KAREN ROBINSON is Assistant Chair, Artistic Director, and Professor in the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies at Kennesaw State University (KSU), where she has taught and served as a resident director for 19 years. Outside the university, she has worked professionally as a director, dramaturg, and stage manager. Her directing work includes chamber theatre, performance ethnography, contemporary and period classics, and new play development. As an Associate Artist at Georgia Shakespeare, she directed fourteen productions for the company. Other Atlanta directing credits include Cardboard Piano and Marcus; Or the Secret of Sweet at Actor's Express; Night Blooms and Her Little House at Horizon Theatre; Baltimore, Peter and the Starcatcher, In the Blood, Ruined, Fences, Good Person of Szechuan, Stop Kiss, and the annual Coming Out Monologues Project (six years running) at KSU. A passionate advocate for global learning and intercultural performance, Karen’s international projects have included tours of student performances to Morocco, China, and Germany, the two most recent being performances of The Book of Will in Bochum and Paderborn with an ensemble of German students; and Metamorphoses in Paderborn, which featured an intercultural ensemble of KSU and University of Paderborn students. She is the recipient of KSU’s Award for Distinguished Teaching, a University of Georgia Board of Regents Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the KSU Distinguished Professor Award.
