Carol K. Mack

SEVEN
SEVEN, 2007, a theatre piece to benefit Vital Voices Global Partnership, is a project of seven playwrights: Carol K. Mack, Paula Cizmar, Catherine Filloux, Susan Yankowitz, Gail Kriegel, Ruth Margraff and Anna Deavere Smith. Carol K. Mack has incorporated this group of writers as "Many Shining Lights, Inc" operating under the fiscal umbrella of Vital Voices 501(C)(3). We each interviewed seven women leaders from all corners of the globe and are weaving their remarkable stories together in an inspiring documentary theatre piece which will open to the public at the 92nd Street Y in New York City on January 21, 2008, Martin Luther King Day. For more details see www.seventheplay.com

The Visitor
Commissioned by Theater J, Washington, D.C. this play is a recipient of a grant from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, 2005. The play takes place in 1895 when Theodore Roosevelt was Police Commissioner of New York City. Herr Ahlwardt, a rabidly anti-Semitic member of the Reichstag came from Berlin with the announced purpose of “preaching against the Jews” and he demanded protection. Roosevelt assigned a group of Jewish policemen to be his bodyguards and protect his right to freedom of speech. THE VISITOR is about these policemen, this historical event and its significance.
One Set, 6 actors.

Writing On The Wall
A play that takes place on a weekend in the country and concerns the relationships of two couples, a visiting journalist, and the child of one of the couples. The play is about the reality of fiction and the fiction of reality. It is set on a tiered structure which represents a foothill and various levels of reality.

Ghostwriter
Ghostwriter is a psychological thriller about a visit paid to a novelist by a mysterious woman who may be there to interview him or for another, darker purpose. The play concerns the consequences of retribution and the role of an author. 2 MEN, 1 WOMAN

The Gleam
A two act, dark but highly entertaining farce about a voracious, hi-tech, multinational corporation called G.E.T.G.O. (an acronym that changes meaning often) and a painter EVE SAWYER (the protagonist and the pseudonymous author of The Gleam) who comes to protest its destructive activities and gets trapped inside the labyrinth. The entire play takes place in corporate headquarters where G.E.T.G.O.'s first annual art exhibit is being held. When the audience enters the lobby, they enter G.E.T.G.O.'s game and when they leave, the world will never seem quite the same again. Like EVE, they discover they can’t get out. The play is based on a real incident.
3 MEN, 2 WOMEN. SET is done with projections.

Tony Walton is the director and designer of this play and thus far we have had readings at New Dramatists, Irish Repertory Theatre and Williamstown Theater. July 25, 2004 we will have a reading at the John Drew Theater at Guild Hall, East Hampton, N.Y.

Without A Trace
“The relationship between Mesmer and his patient was a fascinating one as portrayed here. Played by a brilliant Peter Kelly, we saw how the maverick medic needed his most famous patient as much as she needed him...an unusual and entertaining show, fluently directed by Gerda Stevenson. It was, mesmerizing!”
Kenneth Spiers, THE MAIL ON SUNDAY, 22 September 2002
Read more reviews.

WITHOUT A TRACE is a two act play about the tragic relationship of the charismatic Dr. Franz Mesmer and his famous patient, the blind pianist, Maria Theresa Paradies (for whom Mozart wrote the 'Paradies Concerto'). The scandal that drove Mesmer out of Vienna and then Paris and drove Maria back to blindness is the hub of a battle between the forces of mechanistic science and the insightful vision of the artist. The play begins at the “Concert of the Blind Pianist”, April, 1784 in the Tuileries, Paris, where Mesmer's trial is conducted by Benjamin Franklin and moves into the memory of its star witness: MARIA Paradeis and her experiences in the cruel world of Vienna where she briefly regained her sight.
5 MEN, 3 WOMEN. Unit set, minimal scenery.

WITHOUT A TRACE was first seen in the 1997 Humana Festival at the Actors Theatre of Louisville as IN HER SIGHT. “Mack has created a highly unusual love story...a fascinating psychological study in the tradition of EQUUS. We found ourselves mesmerized!” Daniel Selznick, Theatrescope
The play received its European premiere in September 2002.

The Accident
The Boston Globe called Carol K. Mack's play, THE ACCIDENT, "Gripping!" and the Patriot Ledger: "Powerfully captivating!"

"Once in a very great while, a new play comes along that is genuinely new. A script that finds an original way of approaching questions which have been chewed over perhaps many times before. A play that presents us with a freshly and deeply imagined vision. Seeing such a play, we have the sense of suddenly looking out over new terrain; a new part of our collective psyche falls into place. "The Accident" by Carol K. Mack, which is receiving its world premiere production by the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, is such a play." The Patriot Ledger, 4/11/95.

THE ACCIDENT is a full length play (no intermission) about a woman who awakens after a mysterious accident in a place she doesn't recognize. It is a psychological thriller about the nature of identity
One set.
3 MEN, 2 WOMEN.

Other plays...
Carol K. Mack's plays also include: TERRITORIAL RITES, POSTCARDS, ESTHER, and A SAFE PLACE which have premiered respectively at: The American Place Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The White Barn Theatre Foundation, and The Berkshire Theatre Festival in Association with The Kennedy Center for The Performing Arts. She is the recipient of a Stanley Award, a Beverly Hills Theatre Guild-Julie Harris Playwright Award, a Playwright Forum Award, & a residency at the Rockefeller Foundation Center at Bellagio, 1995. Her work appears in THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT PLAYS of 1986, 1990 and 1994, and in various other publications.