The Story
Built for the
stage.
Dan Dunning is a tenor and storyteller from Texas with a singular pursuit: to make audiences feel something they didn't expect to feel. Standing 6'4" with a voice that fills the back row, he approaches every role — Jack Kelly, Orpheus, Dewey Finn — as a chance to give the audience something honest.
Currently in his BFA Theatre Performance program at Baylor University, Dan splits his life between rehearsal rooms, recording sessions, and the stages where he learned what live performance can do.
The Journey
From Texas stages to the next ones
Dan's first role taught him the only lesson that matters: the audience is never the audience — they're collaborators. Since then he's played leads from Mary Poppins' Bert at CYT Dallas to Dewey Finn in School of Rock, understudied Percy Jackson at Casa Mañana, and originated work at Baylor's professional theatre program. Each step is a deliberate move toward Broadway.
Training
Discipline behind the spark
At Baylor, Dan studies under Steven Pounders, John-Michael Marrs, Sam Henderson, and Brandon Sterrett. His voice is shaped by Cody Dry, Larry Miller, and Lauren Mikeal Weber. He's danced with Meredith Sutton and Valerie Warnock, and worked in masterclass with Kara Lindsay, Gavin Lee, Adam Kaplan, Will Mann, Tyla Watson, and Tommy Bracco. The training is the bedrock — the performance is the leap.
Inspirations
The actors who keep him honest
Dan is drawn to performers who refuse to flatten themselves — the ones whose interior lives bleed through every choice. From Jeremy Jordan's vulnerability to Reeve Carney's restraint, his references span musical theatre, film, and live concert work. Music itself is a constant inspiration: he plays guitar, bass, banjo, and mandolin at an advanced level, and that musicianship lives inside everything he performs.
Beyond the Stage
The life that feeds the work
Off-stage, Dan is a carpenter, a tap dancer, a bowler, and a tandem cyclist. He believes the things you do with your hands sharpen the things you do with your heart. He's chasing a Broadway career — but the long game is bigger: a life in storytelling, in any form that lets him keep making people feel something unforgettable.