kate douglas

Chamber musical | 3

Book, music & lyrics by Kate Douglas

In a rural town in the 1950s, a housewife named Mary mysteriously develops telepathic powers after the death of her family dog. Her husband, a small-town politician, sees this as a political asset… but her brother thinks Mary is lying and sets out to disprove it.

2025 - Concert Production, Ancram Center for the Arts

Photos by Evan C. Anderson

Play | 1

There was a brief moment in the 17th century when a plant could ruin your life.

The scentless, upright, almost aloof flower - the tulip - nearly toppled its economy and turned a stable society on its head. Tulips became a luxury item, with the highest prices going towards “broken” bulbs, infected by a virus that “broke” the petal colors into two or more.

Tulipa is a sensual and surprising story of self-discovery. The monologue is set against this Dionysian backdrop: a riches to rags story about a widow in Holland who loses everything in the name of tulips…and a man. In a world gone mad, Tulipa examines how we can find what truly nourishes us.

2025 - Reading, The Jungle Theater
2024 - Reading, New York Stage & Film
2024 - NYSCA Grant Recipient

Tulipa is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Additional support provided by The Bechdel Project.

Photos by Deb Lopez

Musical | 8

Story, music, and lyrics by Kate Douglas, Matthew Dean Marsh & Raina Sokolov-Gonzalez

This new musical storytelling experience follows a family over two generations and explores how landscapes and people change with time. In this immersive theatrical concert event, collaborators Kate Douglas, Matthew Dean Marsh, and Raina Sokolov-Gonzalez blend storytelling and innovative choral music to celebrate humanity and the willingness to face the unknown in a changing world.

2024 - Concert Production, Ancram Center for the Arts

Photos by Patrick Grego & B Docktor

Musical | 8

Book & Lyrics by Kate Douglas

Music & Lyrics by Grace McLean

Lois, a middle aged woman in Aurora, New York, hates change. But today is her birthday - and everything is about to change. Her body is metamorphizing into something mysterious, mystical, and perhaps powerful. 

hag is a horror-comedy musical about the cultural fear of aging and decay.

2024 - Reading, New Group | Free Fest
2023 - Vivace Award, Winner

Play | 4

22 years in the future, two lab assistants hatch a plan that could change the world. All they need are a few volunteers.

A raucous and provocative play by Kate Douglas about sacrifice, ambition, and honeybees.

Script now available via Dramatists Play Service.

2024 - World Premiere at 2St
NYT Critic’s Pick! “a bright, strange and mesmerizing marvel… a nearly perfect, first-class staging.” -New York times

2024 - Outer Critic's Circle Nominee for the John Gassner Award
2023 - Reading, Second Stage New Voices Series
2023 - Winner, Judith Royer Excellence in Playwriting Award
2023 - Finalist, The Leah
2023 - Finalist, Modern Works Festival
2022 - O’Neill National Playwrights Conference
2022 - Finalist, Princess Grace Award in Playwriting
2021 - Reading, GTG Speakers’ Corner

Photos by Sara Krulwich for the New York Times & Joan Marcus

Play | 8

An experimental theatrical epic that reimagines the classic play Antigone to center the dichotomy between Eurydice & Antigone.

This piece explores of how the state engages with "mothers" and "anti-mothers" in the public/private spheres, centering the politics of motherhood in the democratic process.

Play | 4

An astronaut and a robot are rehearsing a mission to Mars in the Arizona desert that is interrupted by the discovery of fossils. When a paleontologist arrives to assess their significance, it sparks a conflict around the question of habitability and sustainability on Earth and Mars - in this age of mass extinction, whose work is more vital: the futurists or the historians? 

2024 - The Civilians/Princeton University Next Forever Commission Recipient

Musical | 12

By Todd Almond & Kate Douglas

Miss Pennington County follows Jane and Thomas, two people from two different generations, who meet at a VFW dance in South Dakota on Veteran’s Day, 1959.

These two embody America at the time, torn between a glorious past and an uncertain future. They should be in complete conflict, but in a single night, they change each other's lives.

Miss Pennington County is about the complicated choices we make for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

2023 - Concert Performances at Joe’s Pub & Ancram Opera House

2019 - Residency, The Orchard Project

2018 - Residency, SPACE on Ryder Farm

Musical | 4+

The Ninth Hour is a Beowulf for the modern age. Inspired by one of the oldest works in the Western canon, The Ninth Hour explores the intricacies of mankind's relationship with power and violence through rock anthems and heartbreaking lullabies.

It was a sold-out hit at the The Cloisters as part of the Met Live Arts series in the Summer of 2019 and a stand-out offering of the Met’s Digital Performance Series in 2020.

The full studio album is available on all streaming services.

Visit www.ninthhourmusical.com for more.

2023 - Full album release (2M+ streams)

2023-2024 - U.S. Tour (Minneapolis, NYC, Atlanta, LA, Chicago, Nashville)

2023 - UK concert debut / The Other Palace, London

2023 - Australia concert debut / The Great Club, Sydney

2019 - Performance at The Met Cloisters

2016 & 2017 - Johnny Mercer Writer’s Colony at Goodspeed Musicals

Immersive YA experience | 3+

Written & Directed by Kate Douglas
Asst. Directed & Art Directed by Tori Sparks

Designed by Corey Umlauf
Music & Sound Design by Matthew Dean Marsh

Middlemist Red aims to reconnect children of the digital age with the importance of conservation through an immersive, analog mystery experience to find a flower has gone missing from a botanical garden. On the journey to find the plant, audiences uncover the story of the Middlemist Society and the mission of a gardener who is trying to stop even more plants from disappearing.

Middlemist Red is a flexible, immersive experience for children ages 7-11 that can be programmed indoors and/or outdoors, in gardens or parks, with many potential partnerships/collaboration with public artists, educational institutions, and more.

TECH RIDER & MORE INFORMATION

2023 - WriteNow Dorothy Webb Finalist - TYA/USA National Festival & Conference

2018, 2019 - New Victory LabWorks

2019 - Institutional Residency with New Victory Theater, SPACE on Ryder Farm

2018 - Winner, Puffin Foundation Grant

Musical | 10

Destination Wonderful is a pop-verbatim musical that follows a group of salespeople attending a mandatory conference hosted by a multi-level marketing organization (MLM). Told over the course of a single weekend, the piece explores the precarious nature of hope and the impossibility of the lavish lifestyle that is sold to these employees.

2021 - Maestra Residency Recipient, Ferguson Center New Musicals Lab

Musical | 5

Book & Lyrics by Kate Douglas
Music & Lyrics by Grace McLean

In 1863 at a New York country estate, social climber Celine prepares her daughter Geneva for her wedding day. When Geneva confesses her reluctance to marry, startling and unexplainable events begin to terrorize the household and threaten the ceremony.

Against Women & Music! has been developed at Rhinebeck Writers Retreat and The Civilians R&D Group with additional support from Theater Latté Da.

2022 - Finalist, O’Neill National Musical Theatre Conference

2022 - Semi-Finalist, Relentless Musical Award

2022 - Residency, New Musicals Lab at the Ferguson Center

2021 - Triple R Recipient, Rhinebeck Musicals

2021 - Concert, The Civilians (additional support from Theater Latté Da)

2019-2020 - Civilians R&D Group

2019 - Finalist, HERE Harp Program

Play | 5

Wonderland explores the anguish and ecstasy of women's anger in two parts.

Part One is set in a dystopian 'anger management' rehab for women to help heal them of their rage and "get control of their lives."

Part Two is set in an outlandishly monied suburb where omnipresent violence is entirely normalized, at a ✨charity tombola for change✨.

2023 - Athena Project’s Read & Rant series

2021 - Finalist, Jane Chambers Excellence in Feminist Playwriting Award Finalists

2021 - Finalist, Seven Devils Conference

2021 - Semi-Finalist, Princess Grace Playwriting Fellowship, Princess Grace Foundation

2021 - Semi-Finalist, Bay Area Playwrights Festival

2019 - Semi-Finalist, Normal Ave NAP Series

Immersive experience | 4

Welcome to AllCorp, where productivity is touted as the key to happiness, a strange infestation of plants is growing up through people’s desks, and no one stops to wonder why. This immersive dance theater work transports audience members to a dystopian workplace that feels uncannily familiar in its exploration of what we are killing to make a killing.

2020 - Semi-Finalist, Sundance New Frontiers Lab

2018 - Sold-out three week run, NYC

2018 - Winner, LMCC Creative Engagement Grant

Cabaret series, concert, and full-length musical

The Imaginary Menagerie was a year-long, multidisciplinary collaboration with director Hunter Bird. The Imaginary Menagerie consisted of The Search for Lillian Holiday (a 12-month residency at The McKittrick Hotel, home of Sleep No More), The Death of Katherine Hayes (a full-length musical presented by Ars Nova ANT Fest) & The House at the End of the World (a concert piece presented by Joe's Pub at The Public Theater).