Malpede, Karen (1945–)

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Malpede, Karen (1945–)

American writer. Born June 29, 1945, in Wichita Falls, Texas; dau. of Joseph James Malpede (accountant) and Doris Leibschutz (radio commentator); sister of John Malpede (performance artist); University of Wisconsin, BA, 1967; Columbia University, MFA, 1971; m. George Bartenieff (actor-playwright), 1994; children: Carrie Sophia Hash.

Published People's Theater in America (1972), beginning long-standing association with Open Theater and Living Theater; produced 1st play, A Lament for Three Women (1979); wrote extensively on theater, theater history and theater as tool for social action in such works as Women in Theater: Compassion and Hope (1983); published A Monster Has Stolen the Sun and Other Plays (1987) and Women on the Verge: Seven Avant-Garde Plays (1993), among others; conducted interviews with 9/11 survivors through Oral History and Memory Project at Columbia University (2001); with husband, wrote Obie Award-winning play I Will Bear Witness, based on Holocaust diaries of Victor Klemperer (2001).