Lauren Yarger, a producer, playwright and theater critic, will be the 2025 recipient of the Connecticut Critics Circle’s annual Tom Killen Award, recognizing her long service and achievement to theater in the state.
The award will be presented June 23, 2025 at Housatonic Community College at the 33rd annual event celebrating and honoring the state’s outstanding professional theater. The event, scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m., is free and open to the public.
Ms. Yarger has written several dinner theaters and revues as well as the book for an award-winning musical version of A Christmas Carol and is a member of the Dramatists Guild.
At Gracewell Productions, she produced a successful play-reading series at Connecticut’s Palace Theater for four years and also produced a summer reading series by and for the Boomer Generation at Ivoryton Playhouse. Look for announcements about these and upcoming play series produced by Gracewell in Connecticut soon.
Yarger is a Co-Founder and President of the newly formed CT Theater Women Network, Inc., which will launch in July 2025 and was a Co-Founder of the CT Chapter of the League of Professional Theatre Women for nine years. She produced this year’s first “Celebrate!” Events including The CT Theater Women Awards and the Women Playwrights Festival, which will be presented again by The CT Theater Women Network in March 2027.
As a critic covering New York and Connecticut theater, she is a member of the Outer Critics Circle (Executive Producer of the annual awards in New York) and former vice president of the Drama Desk. In Connecticut she covered theater for BroadwayWorld.com, CurtainUp.com and the Manchester Journal-Inquirer. She worked at The Bushnell. The Hartford Symphony Orchestra and was Executive Director of Masterwork Productions, Inc. She is a Member of Theater Resources Unlimited, the Off-Broadway Alliance, the Broadway Women’s Alliance, Honor Roll! and the Women’s Media Group.
