The Art and the Audition with Karen Kohlhaas
New York, NY
US

CONTACT NAME

Karen Kohlhaas

DESCRIPTION

RESIDENTIAL ACTING & PLAYWRITING WORKSHOPS IN TENNESSEE WILLIAMS' MISSISSIPPI DELTA

With Karen Kohlhaas (Acting), Lucy Thurber and Jenna Worsham (Playwriting)

January 4—10, 2026

Hi Everyone,

Join us for an inspiring week of community, artistic growth, theater history, and beauty in these two workshops.

Clarksdale, Mississippi is a small southern town with a huge amount of American and theater history. It's a literary, Blues, and Civil Rights destination; it was the setting for Ryan Coogler's 2025 film Sinners. And, Clarksdale was the childhood home of one of the greatest and most prolific American playwrights, Tennessee Williams.

Williams drew on this area for many of his most famous plays: Blanche, Stella, Brick, Mrs. Wingfield and Baby Doll were the names of some of his neighbors, and he set plays in Clarksdale and Coahoma County over and over again.

For actors, there is nothing like studying Williams' plays and roles in the town that shaped so much of his vision. He also wrote settings in many other locations than the South, and we will work on a variety of his plays.

And, Williams has deeply inspired many or most playwrights, and was extremely supportive of his fellow playwrights and up and coming writers (he dedicated the bulk of his estate to creative writing programs). This will be the 6th Clarksdale Workshop and I am very excited to offer this residential January week, teaching alongside playwright Lucy Thurber and director Jenna Worsham.

The two workshops are:

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS SCENE STUDY with Karen Kohlhaas

We will take a deep dive into Williams' writing and life in this week-long class, using Practical Aesthetics acting technique. Each pair of actors will work on a substantial scene from a Williams play, increasing in lengh each time we work it, and this will culminate in an invited public performance of 15-20 minute scenes. The class includes photos, audio and film clips, and Williams' own statements, recordings and writings that will illumniate your interpretations of the plays and scenes. No previous experience with Williams or Practical Aesthetics is required, but participants must have previous scene study training. Bio below.

PLAYWRITING WORKSHOP taught by Lucy Thurber with Jenna Worsham

Lucy Thurber is a phenomenal teacher of playwriting. Her last Clarksdale group kept meeting over the following year, and had public readings and workshops of their completed projects. Playwrights will develop projects during the week with Lucy's guidance and feedback. Jenna Worsham will teach about the playwright-director collaboration; developing new plays with a director; and how to get the most out of table reads and workshops. Bios below.

GENERAL SCHEDULE

We begin the workshops with a tour through the town, starting at the Tennessee Williams Rectory Museum in the house where he once lived. We proceed with readings of monologues and scenes from Williams plays that are set at local sites—from Moon Lake to St. George's Church; the cemetery; the Carnegie Public Library and the banks of the Mississippi River. The general schedule during the week is: Actors have class half the day and rehearse the other half; Playwrights write half the day and have class half the day. Both workshops culminate in public readings and performances. There is a day off. In Clarksdale there is live Blues 365 nights a year, and there is plenty to see and do and eat in this culturally rich town.

We currently have limited space open in both the acting and playwriting groups.

Tuition for each workshop is $695. There is an auditor level available for the acting workshop for $350.

Travel is via Memphis (airport) or driving. There is a wide range of accomodations available — from $35/night at a very cool downtown hostel with gorgeous common spaces; $50-70/night for shared double rooms there or at a local BnB; and a variety of other housing.

INFO & APPLY | Application deadline is November 15. Reply to this post with your resume/statement of interest or IF ANY PROBLEM WITH THE LINK please copy/paste [email protected] into an email.

~Karen

KAREN KOHLHAAS is a Director, Teacher, Author, Filmmaker and Tennessee Williams scholar. Director: Karen is a founding 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, and Kate Moira Ryan. She has also directed for the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater, Naked Angels, Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York Live Arts, 24 Hour Plays on Broadway, the Alley Theatre, Houston, New Dramatists, Menagerie Theatre in Cambridge, UK, The Culture Project, the Practical Theater Co. in Sydney and others. Teacher: Karen has over 30 years teaching experience and is a senior teacher at the Atlantic Acting School. She teaches her own online classes in Monologues; Fearless Cold Reading, Advanced Acting; and Directing. She has taught guest workshops around the country and internationally including theaters, schools, conferences and universities in Atlanta, Austin, Seattle, Memphis, Dallas, Cleveland, Burlington, Oklahoma City, Miami, Mississippi, the UK and Australia, and also 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. Filmmaker: Karen's films include two with acclaimed performer/playwright Taylor Mac, and several short documentaries and instructional films. Tennessee Williams Scholar: Karen is currently editing a documentary series about Tennessee Williams in the Mississippi Delta. She 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.

LUCY THURBER is the author of Where We’re Born, Ashville, Scarcity, Killers and Other Family, Stay, Bottom of The World, Monstrosity, Dillingham City, The Locus, Perry Street, The Insurgents Transfers, and Port Isabel, Texas. Transfers was part of The New York Stage and Film 2016 Powerhouse Season and produced at MCC in 2018 . Lucy helped create COMMUNITY WORKS at Williamstown Theatre Festival, where she wrote Orpheus in the Berkshires and Once Upon a Time in The Berkshires and Taiga in The Berkshires. The Insurgents was produced at Labyrinth Theater Company and Contemporary American Theater Festival. Her five play cycle The Hill Town Plays was produced Off Broadway by Rattlestick Playwright’s Theater in-conjunction with The Cherry Lane Theater, The Axis Theater and The New Ohio Theatre. Her play SCARCITY was originally produced at The Atlantic Theatre. Lucy wrote the text for QUIXOTE, conceived and directed by Lear deBessonet, a site-specific performance with the Psalters made for and with The Broad Street Community, also with Lear deBessonet and produced by 13P, Monstrosity. Lucy is published by Dramatists Play Service. She is an alumni of New Dramatists, A member of 13P, Labyrinth Theater Company and Rising Phoenix Rep. She got to spend time with Sundance Theatre at UCROSS in Wyoming. Lucy has been commissioned by Playwrights Horizons, The Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Houses on The Moon, Yale Rep. Williamstown Theatre Festival, A.C.T. and Steppenwolf Theatre. She is the recipient of Manhattan Theatre Club Playwriting Fellowship, the first Gary Bonasorte Memorial Prize for Playwriting, a proud recipient of a LILLY AWARD, an OBIE Award for The Hill Town Plays and The Helen Merrill Distinguished Playwriting Award and OFF BROADWAY ALLIANCE - BEST PLAY for TRANSFERS produced by MCC. She has written for SWEET BITER on STARZ and is a writer Producer and AMC’s NOS4A2 and Amazon’s OUTER RANGE and YOUTH. She has written screenplay’s for Debra Granik, Rachel Weisz and Maven. Lucy has developed with FX, HBO, Nanette Burstein, Sarah Paulson and Lena Dunham.

JENNA WORSHAM is a New York-based Director, Writer, Dramaturg and Arts Activist, with a focus on new American plays and screenplays. She recently directed the critically-acclaimed world premier of At The Wedding by Bryna Turner for Lincoln Center Theater (NY Times Critic’s Pick), starring Mary Wiseman (Lucille Lortel nomination). As well as: Arrowhead by Catya McMullen for IAMA Theater, Superstitions by Emily Zemba for The Pool Plays, and the world premier of The Siblings Play by Ren Dara Santiago for Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. Select directing credits include: Summer’s Soldier by Boo Killebrew for Williamstown Theatre Festival, featuring a cast of over100 local community members; The Climb by C.A. Johnson for Cherry Lane Theatre; AGNES by Catya McMullen for Lesser America at 59E59 Theaters (NY Times Critic’s Pick); Amy Herzog's Belleville for Pasadena Playhouse, starring Anna Camp & Thomas Sadoski (Ovation Award nomination); Street Children by Pia Scala-Zankel for Vertigo Theatre (NY Times Critic’s Pick); The First Immigrant by Martyna Majok (Williamstown); as well as Thornton Wilder’s Our Town for the 2019 Pride Plays Festival (featuring an entirely Queer and TGNC ensemble). Jenna is the Co-founder of New Roots, a residency program for LGBTQIA+2s artists at Walhalla Farm in upstate New York, as well as the Co-creator The Homebound Project in partnership with No Kid Hungry, an initiative that raised money to help feed children and families affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Jenna was a 2018 National Directing Fellow at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, as well as the 2017 Drama League & Boris Sagal Directing Fellow at Williamstown Theatre Festival, where she co-conceived and directed Blue Ridge.

DURATION

Jan 4, 2026 - Jan 10, 2026

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