Kristin Carlson

Kristin Carlson

Kristin (K.D.) Carlson is an award-winning Colorado playwright and recipient of a Dramatists Guild WriteChange scholarship. Her play about marriage equality, "Unmarried in America," is in development for film with AEC studios. Her work has been featured at the Chicago Snapshots Festival and the Playwrights of the Western Region Showcase and produced in theatres across the U.S.

Plays

  • Beyond Reason by Kristin Carlson
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: psychology, philosophy + 8 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, period
    Keyword: psychology, philosophy, History, feminism, women's issues, Clairvoyance, Psychic abilities, women's intuition, Halloween play, Alice James
    It’s 1886, and the father of American psychology, William James, has invited two mediums, with radically different methods, to his home for a weekend of psychic investigation. While he is intent on employing scientific methods to measure the immeasurable, the women he’s assembled (including his wife and maid) pursue a mission of their own — to express personal agency and claim independence of body, mind, and...
    It’s 1886, and the father of American psychology, William James, has invited two mediums, with radically different methods, to his home for a weekend of psychic investigation. While he is intent on employing scientific methods to measure the immeasurable, the women he’s assembled (including his wife and maid) pursue a mission of their own — to express personal agency and claim independence of body, mind, and spirit within their tightly circumscribed lives.
  • Physics for Poets by Kristin Carlson
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: drama
    ·
    Keyword: women in art, poetry + 7 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: women in art, poetry, physics, science and the arts, hauntings, dead poets, William Blake, language arts, higher education
    A graduate student questions the value of the PhD she is pursuing after a supernatural encounter with the dead poet William Blake. Before the clock runs out on the deadline for her dissertation, she must decide who she is — and who she wants to be. Does she abandon her shining academic career? Or does she stay the course and risk being haunted forever by the poet she might have been?
  • Unmarried in America by Kristin Carlson
    Cast: 
    9–19
    ·
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: Proposition 8, Prop 8 + 6 more
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama, political
    Keyword: Proposition 8, Prop 8, LGBTQ, marriage equality, the right to marry, gay marriage, social justice, gender politics
    The court of public opinion is always in session. When a court reporter who transcribes the Prop 8 Trial hears the impassioned testimony of the plaintiffs and witnesses in the case, she begins to question her own casual and intimate relationships and to reassess the laws and cultural norms that have kept so many people “Unmarried in America.”
  • Eudora's Box by Kristin Carlson
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama
    ·
    Keyword: dementia, aging + 6 more
    Genre: comedy, drama
    Keyword: dementia, aging, family dynamics, Alzheimer's Disease, adult children, memory, memory loss, perception
    Mom had a secret. Now, her family has a problem. When aging patriarch, Pop, shows the first symptoms of early-onset Alzheimer’s, his three adult children swoop in to plan his future. As his memory wanes, he grows desperate to find a box belonging to his deceased wife, Eudora. The more he searches, the more his kids become determined to keep the box hidden.
  • Captain POW and the Climate Change Challenge! by Kristin Carlson
    Cast: 
    2–3
    ·
    Genre: young audiences
    ·
    Keyword: environment, climate change + 4 more
    Genre: young audiences
    Keyword: environment, climate change, activism, kids, climate heroes, superheroes
    The Climate Change Challenge pits Captain POW, champion of the environment, against Pollutron, a Co2 spewing consumer with no regard for the earth — until he meets an audience full of cool kids. Captain POW inspires kids ages K-8 to engage in environmental stewardship with wits, humor, and action. The 30-minute performance can be staged at schools, libraries, community centers or other gathering spaces.
  • Interview 2.0 by Kristin Carlson
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy
    ·
    Keyword: Dystopia, absurd + 4 more
    Genre: dark comedy
    Keyword: Dystopia, absurd, political social satire, insurance, and the cost to employees, employment nightmares
    Set in a world where corporations are people and millions are scrambling to find work, the stakes of an online job interview become absurdly high. Designed for high-impact, online production via Zoom or a similar platform.
  • Marginalized by Kristin Carlson
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy
    Genre: dark comedy
    A local bookstore patron discovers notes in the margins of a recently purchased stash of books. Are the notes written by a mysterious, secret soulmate, or has this voracious reader just been outed as a target for a covert anti-intellectual operation designed to rid the world of curious minds? In this dark comedy, grammar may be a life and death matter.
  • Woman of a Certain Age by Kristin Carlson
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, political + 1 more
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    Keyword: gender equality, equal pay + 3 more
    Genre: dark comedy, political, satire
    Keyword: gender equality, equal pay, women's liberation movement, girl power, feminism
    Four women find themselves trapped behind bars, in a strange prison that is nowhere and everywhere. Bickering with one another and battling stereotypes, they strive to escape their confinement — using strategies they've internalized over the ages and eras. But none of the strategies work. Not until they remember the mighty, girl-warriors they used to be and start to make some real noise. Together.
  • Sanctuary by Kristin Carlson
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: political
    ·
    Keyword: immigration, sanctuary churches + 1 more
    Genre: political
    Keyword: immigration, sanctuary churches, refugee
    An elderly German woman falls from a ladder while hanging a church banner. A Colombian man who has been sleeping in a back pew risks discovery and arrest to come to her aid. They have nothing in common. No shared history, or shared language. What they share, they discover, is the fragmented trauma of seeking refuge through immigration to the U.S.