Kara Davidson is the Director of New Works and Associate Artistic Producer at Paramount Theatre in Aurora, IL. Previously, she was the director of The Lab Chicago and producer of the NOW (New Omaha Works) Lab at the Omaha Playhouse, both incubator programs focusing in new work development. She is a theatre practitioner with over 15 years of experience in various disciplines of the field including playwriting, directing, acting, arts administration, teaching, and theatre management. A former company member of The House Theatre of Chicago, she holds an MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and a BA in Theatre Performance from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Her work as a playwright has been commissioned and produced in Chicago, Minneapolis, Nebraska, Indiana, Kansas, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky. Since 2015, she has taught workshops and performed both nationally and internationally with the artistic collective Manual Cinema, a company that utilizes puppetry, technology, and immersive sound to create theatrical cinematic experiences for audiences. Additionally, she has worked with Lookingglass Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, The House Theatre of Chicago, The Actors Theatre of Louisville, and Nebraska Repertory Theatre, among others. Kara is passionate about creating accessible theatre experiences and works with neurodiverse artists as a teaching facilitator with A.B.L.E. Ensemble, which creates theatre and film projects for, with, and by individuals with Down syndrome and other intellectual and developmental disabilities.
The College of Arts