Karen Allen Baxter
Managing Director of Rites & Reason Theatre
Karen Baxter, Producer and Managing Director of Rites & Reason Theatre, started her career as an arts administrator at the legendary New Lafayette Theatre, Harlem, New York. Since then, Baxter has produced concerts and managed reggae artists Bob Marley & The Wailers, Jimmy Cli00, and Burning Spear. She also co-produced the Grammy-nominated soundtrack album Reggae Sunsplash - A Tribute to Bob Marley. Since 1987, she has produced the Annual AUDELCO Awards which honor excellence in Black Theatre.
Before coming to Rites & Reason, Baxter was the executive director of the Frank Silvera Writers' Workshop (FSWW), one of the oldest Harlem-based playwrights' laboratories. She came to FSWW at a critical point in its history and, through her management skills, was able to move the organization toward being a stable institution. As Producer/Managing Director at Rites & Reason, Baxter produces all of the season's productions and programs, including Ossie Davis' Sybil, Mule Bone by Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes (which was presented on Broadway by Lincoln Center, NY) and The Disappearance by award-winning novelist Rosa Guy, adapted and directed by veteran actor Ruby Dee and Elmo Terry-Morgan (which was also produced at CrossRoads Theatre, NJ).
Baxter holds a BS in sociology from the City University of New York, a Certificate in Arts Management from Harvard University, and a MS in Arts Management from Harvard University. She also completed the Advanced Minority Business Executive Program at the Amos Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College, in 1998.
