Karen Alvarado is an Advisory Board Member of Poetic Theater Productions’ Veteran Voices Program.
Karen is a Latinx actor, director, and producer born in Corpus Christi, Texas. She grew up touring bilingual history plays in Texas and Northern Mexico. After getting a Theatre BA from Texas A&M University, she enjoyed a professional acting career in Austin, Texas. While in Austin she served as the Founding Artistic Director for The Last Act Theatre Company for four years before moving to New Jersey to complete an MFA in Acting at Rutgers University Mason Gross Conservatory, and received classical training from Shakespeare’s Globe in London. She is currently the Founding Co-Artistic Director of Thinkery & Verse. Karen most recently appeared in BEDLAM: THE SERIES (film), August Osage County (REP) and as Penelope in a staged reading of Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey (BAM). Other acting credits include Claudio, Hero, and Don Jon in a 4-person version of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, and the lead character in Bride of the Gulf at the 2018 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Karen also directed Bride of the Gulf and the play received critical acclaim from The Scotsman and The List. 2019 was packed with co-direction on the world premieres of Thou Shalt Not in New Jersey, Dionysus in America in Austin, Texas and finally both direction as well as curation on AFTERSHOCK / La Réplica, a new play commissioned by The Austin Veteran Arts Festival in Texas. The current health and social crisis have provoked her artistry to pivot and Karen has chosen to embrace this new normal by focusing producing storytelling and discussion podcasts (AFTERSHOCK / La Réplica Podcast, Decameron 2020: Survival Through Stories Podcast and That’s How the Story Goes – the Hall-Mills Murders Podcast). Along with Thinkery & Verse and The New Brunswick Historical Society, Karen has also created a new (and FREE) geocache and audio adventure called GHOST HUNT: The Hall-Mills Double Homicide (GHOST HUNT SEASON 2 coming out July 2021). Engage with Karen’s art here: thinkeryandverse.org and karenalvarado.com
With Poetic Theater Productions:
Playwright in Veteran Voices: Playwriting Presentation December 2021
Playwright in Veteran Voices Playwriting Presentation June 2021 presented by PTP & NYTW
Director of Inmigrantes: The Faña Journey in Veteran Voices: Rites of Passage within Poetic License: Ritual
Program Developer and Workshop Facilitator in Veteran Voices: Conscious Community as Ritual
Program Developer and Workshop Facilitator in Veteran Voices: Transformation
Co-Facilitator (from page to embodiment to Zoom) in Veteran Voices: Reckoning
Featured Artist in Veteran Voices in Poetic License 2020: Renewal