Karen Vaccaro

Biography

Karen Vaccaro has been a mainstay in Chicago Theater since 1982 and has won 3 Joseph Jefferson Awards for her work. She performed in the US Premiere of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice at the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago and On Broadway at the Neil Simon Theater.

She created the role of Helen in Sin at the Goodman Theater and also performed the role Off Broadway at Second Stage. Early in the 80s she was very involved in the creation of the Off-Off Loop theater movement and helped pioneer such companies as Next, Free Shakespeare, Bailiwick and Huron Theater where she was an ensemble member.

Karen served as Artistic Director of Spirit Expressing Performance Company from 1999 until 2001. Other Chicago acting credits include: Miss Margarita in Miss Margarita’s Way for KV Productions, Mistress Overdone in Measure For Measure at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet at Steppenwolf Theater, Serafina in The Rose Tattoo and Lucy Brown in Three Penny Opera at Bailiwick Repertory, A History of the American Film at Huron Theatre and Lend Me A Tenor at the Royal George Theater.

Television credits include Early Edition, Missing Persons and Prison Break. Film credits include The Lake House, U.S. Marshals, Stir of Echoes, Three Days, I Do, The Opera Lover (Best Film - 1998 - Newport Film festival) and Unconditional Love with Kathy Bates and Rupert Everett.

Directing credits include: The Sleepwalker’s Ballad for LaBaraca ’90, Dolores for Rivendell Theater, In The Continuum at Krannert Center for The Performing Arts at the University of Illinois Urbana/Champaign, The Women at Willamette University, Top Girls at Illinois Wesleyan University and If Children Still Remember and A Man For All Seasons for Spirit Expressing. Karen has been training actors since 1986.