NARRATIVE BIO
As a playwright of quirky dark comedies, allegories, theatrical dramas and theater for young audiences, 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, oppression, pain, as well as self-sacrifice, bravery, empowerment, and hope, are often found in her high-stakes dark comedies and dramas. While her work for youth takes a colorful, approachable look at the world, she doesn’t write “down” to kids, giving them fun and thought-provoking pieces. 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 is an award-winning published playwright whose work has been performed around the world from Norway to Australia, Ireland to the UAE. She holds her MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon University and is a member of the Dramatists Guild. Select theatrical honors include The Sloan Screenwriting Fellowship, The AriZoni Theater Award for Excellence, The Shubert Fellowship in Dramatic Writing, The Arts Alive Recovery NY Regrant Award, The East Valley Children’s Theater Playwright Award, The Bradford Gromelski Jury Award, The New Works for Young Women [Actors] Award, and The Write Stuff Award. Her work has been published by Smith & Kraus, YouthPLAYS, Oxford Press South Africa, London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA), Limelight, PerformerStuff, and Meriweather, including appearances in textbooks as well as “Best 10-Minute Plays” and “Best Stage Monologues” anthologies.
Tara’s plays and monologues have been performed by theater companies, universities, studios and schools throughout the world, as well as showcasing in festivals from Alaska to Bangkok, New York to South Africa. She loves writing fantastic roles for actors: complex, fun, unique—and it shows. Tens of thousands of teachers, actors and students worldwide have utilized her monologues for competitions, course material, auditions, performances, and showcases. Additionally, she has script consulted on several animation and VR projects, including Where the Deer Sleep. She created an interactive multi-media family adventure at a library (about tiny creatures called Booklings); she even wrote monologues for a receptionist robot/wannabe-lounge-singer, Valerie, when Siri was just a twinkle in Apple’s eye.
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 been commercially sexually exploited, 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 increased self-worth 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. Alongside theater, Tara has worked in social services, yoga & wellness, and program development for kids and teens.
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 dramatic 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.