Sarah Kosar

Sarah Kosar's dream was to become a Butler High School distinguished graduate.

“I remember walking down the halls and seeing mostly men,” said Kosar, 31, about pictures of different figures hanging on walls.

The Butler native and playwright set out to become a positive role model for women — a goal she said she feels she has achieved.

Kosar's play “Mumburger” makes its American debut at the Carnegie Stage near Pittsburgh on Friday and runs through March 16.

The 2006 Butler High School alum has lived in London since 2009 and is the head of talent at the music-tech startup, ROLI in the Dalston area of London. She is also the producer and host of the iTunes podcast Kin.

“It's pretty neat to come back to a place I dreamed of so much as a child ... to share my play with all people from my childhood is pretty wild,” she said.

While growing up in Butler, Kosar studied singing, dancing and acting.

Originally, Kosar said, she wanted to be an actress until she found her niche in writing and a way to express human behavior — why people act the way they do.

Kosar returned to Butler last August to surprise her dad on his 80th birthday, she said.

The last time a large group of Kosar's friends and family gathered was for her wedding in 2011, she said about those traveling from all over the country to see her play in the Pittsburgh area.

“Mumburger,” which is set in East London, is about a vegan, climate change activist who suddenly dies. As a way to combat climate change and animal agriculture, the woman has her body turned into hamburgers, which are delivered to her family so she can stay with them and not go to waste.

Kosar explores how people digest grief through metaphors and how far a person would go for the people they love, she said. She also explored climate change and became a vegetarian for a period to get a sense of that world, she said.

“Mumburger” premiered at The Archivist's Gallery in London in 2016, and it later transferred to the Old Red Lion in 2017.

Kosar took about a year and a half to write “Mumburger.” She rewrote it once it transferred.

“There's no better way to learn if something works or not when it's in front of an audience,” she said. “The audience tells you immediately if something is sad, funny, what the audience knows and what to cut out, speed up and slow down.”Audience members can expect to smell, see and feel a different sensory experience than normal theater with her play, she said.Her last play, “Hot Dog,” had the same treatment when it premiered in London and then Florida, she said.Discipline is required to balance writing with a full-time job because they are concurrent careers, she said.She compared writing to child birth because it is difficult when it happens and when it happens again, a person forgets how difficult it was the first time, she said.Kosar plans to have a new world premiere for a production this summer in London, she said. She also finished her attachment with the Old Vic Theatre in London called “Our Name is not John,” which examines women, work and tech startups because there are more CEOs named John than the total number of all women CEOs.A few of Kosar's plays are set in Butler, she said.“Butler speaks to a lot of America on a micro and macro level,” she said. “Butler is a great representation of small town America.”Kosar said she navigates the world with both her younger and future selves in mind.“I think of Sarah in high school dreaming and do for her. I see future Sarah and where she wants to go,” Kosar said.Tireless hard work and self care are two pieces of advice Kosar would give to aspiring playwrights, she said.“Believe in yourself,” she said. “Visualize what you want to do and be and believe in it.”In an age of screens, the experience theater offers is necessary, Kosar said.“For me, I'm always interested in how theater can give you an experience that no other medium can,” she said. “You remember that experience sitting there. ... You are in that moment and escape with the characters in their stories.”

WHAT: “<a href="https://tickets.vendini.com/ticket-software.html?t=tix&e=859591c838cb6ac799e950972f693dbb&vqitq=69879989-d2b3-4608-b058-4056a381ea97&vqitp=cb99a0f9-9b9b-431a-a9ab-239f1e9a78f6&vqitts=1548353607&vqitc=vendini&vqite=itl&vqitrt=Safetynet&vqith=c3940311b4404f3113ca5e865ad21284">Mumburger</a>” by <a href="http://sarahkosar.net/">Sarah Kosar</a>WHEN: Friday to March 16WHERE: Carnegie Stage, 25 W. Main St., CarnegieCOST: Tickets are $5 to $35ABOUT THE PLAY: In her surreal play about grief, parenting, and alternative meat, Kosar asks how far we can be pushed by love and obligation.MORE ON KOSAR: She has been granted an Exceptional Promise in Playwriting visa which was endorsed by the Royal Court, Soho Theatre, The Writers Guild of Great Britain and Playwright Simon Stephens. She was featured in Exeunt's list of great female playwrights that London's theaters should be staging.Kosar has bachelor's degrees in theater and film from Penn State University and a master's in writing for stage and broadcast media from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.