Kara-Lynn Vaeni

Kara-Lynn Vaeni is a new playwright and accomplished theatre and opera director, with a mission to work in and create anti-racist and anti-oppressive theatrical and educational spaces. She does this through continued engagement with anti-racist theatre education, and continuing education in theatrical intimacy best practices.

She writes physically impossible texts, starring womxn of all ages, races and body types. She directs new plays, re-imagined classical texts, musicals and opera. Her first play, Shape, won an NEA grant, was named to the 2020 Kilroys List and premiered to fantastic reviews under her direction at the Kitchen Theatre in New York in June 2021. Her second play, In Search of the Sublime, was commissioned by Stage West in Fort Worth, and premiered under her direction there in March 2021. She has directed plays in the DFW area at Dallas Theater Center, Stage West, Undermain, Theatre Three, Second Thought and Kitchen Dog.

Previous to her move to Dallas, Vaeni was the literary manager at the New Georges theater in NYC for seven years. In NYC she has directed at Cherry Lane, New Georges, WP Theater, HERE, BAM, Irondale, 3LD, Wild Project, The Flea, The Lark, New Ohio, Westminster Opera Theatre and The Kitchen. Nationally she has directed at Yale Repertory Theatre, where she worked on a premiere by Amy Herzog, choreographed by Tarell Alvin McCraney; South Coast Repertory Theatre; the McCarter Theatre; the Maltz Jupiter Theatre; and Montana Repertory Theatre, where she directed a national tour of Lost in Yonkers. Internationally, her work has been seen at Divadlo Oskar Nebdala in Tabor and at The Estates Theatre in Prague. Favorite collaborators include Marcus Gardley, Kara Lee Corthron, Christina Pumariega, Jake Jeppson, Michael Federico, Jen Fok, Chris Lane and Kristin Leahey.

She currently holds faculty positions at Yale University and SMU. She has also taught/directed at Princeton University, Mount Holyoke College, the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Seton Hall, the University of Virginia, Hofstra University and Pace University.