Bio
(Scroll for shorter ones! All approved for publication).
(Scroll for shorter ones! All approved for publication).
Hartman outside of 59e59 - VOLT. Photo by Olivia Tymon.
Karen Hartman’s work launched VOLT at 59e59 Theaters in 2022, an unprecedented festival of three simultaneous off-Broadway premieres by a single author: New Golden Age (Primary Stages, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalist); The Lucky Star (The Directors Company); and Goldie, Max & Milk (MBL Productions) . Also in 2022, Rattlesnake Kate, book by Hartman, score by Neyla Pekarek, premiered at Denver Theater Center, winning eight Henry Awards including Best New Work. Hartman wrote the book for Alice Bliss (music: Jenny Giering, lyrics: Adam Gwon, based on Laura Harrington's novel) which won the 2019 Weston-Ghostlight New Musical Award.
A recent Guggenheim Fellow, Hartman’s plays have been celebrated as passionate, relevant storytelling that “resonate in the current moment with overpowering force (Variety)." Good Faith: Four Chats about Race and the New Haven Fire Department premiered at Yale Repertory Theater in 2019, directed by Kenny Leon. Three acclaimed recent works, Roz and Ray (Edgerton New Play Prize), The Lucky Star (as The Book of Joseph), and Project Dawn (NEA Art Works Grant, NNPN Rolling World Premiere) had ten productions across the country in the 2016-18 seasons, premiering at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, People's Light, Seattle Rep, and Victory Gardens, and are published by Samuel French/Concord. The Lucky Star set records as the highest grossing play in the history of Everyman Theatre in Baltimore. Hartman is currently developing Project Dawn for Population Media Center as a television series, and another project for 20th Television.
Also as a librettist, Hartman wrote new dialogue for Mozart’s Magic Flute premiering with Pacific MusicWorks at Seattle’s 1200-seat Meany Center. She and composer Graham Reynolds won the Frederick Loewe Award for Music Theater for their pop opera MotherBone. ALICE: Tales of a Curious Girl (Music by Gina Leishman, adapted from Lewis Carroll), was produced by Dallas Theater Center and many other companies, and won the AT&T Onstage Award.
SuperTrue (Kilroy's List of top plays by women+) premiered at Know Theater in Cincinnati in 2018. Goldie, Max, and Milk premiered at Florida Stage and was nominated for the Steinberg/American Critics Award (Best New American Regional Play) and the Carbonell Award (Best New Play in Florida). Gum, which premiered at Baltimore’s Center Stage, has seen dozens of productions at theaters and universities across the country and in Europe. Her many other works include Goliath (Dorothy Silver New Play Prize); Leah’s Train (Weissberger Award Finalist); Going Gone (N.E.A. New Play Grant); Girl Under Grain (Best Drama in NY Fringe); Wild Kate (adapted from Moby Dick) and her Euripides adaptation Troy Women, which became a staple of college theaters.
Hartman’s plays have been performed in New York at the Women's Project, National Asian American Theatre Company, P73, and Summer Play Festival, and at regional theaters including Cincinnati Playhouse, Dallas Theater Center, San Diego Rep, Theater J, the Magic, and elsewhere. They are published by Theater Communications Group, Dramatists Play Service, Playscripts, Autumn House Press, Backstage Books, and NoPassport Press.
Hartman’s personal and political essays have been published in the New York Times and the Washington Post. She wrote an introduction for Double Exposure: Plays of the Jewish and Palestinian Diasporas, published in 2017 by Playwrights Canada Press.
In 2017, Hartman received the Deborah Salzer Award for Excellence in Arts Education from Playwrights Project in San Diego. A New Dramatists alumna and past Playwright’s Center McKnight Fellow, Hartman’s work has been supported by the Rockefeller Foundation at Bellagio, the National Endowment for the Arts, Princeton’s Hodder Fellowship, the Helen Merrill Foundation, Space at Ryder Farm, Hedgebrook, MacDowell Colony, the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, a Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award, a Joseph A. Callaway Award from New Dramatists, a Jerome Fellowship, a Fulbright Scholarship, and more. She has been a guest artist at the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain.
Hartman grew up in San Diego and graduated from Yale University and the Yale School of Drama. She was Senior Artist in Residence at the University of Washington in Seattle for five years, and lives in Brooklyn with her family. In summer 2018, she earned a first degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do.
A recent Guggenheim Fellow, Hartman’s plays have been celebrated as passionate, relevant storytelling that “resonate in the current moment with overpowering force (Variety)." Good Faith: Four Chats about Race and the New Haven Fire Department premiered at Yale Repertory Theater in 2019, directed by Kenny Leon. Three acclaimed recent works, Roz and Ray (Edgerton New Play Prize), The Lucky Star (as The Book of Joseph), and Project Dawn (NEA Art Works Grant, NNPN Rolling World Premiere) had ten productions across the country in the 2016-18 seasons, premiering at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, People's Light, Seattle Rep, and Victory Gardens, and are published by Samuel French/Concord. The Lucky Star set records as the highest grossing play in the history of Everyman Theatre in Baltimore. Hartman is currently developing Project Dawn for Population Media Center as a television series, and another project for 20th Television.
Also as a librettist, Hartman wrote new dialogue for Mozart’s Magic Flute premiering with Pacific MusicWorks at Seattle’s 1200-seat Meany Center. She and composer Graham Reynolds won the Frederick Loewe Award for Music Theater for their pop opera MotherBone. ALICE: Tales of a Curious Girl (Music by Gina Leishman, adapted from Lewis Carroll), was produced by Dallas Theater Center and many other companies, and won the AT&T Onstage Award.
SuperTrue (Kilroy's List of top plays by women+) premiered at Know Theater in Cincinnati in 2018. Goldie, Max, and Milk premiered at Florida Stage and was nominated for the Steinberg/American Critics Award (Best New American Regional Play) and the Carbonell Award (Best New Play in Florida). Gum, which premiered at Baltimore’s Center Stage, has seen dozens of productions at theaters and universities across the country and in Europe. Her many other works include Goliath (Dorothy Silver New Play Prize); Leah’s Train (Weissberger Award Finalist); Going Gone (N.E.A. New Play Grant); Girl Under Grain (Best Drama in NY Fringe); Wild Kate (adapted from Moby Dick) and her Euripides adaptation Troy Women, which became a staple of college theaters.
Hartman’s plays have been performed in New York at the Women's Project, National Asian American Theatre Company, P73, and Summer Play Festival, and at regional theaters including Cincinnati Playhouse, Dallas Theater Center, San Diego Rep, Theater J, the Magic, and elsewhere. They are published by Theater Communications Group, Dramatists Play Service, Playscripts, Autumn House Press, Backstage Books, and NoPassport Press.
Hartman’s personal and political essays have been published in the New York Times and the Washington Post. She wrote an introduction for Double Exposure: Plays of the Jewish and Palestinian Diasporas, published in 2017 by Playwrights Canada Press.
In 2017, Hartman received the Deborah Salzer Award for Excellence in Arts Education from Playwrights Project in San Diego. A New Dramatists alumna and past Playwright’s Center McKnight Fellow, Hartman’s work has been supported by the Rockefeller Foundation at Bellagio, the National Endowment for the Arts, Princeton’s Hodder Fellowship, the Helen Merrill Foundation, Space at Ryder Farm, Hedgebrook, MacDowell Colony, the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, a Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award, a Joseph A. Callaway Award from New Dramatists, a Jerome Fellowship, a Fulbright Scholarship, and more. She has been a guest artist at the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain.
Hartman grew up in San Diego and graduated from Yale University and the Yale School of Drama. She was Senior Artist in Residence at the University of Washington in Seattle for five years, and lives in Brooklyn with her family. In summer 2018, she earned a first degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do.
Shorter Bio
Karen Hartman’s work launched VOLT at 59e59 Theaters in 2022, an unprecedented festival of three simultaneous off-Broadway premieres by a single author: New Golden Age (Primary Stages, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalist); The Lucky Star (The Directors Company); and Goldie, Max & Milk (MBL Productions). Also in 2022, the musical Rattlesnake Kate, book by Hartman, score by Neyla Pekarek, won eight Henry Awards including Best New Play or Musical. Some of Hartman’s many works include: Good Faith: Four Chats about Race and the New Haven Fire Department (Yale Repertory Theater), Roz and Ray (McKnight Fellowship, Edgerton New Play Prize, Kilroy’s List), Project Dawn (NEA Art Works Grant, NNPN Rolling World Premiere, currently in development for television), Leah’s Train (National Asian American Theater Company, Weissberger Award Finalist), Girl Under Grain (Best Drama in NY Fringe), and Gum. Her prose has appeared in the New York Times and the Washington Post. A recent Guggenheim Fellow and former Fulbright Scholar, Hodder Fellow, and New Dramatist, Hartman served as Senior Artist-in-Residence at University of Washington School of Drama for five years, and lives in Brooklyn with her family. She wrote the book for Alice Bliss (music: Jenny Giering, lyrics: Adam Gwon, based on Laura Harrington's novel) which won the 2019 Weston-Ghostlight New Musical Award.
Shortest of All (51 Words!)
Karen Hartman was the first playwright celebrated by the VOLT Festival in 2022: three simultaneous off-Broadway premieres by a single author: New Golden Age (Primary Stages); The Lucky Star (Directors Company); and Goldie, Max & Milk (MBL Productions), all at 59e59. Other recent honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Henry Award, and the international Susan Smith Blackburn Prize (Finalist). Her many award-winning plays and musicals are published by Concord Theatricals, DPS, Playscripts, and TCG.