Kate Tarker (USA)
Authors / Theater
is an American playwright, who grew up bilingually in Germany and holds MFA from the Yale School of Drama. She writes countercultural plays that ask questions about language, gender, bodies, and national identity. Kate’s plays have been developed in theaters all over the US and in London, at The Vineyard Theatre, The Wilma, Ars Nova, New York Theatre Workshop, The Playwrights’ Center, The Lark, Soho Rep., Theatre503, and The O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, among others.
Her plays include MONTAG (Soho Rep.), THUNDERBODIES (Soho Rep.), DIONYSUS WAS SUCH A NICE MAN (The Wilma, FoolsFURY), and LAURA AND THE SEA (Rivendell Theatre Ensemble). She is currently under commission from Playwrights Horizons and Theater Masters.
AWARDS:
Jerome Fellowship, The Vineyard’s Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, and Theater Masters’ Visionary Playwright Award
Works (selection)
MONTAG
2022
Premiere: Soho Rep, New York
“Not quite acomedy and not quite a tragedy, sometimes a thriller and often something more bizarre, the play is a hymn to female friendship and, in harsher music, a study of the threat of intimate partner violence.” – The New York Times
German premiere: 29 September 2023, Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe
Faith and Novella live in a small German town near an American military base. The two friends hide in Novella’s basement apartment and fantasize about a surely deadly attack. Novella, a sex worker of Turkish descent, is disgusted by the contempt of her neighbors, and she is afraid of her ex-partner’s violent jealousy. Faith rebels against the hierarchies of the military. For seven days without sleep, they train, build barricades from the furniture and dance until exhaustion to Beyoncé and club music.
A comedy about obcessions and a cheer for female friendship!