Carla Milarch

Carla Milarch

Carla Milarch is a former Artistic Director of the award-winning Performance Network Theatre, whose passion for new plays led her to found Theatre NOVA. As a dramaturg, director and artistic director, she has brought over 25 brand new plays to world premieres, as well as hundreds to staged readings, including those at the Michigan Playwrights Festival, the Fireside New Play Festival, the National New Play...
Carla Milarch is a former Artistic Director of the award-winning Performance Network Theatre, whose passion for new plays led her to found Theatre NOVA. As a dramaturg, director and artistic director, she has brought over 25 brand new plays to world premieres, as well as hundreds to staged readings, including those at the Michigan Playwrights Festival, the Fireside New Play Festival, the National New Play Network (NNPN) National Showcase of New Plays, and the Kennedy Center's MFA playwright's showcase. She served as a board member on the NNPN for 10 years, and co-founded the Michigan Equity Theatre Alliance, on which she served as Board President from 2011-2014. Some awards include “Best Overall Season/Artistic Direction” from the Oakland Press, “Outstanding Contributions to an Ensemble” from The Detroit Free Press, “Most Valuable Performer” from the Oakland Press, and the Between the Lines “Angel” award for outstanding contributions to the LGBT community, as well as numerous awards for acting and direction. Carla started her career as an actress. By her early teens, Carla's love for the arts flourished and she was accepted to the world-famous Interlochen Arts Academy in the acting department. Carla’s love and experience for both sides of the stage have taken her from producing theater at The Barn Theater in Port Sanilac Michigan, to co-founding a theater in Amarillo, TX with her Purchase classmates, to working at MiraMax Films in New York City, to helping establish Performance Network as an artistic leader in Michigan, to producing theater in a barn again, this time in the middle of a world class city, at Theatre NOVA.

As a playwright, Carla writing children's plays, moved to writing Pantos, and now writes full length plays and musicals. All of the plays on NPX are available to license by contacting her directly at carlamilarch@gmail.com

Plays

  • Doctor Moloch
    It’s 2029, and tech startup VitalAI is about to launch the first humanoid robot doctor, capable of personalized medicines and single-cell cancer detection. There’s only one problem: the good doctor has no empathy. When actress Serena Blaise arrives to teach him how to “be human,” she gets much more than she bargained for.

    This play was a finalist for the NNPN Showcase of New Plays, 2024, but was...
    It’s 2029, and tech startup VitalAI is about to launch the first humanoid robot doctor, capable of personalized medicines and single-cell cancer detection. There’s only one problem: the good doctor has no empathy. When actress Serena Blaise arrives to teach him how to “be human,” she gets much more than she bargained for.

    This play was a finalist for the NNPN Showcase of New Plays, 2024, but was pulled from consideration when a second production was secured.
  • Pants!
    George and Martha always struggle at the Mendenhall's annual garden party. Bugs, social anxiety, derivative art in the sculpture gardens... but when Honey and Nick arrive and George spills beer all over his pants, things take a turn for the even-worse. A fast-paced, comedic homage to "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf."
  • Splattered! by Carla Milarch and Hal Davis
    It is evening at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, where old friends, cousins, and lovers - Sylvie, Astrid, and Justin - gather at a wedding reception. Seminarian Justin sneaks off to be alone in Gallery 406, where he encounters Jackson Pollock’s famous splatter painting One: Number 31, 1950. As the painting mesmerizes him, Pollock’s ghost emerges to challenge some of Justin's most fundamental beliefs,...
    It is evening at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, where old friends, cousins, and lovers - Sylvie, Astrid, and Justin - gather at a wedding reception. Seminarian Justin sneaks off to be alone in Gallery 406, where he encounters Jackson Pollock’s famous splatter painting One: Number 31, 1950. As the painting mesmerizes him, Pollock’s ghost emerges to challenge some of Justin's most fundamental beliefs, divulging stories, and secrets of Pollock's turbulent life. Meanwhile, Astrid and Sylvie come and go, appealing to Justin to join the party, as conflicts from their past bubble back to the surface, prompting Justin to question his choices and his chosen future.
  • The Life of the Bee (A Musical in Three Songs)
    After 15 year-old Beatrice's bee-keeping grandfather passes away, she wanders through his garden, longing for companionship. When she falls asleep next to a buzzing beehive, the bees come to life, singing songs about their lives, Bea's grandfather, and nature's brutal truths.