Dane Eissler (they/he/it) is a Barrymore-nominated theater maker, visual artist, and educator based in Philadelphia, PA.

After making his professional acting debut in BRAT Productions’ The Last Plot in Revenge (directed by Obie-winner John Clancy), Dane graduated from Rowan University with a BA in Theatre and immediately began working professionally in Philadelphia, notably co-directing the sleeper hit Stairs to the Roof with Lane Savadove at EgoPo Classic Theater and performing in Azuka Theatre’s Speech & Debate. 

Upon relocating to Chicago, Dane co-founded A Dead Whale Productions, where he served as Artistic Director while producing, writing, designing, directing, and performing in original productions such as his plays Forever Fetal, Apocalypse Twins, and I Love You, Jane Doe, Tyler Garamella’s Hog’sBelly: A Fable Noir, and the devised The Slather & Gibbs Show: LIVE, which toured to Mt. Carmel, IL and had a primetime run at The Annoyance Theatre. Dane also worked with The Whiskey Rebellion Theatre, Gorilla Tango Theatre, Living Room Vauntgardia, Rough House Theater, Windy City Performs, Women of the Now, and MTV- and SAG-nominated comedian Megan Stalter’s Freakfest. During this time, Dane continued working with EgoPo in Philly, adapting and directing Gogol’s The Nose, playing Medvedenko in the Barrymore-winning The Seagull, and associate directing and performing in the world premiere of John Guare’s full Lydie Breeze Trilogy.

Dane returned to Philadelphia to serve EgoPo Classic Theater as Associate (and later, Artistic) Producer, where he directed Shepard's Buried Child, co-created and directed UND3RGR0UND (a virtual adaptation of Dostoyevsky) with Damien J. Wallace, production designed a window walk-up production of Beckett's Rockaby for one audience member at a time, adapted and directed Alice: not your child's wonderland, and co-directed the Barrymore-nominated world premiere theatrical staging of Langston Hughes' The Ways of White Folks with Ontaria Kim Wilson.

Dane has since returned to full-time freelance work. While he no longer works in the office, Dane is currently leading season curation of EgoPo’s 2024-2025 Queer Revolutions Season, where he will direct Charles Ludlam & Bill Vehr’s Turds in Hell. Dane also serves as Adjunct Professor at his alma mater, teaching Experiencing Acting, Contemporary World Theater, Avant Garde Performance: History, Theory, and Practice, and a seminar of his own creation, Queer Theater (1920s-2020s). Dane is a recipient of the 2024 Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts, with which he studied puppetry with Papermoon Puppet Theatre in Indonesia, and is a member of the Trans+ Virtual Centre of Excellence, an international inter/transdisiplinary trans+ research and advocacy group. Dane is currently pursuing his PhD in Creative Research from Transart Institute, in partnership with Liverpool John Moores University (UK).