BIO

Kari Barclay (they/them or he/him) is an award-winning writer, director, and researcher who serves as Assistant Professor of Theater at Oberlin College. They have directed productions at Ars Nova in New York City, Cleveland Public Theatre, the San Francisco Mime Troupe Studios, MirrorBox Theater, and Stanford University, among other theaters. Their original play CAN I HOLD YOU? was one of the first full-length pieces about asexuality performed in the U.S. and enjoyed a sold-out run in San Francisco and workshop in New York. Their play STONEWALLIN’ was the winner of the 2021 Southern Queer Playwriting Festival and opened at Richmond Triangle Players in February 2022.

Kari’s research interests include gender and sexuality studies, theater directing, consent theory, and asexuality studies. Their recent book, Directing Desire, examines the rise of consent-based approaches to staging sex in contemporary theater, known as intimacy choreography. It was published with Palgrave Macmillan in fall 2023. Their articles on performance and sexuality have appeared in Theatre Journal, Theatre Topics, and The Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, among other venues. They integrate this work in theory and practice to advance racial and gender equity in the entertainment industry.

Kari received their PhD in Theater and Performance Studies from Stanford University in 2021. They are an alum of the La MaMa International Symposium for Directors, Humanity in Action Fellowship for Human Rights, Angier B. Duke Scholarship, and Samuel DuBois Cook Award for racial equity and social justice work. Kari lives in Cleveland, Ohio and loves supporting the theater community in Northeast Ohio and beyond.

On Stage

How to Live in a House on Fire comes to Cleveland Public Theatre’s Test Flight.

Kari’s play How to Live in a House on Fire had a developmental workshop at Cleveland Public Theatre’s Test Flight this March, and it’s on its way to edits at the Headlands Center for the Arts in San Francisco this summer. This new play looks to queer history as a lens through which to understand our current moment of climate grief. As a gay couple prepares to evacuate during wildfire season in 2020 California, they decide what from the 50 years of their relationship to take with them and what to leave behind. How do we care for each other in times of crisis? In the words of Tennessee Williams: "We live in a perpetually burning building, and what we must save from it, all the time, is love."  Read more here.

In Print

My book, Directing Desire, is out now from Palgrave Macmillan!

Directing Desire explores the rise of consent-based and trauma-informed approaches to staging sexually and sensually charged scenes for theater in the contemporary U.S., known as intimacy choreography. E-book and hard copy available now from Palgrave Macmillan, Barnes and Noble, Bookshop.org, or wherever you get your books.