Karen Hartman News

The University of Washington School of Drama, under the leadership of Executive Director Todd London, is pleased to announce the 2017 - 2018 season.

The NEW JERSEY ONE-MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL (#1MPF) returns to for its seventh year, beginning a new and exciting partnership with Mile Square Theatre. The marathon evening of one-minute plays by over 30 of New Jersey's established and emerging playwrights and directors plays three performances only, Saturday, June 24th at 8pm, and Sunday, June 25th at 3pm & 7pm, 1400 Clinton St, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tickets, priced at $20, are currently available at www.milesquaretheatre.org

National New Play Network, the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, celebrates the opening of Project Dawn by Karen Hartman at People's Light (Malvern, PA), its 71st NNPN Rolling World Premiere.

The Playwrights' Center is excited to announce the 2017-18 McKnight National Residency and Commission recipient, 2017-18 McKnight Fellows in Playwriting, 2017-18 McKnight Theater Artist Fellows, 2017-2020 Core Writers and 2017-18 Core Apprentices.

The NEW JERSEY ONE-MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL (#1MPF) returns to for its seventh year, beginning a new and exciting partnership with Mile Square Theatre. The marathon evening of one-minute plays by over 30 of New Jersey's established and emerging playwrights and directors plays three performances only, Saturday, June 24th at 8pm, and Sunday, June 25th at 3pm & 7pm, 1400 Clinton St, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tickets, priced at $20, are currently available at www.milesquaretheatre.org

National New Play Network, the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, announces its 70th and 71st Rolling World Premieres: Br'er Cotton by Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm and Project Dawn by Karen Hartman. The two plays will receive a total of 6 NNPN RWP productions, with each play seeing at least three distinct productions in a discrete 12-month period.  

A Boston-born Jew in Montreal and a Gaza-born Palestinian in Melbourne have just published the first English-language anthology worldwide in any genre of drama, prose or poetry by Jewish and Palestinian writers.

SPACE on Ryder Farm, the non-profit artist residency program located on Ryder Farm, an idyllic 221 year-old working organic farm in Brewster, NY, announces its 2017 season, which will support artists, activists and changemakers through its residency programs: The Working Farm, Family Residency, Creative Solutions Symposium, Creative Residency, Institutional Residency and inaugural Film Lab and Playwriting Mentorship Residency.

This gritty, gripping, and shockingly funny world premiere tosses audiences into a revolutionary Philadelphia court designed by a passionate group of women. Every day these lawyers, judges, parole officers and staff members work to transform the lives of women repeatedly convicted for prostitution. In her daring and vital new play Project Dawn, playwright Karen Hartman probes the thin lines between freedom and slavery, activism and obsession, for women on both sides of the law. Inspired by Hartman's extensive, first-hand research inside Philly's real-life court system, and cast with seven actresses who play multiple characters, this production represents the first world premiere to emerge from the acclaimed New Play Frontiers Residency & Commission program at People's Light. People's Light is located at 39 Conestoga Road, Malvern, PA 19355. For tickets, call 610.644.3500 or visit peopleslight.org. This production is sponsored by PECO, and supported by grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

How did two strangers, a Boston-born Jew in Montreal and a Gaza-born Palestinian in Melbourne, embark on such a challenging artistic journey to edit Double Exposure: Plays of the Jewish and Palestinian Diasporas, the first English-language anthology worldwide in any genre of drama, prose or poetry by Jewish and Palestinian writers?

Following up on a successful year accentuated by record-breaking subscribership and trailblazing new work, Everyman Theatre announces the six-play lineup for its 2017/18 Season, celebrating actor-driven storytelling through a lens of global diversity and stories inspired by true-life events.

Playwrights Stephen Orlov of Montreal and Samah Sabawi of Melbourne discuss their challenging artistic journey and creative process in editing this groundbreaking collection. Double Exposure: Plays of the Jewish and Palestinian Diasporas is the first English-language anthology worldwide by Jewish and Palestinian writers in any genre of drama, prose or poetry. This unique anthology about the Israel-Palestine conflict includes three plays penned by Jewish playwrights, three by Palestinian playwrights, and one by both. The afternoon also features scene readings by actors.

For 20 years, Know Theatre has been creating a theatrical playground in Cincinnati, uniting audiences and artists in a love of theatre, art, and and community.

The University of Washington School of Drama will present Sarah Ruhl's adaptation of Orlando by Virginia Woolf, directed by School of Drama Professor and CIVIC REP Artistic Director L. Zane Jones. The production runs April 28th - May 7th at the historic Glenn Hughes Penthouse Theatre on the University of Washington campus. 

In March 2017, People's Light launches a month-long crowdfunding campaign around the world premiere production of Project Dawn, a vital new play inspired by Project Dawn Court in Philadelphia, a real-life innovative court program designed to transform the lives of women trapped within the commercial sex industry. The $7,500 campaign goal will underwrite theatre tickets for targeted communities who could benefit from seeing the play, but who would not otherwise attend, including: social workers, teachers, first responders, parole officers, law enforcement, and students training in these fields. Partial and complete ticket subsidies for these key groups will expand the production's reach, as well as foster empathy and understanding among those who serve our most vulnerable populations.

Theater J, the nation's pre-eminent professional Jewish theater, announces its 2017-2018 season, comprised of six diverse plays, including one world premiere and two regional premieres.  Artistic Director Adam Immerwahr has selected works by Jonathan Safran Foer, Alfred Uhry, Nilo Cruz, Mark St. Germain, Karen Hartman and Lindsay Joelle, as well as a stellar line-up of directors and actors.

San Diego Repertory Theatre (San Diego REP) Artistic Director Sam Woodhouse and Managing Director Larry Alldredge has just announced their 2017-18 season.

WP Theater (formerly Women's Project Theater), under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Lisa McNulty and Managing Director Michael Sag, has announced WP Theater's 32nd Annual Gala, honoring game-changing women with the Women of Achievement Awards. The gala will honor Emmy Award-winning actress and activist Debra Messing ('Will & Grace,' Outside Mullingar) and trailblazing media executive, President of BBC Worldwide North America, Ann M. Sarnoff.

The One-Minute Play Festival (1MPF) (Dominic D'Andrea, Producing Artistic Director & Caitlin Wees, Associate Producer) and Perseverance Theatre (Art Rotch, Executive Artistic Director, & Joshua Lowman, Anchorage General Manager) continue their dynamic partnership for The 4th Annual Alaska One-minute Play Festival with part of the proceeds to benefit The Alaska Native Voices Project, dedicated to serving and uplifting native Alaskan artists.

The overall assumption regarding an interest in the arts seems to be one of partisan politics. Its value is an often debated topic in a divided nation whose idealistic chasm grows wider by the day. For many, the fate of the arts remains a concern of those confined to what conservatives label a 'coastal bubble.' A fringe frivolity to be cast aside in favor of funding more 'practical' ventures.