Karina Patel, Associate Collaborator
Karina Patel is a dramaturg and director of new work born in London, based in Chicago and raised everywhere else. She currently serves as the Literary Associate at Chicago Shakespeare Theater and the New Works Manager at Jackalope Theatre Company. Most recently she directed the United States premiere of DUMMY IN DIASPORA by Esho Rasho at Jackalope Theatre, and the world premiere of HANNAH AND HALMONI SAVE THE WORLD by Juliet Kang Huneke at Filament Theatre. She has developed new and devised work with Goodman Theatre, Writers Theatre, TimeLine Theatre Company, The Understudy Chicago, APIDA Arts Festival, The Story Theatre, Avalanche Theatre, Token Theatre, 24 Hour Plays, Pocket Theatre VR, Physical Festival, the Actor’s Gymnasium, and Telling Humans Playwrights Studio.
What kind of plays are you excited to read?
These days, I am drawn to plays that truly educate, that expand our worldview or deepen a perspective we already hold. When we typically agree with our artistic collaborators and audience members on our sociopolitical beliefs about the world, plays that educate fortify our sense activism and justice by recognising that more knowledge, more understanding, is truly a revolutionary act. I am thinking about the work of Lisa Loomer, or Anna Deveare Smith, for instance. I am also drawn to stories that instill in us a grounding conviction that the real world and the magical are not mutually exclusive, to pieces that consider the complexities of identity and foreign-ness in worlds that feel just as nonsensical as our own. Playwrights who I think accomplish this very well are Julia Izumi and Francisco Mendoza.
Website
karinapatel.super.site, @karinacpatel on Instagram
How would you describe your process?
Warm, connected — I am invested in getting to know you as a person and playwright as much as I am invested in getting to know your play. I think this ultimately serves my understanding of your artistry and sense of purpose better, and it’s fun! For our collaboration to be a success, I’m looking for open-ness, and slowness: there is no rush to get anything right immediately, and there is also no need to limit yourself to the ideas or frameworks you began with if other stimuli have changed that.
Location/Time Zone
Chicago, IL (Central Standard Time)
The Match communication preference
Text or email, both equally okay! And I prefer giving notes live on a call over written notes, actually.