Karen Dryer -- Loves to write songs and sing. Click photo for larger image. Karen Dryer Where: CLO Cabaret Theater, 655 Penn Ave., Downtown When: : 9:30 tonight Tickets: Free, 412-325-6766

In Pittsburgh after dark, it's easy to run into Karen Dryer.

Theater audiences know her from stage roles with The Theatre Factory and other companies, and as the pianist and musical director for Pittsburgh Musical Theater and Canterbury Dinner Theatre.

Jazz fans recognize her as the musical centerpiece of the poppy KMD Project. And she recently started singing country covers with The Kiger-Hanley Band. And Pittsburghers who like singer-songwriters are bound to catch her at songwriting showcases and open stages.

Dryer got ambitious or confident or both after winning the 2003 Greensburg Acoustic Singer-songwriter Challenge with her beefy piano tune "Who's to Blame." Since then she seems to be everywhere at once -- a full-time musician teaching piano and vocals by day and performing most nights.

Versatility can be a curse if audiences don't know what to expect from an artist. But Dryer is an unusual artist with a broad palette and a knack for making lots of things work. She knows when a musical director should stick to the score ("The Fantastix") and when to overhaul it ("My Way," "Godspell, "Jesus Christ Superstar"). She knows when to turn on her powerful musical-theater pipes as an actor and when to turn them off as a pop and jazz singer. And she knows when to lose herself in a stage role and when to open up completely as a confessional singer-songwriter.

"There's definitely a difference," says the West View performer. "In theater you're playing a role or playing music that has to move the story. But as a singer-songwriter I'm telling my stories from my point of view. There are some theater roles where I can really connect with a character, but the singer-songwriter stuff is much more meaningful to me. I feel like it's a conversation with the audience."

In 2003, Dryer connected with a Greensburg crowd and won a recording project at Wilkin Audio Productions. Produced by Joe Bishkoff with Doug Wilkin, the four-song EP showcases the pop ballad side of her resume. Tonight at CLO Cabaret Theater, she showcases her jazz-pop tunes with Bishkoff on cello, percussionist R.J. Heid, bassist Paul Thompson and flutist Laura Arledge.

"I think what I most want to do is make CDs and write songs and play them and sing," she says. "I truly love that."