most jubilant moments, there’s a haunted quality about Linnard’s Lemml, a melancholy lurking beneath the surface that foreshadows sorrows to come.” Sam Hurwitt, The Mercury News 

 

“Dean Linnard as a stage manager in both the play and the meta-play could tell the show’s whole story with just his expressive eyes. They are the smoldering coals of a furnace, then hollowed-out skull pits, then gleaming electric bulbs. When as an immigrant at last rejecting America’s false promises, he spits out each word of the sentence “I am done being in a country that laughs at the way I speak” as if each English word uttered is also a weapon against himself.” Lily Janiak, San Francisco Chronicle

 

Dave Malloy’s brilliant chamber choir musical “Octet” played Berkeley Rep and I had the great fortune to understudy two roles … and go on for several performances! It was a joy and an honor to sing with the exquisite cast.

I also got to sing the national anthem with the “Octet” cast before a San Francisco Giants game! Check out the full video of us singing here.

“Octet” was a wondrous experience and I’m so grateful for everyone involved.

I was just nominated for a San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for my performance in Cal Shakes’ 2021 production of “The Winter’s Tale”. Our production was nominated for Best Costume Design, Best Set Design, Best Entire Production, and I was nominated for Best Featured Performance – Comedy along with the brilliant Phil Wong. An honor to be nominated alongside by brilliant comedic partner!