BIOGRAPHY

As a playwright of quirky dark comedies, allegories and theatrical dramas, Tara aims to spark reflection, discussion, passion and connection in the way we view relationships and the world around us, while sharing stories with audiences in an exciting, emotional and novel manner. Isolation, false narratives and oppression, as well as self-sacrifice, bravery and hope, are often found in her high-stakes dark comedies. Specific themes in her work vary, but most of her plays ultimately showcase the pivotal importance of connection, no matter how dire the circumstance may be.

Tara holds her MFA in Playwriting from Carnegie Mellon University, is a member of the Dramatists Guild and she is the winner of theatrical awards such as the Shubert Fellowship in Dramatic Writing, the Sloan Screenwriting Fellowship, The Bradford Gromelski Jury Award, The New Works for Young Women [Actors] Award, The Write Stuff Award, and The Arts Alive Recovery NY Regrant Award. She has been published by YouthPLAYS, Smith & Kraus, Oxford Press South Africa, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA), Limelight Editions/Applause Acting Series, The Hunger Journal, Meriweather Publishing, Applause Theatre & Cinema, Performer Stuff and Ace-Your-Audition.

Tara’s plays have been presented by theater companies such as Fusion Theatre, Mosaic Theater Company of DC, East Valley Children’s Theatre, The Directors Company, Axial Theatre, Le Petit Theatre de Terrebonne, Theatre One, Tutti Bravi Productions, Westchester Collaborative Theater, Possibilities Theater, Tagragg Productions, One Armed Man, Oracle Theatre, Inc, The Acme Theatre Company, The Harlequin Players, Woman Seeking…,and numerous schools, universities and colleges including Gardner-Webb, Prince Williams, and Colgate. Her work has showcased at festivals such as the Artists of Tomorrow Festival in NYC, The Bangkok Community Theatre Fringe Festival, the Pittsburgh New Works Series and the Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Alaska. Tens of thousands of teachers, actors and students world-wide have utilized her monologues for competitions, course material, auditions, performances, and showcases.

As an artist, Tara enjoys combining her theatrical talents with the importance of community and human connection. She has taught taught Playwriting at Carnegie Mellon (undergrad and graduate non-majors), the Pittsburgh Public Theatre (high school and adults) and The Westport Country Playhouse (teens). She has taught Theater Makers workshops to children and teens in various diverse spaces such as theaters, schools, a housing authority, teens who have experienced human trafficking, to Girl Scouts, at a library and a discovery studio, and served as a playwright mentor for college students. Tara has seen the joy, pride and increase of self-esteem that creating theater brings to individuals and a community. She believes theater, and the act of engaging in creation itself, brings joy and pride—and ultimately the potential to enact positive change through personal connection.

Tara dabbles in other writing forms, as well, from short stories to a children’s novel and she records music in the chick-core rap band, Girl Crusade.  She has a knack for spotting four-leaf clovers, can recite all 50 states in less than 30 seconds and can’t help but do different character voices when reading children’s books out loud (check her out in the read-aloud youtube channel, Chat-n-Read). She lives near NYC with her musical husband, two theatrical children, and fluffy cat, Kiwi.

BACKGROUND

Tara has been writing stories since she was four years old, but her passion first took dramatic form when she directed her third-grade classmates in a play she had written about a boy and his horse. When she was ten, she wrote and directed Bomeo and Cooliet, a satiric play based off of the encyclopedia’s summary of Shakespeare’s hit. At 14, she thought she had invented a new style of theater when she wrote an absurd full-length play, involving 10 characters all living at the same house, not knowing this was the case. Not long after, thanks to her High School French teacher, she discovered Ionesco and Albee, her two earliest influences (next to Northern Exposure), and was able to characterize her writing at the time as “theater of the absurd.” Studying at Colgate University, Tara was influenced not only by her theater and literature professors, but also by professors teaching courses in psychology, philosophy, and blended courses in philosophy/political science, philosophy/social science, philosophy/science. Tara’s first-year seminar was a social philosophy course by an inspiring political philosopher who blew her away. Just as absurdism filled the hole she hadn’t been able to name, philosophical thinking slid right into her world. She was hooked! These courses further deepened her thinking, perceptions, and understanding of people, ideas, and society. Spending a few years working in social services and not-for-profits post-college also gave her an increased awareness of needs, loss, pain, families as well as mental, emotional and behavioral differences. Tara honed her writing skills in the immersive Dramatic Writing graduate program at Carnegie Mellon, where she took focused on playwriting, but took additional courses in screenwriting, television writing (sit-com and serial), and various theater courses for breadth (directing, acting, stage management, design).

Tara’s work continues to develop, change and grow, along with her experiences and understanding, and her varied plays reflect that. She writes absurdist work such as, Free Space, the full-length dark comedy/thriller about a demanding bingo chip, Into the Violet, a one-act about fairies trapped in a jar or Brush Them Fleas, a comedy about a stuffed dog causing scandal. She also writes theatrical dramas, such as For My Silent Sisters, a full-length play about four individuals caught in human trafficking; or The Victory Garden Plays, a piece about love and loss on the homefront during WW2; or even Grief himself as a personified character in The Visitor in the Doorway. She enjoys exploring political and social issues in the form of allegories, such as frogs in Alfred and Lily and Their Marvelous Tank in the Forest or a werewolf and his mom in When Marshmallows Burn. Tara also writes family, teen and children’s theater, engaging younger audiences while avoiding “writing down” to them. She has written short children’s plays for 2-4 actors, which have been used in classrooms around the world, such as Pebbles and Tails or The Shipwreck Solution; she’s also written large cast seasonal plays such as Grinching 101 or Chaos in a Christmas Snowglobe, and a large cast full-length play about vegetables on a journey, The Underground Adventures of a Carrot and Potato. Themes found in her work for younger audience are not that dissimilar to what she writes for adults. Themes often relate to finding one’s place in this world, standing up for what is right, and the false sides we show one another which hide our insecurities beneath the surface. She also enjoys loves writing dramatic and comedic monologues for actors. Whatever Tara's subject or style, she writes her plays in such a way as they are uniquely theatrical, clearly her own voice, and truly belong on the stage.