Karen Paisley

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT KAREN PAISLEY

I am a leader, professional theatre direct, playwright, and community builder passionate about bringing great theatre and stories to all people. The arts belong to everyone and are a source of knowledge, insight, joy, enlightenment, empathy and laughter. With over a 100 classics and new works on my resume, doing theatre is my calling. These skills are enhanced by pragmatic organizational leadership, classroom teaching experience at the university and K-12 arenas. As a theatre leader and consultant, insightful listening enables me to support our organization and community by creating partnerships between divergent groups through performance, educational programming, and grassroots theatre experiences. Deeply committed to social justice and artistic excellence, these skills translate into gorgeous plays that entertain, inspire, and encourage individuals while strengthening community and relationships through experiences with the arts, literature, science and history. Pragmatic understanding of goals, mission and budgets enables me to develop customized experiences for groups that partner with our company on a variety of budgets and scales. As a veteran leader, I understand the value of our community’s patronage and support. I am deeply grateful to have been able to grow grant writing and development skills to support these efforts well. A long time teacher and playwright, empowering a one on one experience with the arts can’t be overvalued. There is no dead theatre or dead stories. Theatre meets us where we are and helps us become who we might be. When the lights on the stage go up, the walls between people fall down.