Kitt Lavoie is a director, playwright, and flimmaker. He is the author of 34 produced plays and musical books, which have been seen on stages in New York, across the United States, and on all seven continents around the world (including Antarctica). His plays have been performed in English, Spanish, Hungarian, Norwegian, and Latin.
Plays include "Sabbatical" (Lincoln Center), "[pwnd]" (NYIT Best Original Script nominee), "Good Enough" (finalist, Samuel French Festival), "realer than that" (winner, Samuel French Festival), and "Sunshine" (which premiered in three countries and two languages on the same night), as well as the widely-produced "The Median Line," "Not Entirely Platonic: Variations on a Confession," and "Party Girl."
Published plays include "realer than that" (Samuel French...
Kitt Lavoie is a director, playwright, and flimmaker. He is the author of 34 produced plays and musical books, which have been seen on stages in New York, across the United States, and on all seven continents around the world (including Antarctica). His plays have been performed in English, Spanish, Hungarian, Norwegian, and Latin.
Plays include "Sabbatical" (Lincoln Center), "[pwnd]" (NYIT Best Original Script nominee), "Good Enough" (finalist, Samuel French Festival), "realer than that" (winner, Samuel French Festival), and "Sunshine" (which premiered in three countries and two languages on the same night), as well as the widely-produced "The Median Line," "Not Entirely Platonic: Variations on a Confession," and "Party Girl."
Published plays include "realer than that" (Samuel French) "Bank & Trust" ("Plays for Two", Vintage Press), "Good Enough ("Plays for Three," Vintage Press), "Together Even When We're Not ("Stage It, Stream It: Plays for Virtual Theatre," Applause Books), "And it came to pass in those days..." ("The Collective 10: Volume 3," Collective Press and "HAVOC for the Holidays: 23 heartwarming and heartbreaking holiday plays for grown-ups", American Playwrights Press), "Fine", and "Winter Break" (both "HAVOC for the Holidays," American Playwrights Press).
Kitt’s musical "Kiki Baby" (co-written with Tony-nominee Lonny Price and Grant Sturiale) was awarded the Theater for the American Musical Prize following an acclaimed run at the New York Musical Theater Festival, of which Backstage said “the powerful message and political relevance of this splendid show… should be required viewing for anyone trying to understand our country's current economic crisis” and which the New York Times called “a strange and perversely pleasurable entertainment.”
Kitt produced and co-wrote the acclaimed documentary "Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened" about the creation and aftermath of the original 1981 Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim’s "Merrily We Roll Along" (New York Times’ Ten Best Films of the Year, Newsweek’s Favorite Documentaries of the Year, Playbill's Top Five Theater Documentaries, Evening Standard's Ten Best Arts Documentaries, Esquire’s Twenty Best Documentaries of All Time, Official Selection – New York Film Festival). Also, the narrative film "Rainbow Rabbit Reliant," which Kitt wrote and directed, won multiple acting, directing, audience, and best film awards on the festival circuit.
Kitt has directed more than 150 shows in the United States and Europe, including the original productions of more than seventy plays, as well as countless readings and developmental workshops. Productions include "Lincoln Center Originals: The CRY HAVOC Company" at Lincoln Center, "Stopping Traffic" written and performed by Mary Pat Gleason at the Signature Theatre Company, the Norwegian-language premiere of "All Over Me (How Does It Feel)" by Jerzy Gwiazdowski at Theatre Dramadrivhuset in Oslo, Norway, and The CRY HAVOC Company’s much-lauded production of "Romeo & Juliet" featuring a female Romeo and female Juliet. He was also awarded an SCD Directing Fellowship to work on the Broadway revival of "110 in the Shade" starring Audra McDonald and Steve Kazee.
Kitt is the Artistic Director of the Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival, which focuses on identifying and supporting the development of new plays that feature dynamic, age-appropriate roles for college-aged cast and also on training the next generation of theater artists in the skills and ethics of working on new plays in development and in first productions.
For 22 years, Kitt was the Artistic Director of The CRY HAVOC Company (www.cryhavoccompany.org), a not-for-profit theater company he co-founded in 1997 focused on new play development. His work with playwrights has made him a highly sought-after collaborator on new plays, screenplays, and musicals. As an artistic director, director, and dramaturg, he has been integral to the development of more than 750 new plays which have won multiple awards and been seen in theaters around the world.
Kitt is also a partner in the film, television, and theater production company, Allright Productions, which he co-founded with Lonny Price and Matt Cowart.
Kitt has lectured on acting, writing, and directing at universities across the United States and Europe. He is Assistant Professor of Theatre: Acting and Directing and Coordinator of the Acting and Musical Theatre Performance programs at the Dobbins Conservatory of Theatre and Dance at Southeast Missouri State University and Associate Professor of Acting and Directing at the NSKI Høyskole (the Norwegian Actors College) in Oslo, Norway, and was a member of the Faculty at the New School University College of Performing Arts, School of Drama, in New York City. Also a private acting coach, his students currently appear on Broadway, Off-Broadway, on television, and in major films. He is Executive Producer and host of the biweekly CRY HAVOC Podcast, which focuses on elucidating the craft of acting, directing, and playwriting for an audience of theater artists and theater-goers.
Kitt holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Directing from the Actors Studio Drama School and is a member of the Dramatists Guild (for which he is Regional Representative for St. Louis/Kansas City), the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, and the Stage Directors & Choreographers Society.