Karin Ringheim

book, music, lyrics

Born in Montana, Karin graduated from the University of Minnesota and was a social worker in Minneapolis before dropping out to raise children, gardens and goats in rural Colorado. There she held jobs as the first female UPS truck driver on the Western Slope, and as a “job developer” in a federal program to help poor single mothers find higher paying “nontraditional” work. Returning to Minnesota, she earned a Masters in Public Health followed by a PhD in Sociology from the University of Michigan. During a 25-year career in international health research, she worked in 20 developing countries and published widely on contraception, maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS, and human rights in reproductive health. Meanwhile, her principal avocation for all those years was writing and composing Welcome to the Hard Luck Cafe.

Karin is a grateful member of Alanon, a recovery program for family and friends of alcoholics. She is a Lifetime member of the Dramatists Guild of America, an alumni of the Playwright’s Forum of Washington D.C. and the 2019 Playwrights’ Intensive at the Kennedy Center. She studied screenwriting independently with the late Yale professor, Marc Lapadula.

Karin recently moved from Arlington, Virginia, to St Paul, Minnesota where her son and three of four grandchildren live. St. Paul is also home to the place that inspired the cafe setting of the musical, the Day by Day Cafe. It was opened more than 30 years ago by people in recovery and, for many years, served as a venue for after-hours AA meetings.

“The concept of a musical highlighting the role of social support in recovery was influenced by the experiences of my father and brother,  both alumni of Hazelden Recovery Center, and my daughter, Courtney, who died of the disease. This work is dedicated to them..”

For further information, script and score, please contact:
karin.ringheim@gmail.com