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Stephen Karam

STEPHEN KARAM

  
Nationality:    USA
facebook     twitter     email:    n/a     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    Creative Artists Agency NY  

Stephen Karam is the author of Sons of the Prophet (2012 Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Drama Critics Circle, Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Award for Best Play, Sam Norkin Drama Desk Award), which recently ended its extended off-Broadway run in New York City (Roundabout Theatre Company) following its debut in Boston by the Huntington Theatre Company. Other plays include Speech & Debate (inaugural production of Roundabout Underground), columbinus (New York Theatre Workshop), and Girl on Girl (Brown/Trinity Playwrights Rep). His plays are published by Dramatists Play Service, American Theatre Magazine, Northwestern University Press and Dramatic Publishing Co.; he has also written online for NY Magazine, the Advocate and McSweeney's. A MacDowell Colony Fellow, Stephen grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania and is a graduate of Brown University. www.stephenkaram.com

Research:    Member of the Dramatists Guild of America (as at 2015)

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below is a list of Stephen Karam's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         Columbinus         Dark Sisters         Emma         Girl On Girl         Mister Murdery         Principal And the Pee, The         Sons Of the Prophet         Speech and Debate
Columbinus

Synopsis:
a play sparked by the April 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, probes the psychological warfare of alienation, hostility and social pressure that goes on in high schools across America. Created by the United States theatre Project, written by Stephen Karam and PJ Paparelli, with Dramaturgy by Patricia Hersch, and conceived and directed by PJ Paparelli, columbinus weaves together excerpts from discussions with parents, survivors and community leaders in Littleton as well as diaries and home video footage to bring to light the dark recesses of American adolescence. When columbinus premiered in 2005 at the Round House theatre, Peter Marks of the Washington Post called it, "an ambitious examination of the suburbanization of evil, directed with a surefire sense of theatricality by PJ Paparelli."

Notes:
written by Stephen Karam And PJ Paparelli. columbinus received four Helen Hayes Award nominations including Best Resident Play And Best Director, Resident Play

1st Produced:
Arena Stage Old Vat Room, Washington D C     2002

Organisations:
New York Theatre Workshop

1st Published:
Dramatic Publishing Company, 2007   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Dark Sisters

Synopsis:
In a world where personal identity is forbidden, Dark Sisters follows one woman's dangerous attempt to escape her life as a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), a sect that split from mainstream Mormonism in the early 20th century largely because of the LDS Church's renunciation of polygamy. the male founders of the Mormon faith (Joseph Smith and Brigham Young chief among them) have traditionally loomed large in American history; Dark Sisters puts the women of the FLDS sect front and center. the narrative draws inspiration from the flurry of media attention surrounding the two most famous raids on FLDS compounds (the 1953 raid at Short Creek, aZ, and the 2008 raid at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in eldorado, TX) as well as from the stories of the more than 80 wives of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young.
- nytheatre.com

Notes:
Book & Lyrics By: Stephen Karam; Music By: Nico Muhly

1st Produced:
Gerald W. Lynch At John Jay College, NY     09 Nov 2011

Organisations:
Gotham Chamber Opera and Opera Company of Philadelphia

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
opera

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  6            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Emma

Synopsis:
This modern musical adaptation lifts Jane Austen's comedy of manners out of Regency england and sets it down in contemporary Connecticut. Emma, a graduate student at Highbury College, embarks on a personal mission to set up a lonely gay student named Harry with a suitable boyfriend. She sets her sights on school a cappella star Trevor, but her plan is soon complicated by the return of an old rival and a visit from a British film star. Emma's mentor/advisor, Dr. Knight, and her old friend, Miss Bates, join the fracas -- and the rural college soon teems with missed connections. A delightful and deeply felt spin on the original.

Notes:
Music by Stephen Karam; lyrics by Stephen Karam; book by Stephen Karam. Based on the novel by Jane Austen. Winner of the Kennedy Center's ACTF Musical theatre Award And the NYMF Director's Choice Award.

1st Produced:
Brown University, Stuart Theater     30 Nov 2000

Organisations:
Brown University

1st Published:
Playscripts, Inc   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  5            Other:  3 either (12-30 actors possible: 4-17 females, 5-18 males)

Further Reference:
-

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Girl On Girl

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Brown/Trinity Playwrights Rep    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Mister Murdery

Synopsis:
a violent storm rages outside of Citytown General Hospital. Nurse Cherry and Nurse Silver wait helplessly (and in fetching white uniforms) after learning that three of Citytown's residents (including the gay half of the two-person police force) have been murdered. With only a radio at their disposal, the two women must rely on each other for survival. a wicked comedy with startling twists and sharper turns around every wing of the abandoned hospital.

Notes:
Performed with "the Principal And the Pee" under the overall title: "Girl On Girl"

1st Produced:
-     2005

Organisations:
Brown/Trinity Playwrights Rep

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
One act. - - Gay, theme/character one act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Principal And the Pee, The

Synopsis:
a power-mad school administrator takes over Citytown General High School as if it were a kingdom. He arms his janitors (in a move to prevent school shootings), expels a lesbian student for spreading an STD (Pink eye), and reveals dark family secrets as he struggles to hold on to his principality in an age where good old-fashioned tyranny doesn't seem to be appreciated by anyone.

Notes:
Performed with "Mister Murdery" under the overall title: "Girl On Girl"

1st Produced:
-     2005

Organisations:
Brown/Trinity Playwrights Rep

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
One act. - - Lesbian, theme/character, one act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Sons Of the Prophet

Synopsis:
Sons of the Prophet is a brutally funny new play about a Lebanese family in Pennsylvania in crisis. But as they deal with crazy bosses, medical mysteries, and the end of the family line, they never lose their unbreakable sense of humor.
nytheatre.com

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Laura Pels Theatre
111 West 46th Street, New York, NY 10036     20 Oct 2011

Organisations:
Roundabout Theatre Company

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Gay full length

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Speech and Debate

Synopsis:
Sex. Secrets. Performance-art video blogs with a George Michael beat. Just another typical day when you're a teenager in Salem, Oregon. SPeeCH & DeBaTe is Stephen Karam's fiercely funny and surprisingly timely new play. even though they go to the same school, misfits Solomon, Diwata and Howie have never met. But when a shocking scandal involving one of their teachers brings them together through an unexpected chain of events, they realize three voices are stronger than one. and since their school has no speech and debate squad, maybe this is their chance to be heard at last - by the school and even the world.--Press Materials

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Roundabout Underground, Harold And Miriam Steinberg Center For Theatre, NY     2007

Organisations:
Roundabout Theatre Company

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 2008   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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