Kathryn Grace McCarty

Kathryn Grace McCarty (born 10 December 1963) is the Artistic Director of Galatean Players Ensemble Theatre Company, a director of plays and musicals, an American playwright, and author of the recently-published Defining Form and Other Plays. Known for her homespun wit, McCarty is the author of numerous plays, including the critically acclaimed comedy, The Fitting Room.

Biography
Early life
Born in Duluth, Minnesota, she spent her early years in Wisconsin, South Carolina, Washington, DC and the Azores, as her father was in the United States Air Force, before the family settled in Benton, Illinois. McCarty is a direct descendant of John Rutledge (signatore of the US Constitution, US Supreme Court, Governor of South Carolina) who was brother to Edward Rutledge (a signatore of the Declaration of Independence and the Governor of South Carolina). McCarty is proud of her Southern heritage. McCarty's hometown of Benton, Illinois is just south of the Mason-Dixon line, and has also produced actor John Malkovich and Doug Collins of NBA fame both of whom also graduated from BCHS.

Professional life
After completing college at Southern Illinois University, McCarty spent a year at the prestigious McCarter Theatre on the campus of Princeton University before moving to Chicago. While in the Windy City, she worked in the offices of "Forbidden Broadway" and for the Payne Levitt Company at the Royal George Theatre and the Palmer House.

Later in Chicago, she directed the likes of the young Andy Dick, Hope Davis, Tom Lennon.

A life on the road enticed her to travel Europe where she performed in the Broadway Musical Company's West Side Story. Afterwards, she returned to Chicago and worked for Casting Director Cherie Mann before moving to California.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, McCarty, and the rogue thespian Calvin Landis, founded Galatean Players Ensemble Theatre, with original ensemble members Rob Knox, Marty Orton, Andrea Chamberlain, and Shari Oret, later joined by Rachel Hauser (Pergamit) and Brian Pergamit. McCarty has received critical acclaim for her work as a writer, director and actress.

Through Galatean Players, she has fostered the writing talents of several area writers including Craig Brewer (Hustle and Flow, Black Snake Moan), Marci Karr (Making Mary, IO), Lucina Paquet-Gabbard (The Wayward Spirit) and Caroline Altman (The Tower, Whiskers).

As a playwright, McCarty has 17 works produced in theaters throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago and Los Angeles. Drawing heavily on life experience, and a life well and happily lived, she crafts comedy from the darkest of circumstances. "In perspective, it's cathartic laughter in dealing with the subjects that all humans must go through."

Contra Costa theatre critics point out that she writes with a unique comic voice, exploring the pitfalls and triumphs of human nature through laughter and wisdom. Her characters illustrate the eccentricities of every day life.

McCarty is also a passionate educator working in both public and private schools, currently on faculty at Contra Costa College.

Plays
* DEFINING FORM (1997)
* CRICKET ON THE HEARTH (1998) (W/Stewart, Nott, Altman, Karr)
* BREAD BAKING TIME* (1998) (One Act Verse Play)
* HENRY EVER AFTER (1999)
* MODERN WOOLY MAMMOTHS** (2002) (Screenplay)
* THE GARDEN CLUB* (2000)
* FAULTY ANGELS* (2000)
* WHEN WE DANCED (2002)
* STAR POLISHER* (2002)
* VIRGIN SACRIFICES* (2002)
* BESSIE! A Celebration of Bessie Smith (2003)
* NOEL (2003)
* THE LAST HOORAH (2003)
* STRAIGHT LACED: A CANTATA (2004)
* THE LADIES QUINTET (2005)
* ON THE VERGE** 2006 (New Screenplay)

*indicates one-act play
**indicates screenplay

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