Kate Rindfleisch McGrath
2900 School Lane Drexel Hill, PA 19026 kmcgrath06@hotmail.com (610) 626-5191

Kate is a dramaturg, playwright, performing artist and teaching artist. She conducts workshops for youth and adults, specializing in playwriting through improvisation. Workshops involve participants in writing for the theatre using on-your-feet writing and acting exercises, and group or individual playwriting and revision techniques.

Kate has worked for Philadelphia Young Playwrights as a teaching artist for the past eighteen years, leading workshops in dozens of schools, including those participating in their Stagewrite, Anti-Violence, and cross-discipline programs, and was twice a recipient of their Adele Magner Memorial Award. She currently serves as teaching artist for PYP at a variety of schools, including J.R. Masterman School, The Science Leadership Academy, and Elkins Park Middle School. Kate has taught Theatre and Playwriting at The Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, PA, The Walnut Street Theatre School, the Pennsylvania Performing Arts Academy, Wolf Performing Arts Center, and the Montgomery County Cultural Center’s Heart of the Arts program (nine years as their Theatre/Playwriting teacher). Other Educational Outreach work has included dramaturgy for American Music Theatre Festival’s Rainbow Connection, actor/facilitator with Interact Theatre Company’s outreach program InterAction, and educational performances for the Franklin Institute and NJ State Aquarium. She worked for several years as dramaturg and actress for Women’s Ensemble Action Via Education (WEAVE). In addition to teaching young people, she has led playwriting workshops for adults at the University City Arts League in Philadelphia.

Kate received her Bachelors in Theatre and Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she was a Morehead Scholar, and her Masters in Theatre from Villanova. Further training: the National Theatre Institute, The London Theatre School, The Folger Theatre Conservatory, Playwrights' Circle at the Walnut Street Theatre School, and Arden Continuing Training (Acting and Playwriting). Kate is a founding member of New Plays Rising in North Carolina, a past member of Playwrights Platform in Boston, and has served as a script reader for American Repertory Theatre, Philadelphia Festival Theatre for New Plays, and The Wilma Theatre. As an Arts Administrator she has served as a Samuel Fels Intern at the Wilma Theatre, Marketing Director for Venture Theatre, and Executive Associate at The Independent Eye. She is a lifetime and founding member of the Philadelphia Dramatists Center, and produced their Playwriting Conference at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Center. She is currently a member of Secret Room Theatre’s Playwriting Group.

Kate’s numerous plays have been performed locally, nationally and internationally. WHAT WANDA WANTS was featured as a co-production by the City Paper and the Philadelphia Dramatists Center at the 2004 Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Other Philadelphia area productions: Walking Fish Theatre’s Fresh Fish 2.0, St. Joseph’s University’s Women’s Place Theatre, The Ritz Theatre in Oaklyn, NJ, The Theatre Guild of NJ, Theatre Under the Stars, PlayWorks, The Brick Playhouse, Fictitious Theatre Company, and three times at Community Education Center’s ‘Holiday Tales’ program. NOVEMBER WOMEN was a finalist at the Lovecreek Festival, NYC.and was recently selected First Prize winner of the Philadelphia's Ethical Society play contest. SEAFOOD, with music by Charles Pettee, was selected as Best Play of North Carolina and produced by the Perihelion Theatre Company, and was a finalist at Boston’s Theatre In Process National Playwriting Competition. WAITING FOR RAIN was produced by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Kate is a co-author of MELTING, a play created through the collaboration of seven playwrights from all over the U.S. Her one-acts NOVEMBER WOMEN and GETTING SASHA were previously published on-line (Theaterwords.com) and have received innumerable international and U.S. productions from Canada (Edmonton Fringe Festival) to Ireland, Kazakhstan, Russia, and beyond. Recent readings of her newer plays have included such venues as Hedgerow Theatre (FALLING OFF) Primary Stages (THE BLANKET, HOW TO FOLD, GETTING SASHA) The Blue Grotto Series (THE PLAYDATE) and The Painted Bride (FUNNY MAN.) Her one-acts MOTHER’S DAY and IMITATE THE SUN are published on line at YouthPlays.com.

As a creator of original solo pieces, Kate has performed throughout the region. Her one-woman show THIS IS MY PLACE was featured in the Women’s Theatre Festival at The Painted Bride, and she has performed other solo original work (BELOVED, UNPACKING) at the Women in Performance Festivals produced by Women Theatre, Inc., Glue Performance Series, the Delaware 10 Minute Play Festival produced by City Theatre, and the CEC. At Villanova she performed five of her solo pieces under the title THRESHOLDS.