Karla Hartley is among the most admired and productive figures in our cultural landscape. She careens from making the most pop of popular entertainment to fiercely challenging the status quo, both to the great benefit of our area. She is as essential to Tampa Bay life as the beaches, bridges and thoroughfares.
In her decades nurturing theatre in Tampa Bay, Karla Hartley has done it all. She has produced and directed everything from large-scale, outdoor musicals attended by upwards of 20,000 patrons nightly to the most intimate of chamber plays. In her stewardship of Stageworks Theatre, she has built one of Tampa’s premier cultural institutions, a mecca for entertainment, education and innovation and an incubator for an entire generation of artists. She is admired in Tampa Bay and beyond as an exceptional producer, director, designer and teacher. An artist first, Karla has established herself as a cultural force for Tampa Bay, regularly creating works that stimulate conversations essential to the evolution and social progress of the region. She is a force, an icon, a treasure.
Karla Hartley 