Kara Lee Corthron

Kara Lee Corthron

Kara Lee Corthron’s plays include ALICEGRACEANON (New Georges); HOLLY DOWN IN HEAVEN (Forum Theatre, DC area); LISTEN FOR THE LIGHT (Know Theatre of Cincinnati); JULIUS BY DESIGN, and WELCOME TO FEAR CITY (Kilroys’ List 2016, CATF 2017). Kara is also the author of the young-adult novel THE TRUTH OF RIGHT NOW available now from Simon & Schuster/Simon Pulse. Awards/Honors: member of New Dramatists (class of...
Kara Lee Corthron’s plays include ALICEGRACEANON (New Georges); HOLLY DOWN IN HEAVEN (Forum Theatre, DC area); LISTEN FOR THE LIGHT (Know Theatre of Cincinnati); JULIUS BY DESIGN, and WELCOME TO FEAR CITY (Kilroys’ List 2016, CATF 2017). Kara is also the author of the young-adult novel THE TRUTH OF RIGHT NOW available now from Simon & Schuster/Simon Pulse. Awards/Honors: member of New Dramatists (class of 2022), 2014-2015 Naked Angels/New School Issues Project Resident Playwright, Boomerang Fund for Artists Grant, Berkeley Rep 2014 Ground Floor Lab Residency, 2012-2014 Women’s Project Lab Time Warner Foundation Fellowship, The Vineyard Theatre’s 3rd Annual Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, the Princess Grace Award, two NEA grants, the Helen Merrill Award, Lincoln Center’s Lecomte du Nouy Prize (three-time recipient), the Theodore Ward Prize, the New Professional Theatre Writers Award, four MacDowell fellowships, residencies at Skriðuklaustur (Iceland), Djerassi, Hawthornden (Scotland), the Millay Colony, and Ledig House, and Fulcrum Theater (a company Kara helped launch with its inaugural production) received a 2013 Obie Grant. Her work has been sometimes produced and mostly developed at places like the African Continuum Theatre (DC), Ars Nova, Atlantic Theater Company, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Berkeley Rep, CenterStage (Baltimore), Electric Pear, EST, Haulbowline Theatre Group (Cork, Ireland), Horizon Theatre (Atlanta), the Kennedy Center, LAByrinth, Midtown Direct Rep, Naked Angels, New Dramatists, New Georges, The Orchard Project, P73, Penumbra, PlayPenn, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference (Guest Artist, 2012), South Coast Rep, TheatreWorks (Palo Alto), the Vineyard Theatre, Voice & Vision, and the Women’s Project. TV: writer for NBC’s “Kings” (2008-2009). She has taught at various institutions including Primary Stages Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA), Ohio University, NYU-Tisch, Playwrights Horizons Theatre School, and Temple University. Juilliard alumna, New Georges Affiliated Artist, and member of Interstate 73 (2007-2008), the Ars Nova Play Group (2010-2011), ‘Wright On! Playwrights Group (co-founder), the Dramatists Guild, and the Writers Guild of America.

*Photo credit: Jody Christopherson for Necessary Exposure: The Female Playwright Project.*

Plays

  • What Are You Worth? by Kara Lee Corthron
    Recommendations: 5
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    Cast: 
    4–5
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 3 more
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    Keyword: slavery, satire + 4 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, fantasy, period, satire
    Keyword: slavery, satire, African American, History, bondage, morality
    Value. A definition: the regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something. Have you ever thought about your value? Follow a ragtag group of friends/lovers/slaves/slavers as they grapple with the meaning of human value through 800 years of people owning other people.
  • Welcome to Fear City by Kara Lee Corthron
    Recommendations: 6
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    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 4 more
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    Keyword: hip hop, African American + 8 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, period, political, satire
    Keyword: hip hop, African American, 1977, New York City history, arson, talking rat, South Bronx, fire, metatheatrical, ensemble
    It is July 1977 and the South Bronx is HOT: from a heat wave, from this new thing that would come to be known as “hip-hop,” and from an astounding number of fires burning the borough to the ground. E, a young African-American man, dreams of being a poet, but unemployment, a raging fiscal crisis, and a family on the brink of disaster drive him to ask a dangerous question: Can you love your ‘hood if you take part...
    It is July 1977 and the South Bronx is HOT: from a heat wave, from this new thing that would come to be known as “hip-hop,” and from an astounding number of fires burning the borough to the ground. E, a young African-American man, dreams of being a poet, but unemployment, a raging fiscal crisis, and a family on the brink of disaster drive him to ask a dangerous question: Can you love your ‘hood if you take part in its destruction? WELCOME TO FEAR CITY is about a community trying to get by in the midst of crime, social apathy, poverty, and a whole new art form that’s about to electrify the world.
  • Listen for the Light by Kara Lee Corthron
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: biography, drama + 3 more
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    Keyword: History, African American + 7 more
    Genre: biography, drama, faith-based, period, political
    Keyword: History, African American, Mormon, ensemble, feminist, religious doubts, Antebellum period, coming of age, spirituality
    A brilliant former slave with a tragic past questions his faith. A rock star of his time fights his inner and outer demons. A precocious, gun-loving young woman locked in a room reluctantly awaits word from God. It’s 1844 and in the small town of Nauvoo, Illinois, Joseph Smith—Mormon prophet—rules all. Or so he believes.
  • Time and a Half by Kara Lee Corthron
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    9
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 3 more
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    Keyword: christmas, 20-somethings + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, holiday, political
    Keyword: christmas, 20-somethings, economy, class, small town America, red state
    Is there enough time or far too much of it? Join the Lucky Daze team for the end of the last shift on Christmas Eve and you can decide. It's your one-stop shop for last-minute holiday savings!
  • AliceGraceAnon by Kara Lee Corthron
    Recommendations: 8
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    Cast: 
    6–20
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    Genre: comedy, experimental + 1 more
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    Keyword: Grace Slick, psychedelic + 6 more
    Genre: comedy, experimental, fantasy
    Keyword: Grace Slick, psychedelic, Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll, Go Ask Alice, Jefferson Airplane, 1960s, feminist
    A curious girl who falls down a rabbit hole. The lead singer of an iconic ‘60s rock band. The poor, nameless star of a classic druggie diary. Three oddly connected heroines inhabit three separate worlds, playing out their stories pretty much as expected, but when those worlds collide—we mean really, they collide—they will all start to wonder “Who's really controlling my destiny?”
  • Holly Down in Heaven by Kara Lee Corthron
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    4–12
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
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    Keyword: African American, puppets + 5 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, fantasy
    Keyword: African American, puppets, Dolls, Carol Channing, spoiled children, teen pregnancy, coming of age
    Holly collects dolls. Holly is a born-again Christian. Holly is a fifteen-year-old, brainy, outspoken, spoiled, tyrannical brat. She's also pregnant. During her nine-month odyssey, she must find a way to move forward with the new life she’s landed in or remain forever hidden in her own special heaven . . . of talking dolls. A dark comedy about navigating the treacherous terrain from child to adult.
  • Julius by Design by Kara Lee Corthron
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: African-American family, Juvenile Court System
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: African-American family, Juvenile Court System
    Jo and her husband struggle to cope with the violent death of their teenage son, but when his murderer contacts Jo seven years after the crime, she is sent on an unexpected and challenging journey toward forgiveness.
  • Etched in Skin on a Sunlit Night by Kara Lee Corthron
    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: drama, fantasy + 3 more
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    Keyword: African American, financial crisis + 7 more
    Genre: drama, fantasy, horror, mystery/thriller, period
    Keyword: African American, financial crisis, Iceland, magical realism, radicalism, Sigur Rós, post-rock, Obama, secrets and lies
    Jules, an African-American painter has fled the U.S. under ambiguous circumstances and embraced a whole new life and family in Iceland. It's 2008 and Obama Fever, Iceland’s economic meltdown, the appearance of a shocking children’s book, a post-rocking Loki-type being, and a mysterious visitor unearth the demons of Jules’ past and shake her sense of racial and personal identity.