As an assistant professor of musical theater at the Department of Drama, Wrinn has taught all levels of musical theater performance and singing voice, as well as solo cabaret creation, workshopping new musicals, and collaborative musical theater writing.

A fierce advocate for new work, Wrinn is the founding artistic director of New Works/New Voices (NWNV) at the Department of Drama, an initiative created in 2021 to support the development of new musicals by writers and composers whose perspectives have been historically underrepresented in the musical theater canon.

As a musical theater artist, Wrinn’s career has spanned both sides of the table. She has performed on stages in New York, Chicago, and regionally, including spending three years as a founding member of the Chicago-based physical theater company, Theater Unspeakable, and most recently playing Miss Honey in Syracuse Stage’s production of “Matilda The Musical.”

As a writer, Wrinn earned her M.F.A. at New York University Tisch School of the Arts’ graduate musical theatre writing program and has since written book and lyrics for multiple full-length musicals. Her musical works and original songs have been featured at The Kraine Theater, The Rev, Barrington Stage, Catwalk Art Residency, Berklee College of Music, Yale University, National Alliance for Musical Theatre (Songwriters' Cabaret), New York Musical Festival (Women of Note Concert, three years in a row), and professional cabaret venues across the country, including The Sorting Room in Los Angeles and Joe's Pub and 54 Below in New York.

Wrinn’s full-length musical in development, “The Bridge” (book and lyrics by Kathleen Wrinn; music by Frances Pollock and Kathleen Wrinn), is currently in incubation with the New Haven-based arts venture studio Midnight Oil Collective and will be showcased at Yale University in Fall 2024.

Additionally, her forthcoming book, “Developing New Musicals in University Theatre Programs: A Practical Guide” (co-authored with Alisa Hauser, assistant professor of music theatre at Florida State University), is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing (Methuen Drama), with anticipated publication in early 2026.

Wrinn currently serves in leadership roles with Maestra Music (directory manager), the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT Festival Committee), and the Musical Theatre Educators’ Alliance (co-chair, MTEA New Works Subgroup). She is a member of Actors’ Equity and the Dramatists Guild of America and a proud alumna of Syracuse University’s Department of Drama.

Education

• M.F.A., New York University
• B.F.A., Syracuse University

Expertise

Musical theater performance, new musical development, musical theater writing