Karen Malpede

Karen Malpede is an American playwright and director whose work reflects an ongoing interest in social justice issues. She is a co-founder of the Theater Three Collaborative in New York City, and teaches theater and environmental justice at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She is also the editor of the notable anthology, Women in Theater: Compassion and Hope (1984). Early life Karen Malpede was born, a fraternal twin, in 1945, on Sheppard Air Force Base, in Wichita Falls, TX, to a Jewish mother and an Italian-American father. Both of her parents were from Chicago, and she and her brother were raised on Chicago’s North Shore, in Evanston and Wilmette, IL. She graduated from New Trier Township High School in Winnetka, IL. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree with Honors at the University of Wisconsin and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Theater at the Columbia University School of the Arts.