About Me
Photo by Jody Christopherson
Kara Lee Corthron is a playwright, author, and TV writer based in Los Angeles. Her full-length plays include AliceGraceAnon (New Georges), Holly Down in Heaven (Forum Theatre, DC area), Listen for the Light (Know Theatre of Cincinnati), Welcome to Fear City (CATF and Kansas City Rep, Kilroys' List 2016), Etched in Skin on a Sunlit Night (InterAct Theatre, Philadelphia), What Are You Worth?, and Time and a Half. Kara is the author of the young-adult novels, The Truth of Right Now from Simon & Schuster/Simon Pulse and Daughters of Jubilation from Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.
Awards: the 2019 Otis L. Guernsey New Voices in Playwriting Award, the Parents' Choice Gold Award and a Kirkus Star for The Truth of Right Now, the Travis Bogard Artist in Residence Fellowship, Boomerang Fund for Artists Grant, 2012-2014 Women’s Project Lab Time Warner Foundation Fellowship, The Vineyard Theatre’s 3rd Annual Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, the Princess Grace Award, the Helen Merrill Award, Lincoln Center’s Lecomte du Nouy Prize (three-time recipient), the Theodore Ward Prize, the New Professional Theatre Writers Award, and residencies at MacDowell (four-time fellow), Bogliasco Foundation (Italy), Hawthornden Castle (Scotland), Skriðuklaustur (Iceland), Camargo (Cultural Diaspora Creative Residency, France), Djerassi Resident Artists Program, the Millay Colony, and Ledig House. She’s a proud member of New Dramatists. Currently under commission for La Jolla Playhouse. Past commissions include South Coast Rep, New Georges, Playwrights Horizons Theater School, Actors Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival, InterAct, EST/Sloan, and Naked Angels.
Play Development: Kara's plays have been sometimes produced and mostly developed at the following venues: the African Continuum Theatre (DC), Ars Nova, Atlantic Theater Company, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Berkeley Rep, CenterStage (Baltimore), Contemporary American Theater Festival, the Director Collective, Electric Pear, EST, Horizon Theatre (Atlanta), Kansas City Rep, the Kennedy Center, Labyrinth, Lost Girls Theatre (Miami), Marssilia Afropéa Festival (France), Midtown Direct Rep, Naked Angels, New Dramatists, New Georges, New York Theatre Workshop, Orchard Project, Orlando Shakespeare Festival, Page 73, Penumbra, Playwrights Horizons Theater School, PlayPenn Conference, PlayPenn Mini-conference, Portland Center Stage JAW Festival, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference (as guest playwright), South Coast Rep, TheatreWorks (Palo Alto), the Vineyard Theatre, Voice & Vision, and the WP Theater.
TV: YOU (Netflix), seasons 2 and 3; Servant (Apple TV), season 3; The Flight Attendant coming soon to HBO Max. Also, Kings (NBC) from 2008-2009.
Kara has taught writing students of all ages at a number of places. These include Primary Stages’ Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA), NYU-Playwrights Horizons Theater School, and MFA candidates at Ohio University and Temple University. Juilliard alumna, New Georges Affiliated Artist, and member of Interstate 73 (2007-2008), the Ars Nova Play Group (2010-2011), the Dramatists Guild and the Writers Guild of America.