#womenintheater

[sawthemusical]

Join us for this extravagant #NEWYEARS weekend! With two shows today playing at @amttheater45 there will be performances every day leading up to New Year's, where you can also join us for a special new year's day #SAWTHEMUSICAL to start 2024 with a bang (or should we say, a saw?)

We are extending the holiday discount code SAWMAS which you can use on any ticket for 25% off! Happy Holidays, and we can't wait to #SawRightThrough another year with you #Saw#OffBroadway

[strangertooplay]

Broadway World: New Play 'I Was A Stranger Too' To Open in St. Paul

BROADWAY WORLD

www.broadwayworld.com/minneapolis

New Play I WAS A STRANGER TOO Highlights Hope Amid Danger In Asylum System

Asylum seekers and refugee needs in the U.S. and around the world fill the news. But what can one person do?

by A.A. Cristi Jan. 10, 2023  

Asylum seekers and refugee needs in the U.S. and around the world fill the news. But what can one person do?

'I Was A Stranger Too,' a new play by Cynthia L. Cooper and directed by Carolyn Levy, tells the stories of people who are seeking asylum and those who help them. The play will have four performances, Jan 26 -29, at The Neighborhood House (Wellstone Center) in St. Paul.

Drawn from dozens of interviews, 'I Was A Stranger Too,' is set in Minnesota, where refugee resettlement is among the nation's highest per capita. The play follows a woman who, propelled by the memory of her mother's rescue from the Holocaust, is drawn to help asylum seekers. In unfolding monologues, she encounters a rich mosaic of people who are fleeing persecution, anti-LGBTI violence, civil strife and other threats, and individuals determined to welcome them.

"The play takes audience members beyond stereotypes to the power and capacity of the human spirit, sharing the hopes that can emerge from a single act of caring," said Carolyn Levy, director.

Featured in the play are Bethmari Márquez Barreto, Kirby Bennett, Nicole Frethem, Mahmoud Hakima, Megan Kim, Jasmine Porter, Shona Ramchandani, Abigail Ramsay, and Phasoua Vang; Karina Hunt is the Production Manager and music is by Leslie Steinweiss.

Carolyn Levy, director, is a former professor of theatre at Hamline University, where she founded a Social Justice Theatre program. She has worked at Theatre Unbound, Park Square, Penumbra Theatre Summer Institute and the Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company.

Playwright Cynthia L. Cooper is a two-time Jerome fellow at the Playwrights Center. An award-winning playwright with productions off-Broadway and across the country and plays in 17 volumes, Cooper lives and is active in the theater in New York.

'I Was A Stranger Too' was selected as a finalist in the Jewish Plays Project, for the Trish Vrandenberg Prize, a semi-finalist at the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, and is a grant recipient of Rimon (Minnesota Jewish Arts Council), and the Alliance of Jewish Theatres.

Performances will be Thursday January 26 and Friday January 27 at 7 pm, Saturday January 28 and Sunday January 29 at 2 pm at the Neighborhood House (Wellstone Center), 179 Robie Street East in St. Paul. Tickets are pay what you wish (suggested $10).

Performances will be followed by talk backs with experts and community activists in the field.

Info:

Click Here to Buy Tickets

[soyestee]

[honorrollplaywrights]

[joseaesquea]

Reposted from @theonefestival And the 15th Annual The ONE Festival winner is: “HOLY HERNANDEZ” Written and performed by Christine Suero The winner of the festival will get their show produced for a week run by The ONE Festival here in New York City. Keep an eye out for more information on when you can catch the show in the near future! We here at The ONE Festival are so proud of the artists who came together to create in a new way for this years festival and thankful to our audience from all over the world who tuned into this years festival. We are accepting submissions for our 16th Annual Festival in 2021. So if you have a solo show you would like to submit, visit our website at www.theONEfestival.com #womenintheater #solotheater #newtheater #originalwork #TheONE2020 - #regrann https://www.instagram.com/p/CDaFLVqpq61/?igshid=7egs1nnayg9x

[pghlesbian]

Photo courtesy of @insideoffthewall 'Not Medea' now at Carnegie Stage ... Are today’s audiences able to access the classics like Medea (whole story, not just the eponymous play) without a homework assignment in a liberal arts college? What do these stories offer those of us navigating our way through the modern world? "Today’s audiences are gifted with the internet, which can be a rose or a thorn, but it allows for synopses and full accessibility. I’ve taught at two, liberal arts colleges and while yes, I made my Intro to Theatre students read Medea, I also encouraged them to find as much information about it and other plays prior to reading and attending. The resources nowadays are overflowing, and you (as a consumer) are only doing yourself a disservice without taking a few minutes to research that which you’re about to read/see/hear. These stories make connections to other fields of study which broaden perspectives on interpersonal, social and political concepts. And then when the stories are adapted to plays do we experience how live art can induce POSITIVE social, economic, and political change or, at the least, analysis and reflection. It is works like these that prove that theatre should serve as a platform for kindling conversation about the nature of pacifism, the nuances of the freedom of speech, and our nation’s relationship with the quest for equal rights. These stories still offer parallels to the modern world and provoke thought." More at pghlesbian.com #Medea #NotMedea #Euripides #GreekClassics #classicaltheatre #CarnegieStage #women #womeninthearts #womenintheater #liberalarts #pittsburgh #localtheater #DrewLeighWilliams #q&a (at Carnegie Stage) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3qTdenB-D5/?igshid=6nsmivoctfym

[hermioneigrangers]

emmawatson: Thank you, thank you @xosarahjones If you get the chance to see this play...GO!!! Performance (seriously how!?) and content both 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 ・・・ #feministfriday #fbf to sharing #sellbuydate w/ @emmawatson (& telling her as much as I’m a fan of her work as #hermoinegranger & #belle, what impresses me most is her knowledge of #bell ... hooks that is, & amplifying #feminism & #womensempowerment globally in ways her fans might not find otherwise...) #bellhooks #feminismisforeverybody #girlsjustwannahavefundamentalhumanrights #emmawatson #sarahjones #feminist #womensrights #womenintheater #womensrightsarehumanrights #timesup 👛 by @michelepred #powerofthepurse 💍 💍💍by @rebeccanadlerdesigns #brassjewelry

[saracanterstuff]

Who wants to come support @dirtyblondestheater at their Drag fundraiser next week?! #dirtyblondestheatre #drag #womenintheater #lepoissonrouge

[thecrusher007]

If you think tour life Is a constant party, this is how I'm spending my time between shows. Memorizing a new script.. Record, replay, relive, remember, repeat x∞ @animustheatre @dirtyblondestheater #surfergirl #womenintheater #minioffice #onewomanshow #afterthepartyisthehoteltostudy @bluemicrophones @jblaudio (at Morelia, Mexico)

[spread-the-nerd]

My perspective from the #womenintheatre / #womenintheater panel last night! Three types of Mac&Cheese pre-panel. I can’t thank @ootbtheatrics enough for having me on to moderate! The full discussion is available as an episode on @love_your_bodd if you’d like to listen 😍

[hapamag-blog]

I am so honored to be part of this awesome panel!!! #Repost @ootbtheatrics with @get_repost ・・・ #wcw - Alex Chester-Blank We are excited to announce that @alexfchester will be joining our panel! Meet our amazing female panel for Women in Theater! Join us Monday, April 30th as Alex joins the conversation with @littlelizzybiz , @amieeturner , @awoyetimpo , and moderator @heatherboddy as to how they are #changingthestage . . . . #womenintheater #ootb #huffpost #nonprofit #writer #changethestage #girlboss #fiercefemales #hapa #bosslady #bossbabe #theatre #nyc #riseup #wednesday

[everydayinferno]

The Melting Pot Interview: Alex Keegan, Director

THE MELTING POT by Carol Lashof presented by Everyday Inferno Theatre Company

The Access Theater 380 Broadway, NYC March 16th-24th, 2018 Tickets: $5-$18

“Here you stand in your fifty groups, with your fifty languages and histories, and your fifty blood hatreds and rivalries. But you wont be long like that, brothers, for these are the fires of God you’ve come to these are the fires of God.” In Carol Lashof’s incendiary world premiere play, the blossoming relationship between two recent immigrants stalls at the crossroads between the promises of the future, and horrors of the past. At the turn of a century that feels startlingly familiar, young lovers David Quixano and Vera Revendal enter the American crucible and are re-formed. Through a rich blend of languages, cultures, humor, and music, The Melting Pot weaves text from Israel Zangwill’s 1908 smash melodrama of the same name with voices from the early 20th century culture wars, creating an entirely new work that lays bare the wonders and wounds of immigrant America.

What made you want to direct The Melting Pot? The play raises pertinent questions about what it means to be American – what it has meant historically and means in 2018. I’m specifically interested in how the play touches upon immigration and explores how one can maintain one's culture, roots etc. while also becoming an American citizen. I'm further excited about exploring Zangwill’s melodrama – I’m fascinated by melodrama’s structure, and Carol has combined sections of Zangwill’s The Melting Pot in a manner that allows us to play with melodramatic tropes. The piece also provides a canvas for embracing ensemble staging - I'm generally drawn to plays with large casts and in this, everyone's on stage the whole time, which offers an opportunity to explore communal storytelling.

The Melting Pot is set in the very early 20th century, but has definite relevance in 2018.  Is that something you’re focusing on or considering in your direction? How? Yes definitely - the original context of The Melting Pot was so specific to its period and yet Zangwill's piece resonates today. The play certainly raises questions about American identity that were pertinent in the early 20th century and arguably have remained pertinent through present. We're of course in an especially interesting moment to examine the idea of cultural fusing, nationalism etc. Currently, identity politics are at a forefront of conversation and the concept of American nationalism is increasingly complex - exploring this idea of America as a melting pot feels pressing. We've aimed to remain aware of the original context in which The Melting Pot would have been performed, while also building a bridge to presenting this remix in a 2018 context. Specifically from a design standpoint - we're aiming to fuse elements of 20th century with elements of modern day. I'm specifically interested in this question of how one progresses post trauma - something Zangwill's The Melting Pot actively explores in examining a Kishinev pogrom, and that Carol [playwright] further explores in interweaving Zangwill's melodrama with a narrative of a nurse who's survived a pogrom in Odessa. For both of these characters - persecution and trauma have deeply affected their young lives. America thus presents comparative safety as well as offering a possible beacon of hope. How does one start anew and pursue the American Dream when coming from an experience of such deep-seeded persecution and violence? Can the American Dream offer a truly hopeful chance at obtaining a better future? These questions fascinate me in context of the original Zangwill play, and are quite relevant when looking at immigration and asylum seekers in 2018 America - especially in examining the concept of the American Dream and who it's built to serve.

What do you wish the theatre had more of? Aesthetically I gravitate towards heightened theatricality and moments where theatre defies expectations of what's possible. Broadly, I'm drawn to theatre that subverts expectation, that transforms space, that tells stories dynamically and inventively - I always wish to see more theatre that exists outside of the language of realism. On a representation front, I wish the American theatre more accurately reflected the wide range of narratives that exist in America and internationally. Representation is perhaps one of the largest services theatre can provide for a community - there's something immensely powerful in seeing oneself reflected onstage, and there's likewise a great importance in finding empathy in stories far from one's own experience. To this end I wish theatre consistently committed to representation - in programming, in audience cultivation, and in equitable hiring practices.

What is the biggest challenge this piece has posed to you? The greatest challenge for me in this piece is a question of tone - how does one make consistent Zangwill's melodrama in conversation with the choral sections of the play? There's great humor in much of the Zangwill text, and these comedic sections are often juxtaposed with truly horrific accounts of mass-brutality. Creating a consistent balance in tone presents a challenge that requires vigilant attention. Ultimately, as is often the case, the challenge is ensuring we're telling one unified story. So, moments in the Zangwill play that might exist in high melodrama when Zangwill's play is presented might not be appropriate being so heightened in this remix's context.  Therefore, managing thru-line and tone are two aspects I consistently have an eye on in rehearsal.

What do you hope the audience will be talking about after they see the play? I hope they will leave considering how questions of American identity have been relevant throughout time, considering the concept of the melting pot as it existed in the early 20th century vs. present day. The play largely asks audiences to bear witness to individuals reflecting on trauma - and then presents a potential path forward. My hope is the play can spark audiences to consider how we listen, especially to immigrants who are aiming to build a future within the opportunities America provides while also maintaining culture and heritage. Can the melting pot concept allow for one to both embrace an American identity and maintain a deep connection to one's roots?

Why is affordable theatre important? Affordable theatre is SO important - having access to theatre (and to the arts at large) is critical for any community. Theatre potentially allows us space to reflect, to feel, to empathize, to learn, to expand etc., but without access, this experience is limited and becomes an elite privilege. Affordable theatre therefore is a necessary means of broadening audience, of welcoming as many individuals as possible into an artistic space, of providing critical access that allows for the conversation surrounding a play to expand and further allows for theatre to remain a vital art form.

“Going Home” is the theme binding the plays in Everyday Inferno’s 2018 season.  What does “going home” mean to you and how do you see your play within our theme? The Melting Pot certainly fits within this theme - and is perhaps as much about creating a home as it is about going home. At the narrative's center are individuals who've immigrated to America and are aiming to create a home within a new country. The play also largely contends with how one lives between - how can one maintain affection for a birthplace even if that place has become unsafe? What are the traditions of home that are not tied to a specific place? Religious traditions are perhaps the largest aspects of home that are carried by the Quixano family to America - so there's a degree to which "going home" metaphorically is tied to practicing religion. The play also arguably offers David's symphony as a potential new metaphor for homecoming - how can one create art that articulates the bittersweet state of having to forge a new home after fleeing a dangerous one?

For me, going home on a literal level means returning to my parents' apartment in Manhattan where they have lived since I was born - I feel immensely fortunate to have had this consistency of a literal home. That said, I also find there's a certain homecoming in the process of learning how to live on one's own. Especially as someone who has relatively consistently lived away from home for months at a time for work - I tend to find fragments of home in places I've studied, worked, or otherwise resided - all places where I've forged a path towards learning how I define home on my own terms. I'm obsessed with the nostalgia we can have for spaces - even ones we've long left behind. There's a part of me that will likely always define "going home" as having the opportunity to return to places I once lived and experience them anew. What current theatre artists are on your radar?  What excites you about their work? I just saw Folk Wandering, produced by Pipeline Theatre Company - which was moving and exciting both as a production and as an investigation of unique artistic process. I'm generally excited about companies that push the boundaries of how we think about making theatre and support methods of collaboration that are perhaps deemed untraditional. To that end: Pipeline Theatre Company, One Year Lease, The TEAM, The Civilians, Ars Nova etc. are some organizations whose work I'm always excited to follow.

Some upcoming shows I'm looking forward to seeing: Dance Nation by Clare Barron / dir. Lee Sunday Evans (Playwrights Horizons) The House That Will Not Stand by Marcus Gardley / dir. Lileana Blain Cruz (NYTW) Is God Is by Aleshea Harris / dir. Taibi Magar (SoHo Rep) Relevance by JC Lee / dir. Liesl Tommy (MCC) Transfers by Lucy Thurber / dir. Jackson Gay (MCC)

Alex Keegan’s directing includes Qui Nguyen’s She Kills Monsters (Geva Fellowship/SUNY Brockport), ensemble-generated Aplomb (The Habitat), Margot Connolly’s Tough, Krista Knight’s Selkie (Williamstown), Gracie Gardner’s Primary (Sanguine / IRT), and new work with Cherry Lane Theatre, O’Neill Theater Center YPF, The Flea, MCC FreshPlay, and The Wild Project. Member/Alum: SDC Associate, Rattlestick’s Middle Voice Company, Williamstown Directing Corps, NYTW Adelphi Residency, Geva Directing Fellowship, The Drama League's Artist Residency, Lincoln Center Directors Lab, The Civilians R&D Group. Assistant Directing – Broadway: 24 Hour Plays; Williamstown: Boo Killebrew’s Romance Novels… (dir. Moritz von Stuelpnagel), Sam Hunter’s A Great Wilderness (dir. Eric Ting); Woolly Mammoth: Clare Barron’s Baby Screams Miracle (dir. Howard Shalwitz). BA: Brown. In fall 2018, Alex will begin pursuing her MFA in Directing at Yale School of Drama

[mxxnicky]

Saw an amazing performance of “Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again.” By Alice Birch at Crowded Fire Theater tonight! It really puts the chaotic uphill struggle of womxn’s rights and gender inequalities in a giant spotlight and rubs everyone’s faces in it’s bloody and muddy struggle. It’s absolutely fantastic and absurd and empowering! To all my intersectional feminist friends please go and watch this amazing play! Plus the wonderful @leighleeful is in it! Go support Bay Area Theater! And womxn in Theater! 🖤💗🔥🎭🔥💗🖤 #theater #feminism #intersectionalfeminism #sistersnotcisters #crowdedfiretheater #bayareatheatre #womeninthearts #womenintheater #womxn #womxninthearts #womxnintheatre #revolt #revolution #womxnempowerment #womenempowerment #alicebirch #revolutionary #revolutionarytheater #socialjustice #feministart #intersectionalfeministart (at Crowded Fire Theater Company)

[scorenikki]

Really stoked about this show and you should be too! #Repost @chatteraplay with @repostapp ・・・ @scorenikki Chatting about CHATTER and why you should get yours! #lathr #womenintheater #womencreators #jewishnotjewish #hff17 (at Underground Theater Company)

[honorrollplaywrights]

Honor Roll, Supporting Women+ Playwrights Over 40, Announces Honor Roll! Honors Winners

Honor Roll! Honors recognizes the extraordinary work these individuals and organizations have done - and continue to do - on behalf of women+ over 40.

by Chloe Rabinowitz Aug. 3, 2022  

On July 4, 2022, Honor Roll!, the 1,700-member organization founded to support women+ playwrights over 40, announced the first recipients of HONOR ROLL! HONORS.

Honor Roll! Honors recognizes the extraordinary work these individuals and organizations have done - and continue to do - on behalf of older women+ playwrights. Women+ playwrights over 40 are among the most marginalized theater professionals working today. Ageism and gender bias intersect with race and sexuality, making the work done by Honor Roll! Honors recipients especially important.

Honors were awarded in four separate categories, and the winners are: Outstanding Individual - Eleanore Speert Outstanding Producer - Caytha Jentis and Eileen Katz of Gold Standard Arts Festival Outstanding Publisher - Artemis Arts Sam Hull, Founder Inclusionary Festival - Plays for Us Dee Pelletier and Kathryn Markey, Founders

Nominations for Honor Roll! Honors were gathered from among the organization's 1,700 members and the honorees were selected from those nominees by the organization's Executive Committee.

For over 40 years, Outstanding Individual recipient, Eleonore Speert has helped women playwrights get their work out into the world. She served as Publication Director at Dramatists Play Service for 10 years, working intimately with playwrights and shepherding them through the entire publication process. Following her term at DPS, she worked as the Buyer for Dramatists Bookshop, paying special attention to the works of women playwrights, finding self-published playwrights to showcase in the shop, and helping other playwrights through the publishing and self-publishing process. Eleanore also started her own publishing house to aid emerging women playwrights who can't find access elsewhere.

Outstanding Producers Caytha Jentis and Eileen Katz of the Gold Standard Arts Festival created this mammoth week-long festival in April 2022 to celebrate emerging and established artists who are 50+. Gold Standard Arts Festival was held on New York's Upper West Side and featured films, comedy, plays, cabaret, jazz, art, and theater. To make this festival happen, Caytha and Eileen set up an advisory board, and raised both the money and awareness to make the project a success.

ARTemis Arts, founded by Sam Hull, is receiving the Arts Outstanding Publisher honor for the ARTemis Arts' Women's Wisdom Anthology, which features plays and screenplays by 14 women ages 50+. The book, which has a unanimous five-star rating on Amazon and was ranked number three for playwriting as of December 2021, is the very first compilation of plays and screenplays by women ages 50 and older ever published. Plays for Us founders Dee Pelletier and Kathryn Markey are receiving the Inclusionary Festival honor for creating an informal reading series for new plays that are largely written by women 40+ and feature great roles for women in middle age and up. This curated series of cold play readings has presented 28 evenings of work, including 44 women playwrights, since its founding in 2020.

Each Honor Roll! Honors recipient will receive a certificate from the organization, and Honor Roll! plans to make the Honors program an annual event.

Honor Roll! Honors was initiated by member Marjorie Bicknell who worked with members Olga Humphrey and Sarah Tuft.

Honor Roll! is an advocacy and action group of women+ playwrights over forty - and our allies - whose goal is our inclusion in theater. We are the generation excluded at the outset of our careers because of sexism, now overlooked because of ageism. We celebrate diversity in theater and work to eliminate age discrimination as it intersects with sexism and other biases including those based on race, gender identity, ethnicity, faith, socioeconomic status, disability, and sexual orientation in the American Theater and beyond.

[joseaesquea]

Reposted from @theonefestival Saturday at the 15th Annual The ONE Festival! Two streaming times, two shows per time slot. 5pm: “TIGHTROPE” Written and Directed by A.B. Lugo, Performed by Jeannie Sol “NOSOTRAS NOS ENTENDEMOS” Written by Gustavo Ott, Performed by Zindia Pino, Directed by Yicel Camacho 8pm: “TIGHTROPE” Written and Directed by A.B. Lugo, Performed by Jeannie Sol “GOD GIRL” Written and Performed by Heather Danielsen, Directed by Patrick McCartney For tickets/Information: www.theonefestival.com #womenintheater #solotheater #newtheater #originalwork #TheONE2020 - #regrann https://www.instagram.com/p/CDWclY0pWrw/?igshid=1iqnn1u9kvte4