KAREN MAL

Musician & Performer

Karen is a Northern Sky veteran, having originated roles in Lumberjacks in Love, Belgians in Heaven, and more recently Whatever Happened to Karl Janko? She goes back so far in the company that the fall season box office line once rang in her kitchen, in a cottage on Gibraltar Road. Karen is also thrilled to be working as music director with Door Shakespeare this summer. She and her daughter Coralina live in Austin, Texas where Karen works at Austin Scottish Rite Theater as an actor, music director and sound designer. In her last role she appeared in Pippi Longstocking as a flabbergasted proper Swedish lady with crazy hair at a tea party. Karen is also a multi-instrumentalist and award-winning songwriter, and just released a brand-new album of original songs with her musical partner David Stoddard.

Lipstick Optional Dedication

It’s only fitting that we dedicate a concert celebrating the women of Northern Sky to two of the women whose contributions were critical to the theater’s success: Neen Rock and Kaye Christman.

Neen worked with the company and its predecessor, the Heritage Ensemble, from the mid-1980s until her death in 2021. Her creative hands are all over Northern Sky, with her bio still included in this year’s playbill for her design contributions to several shows that she helped originate. These are shows that she also initially stage managed and helped shepherd through the new works process. Neen was all-in at Northern Sky. Her name graces our costume shop as a reminder of how incredibly important she was to us as a colleague and dear friend.

Kaye came on board as our managing director in 1998. She was a yearround presence for the organization and was instrumental in forging a strong relationship with our new board, cementing an extremely positive culture amongst all interested parties. Over the course of her twelve years at the helm, Kaye implemented business practices that helped move us into true professionalism as she guided us through substantial growth, all the while maintaining what drew her to us in the first place: her love of what we were creating. Kaye retired in 2010 and died in 2019, but her star still shines bright in our Northern Sky.

– Jeff Herbst