Hilarious New Play at Bonanza Village Playhouse Sends Shockwaves Through Community When It is Revealed to be Written by a Woman

Bonanza, OR –  Audience members that had been rolling in the aisles at Saturday night’s premiere of Aunt Gertie’s Road Trip were stunned into silence when local mother Dana O’Malley took the stage after the 6th curtain call and claimed credit for penning the play.

“I don’t know what to think,” said Bonanza Councilwoman Mandy Heller. “I’ve read those thoughtful articles by Christopher Hitchens and Adam Carolla and they all say women aren’t funny. But during the scene where Aunt Gertie gets stranded at the top of the Washington Monument, I almost fell out of my chair.  Could Adam Carolla be wrong?”

Other patrons felt equally perplexed. “I knew the play was written by a Dana,” said business owner, George Sherman. “I just assumed it was a boy-Dana.” Walter Johnson, long-time Bonanza resident, offered another theory, “I think it actually was a boy-Dana.”

The success of the Bonanza production calls into question the veracity of countless studies and Yahoo Answers that, until now, most people accepted as fact. Long time humor experts, Peter Chen and Jim Polaski, stand by their research, however. “Over the years, we’ve shown over 1,000 subjects clips of male and female comedians,” said Chen. “Chris Rock, Meryl Streep, Jerry Seinfeld, Hillary Clinton…Each time, we hope for different results, but everybody laughs harder at the guys.”

Playscripts, Inc. and the International Center for Women Playwrights have joined forces to figure out if what happened in Bonanza could possibly be a global trend. The Are Women Funny? One-Act Play Contest invites playwrights who:

a) are women

b) think they might be funny

to submit large cast, one-act comedies ideal for performance by high school students. The winning play will be published by Playscripts and promoted throughout the world. “If there are more Dana O’Malleys out there, we want to find them.” said a Playscripts representative. “Our goal is to connect those fresh, funny, females voices with the next generation of theater makers.”

Detailed contest information can be found on the Playscripts, Inc. blog. http://blog.playscripts.com/blog/

Contact

Lane Bernes, Playscripts, Inc. Marketing Director

lbernes@playscripts.com

1-866-639-7529 ext 88

ICWP “applauds” theatre companies for producing women playwrights.

Standing ovation! The International Centre for Women Playwrights (ICWP) is delighted with the increased number of recipients for this year’s 50/50 Applause Awards, which sets out to recognize theatres which produce 50% or more women playwrights in their season of shows.  In the spring, members of ICWP nominated theatres that were producing the work of women playwrights throughout the world.

This year there are 29 recipients, nearly 6 times as many as our inaugural awards in 2012. The list includes theatres in the United States, India, Norway, Italy, and Canada. There are two repeat recipients: Playwrights Horizons in New York and Symmetry Theatre in California.  President of ICWP, Dr. Jennifer Munday, says, “We are delighted with the response from both theatres and members who see this award as a demonstration of their commitment to women’s writing.”

Even though the indications are promising, ICWP recognizes there is a long way to go to 50/50 status. A study report from the Gender Equity Task Force in Chicago found that “Plays written by women (either one woman or a group of all women) constituted 18.8% of plays produced in Chicago….roughly in line with recent statistics from New York theaters and from Theatre Communications Group member theatres, which found that between 17% and 20% of plays produced by those groups are written by women.” (Chicago Storefront Summit, March 22, 2010) In two studies on the 2012-2013 season, Washington DC productions showed a slight uptick to 21% (DC Theater: A Demographic Analysis, 2013) and women playwrights were faring even better in Canada with 23%. (Playwrights Guild of Canada, 2013).

The 50/50 Applause Awards are now an annual event for ICWP, with nominations being stringently checked by a strong volunteer committee.  More information about the awards can be found at: http://www.womenplaywrights.org/award

Contacts: Elana Gartner and Deborah Magid, co-chairs ICWP 50/50 Applause Awards Committee

Contact email address awards@womenplaywrights.org

Congratulations to the Recipients of the 2013 ICWP 50/50 Applause Awards:

Alter Theater (San Rafael, California, USA)
Black Coffee Productions (Bangalore, India)
Children's Theatre Company (Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA)
Clubbed Thumb (New York, New York, USA)
Dreamcatcher Repertory Theatre (South Orange, New Jersey, USA)
Factory Theatre (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
Haugesund Teater (Rogaland, Haugesand, Norway)
HERE (New York, New York, USA)
Hollins University (Roanoke, Virginia, USA)

Indian Ensemble Theatre (Bangalore, India)
Looking for Lilith Theatre Company (Louisville, Kentucky, USA)
Mixed Blood Theatre (Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA)
New York Theatre Workshop (New York, New York, USA)
Orlando Repertory Theatre (Orlando, Florida, USA)
Playwrights Horizons (New York, New York, USA)
Prairie Theatre Exchange (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada)
Prologue Theatre Company (Chicago, Illinois, USA)
Ragged Wing Ensemble (El Cerrito, California, USA)
Road Less Traveled Productions (Buffalo, New York, USA)
Shameless Hussy Productions (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)
Stage Left Theatre (Chicago, Illinois, USA)
Stageworks Theatre (Tampa, Florida, USA)
Symmetry Theatre (Berkeley, California, USA)
Synchronicity Theatre (Atlanta, Georgia, USA)
Teatro Luna (Chicago, Illinois, USA)
Tennessee Women's Theatre Project (Nashville, Tennessee, USA)
The Cherry Lane Theatre (New York, New York, USA)
The English Theatre of Rome (Rome, Italy)
Theatre Pro Rata (Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA)

News Coverage of the ICWP Applause Awards for Theatres that meet the 50/50 gender equality for women playwrights.