BIO
Author, Playwright, Dramaturg, Teaching Artist
Kate McGrath is an award-winning playwright whose work has been produced in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, NC, and internationally. She grew up on the campus of Phillips Exeter Academy, studied creative writing as a Morehead Scholar at UNC-Chapel Hill, playwriting at the National Theatre Institute, and earned her MA in Theatre from Villanova. Kate has performed throughout the Philadelphia area as an actor and solo performance artist, and is a three-time winner of the Adele Magner Memorial Award for her work as a teaching artist with Philadelphia Young Playwrights. She teaches writing and improv to students of all ages. She lives outside of Philly and enjoys daily walks in the local cemetery.
While at Carolina, Kate studied creative writing with Doris Betts and Daphne Athas. She has studied playwriting with Granville Burgess, Michael Hollinger, Lee Kalcheim and Karyn Traut, and performance art with Robin Reese and Harriet Power. Additional training: London Theatre School, Folger Theatre Conservatory, Williamstown Theatre Festival. Ensemble/Improv: The Independent Eye’s Genesis Ensemble, Playback Theatre, ComedySportz, the Improv Institute.
Kate was a founding member of New Plays Rising in North Carolina, a member of Playwrights Platform in Boston, and served as a script reader for American Repertory Theatre, Philadelphia Festival Theatre for New Plays, and Wilma Theatre. She was a Samuel Fels Intern at the Wilma Theatre, Marketing Director for Venture Theatre, and Executive Associate at The Independent Eye. She twice served as a board member of the Philadelphia Dramatists Center and produced their 1996 Playwriting Conference at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Center. As dramaturg: two seasons with Philadelphia Theatre Workshop’s PlayShops series, Celeste Walker's THE MOTHER PROJECT, Michelle Pauls' IT'S COMPLICATED, THIS GIFT OF LIFE, and Patricia King Haddad’s musical, LA GIARA.