BIOGRAPHY
Karen MacDonald
Irina Nikolayevna Arkadina in The Seagull. A.R.T.: founding member, sixty-six productions including Elena Ceausescu in The Communist Dracula Pageant, When It's Hot, It's Cole, Luisa in Cardenio, Margrethe Bohr in Copenhagen, Kitty Farmer in Donnie Darko, A Marvelous Party!, Mrs. Bumble in Oliver Twist (also at Theatre for A New Audience and Berkeley Repertory Theatre), Island of Slaves, the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, Estelle in No Exit, Ellen in Olly's Prison, Anna in Dido, Queen of Carthage, Madamoiselle in The Provok'd Wife, Frosine in The Miser, Meg in The Birthday Party, Hippolyta/Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream, several roles in Highway Ulysses, Kalonika in Lysistrata, Simonne Evrard in Marat/Sade, Emilia in Othello, the Duchess of Gloucester and Duchess of York in Richard II, the title role in Mother Courage, and Madam Yelena Popov/Nastasya in Three Farces and a Funeral. She has also appeared as Paulina in The Winter's Tale, Translator/Ursula in Full Circle, Zinaida in Ivanov, Anaïs Nin in The Idiots Karamazov, The Maid in Charlie in the House of Rue, Eileen in The Cripple of Inishmaan, Enone in Phaedra, Margaret Brennan in The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Female Interviewer in Valparaiso, Beline in The Imaginary Invalid, the Chorus Leader in The Bacchae, Mrs. Darling in Peter Pan and Wendy, Mrs. Pierson in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Gena in The Wild Duck, Smeraldina in The King Stag, Karen in Six Characters in Search of an Author, and in Big River, School for Scandal, and Baby With the Bathwater. New York: Roundabout Theatre, Second Stage, Playwright's Horizons, and Actors' Playhouse. Regional: The Misanthrope (Arsinöe, Berkshire Theatre Festival), Infestation (Mother, Boston Playwrights Theatre), Twelfth Night (Maria, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company), The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Maureen) and The Last Night of Ballyhoo (Boo, Vineyard Playhouse), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Martha, Elliot Norton Award) and Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (Frankie, Merrimack Repertory Theatre), As You Like It (Rosalind, Shakespeare & Co), Shirley Valentine (Shirley, Charles Playhouse). Other: Alley Theatre (Company member), the Goodman Theatre, the Wilma Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Geva Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Buffalo Studio Arena, Cincinnati Playhouse, Philadelphia Festival of New Plays.
PAST PERFORMANCES
- A Marvelous Party! The Noel Coward Celebration
- A Midsummer Night's Dream (2004)
- Angel City
- As You Like It
- Baby with the Bathwater
- Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- Boys from Syracuse
- Cardenio
- Charlie in the House of Rue
- Copenhagen
- Dido, Queen of Carthage
- Donnie Darko
- Full Circle
- Grownups
- Has "Washington" Legs?
- Highway Ulysses
- Hughie, presented with Footfalls and Rockaby
- Island of Slaves
- Ivanov
- Lulu
- Lysistrata
- Marat/Sade
- Measure for Measure
- Mother Courage & Her Children
- No Exit
- Oliver Twist
- Olly's Prison
- Othello
- Peter Pan and Wendy
- Phaedra
- Richard II
- Romeo and Juliet
- Rundown
- Sganarelle- An evening of Molière farces
- Six Characters in Search of an Author
- Six Characters in Search of an Author (1996 revival)
- The Bacchae
- The Berlin Requiem and The Seven Deadly Sins
- The Birthday Party
- The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
- The Communist Dracula Pageant: by Americans, for Americans, with hallucinations, phosphorescence, and bears
- The Cripple of Inishmaan
- The Idiots Karamazov
- The Imaginary Invalid
- The Journey of the Fifth Horse
- The King Stag (2000)
- The Marriage of Bette and Boo
- The Marriage of Figaro
- The Miser (2004)
- The Provok’d Wife
- The School for Scandal
- The Seagull (2009)
- The Wild Duck
- The Winter's Tale
- Three Farces & A Funeral
- Three Sisters (1982)
- Valparaiso
- When It's Hot It's Cole