Tara Kromer
Theatrical Director, Designer, & Educator
Tara Kromer is a multidisciplinary theatre artist with nearly two decades of professional experience in the field of live entertainment. An acclaimed stage director, her work is primarily focused on plays and musicals that celebrate the experience of marginalized identities through a queer and feminist lens. With a background in stage management and technical theatre, Tara has extensive experience in the areas of Sound Design, Props Design and fabrication, and Puppetry. She also enjoys teaching Directing at the university level and often leads professional development workshops for K-12 educators.
Meet Tara Kromer
Tara Kromer’s love affair with live theatre began when she was a high school drama student in North Carolina. After graduation, she pursued higher education in the theatre departments at the University of South Florida and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Theatre Arts with concentrations in Directing and Stage Management. She went on to pursue a career as an Equity Stage Manager, Props Master, and Technician at venues including Centennial Station Dinner Theatre in High Point NC, the Palace Theatre in Myrtle Beach SC, Seaside Music Theatre in Daytona Beach FL, Chicago Shakes, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and Congo Square Theatre Company in Chicago IL, New York Stage and Film in Poughkeepsie NY, Ibex Puppetry in Orlando FL, and the Hippodrome Theatre in Gainesville FL. She attended the University of Central Florida to pursue her graduate studies and earned her MFA in Theatre for Young Audiences with focused study in the areas of Directing and Sound Design in the spring of 2015.
For nearly a decade, Tara has worked as a freelance theatre director, with areas of interest in plays and musicals that celebrate the queer experience and that uplift marginalized voices. Her work has been featured in many venues across the Central Florida region, including Theatre West End in Sanford, the Athens Theatre in Deland, the Ensemble Company in Oviedo, the Hippodrome Theatre in Gainesville, Studio Theatre Tierra Del Sol in The Villages, Orlando Shakes, Orlando Fringe, and Theatre South Playhouse in Orlando. During this time, she has also directed a number of productions geared toward families and young audiences at Orlando Family Stage, where she also works on the production staff of OFS. Tara has also directed productions at the University of Central Florida and Daytona State College, where she teaches Directing frequently as an adjunct professor.
Tara believes in a collaborative approach to the creative process and aims to ensure that everyone involved has the agency to contribute positively to the production at hand. Her work as a director is rooted in strong dramaturgical research and text analysis. She practices unconventional but conscientious casting when possible and selects her collaborators with intentionality, being mindful of ensuring that a broad array of voices from different walks of life are represented and included in her casts and creative teams. She has participated in training to facilitate boundary work and safely stage intimacy, and has undergone training in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and anti racism. Tara is passionate about telling stories that celebrate queer culture and that bring the voices of marginalized communities to the forefront, utilizing the theatrical medium to promote activism and social change.