Photo by Joanna Eldredge Morrissey

Kathleen Tolan began as an actor—first in Andre Gregory’s Manhattan Project and then in plays by Tina Howe, Chuck Mee, Susan Miller, Wallace Shawn and Michael Weller at the Public Theater way back when Joe Papp was running it, and other plays in and out of town (including Beatrice in Much Ado and Stella in Streetcar in Peterborough; Catherine in View From The Bridge in St. Louis) and some TV and film. She’s begun to act again, having played a role last summer (2024) in Crystal Finn’s wonderful Find Me Here, and recently Crystal and she did a reading of a scene from her new play, Where Are You?

Some of Kathleen’s plays are The Wax, Memory House, (both at Playwrights Horizons) Kate’s Diary (at Playwrights Horizons and The Public), Approximating Mother (Women's Project) and A Weekend Near Madison at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Victory Gardens, Seattle Rep and Trinity Rep and the Astor Place Theatre. She heads the MFA Playwriting Program at Rutgers and teaches a playwriting class at Barnard. She has written a memoir about the olden days.’

The Cottage had a reading with the Steppenwolf Company. Her new play, I Was Reading a Novel by Javier Marías had a reading at Classic Stage Company. Numerous commissions include from the Public Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Classic Stage Company, Trinity Repertory Theatre and Seattle Repertory Theatre. She received a McKnight Fellowship, a Calder Fellowship, a Thornton Wilder Fellowship, a NYFA Fellowship, two Sundance Residencies, and was a finalist for the Susan Blackburn Prize. Residencies at Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony (multiple times), and Hedgebrook. Plays published by Samuel French, Dramatist Play Service and Playscripts. Associate Professor and Head of MFA Playwriting at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers, and teaches a playwriting class at Barnard College. 

Agent: Peregrine Whittlesey 212 787 1802 pwwagy@aol.com

 kathleen.tolan@gmail.com