karen kohlhaas

Karen is a director, teacher, author, filmmaker and Tennessee Williams scholar.

DIRECTOR | Karen is a founding ensemble member of New York's Atlantic Theater Company, where her productions include plays by Harold Pinter, David Mamet, Annie Baker, Keith Reddin, Shel Silverstein, Joe Penhall, Hilary Bell, Tennessee Williams, and Kate Moira Ryan. She has also directed for the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater; Ars Nova; Montreal Comedy Festival; Naked Angels; Ensemble Studio Theatre; New York Live Arts; the 24 Hour Plays on Broadway; the Alley Theatre, Houston; New Dramatists; Menagerie Theatre in Cambridge, UK; Theatre Oxford; The Culture Project; NYU mainstage; the Practical Theater Co. in Sydney, and others.

TEACHER | Karen is a master teacher of Practical Aesthetics acting technique with over 35 years teaching experience, and is a senior teacher at the Atlantic Acting School, where she developed the first and second year script analysis curricula and trains Practical Aesthetics script analysis faculty. She developed her own approach to rehearsing audition monologues, which is used by actors and teachers all over the world. She teaches her own online and in person classes in Monologues, Fearless Cold Reading, Throughline Script Analysis & Scene Study; and Directing. She has taught guest workshops around the US and internationally, including theaters, schools, conferences and universities in Atlanta, Austin, Seattle, Memphis, Dallas, Cleveland, Burlington, Oklahoma City, Miami, Mississippi, New Orleans, the UK, Italy, and Australia. She teaches Monologue Teacher Training to university and high school teachers.

AUTHOR | Karen's books include The Monologue Audition: A Practical Guide for Actors, How to Choose a Monologue for Any Audition, and the Monologue Audition Teacher's Manual. She is the creator of The Monologue Audition Video (DVD) about her complete monologue technique.

FILMMAKER | Karen's films include two music videos with acclaimed performer/playwright Taylor Mac, several short documentaries, and the instructional film Roots and Branches 5 Element Qi Gong for the T’ai Chi Foundation. She is currently editing a documentary series about Tennessee Williams in the Mississippi Delta.

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS SCHOLAR | Karen is the curator of the Tennessee Williams Rectory Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and is frequently a presenter and panelist at the New Orleans and Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams Festivals.