Kate Mulley

Kate Mulley

Kate Mulley is an internationally acclaimed playwright, librettist/lyricist, producer, and dramaturg whose work explores gender, power, place and desire through a feminist, and often historical, lens. Her work has been developed and performed on four continents and online by the cell theatre, Home of the Arts, Balcony Arts, The Tank, Hayes Theatre Company, Luna Stage, Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center, Dixon Place...
Kate Mulley is an internationally acclaimed playwright, librettist/lyricist, producer, and dramaturg whose work explores gender, power, place and desire through a feminist, and often historical, lens. Her work has been developed and performed on four continents and online by the cell theatre, Home of the Arts, Balcony Arts, The Tank, Hayes Theatre Company, Luna Stage, Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center, Dixon Place, The Flea, Theatre503 and the Soho Theatre, among others.

Her musical Razorhurst, written with composer Andy Peterson, was commissioned by and had its world premiere at Luna Stage. Razorhurst, which musicalizes the lives of Sydney gang leaders Kate Leigh and Tilly Devine, received its Australian premiere at the Hayes Theatre in Sydney. Outlaw, a musical about the Australian outlaw Ned Kelly written with Andy Peterson, has been developed at Catwalk Art Residency, FORGE Fuel, and Barn Arts Collective and performed at Dixon Place and Dartmouth College. Female Complaints, a musical about Inez Burns, a pre-Roe San Francisco abortionist, written with Tina deVaron, has been developed at Catwalk Art Residency, Soaring Gardens Artist Retreat and VoxLab at Dartmouth College.

Her play The Tutor, originally produced in the New York International Fringe Festival, has been translated into Mandarin and performed at the Shanghai Theatre Academy and the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre and published in Mandarin.

Kate has worked for Columbia University School of the Arts, Playscripts, Inc., Nick Hern Books, Soho Theatre and New York Theatre Workshop and has published headlines in The Onion. She is currently editing a book about the Dramaturgy of Sex on Stage in Contemporary Theater slated to be published by Routledge.

Kate has been an Artist-in-Residence at Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Soaring Gardens Artist Retreat, Corsicana Artist and Writer Residency and Arteles Creative Center (Finland), a Guest Artist at Montclair State University, a Playwriting Fellow at Shanghai Theatre Academy and a Tennessee Williams Scholar at the Sewanee Writers Conference. She graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in Theater and History, received an MA in Writing for Performance at Goldsmiths College, London, and an MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University. Kate is a writing mentor with Girls Write Now and the PEN Prison Writing mentorship program. She is a founding member of Vox Theater and proud member of the Dramatists Guild and the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas. Originally from Boston, Kate now lives in New York.

Plays

  • Sunnies
    Maddie and Jack haven't spoken in years until they run into each other at their daughter's gravesite on what would have been her 13th birthday.
  • Female Complaints
    Female Complaints is a new musical by Kate Mulley and Tina deVaron about ambition, persistence, and illegal abortion. Inez Ingenthron was raised in one of the poorest immigrant communities in turn-of-the-century San Francisco and became a highly skilled, sought-after abortionist and one of the wealthiest women in California. Inez successfully managed to get the law to look the other way, until Pat Brown, the...
    Female Complaints is a new musical by Kate Mulley and Tina deVaron about ambition, persistence, and illegal abortion. Inez Ingenthron was raised in one of the poorest immigrant communities in turn-of-the-century San Francisco and became a highly skilled, sought-after abortionist and one of the wealthiest women in California. Inez successfully managed to get the law to look the other way, until Pat Brown, the District Attorney of San Francisco, targeted her in his rise to power. As Pat singled out abortion in his crackdown on vice, he made Inez’s downfall a personal mission. At a time when reproductive rights are under attack in the United States, Female Complaints highlights the world that we’re in danger of living in once again.
  • I Know When To Go Out And When To Stay In
    Sam, Radia, Paige and Simon have known each other since college. When COVID-19 hits, Paige, who is under strict curfew in Amman, establishes a Sunday zoom workout meet-up for them. Over the course of five months, they meet up on zoom to exercise, catch up and discover what they don't know they don't know.

    This is a play to be performed over Zoom or any other video conferencing platform.
  • Damascus. It's in Syria.
    So it’s 2010 and there’s this guy. And he lives in Damascus now. And you wonder if you should visit him. You think about it a lot. And you talk about it a lot. And you imagine what would happen if you went. And then, the conflict starts.
  • Trash
    Dan Copper is a charming prep school English teacher with an eye for his students. After years of getting away with it, Dan is reunited with a woman from his past who knows some things he wishes she didn’t. Trash is a play about sex, power and complicity.
  • The Next War
    It’s 2011 and Walter Reed Army Medical Center is in the process of shutting down. In the midst of this transition, Dr. Diana Kirkland has come to DC from Los Angeles to treat the injured men and women returning from the
    wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and to tend to her own broken family. As she encounters the consequences of red tape and bureaucracy at Walter Reed, she must also deal with the impact of the...
    It’s 2011 and Walter Reed Army Medical Center is in the process of shutting down. In the midst of this transition, Dr. Diana Kirkland has come to DC from Los Angeles to treat the injured men and women returning from the
    wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and to tend to her own broken family. As she encounters the consequences of red tape and bureaucracy at Walter Reed, she must also deal with the impact of the legacy of her father’s career and her mother’s deteriorating mental health.
  • Grey Lady
    When Cady Hood learns that her husband Ezra has been killed at Antietam, she leaves the island of Nantucket disguised as a man named Achilles Grey and enlists in the Massachusetts 20th. Once on the mainland, Cady must adapt to life in a world of men (played by a chorus of women) who are fighting, dying, healing the wounded and falling in love.

    Princess Grace Playwriting Fellowship Semi-Finalist...
    When Cady Hood learns that her husband Ezra has been killed at Antietam, she leaves the island of Nantucket disguised as a man named Achilles Grey and enlists in the Massachusetts 20th. Once on the mainland, Cady must adapt to life in a world of men (played by a chorus of women) who are fighting, dying, healing the wounded and falling in love.

    Princess Grace Playwriting Fellowship Semi-Finalist, 2016
    Association for Theatre in Higher Education Award of Excellence in Playwriting, Semi-Finalist, 2017
    Columbia@Roundabout Reading Series, Finalist, 2017
  • The Year of the Moose
    Jamie Frost doesn't know what to do the summer before her senior year of high school. When her brother skips town, she inherits his summer job as the mascot for the town's semi-professional baseball team. Will she grow to love it or will it ruin her summer and her prospects for getting out of her small New Hampshire town.
  • The Reluctant Lesbian
    Set in London in the early 1960’s, The Reluctant Lesbian tells the story of Sophia, a young American woman, who moves to England after the death of her wealthy parents leaving behind a disappointed fiancé. Sophia befriends Lady Graves, a sophisticated American woman married to an influential Member of Parliament. As their friendship deepens and becomes more complicated, Sophia must decide where her future lies...
    Set in London in the early 1960’s, The Reluctant Lesbian tells the story of Sophia, a young American woman, who moves to England after the death of her wealthy parents leaving behind a disappointed fiancé. Sophia befriends Lady Graves, a sophisticated American woman married to an influential Member of Parliament. As their friendship deepens and becomes more complicated, Sophia must decide where her future lies and with whom. Inspired by the writings of Doris Lessing and Elaine Dundy, The Reluctant Lesbian explores gender, race and sexuality on the brink of the patriarchal establishment’s decline.
  • The Tutor
    Meredith is a Yale Law graduate turned SAT tutor with a secret. In addition to coaching high school students in the ways of time management and sentence construction, she leads a life online as Cassandra, selling her used lingerie. In a world where one wrong click online can end your career or relationship, can Meredith continue to maintain her mystery or will her precarious fantasy turn on her? A timely new...
    Meredith is a Yale Law graduate turned SAT tutor with a secret. In addition to coaching high school students in the ways of time management and sentence construction, she leads a life online as Cassandra, selling her used lingerie. In a world where one wrong click online can end your career or relationship, can Meredith continue to maintain her mystery or will her precarious fantasy turn on her? A timely new play about colliding worlds and what happens when your virtual life meets reality.