Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End

Karen's recent work includes Escaped Alone at The Gamm Theatre, Universe Rushing Apart at Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Calendar Girls at Greater Boston Stage Company, Faithful Cheaters at Trinity Rep; the Boston Marathon play, Finish Line with The Boston Theatre Company at the Shubert Theatre; playing Queen Elizabeth II in The Audience at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre and Regular Singing at the New Rep. Recent regional work includes Beezus and Ballustrada (Sleeeping Weazel Co) Home of the Brave (Merrimack Rep Theatre), 77% (Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse) Sweet and Sad ( Gloucester Stage Co ) Ulysses on Bottles (Israeli Stage) Red Hot Patriot: The Kick Ass Wit of Molly Ivins (Lyric Stage).

On Broadway, she understudied and performed the role of Amanda Wingfield in John Tiffany’s 2013 revival of The Glass Menagerie. Other regional credits include Ether Dome, Ryan Landry’s M, Good People ,Bus Stop, All My Sons, A Civil War Christmas (Huntington Theatre Co.); Sorry, That Hopey Changey Thing, Doubt ( Stoneham Theatre); Other Desert Cities, The Drowsy Chaperone (Speakeasy Stage); Coriolanus, All’s Well That Ends Well, Hamlet, Twelfth Night (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company); Long Day’s Journey Into Night, boom (New Repertory Theatre); Superior Donuts (Lyric Stage); The Color of Rose (ArtsEmerson); Two Wives in India (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre) The Blonde, The Brunette and The Vengeful Redhead, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, A Moon for the Misbegotten (Merrimack Repertory Theatre); The Snow Queen, Third (Portland Stage) as well as, Hartford Stage, Berkshire Theatre Festival.

A founding company member of the American Repertory Theatre, she appeared in 73 productions, including Endgame, The Sea Gull, Mother Courage, Island of Slaves, No Exit, Olly’s Prison, Highway Ulysses, Othello, The Imaginary Invalid, Richard II and A Misummer Night’s Dream.

Internationally, she has appeared at festivals in Asti, Avignon, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Israel and the former Yugoslavia. Nationally she has worked extensively, from Philadelphia’s Wilma Theatre to Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

Her directing credits include Old Money (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company) Gidion’s Knot (Bridge Rep); An Ideal Husband, Woman in Black (Gloucester Stage) and Dressed Up! Wigged Out! (Boston Playwrights Theatre).

She appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall and Tanglewood, playing Titania in a concert version of Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night's Dream, and has performed with the Boston Pops, premiering A Soldier’s Carol.

She is the recipient of several Elliot Norton and IRNE Awards for her performances. Ms. MacDonald received both the Robert Brustein Award for Sustained Achievement in the Theatre and the Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence in 2010. She has taught extensively and was the Monin Fellow at Boston College 2010-11, and is a Lecturer in Theatre, Dance and Media at Harvard University, where she teaches acting to undergraduate and Extension School students.

She is a current receipient of The TCG/ Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowship, in partnership with the MRT.