Kate Marks
Director | Writer
Theatre Background
Prior to making movies, I was a theatre director and playwright where I built a strong foundation for working with actors, staging, and collaboration.
Bird House
Louisy and Syl live happily together in the safety of their tree house, until Syl decides to perform heroic deeds in a far away, war-torn land. Alone for the first time, Louisy falls victim to the whims of the birds and ants at her doorstep. Abroad, Syl finds that the line between good and bad is not as clear as she had expected. Bird House is a fantastical exploration of loyalty, loss, and what it means to do the right thing.
Produced by KNF Co. Productions
NYC, NY 2009
Written by Kate Marks
Original Direction by Heidi Handelsman
REVIEWS
There are some evenings at the theatre that just make being a critic worthwhile...a breath of fresh air...Writer Kate Marks has accomplished what other writers only dream about.
TheaterOnline.com: Ashley Griffin
A charming fairy tale...Marks' text has a whimsical poetry to it.
Nytheatre.com: Will Fulton
Lewis Carroll did it with Alice in Wonderland ... L. Frank Baum did it with The Wizard of Oz: gave us stories of fantastical worlds where innocent girls stumble backwards into their watershed moment and grow up from the inside out. Now, playwright Kate Marks brings us another place of fantasy where not one but two girls on opposite sides of the same world struggle with the same journey. This is Bird House...Ms. Marks has created a tiny world with its own rules, flavors, tragedies, triumphs, heartbreak and tenderness.
Neighborbeeblog.com: Karen Tortora-Lee
BIRD HOUSE
REVIEWS
Marks' script is enthralling. The way she arranges her words and creates these characters is meticulously stylized. She writes in an almost poetic way, where the words themselves are important, not just what is being said. And the world she's created is something unique in and of itself; although little is ever explicitly defined and the audience must interpret the play in their own way, the stylistic vocabulary is undeniably marvelous.
Theatreiseasy.com: Molly Marinik
Bird House is full of stunning imagery.
Offoffonline.com: Amy Freeman
Kate Marks has written a dream of a world so consistent in tone that even though axes fly through the wind and cuckoo birds burst out of people's mouths, she sustains our interest. Likewise, Heidi Handelsman has conjured this fantasy so fully that even though we see the puppeteers through the life-size windows of this hand-crafted bird house (Sara C. Walsh's set), we remain raptly dreaming. It's impossible to dismiss Bird House, and yet equally hard to accept.
Thatsoundscool.blogspot.com: Aaron Riccio
Kate's script is a dreamscape masterpiece, with a bubbly surprise twist to every line leading up to a grim and satisfying darkening end.
Blindsquirrels.blogspot.com: Johnna Adams
Ark
Ark chronicles the lives of those who are left behind when an epic flood drowns their city. In this apocalyptic fable, eight misfits are linked together by their daily ritual of riding the bus. Ark tells the story of what it means to be living on the fringe at a time when everyone is searching for dry land.
Produced at The Looking Glass Theatre, Oct. 14-31, 2004
Written and Directed by Kate Marks
The Fall
Written by Kenny Nowell
Directed by Kate Marks
Produced by The Looking Glass Theatre
New York City, NY 2005
REVIEWS
Mr. Nowell and his superb director, Kate Marks, manage a tone that teeters effectively between the tragic and the hilarious until by the end, you are left powerfully, and unexpectedly shaken…
The New York Times: Honor Moore
Elegantly directed…Marks choreographs her actors with great artistry.
Cool New York: Caraid O’Brien
The Fall is beautifully staged by director Kate Marks whose vision for the production is theatrical.
High Drama: Christopher Farr
Jack!
by Hana Roth Seavey
Directed by Kate Marks
Produced by the Looking Glass Theatre
New York City, NY 2004
REVIEW
Although the staging is intimate, much about this show is big: really big…Kate Marks the director has given Jack! lots of circus flash, with inventive masks and rollicking choreography..ingenius”
The New York Times: Laurel Graeber
Odyssey
Adapted from Homer’s The Odyssey
Using lies and deceit, Odysseus has won the war waged in the sand. Now all he has to do is sail home, no problem… His men? Eaten like baby sausages by a Cyclops. His Manhood? At the mercy of a woman who could turn him into a pig. His ship? A bone to a six-headed salty dog. Ten years lost at sea… And you thought the 80's was a bad decade.
Production by The Baracken Theatre: Wust, Germany 2003
Re-imagined for The Looking Glass Theatre: New York City, NY 2007
REVIEW
"When watching this new adaptation by writer and director Kate Marks, you'll be surprised to find yourself laughing. In Odyssey, produced by the Looking Glass Theater, she tackles the classic with a modern eye, a colloquial tongue, and a comic touch… Marks's blocking for depicting the sea is simply breathtaking. Clad in whirling blue skirts and tight tank tops, the actors craft several raging storms. Their most delightful creation is the tide arriving on Calypso's shore. Rushing downstage in two rows, the first line of actors drops lightly into the arms of those behind, leaving a billowing blue skirt and a slight breeze in their wake. Repeated several times, the dance is a beautifully sensual device to show the passage of time."
Off-off online Pick of the week, Samantha O’Brian
Nothing Of Origins
By Devon Berkshire, Tella Storey, Ashley Salmon-Wander, Laura Roemer, and Jackie Kristel
Directed by Kate Marks
Produced by Studio 42
New York City, NY 2004
REVIEW
Director Kate Marks has given the play a visually rich production.
American Theatre Web: Andy Propst
Bumping Umbrellas
By Kymberly Harris-Riggs
Directed by Kate Marks
Produced by The Looking Glass Theatre
New York City, NY 2002-2003
REVIEW
Kate Marks staged and choreographed the play for maximum effect, playing up the humorous moments to balance the sexual sequences. Together these women have created a unique vision of how one indiscretion can change the course of many lives.
Backstage.com: Elias Stimac
I-95 South
Born into a legacy of Elvis impersonators, Cell longs to continue her family tradition and play the King. However, her father has been grooming her to join his act as Priscilla, Elvis’ young wife. Desperate to escape her family and the role she will be forced to play, Cell runs away. Her adventures take her on a path that cuts through both a fantastical American landscape and the hidden corners of Cell’s own house. She travels into the very cabinets in the kitchen and between the cushions of the couch. I-95 South is the story of Cell’s journey towards owning and expanding the boundaries of her silver-studded and lip-curling identity.
Produced in the New Plays Festival at Brown University; February 2001
Workshop Production at The American Living Room Series, HERE Arts Center; August 2006
Written and Directed by Kate Marks
REVIEW
I-95 South is a playful piece of writing that is graced with humor and the freshness of word games that transform reality into a magical landscape. Traversing the form of the road play, this is a dazzling script of a most original texture. Her main character, Cell crosses the boundaries of cross-dressing into a world where time is measured in the rhythms of Elvis Presley music and the big dream is to personify the King. This play offers the fantastic wounded reality of a young girl coming of age, along with a flamboyant depiction of pop culture and domestic dysfunction.
Pulizer Prize Winning Playwright: Nilo Cruz
A Chicken Goes to Broadway
A Chicken Goes to Broadway is a dark, puppet comedy about a chicken who dreams of being a Broadway star and makes it…posthumously in the form of a fried chicken wing prop. The play follows our protagonist, Clown Chicken, from the Factory Farm to the Slaughter House to the Broadway Stage.
Produced by Potluck Plays in The Samuel French One-Act Festival 2008
Written by Kate Marks
Original Direction by Heidi Handelsman
