Skip to main content
Department ofTheatre and Dance

Brian Thorstenson

Brian Thorstenson

Teaching Professor

Brian Thorstenson is a San Francisco based writer, teacher and occasional performer. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. Brian was a founding member of The Z Collective and one of the first resident artists of the Z Space. He is an alumni of the Resident Playwright Program of the Playwrights Foundation and one of the founding members of 6NewPlays.

Brutocao Teaching Award 2023 recipient Brian Thorstenson with SCU President and Provosts

Brian received the 2023 Louis and Dorina Brutocao Award for Teaching Excellence and is the 2023-2025 Sinatra Chair in the Performing Arts.

 

 

 

Reflections on cura personalis and Ignatian pedagogy with other SCU faculty.

 

 

 

 

Select Scholarship Credits

Cheetah Biscotti, Mudd and Saharia Vetsch in Detour Dance's 'We Build Houses Here' (photo: Robbie Sweeny)

We Build Houses Here (2023), playwright. Detour

 

 

 

A drag performer with 2 lit red candles and red shawl

 

The Twilight Aristocracy (2024), playwright. Detour

 

 

 

 

Wakefield, actor and playwright (2018). 6NewPlays

 

 

 

 

 

Weather to Whether, playwright (2015). Erin Mei-Ling Stuart/EmSpace

Left image is of a shirtless man with fists up facing a man in a beanie and windbreaker; right image is a close-up of 2 men in see-through ponchos - than man with glasses has the poncho hood up, the other man is bald with a beard

 

L to R: Brian Thorstenson, Christy Funsch, Rowena Richie, Chris Black

Dearly Gathered, writer and performer (2017). Created with San Francisco-based artists Rowena Richie, Christy Funsch and Chris Black


 

24 Postcards, writer and performer (2023)

2 men stand on the left and 1 man stands on the left of a large room with cream walls, a wooden roof and grey tiled floor.  There's a bench on the right and modern art on the far wall.

Created with Palm Springs-based visual artist Tim Gleason and London-based choreographer Stephen Pelton (Obras Foundation, Estremoz, Portugal)

Tuesday, playwright (2006). Stephen Pelton Dance Theatre

 




 

Select Publications

The Santa Clara Wind Phone, Center for the Arts and Humanities blog (May 9, 2023)

A Movement of the Spirit, for Dancer’s Group published by In Dance (Sept 27, 2022)

Published Poems

Today, LAMDA Literary (Dec 1, 2015)

Trip No3, Burning House Press (Sept 29, 2019)

Current Work

Artist studio with black and white art on the walls, lit by a digital project on a table and screen hung on a wall, with cables on the floor and 2 chairs

The Road Trip Project: Parts One, Two and Three. A series of devised installations and performances.

 

 

 

The Orchard, playwright.  A solo play created with actress Anne Darragh and director David Ford.

Courses

Playwriting
Advanced Playwriting
Literature and Performance
Devised Theater Workshop
New Playwrights’ Festival
Social Justice and the Arts
Mainstage Production Director

Devised Theater productions at SCU

Collage of 5 photos of SCU devised theater productions: top left

Welcome to Claradise (2017)     |     love_stories (2019)
Pushing into the Blue (2021)     |     and carry what lingers (2023)

Follow us on Instagram   Brian's Instagram

New Play Exchange logo   Brian's New Plays Exchange