Full Bio

David J. Valdez is a Tampa-based director, playwright, and educator whose work centers emotionally charged storytelling, theatrical imagery, and the fragile ways people seek connection with one another. Drawn to stories that live at the intersection of intimacy and survival, his work frequently explores queerness, grief, memory, and the tension between tenderness and self-preservation.

As a director, David’s productions have ranged from contemporary drama and political theatre to large-scale musicals and devised work. Recent directing credits include I, Banquo at Jobsite Theater Company, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui and Alice by Heart at the University of South Florida, Steel Magnolias and The Glass Menagerie at Carrollwood Cultural Center, and RENT and The Normal Heart at Carrollwood Players. His production of The Normal Heart was recognized by BroadwayWorld as one of Tampa Bay’s “Top 10 Most Powerful Productions of 2021.” In 2025, he was named runner-up for Favorite Stage Director by Creative Loafing. His work has been praised for its visual imagination, emotional precision, and ensemble-driven storytelling.

As a playwright, David’s work explores the quiet bravery required to choose connection. His plays often center people standing at the edge of emotional isolation, reckoning with grief, memory, queerness, shame, and the complicated tenderness of being truly seen. With an intimate, restrained style, his writing is drawn to what remains unspoken between people: the pauses, old wounds, and small gestures that reveal how deeply we need one another. His plays Secrets Hurt Less, Learn to Live, and The Things We Keep have been selected for development and presentation nationwide, including the Association for Theatre in Higher Education’s New Play Development Workshop and The Road Theatre Company’s Summer Playwrights Festival in Los Angeles.

In addition to his directing and writing work, David serves as an instructor at the University of South Florida School of Theatre & Dance, where he teaches courses in theatre appreciation, communication, and artistic collaboration. He holds an MFA in Theatre from Florida State University and is an Associate Member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC).