News
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Rattlesnake Kate announced at Denver Center!
Music and Lyrics by Neyla Pekarek | Book by Karen Hartman
based on Neyla Pekarek's concept album Rattlesnake
World Premiere begins February 4, 2022!

Karen joins forces with singer-songwriter Neyla Pekarek (formerly of the Lumineers) to unearth the legend of Kate Slaughterback, Colorado native, rattlesnake slayer, and fast fashion queen of 1927. Western lore meets a modern eye, raising the spirit of a woman who played by no one's rules. Larger than life and stranger than fiction, Kate appears as three women of different ages and races, anchored by Pekarek as her trusty steed Brownie. Heart-stopping folk harmonies sing forgotten history into a Colorado tale for today. Commissioned by the Denver Center, supported by the Hedgebrook Women Playwrights Festival.
ALICE BLISS wins 2019 Weston-Ghostlight New Musical Award

Karen (book), Jenny Giering (music), and Adam Gwon (lyrics) won the 13th Annual Weston-Ghostlight New Musical Award for ALICE BLISS,  commissioned by Playwrights Horizons, based on Laura Harrington's acclaimed novel.  Set in upstate New York during the Iraq War, Alice Bliss is an intimate mother daughter story about women trying to hold onto normal, when life is anything but.  "Not only is ALICE BLISS a stunning and heart wrenching new musical, it is also a detailed and compassionate exploration of an oft overlooked story of contemporary life" - Executive Artistic Director Susanna Gellert

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