Karen Hartman

Karen Hartman

Karen Hartman’s work launched VOLT at 59e59 Theaters in 2022, an unprecedented festival of three simultaneous off-Broadway premieres by a single author: NEW GOLDEN AGE (Primary Stages, Susan Smith Blackburn Finalist); THE LUCKY STAR (The Directors Company); and GOLDIE, MAX & MILK (MBL Productions). Also in 2022, the musical RATTLESNAKE KATE, book by Hartman, score by Neyla Pekarek, won eight Henry Awards...
Karen Hartman’s work launched VOLT at 59e59 Theaters in 2022, an unprecedented festival of three simultaneous off-Broadway premieres by a single author: NEW GOLDEN AGE (Primary Stages, Susan Smith Blackburn Finalist); THE LUCKY STAR (The Directors Company); and GOLDIE, MAX & MILK (MBL Productions). Also in 2022, the musical RATTLESNAKE KATE, book by Hartman, score by Neyla Pekarek, won eight Henry Awards including Best New Play or Musical. Some of Hartman’s many works include: GOOD FAITH: FOUR CHATS ABOUT RACE AND THE NEW HAVEN FIRE DEPARTMENT (Yale Repertory Theater), ROZ AND RAY (McKnight Fellowship, Edgerton New Play Prize, Kilroy’s List), PROJECT DAWN (NEA Art Works Grant, NNPN Rolling World Premiere, currently in development for television), LEAH'S TRAIN (National Asian American Theater Company, Weissberger Award Finalist), GIRL UNDER GRAIN (Best Drama in NY Fringe), and GUM. Her prose has appeared in the New York Times and the Washington Post. A recent Guggenheim Fellow and former Fulbright Scholar, Hodder Fellow, and New Dramatist, Hartman served as Senior Artist-in-Residence at University of Washington School of Drama for five years, and lives in Brooklyn with her family. She wrote the book for ALICE BLISS (music: Jenny Giering, lyrics: Adam Gwon, based on Laura Harrington's novel) which won the 2019 Weston-Ghostlight New Musical Award and will premiere at TheatreWorks in 2023. www.karenhartman.org

Plays

  • Women and Nonbinary Monologue Project
    Please enjoy monologues for women/ nonbinary performers - for free on my website https://www.karenhartman.org/monologues-for-women.html
  • Project Dawn
    Philadelphia is home to a revolutionary – and shockingly funny - treatment court for prostitute women. In Project Dawn, seven actresses double as a staff members and court participants, probing the thin lines between freedom and slavery, activism and obsession, on both sides of the law.

    "One of the very best productions of the season. It’s a big moment as play and as theatrical entertainment...
    Philadelphia is home to a revolutionary – and shockingly funny - treatment court for prostitute women. In Project Dawn, seven actresses double as a staff members and court participants, probing the thin lines between freedom and slavery, activism and obsession, on both sides of the law.

    "One of the very best productions of the season. It’s a big moment as play and as theatrical entertainment."
    - Philadelphia Inquirer
  • Roz and Ray
    San Diego, 1976. Ray, a newly single father of twin hemophiliac boys, meets Roz, a hematologist in possession of miracle drug Factor 8. Roz seems to be Ray’s savior -- until the miracle goes bad. A fifteen-year tale of two adults growing up, ROZ AND RAY is a love story you've never heard before.
  • SuperTrue
    SuperTrue
    A tale for Two Humans and a Puppet

    On the porch of an almost-charming cabin in the Catskills, two New Yorkers reckon with the moment when Plan A fades away but Plan B has not emerged. In other words, they're turning forty. How will they make a new truth?

    (On the 2015 KILROYS LIST of most recommended new plays by women and transgender authors.)

    ...
    SuperTrue
    A tale for Two Humans and a Puppet

    On the porch of an almost-charming cabin in the Catskills, two New Yorkers reckon with the moment when Plan A fades away but Plan B has not emerged. In other words, they're turning forty. How will they make a new truth?

    (On the 2015 KILROYS LIST of most recommended new plays by women and transgender authors.)

    Casting:
    Janelle (40), White.
    Martin (40) Any ethnicity but white. He was raised by white parents.
    Dulce (10), a puppet.