Here Kitty Kitty
Kitty Genovese was infamously murdered in Kew Gardens, NY in 1964 while 38 of her neighbors observed, doing nothing. The reality, as all our realities, is far more complicated than that. Here Kitty Kitty is a present-day obsessive exploration of the "bystander effect" attributed to that murder via a haunting in stories – true crime podcasters keeping women safe (except each other), theatre-makers trying to summon Kitty for their groundbreaking play while neglecting to take care of their own, and a journalist learning what it costs to tell anyone the truth. Here Kitty Kitty asks us to re-examine the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, and how we decide when things are okay.
Janielle Kastner
Janielle Kastner
Janielle Kastner is a Brooklyn-based, Dallas-bred creator whose medium is anything with words — whether experienced live on stage, projected onto the side of a building, or shared intimately in your ears. Recent theatrical work spans an interactive Antigone reimagination Anne-Tig-Uh-Knee (Second Thought Theatre), a two-hander about birds and intimacy Sweetpea(Second Thought Theatre) and a “theatrical audit” of The Dallas Morning News in Playwrights in the Newsroom (ATTPAC Elevator Project; Ignite Arts Dallas).
Other plays include 2025 O'Neill Finalist Here Kitty Kitty commissioned by Dallas Theatre Center, and Heaven’s Gates, Hell’s Flames. Her audio storytelling includes original meta-memoir podcast Untitled Dad Project (IndieWire's #1 Podcast Episode of 2019), and she’s produced Ambie and Webby-award winning projects for The Public Theater, Paramount Studios, Netflix, Wolf Entertainment, and more.
Janielle Kastner is a Brooklyn-based, Dallas-bred creator whose medium is anything with words — whether experienced live on stage, projected onto the side of a building, or shared intimately in your ears. Recent theatrical work spans an interactive Antigone reimagination Anne-Tig-Uh-Knee (Second Thought Theatre), a two-hander about birds and intimacy Sweetpea(Second Thought Theatre) and a “theatrical audit” of The Dallas Morning News in Playwrights in the Newsroom (ATTPAC Elevator Project; Ignite Arts Dallas).
Other plays include 2025 O'Neill Finalist Here Kitty Kitty commissioned by Dallas Theatre Center, and Heaven’s Gates, Hell’s Flames. Her audio storytelling includes original meta-memoir podcast Untitled Dad Project (IndieWire's #1 Podcast Episode of 2019), and she’s produced Ambie and Webby-award winning projects for The Public Theater, Paramount Studios, Netflix, Wolf Entertainment, and more.
