Stageworks Names Karla Hartley as New Associate Artistic Director
By: Eddie Varley
Karla Hartley, the multi-talented director, lighting and sound designer, stage manager, actor and all around versatile artist has recently been chosen by Stageworks to fill a very important role as Associate Artistic Director, essentially the successor to Anna Brennen, Stageworks Founder and current Producing Artistic Director.
A Tampa native, Karla graduated from Tampa Prep and received a BFA in Theatre Studies from Boston University. She returned to Tampa and honed an exceptional career in all areas of theatre enriching audiences and artists alike with her intelligent, enthusiastic and unexpected interpretations as a director, designer and actor. She was recently honored with the 2009 Creative Loafing Best of the Bay Award as Best Director.The relationship between Karla and Stageworks goes back over a decade. She has designed the lights and sound for many of our productions and directed The Mystery of Irma Vep and most recently, the delightful, The Little Dog Laughed. Karla has also for over a decade intermittently taught as an artist/coach for our Stageworks Rainbow Tribe programs, Learn it! Share It! and YEA! Anger Management Ensemble for at-risk and Juvenile Justice youth.Her other directing credits include Greetings, Ladies at the Alamo, The Seahorse, Christmas with Elvis, Girl Detective, Cut the Ribbons, I Love You You're Perfect, Now Change, Always..Patsy Cline, The Goat or Who is Sylvia?, Boston Marriage, The Rocky Horror Show, Listen to My Heart-The Songs of David Freidman, WAISTWATCHERS, The Calorie- Free Musical, Party Animals, Respect and And Baby Makes Seven. She has also designed and stage managed shows from the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland.