BIO
Kari Barclay (they/them) is an award-winning writer, director, and researcher who serves as Associate Professor of Theater at Oberlin College. They have directed productions at Ars Nova in New York City, Cleveland Public Theatre, convergence-continuum, the San Francisco Mime Troupe Studio, 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 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 a 2026 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award recipient, 2026 Dramatists Guild Foundation National Fellow, and an alum of the La MaMa International Symposium for Directors, Directors Lab North, Humanity in Action Fellowship for Human Rights, and Samuel DuBois Cook Award for social justice work. Kari lives in Cleveland, Ohio and loves supporting the theater community in Northeast Ohio and beyond.
Recent Happenings
The Dramatists Guild Foundation recognizes Kari as one of nine 2026 National Fellows.
As part of this fellowship, Kari will develop their plays How to Live in a House on Fire, a meditation on wildfire and queer history in the American West, and Song of the Little Peacock, a trans adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac based on the biography of a real-life genderqueer poet from the seventh century.
On Stage
Kari directs Plano at convergence-continuum, May 22-June 13, 2026.
Carolyn Demanelis, Katie Simon Atkinson, Mike Frye, and Ariana Starkman in Plano
A dream cast and mind-bending dark comedy from Will Arbery
In Print
Kari’s 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.
