KAREN CARPENTER
DIRECTOR - PRODUCER - SCRIPT CONSULTANT
"Karen Carpenter has directed with flawless timing."
~The New York Times
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KAREN
The Inge Foundation commissioned her to curate an evening of previously unpublished and unproduced short works, she entitled Inge: Complex, featuring the world premieres of six “lost” one-acts by William Inge, in conjunction with their first publication; Lifetime Achievement tributes to David Henry Hwang and Arthur Kopit; and the 100th Birthday Tribute to Williamof the mothe Yale Repertory Theater.
CORPORATE
My corporate work is done under the auspices of my event company:
The Figment Factory, LLC.
I was creative director and producer for the launch of the United Nations/World Health Organization’s global campaign to eradicate infant and maternal mortalities worldwide: “Deliver Now for Women and Children”, starring Chaka Kahn, Ricki Lake, Lidya Kebede, and Girls Inc., featuring the first all-female panel in the history of the United Nations. I also participated by invitation in the Friends of the U.N.’s think tank for their millennium goals campaign, “The Big Push”.
I directed an outdoor spectacle for Playhouse Square, Dazzle the District, the reveal of the largest outdoor chandelier in the world, featuring a cast of 365 local Clevelanders; the launch of the Million Women’s Heart Project: “Take Heart”, a national movement to test a million women for heart health in the U.S., with Donna Karan and a panel of women at the forefront of producing innovative media and news journalism: Deborah Roberts, Ali Wentworth, Pat Mitchell and Joni Evans.
For more, visit The Figment Factory here:
EDUCATION
I am interested in life-long learning, new tech, new media, and the reinvention of prevailing and existing art forms.
I served on the faculty of the Yale Drama School from 1990-1996. In 2010, my alma mater, Boston University's School of Theater Arts, established The Karen Carpenter Award for Excellence in Theater Arts, given annually to a graduating student of exceptional merit.
I have taught master classes in directing, theater production, and stage management in universities across the country, and am authoring a book on these subjects: “Enabling Creativity: Philosophy and Practice”.
I am a producer, director, writer, and script consultant who has created theater and large-scale corporate events to great success, for over 20 years.
THEATER
I'm best known for directing premiere presentations of new plays and musicals for the stage, and my dramaturgical contributions to them.
My smash hit, Love Loss and What I Wore, by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron, produced by Daryl Roth, was met with unanimous critical acclaim, broke all existing off-Broadway box office records, won the Drama Desk Award for Best Unique Theatrical Experience, and ran a record 3 years in New York, featuring rotating celebrity casts. I directed over 150 of our most celebrated comediennes in the show off-Broadway: Rosie O’Donnell, Jane Lynch, Fran Drescher, Rhea Perlman, Marlo Thomas, Tyne Daly, Natasha Lyonne, Kate Mulgrew, and Janeane Garofolo, among them. Additional companies played on virtually every continent, and the show is now enjoyed world-wide.
My most recent stage work includes the premieres of The New Yorker critic's pick, Harry Townsend's Last Stand, starring Len Cariou and Craig Bierko; the new musical, Bulldozer: the Ballad of Robert Moses, starring Constantine Maroulis; the New York Times critics’ pick Handle With Care, Witnessed by the World at 59E59, all off-Broadway; regional productions of the premiere of the new musical, Boynton Beach Club, and The Wizard of Oz at Surflight, The Vagina Monologues at Bucks County Playhouse, starring Andrea McArdle, Lea Delaria, and Adriene Lenox; and the premieres of Wendy Yondorf’s Admit One in a sold-out run at New Jersey Rep; Rosemary Loar’s fractured-fairytale rock musical, Spoolie Girl, for the Midtown International Theater Festival (Best of the Fest) and Mary Walsh’s Dancing With Rage, which toured Canada. Myfavorite gig to date: directing Michael Keaton in Lauren Yee's Countville for the Festival del Sole, Napa.
I lead the Inge Center for the Arts and William Inge Theater Festival, which annually honors a legendary playwright for distinguished achievement, as Producing Artistic Director for three years, after serving as the only artist on the Board of Trustees of the William Inge Festival Foundation. Previously, the Foundation had commissioned me to curate an evening of previously unpublished and unproduced short works by William Inge, I entitled Inge: Complex, featuring the world premieres of six of his “lost” one-acts in conjunction with their first publication; and in subsequent years I conceived, directed, and curated the Festival's lifetime achievement tributes to David Henry Hwang, Arthur Kopit, Donald Margulies and Beth Henley; their 100th Birthday Tribute to William Inge, and a 50th Anniversary production of Inge's Where's Daddy?. My proudest achievement there was the initiation of a New Play Lab, developed in partnership with Kansas' Creative Arts Commission, to ensure it continued to thrive, even after my tenure.
For five seasons I was the Associate Artistic Director for the Tony-winning Old Globe Theater, where I served as artistic producer for over 40 plays and musicals by such theatrical luminaries as Arthur Miller, Tom Stoppard, Marvin Hamlisch, Jack O’Brien, Dan Sullivan, Mark Lamos, Stephen Wadsworth, John Rando, Henry Krieger, and Nora Ephron; featuring a roster of renowned actors: Ellen Burstyn, Dana Delaney, Cherry Jones, Swoosie Kurtz, John Lithgow, and Norburt Leo Butz among them. My own most acclaimed productions there include the American premiere of Abi Morgan’s Splendour (Critic’s Choice, Los Angeles Times), Nilo Cruz’s Two Sisters and a Piano (Critic’s Choice, Los Angeles Times), Jeffrey Hatcher’s Smash (Patté Award), and Harold Pinter’s Betrayal (Craig Noel Award, The Reader’s “Best Bet”). I developed the financial model which enabled us to revive the annual Shakespeare Festival; my production of As You Like It that season was chosen Best of the Year by San Diego Magazine.
In 2005 I left the Old Globe to devote myself exclusively to working with writers on new plays. Upon leaving, I was one of a select few nominees nationwide for the Alan Schneider Award at TCG, and the Mike Ockrent Fellowship at SSDC.
Deemed a “provocateur” and “impresario” by the press for my Indianapolis Symphony concerts, Riot of Spring, featuring Roger Rees, and Hear Art, See Music Live, featuring artists André Miripolsky and Michael Arthur; tickets were in such demand for my concerts that they were standing room only for the first time in the symphony's history. I also staged the American Premiere of Jonathan Dove's opera Mansfield Park for Indianapolis Opera, Top of the Heap by Jeffrey Lodin and William Squier, for the New York Musical Festival (Director’s Choice Award), and a new commedia operetta by Mira Spektor and Caroline Balducci, Giovanni the Fearless, for the League of Professional Theater Women’s 30 Plays for 30 Years.
In my early career, I was one of the top production stage managers on Broadway, where my work included the premieres of August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone, The Piano Lesson, and Two Trains Running; and musicals such as Les Misérables and Sunset Boulevard. Subsequently, I chaired the MFA Stage Management program for the Yale School of Drama, where I managed the premieres of noted playwrights John Guare, Suzan Lori Parks, and Jeffrey Hatcher among many others, as production stage manager for the Yale Repertory Theater, before embarking on my directing career.