Karen Kessler earned her MFA in directing at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a BA with University Honors in acting and directing at Southern Illinois University. Before beginning teaching at Ball State in 2003, she spent most of the 90's and the early part of this century as a professional freelance director in Chicago where she continues to direct one to two plays a year. At Ball State, Karen teaches all levels of directing and acting classes as well as a Shakespeare survey class.

Karen is a proud ensemble member of  Chicago’s iconoclastic, cutting-edge A Red Orchid Theatre (www.aredorchidtheatre.org) where this spring (2009) she will be directing the Midwest premier of Irish playwright Abbie Spallen’s Pumpgirl with May 2008 grad Grace Rex in the title role.  Other Red Orchid credits include the Chicago premier of Blasted by controversial British playwright Sarah Kane, Mr. Kolpert by German playwright David Gieselmann and the US premier of Gagarin's Way by Scottish playwright Gregory Burke. 

Last summer, Karen directed Macbeth at the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival with Ball State alum Timothy Edward Kane in the title role.  This summer (2009) she will be making her fifth trip to the Illinois Shakespeare Festival to direct Bill Irwin’s adaptation of Moliere’s Scapin.

Her other recent Chicago area work includes the US premier of Roddy Doyle’s War at Seanachai Theatre Company, the Midwest premier of Sam Shepard's The God of Hell at the Next Theatre in Evanston and a staged reading of Susan Nussbaum's Crippled Sisters for world renowned Goodman Theatre's New Play Series.  Karen is past artistic director of the gone but not forgotten Famous Door Theatre where she directed the world premier of Early and Often, the world premier of a Mislaid Heaven, (a play that won a Jeff Award for Best New Work), the US premier of A Going Concern, This Lime Tree Brower and Remembrance. Other Chicago credits include: The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, Wrens (a play that won a Jeff Award for Best New Work), Hamlet and Cyrano de Bergerac for Rivendell Theatre Ensemble-a company which Karen co-founded; and the Midwest premier of Steve Martin's The Underpants for Noble Fool Productions.

Credits outside of Chicago include: Glengarry Glen Ross for the Northern Stage Ensemble in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England; Measure for Measure for Connecticut Repertory Theatre; Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, and All's Well That Ends Well at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival; and the Merry Wives of Windsor and The Complete History of American (Abridged) for Idaho Repertory Theatre. University directing credits include: Camino Real, Love’s Labours Lost, Polaroid Stories, Antigone, Bat Boy! The Musical, Our Town, Lysistrata, and You Can't Take It with You at Ball State University; The Rivals at Virginia Commonwealth University; Les Liaisons Dangereuses at Illinois State University, and The Miss Firecracker Contest at Denison University.