Kathleen Turco-Lyon

Kathleen Turco-Lyon is an actor and playwright. She has appeared Off-Broadway at New Federal Theatre, (‘DEFENDING THE LIGHT’), The Culture Project (‘HECUBA’ w/ K. Linklater), Urban Stages (‘7 STORIES’) and The Mint  (‘THE HOUSE OF MIRTH’). Regional roles include: Countess Roussillon / ‘ALL’S WELL' (Wendy Franz; dir.), Volumnia / ‘CORIOLANUS’ (Anthony Powell; dir.; Colorado Shakespeare Festival) , Ladybird / 'ALL THE WAY’ (Benny Sato Ambush, dir.; TheatreSquared),  Prospero / 'THE TEMPEST’;  Mme. Arkadina / ‘THE SEAGULL’; Queen Elizabeth / ‘ELIZABETH REX ‘(Peter Richards; dir; Opera House Arts), Barbara / ‘AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY' (Pittsburgh Playhouse), Gertrude / ‘HAMLET’, Emilia / ‘OTHELLO’, Queen Elizabeth / RICHARD III (Nebraska Shakespeare),  Regina / ‘THE LITTLE FOXES’, Sheila / ‘WONDERFUL TENNESSEE’ (Oldcastle Theatre), and many others. At Oregon Shakespeare Festival she appeared in ‘PERICLES’, ‘HENRY V’, ‘AT LONG LAST LEO’, ‘THE WINTER'S TALE’, ‘MUCH ADO’, ‘AND A NIGHTINGALE SANG’). The Pittsburgh Post Gazette awarded Kathleen 'Outstanding Supporting Actor' for ‘AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY’,  and she received Drama-Logue Award and Bay Area Critics Circle Noms. for her portrayal of Mme. de Merteuil /'LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES’).  Kathleen played  the title role in 'FOOLS FALL,'  her co-adaptation of (w/director Randall Stuart) of Shakespeare's 'Timon of Athens' produced by Gemma Whelan. Her two-act play, 'BENEATH BETWEEN; A Magical Realist Comic Drama' was completed in 2025, and she's now at work on 'THE HEAT OF THE DAY' freely adapted from the novel by Elizabeth Bowen. She has adapted two novels by Henry James into full length plays; 'YOUNG DAYS' (from 'The Europeans') and 'THE AWKWARD AGE', and is credited as a contributing writer of 'bobrauschenbergamerica' by Charles Mee. Kathleen has taught acting at Cornell University and Point Park University, and as a guest artist, taught her 'Creating Character Through Gesture' workshops (based on the work of M. Chekhov) at UNC-Chapel Hill, Point Park University, Nebraska Shakespeare Festival, Mills College, and others. Kathleen is indebted to a long list of teachers including Earle Gister, Lloyd Richards, Anne Bogart, Tadashi Suzuki, Kristin Linklater, Charles Mee, Patsy Rodenberg, Harry Burton, and Wendell K. Phillips, and continues to learn from, and with, Actors Center colleagues Peter Jay Fernandez, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Grace Zandarski, Welker White, Damien Young, and many others. Proud member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA, The Dramatists Guild, and The Actors Center. Kathleen's home in New York City, is a small part of the Northeastern Woodlands, the traditional homeland ('Lenapehoking') of the Leni Lenape people.