Synopsis: In an era just beyond our own, two sisters fight for human connection as they face down a big tech dystopia. A folk-hero professor defends our most intimate relationships, while her sister attempts a perilous inside maneuver within the corporation that owns and sees all. A thrilling revolutionary tale for today.

Cast Breakdown: 2 M, 2W, 1 W or non-binary (5 actors total)

Set/Costume Requirements: Two indoor settings. One lightly suggests the future, the other is an old-fashioned university office. Costumes flexible.

Website: www.karenhartman.org

Agent: Skyler Gray, The Gersh Agency sgray@gersh.com, 212.634.8113

Play Service: Nick Hern Books

Bio: Karen Hartman’s work launched VOLT at 59e59 Theaters in 2022, an unprecedented festival of three simultaneous off-Broadway premieres by a single author: New Golden Age (Primary Stages); The Lucky Star (The Directors Company); and Goldie, Max & Milk (MBL Productions). Also in 2022, the musical Rattlesnake Kate, book by Hartman, score by Neyla Pekarek, won eight Henry Awards including Best New Play or Musical. Some of Hartman’s many works include: Good Faith: Four Chats about Race and the New Haven Fire Department (Yale Repertory Theater), Roz and Ray (McKnight Fellowship, Edgerton New Play Prize, Kilroy’s List), Project Dawn (NEA Art Works Grant, NNPN Rolling World Premiere, currently in development for television), Leah’s Train (National Asian American Theater Company, Weissberger Award Finalist), Girl Under Grain (Best Drama in NY Fringe), and Gum. Her plays are published by Theater Communications Group, Dramatists Play Service, Concord Theatricals, and more. Her prose has appeared in the New York Times and the Washington Post. A recent Guggenheim Fellow and former Fulbright Scholar, Hodder Fellow, and New Dramatist, Hartman served as Senior Artist-in-Residence at University of Washington School of Drama for five years, and lives in Brooklyn with her family. She wrote the book for Alice Bliss (music: Jenny Giering, lyrics: Adam Gwon, based on Laura Harrington's novel) which won the 2019 Weston-Ghostlight New Musical Award and will premiere at TheatreWorks in 2023.

New Golden Age at 59e59 in the VOLT Festival, 2022, New York. Produced by Primary Stages. Directed by Jade King Carroll. Photos by James Leynse.