Editor's Corner

Sharon Wallace - Editor

In keeping with our theme this year, International Women. The May issue of the ICWP Newsletter continues to feature informative news articles from around the world.

This month's news also gives an engaging commentary on Black ballerinas finally get shoes to match their skin.

A standard feature Coming Attraction highlights our ICWP members productions.

I hope that members continue to post their upcoming productions on the ICWP website on the Homepage in the achievement area. If you have pictures of your productions please send them to us, as we would like to have them posted on our social media forums, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Congratulations to the 3-Minute Play Contest Winners, and welcome to all the new members.

The Spotlight article "Necessary questions: on representation and role of Women in Egypt's theatre", continues to address the disparity in theatre.

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Karin Williams

Women and Playwrighting around the World 

• iNews  talks about how theater in the UK is becoming more inclusive - including the first-ever West End performance for parents and breastfeeding babies! 
  
  
• The Hans India reports on a new training program for women playwrights, designed to amplify female voices and preserve valuable cultural traditions. 
  
  
• The Kilroy List continues to promote the unproduced work of women and trans playwrights. Whyy.org reports on a few of the theaters tapping the list for exciting new plays. 
  
  
•  In Dallas, four major theater companies are defying the statistics by producing the work of women playwrights. Read about them in  Dallas News. 
  
  
• She wanted to hear more black women’s voices on stage, so Dr. Indira Etwarood decided to present 50 stories from black women. The Glow Up reports on the evolution of her 50in50 project, now entering its fourth year.

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Amy Oestreicher

Black ballerinas finally get shoes to match their skin

When Ballet Black  pack their bags for their coming spring tour, there’ll be some unusual footwear among their costumes.

Not just the wellies they wear to portray striking South African miners in Ingoma,  their latest work, but dozens of pairs of pointe shoes that are making their own little piece of history.

Ballet Black has  collaborated with shoemaker Freed   to create the UK’s first pointe shoes in colors to match black and mixed-race skin tones.

The Guardian.  Read the full article in The Guardian

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Coming Soon! Member Productions

A Trip to Eden

26 May 2019 7:00 PM | Nancy Gall-Clayton

Women Leading Women 2019 Series, Itinerant Theatre, 809 Kirby St, # 339, Lake Charles, Louisiana. Fifty-one plays have been chosen for readings over two weekends: May 24-26 and May 31-June 2. Fridays and Saturdays at 7, Sundays at 2 p.m. For additional information, check Itinerant's Facebook page or call (337) 436-6275.

"A Trip to Eden," 
a new phone app allows Sophie to time-travel to Eden where she gives Eve some salient advice.

The Victorian Ladies' Detective Collective
by Patricia Milton, May 4-Jun 2, 2019

World Premiere directed by Gary Graves, with Chelsea Bearce, Alan Coyne, Stacy Ross, and Jan Zvaifler

A "cheeky thriller" that centers women detectives and victims instead of the killer. In 1893, a serial killer not unlike Jack the Ripper terrorizes actresses in the Battersea district of London. As the police have been unable to stop the Battersea Butcher, three women who live in Mrs. Hunter's Lodging House for Ladies take up the task. But without modern forensics, access to crime scenes, or cooperation from the authorities, how can they succeed?

Thu-Sun, May 4–Jun 2, at Central Works Theatre

2315 Durant Ave, Berkeley, CA 94704

The Ties that Bind -  at Slice of Life Festival

08 Jun 2019 7:30 PM | Nancy Temple

”The Ties that Bind,” a play by Nancy Temple, about the relationship between a mother and her adopted daughter, was accepted to
Theatre One’s Slice of Life Festival,
June 7-9, 2019
Alley Theatre
Middleboro, MA. 

Audiences will vote on the best play, and the winner will go on to development with Theatre One

Spend Your Kids' Inheritance 

03 Jul 2019 12:50 PM | Catherine Frid

New musical Spend Your Kids' Inheritance will be part of the Toronto Fringe Festival, July 3 - 14. Book and lyrics by Catherine Frid, music by Frank Hovat, directed by Andrew Lamb. Tickets $13. www.fringetoronto.com

What I Gave I Have - July 2019

06 Jul 2019 7:00 PM | Catherine Frid

Catherine Frid's new play about John McCrae, the Guelph-born poet who wrote: "In Flanders Fields" premieres at the McCrae House Backyard Theatre July 6 - 20. Director: Valerie Senyk, Actor: Bryndyn Boonstra.

CIRCULAR - June 13-30

13 Jun 2019 8:00 PM | Laura Shamas

CIRCULAR by Laura Shamas, directed by Jeanette Harrison, starring Carla Pauli and Ogie Zulueta.
Produced by AlterTheater in partnership with ACT's Artshare. altertheater.org

In San Francisco, at ACT's Costume Shop Theater, 1117 Market Street, June 13 - 22.

Ticket prices: $15-$49. Low-income patrons: Choose Your Own Price at every performance. 85 minutes.

Description: When war crashes from Afghanistan through time into Homer'sOdyssey, a battle-scarred soldier seeks refuge in Odysseus' timeless place of solace. On Circe's island, a combat doctor and her commanding officer must face off against the known and unknown, modern and ancient monsters, determined to leave no one behind.

Henley Rose Presents a Staged Reading
of "Before Lesbians"

02 Jun 2019 5:00 PM | Elana Gartner

As part of receiving the 2nd place in the 2018 Henley Rose Playwriting Competition for Women, "Before Lesbians" by Elana Gartner will receive a staged reading.

Sunday, June 2, 5 pm

Downtown Y, 605 Clinch Ave. Knoxville, TN 37902

Join us for a discussion afterward! Happy Pride Month!

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April 3-Minute Play Contest

Winners

Our judge, Kristen Osborn, has chosen our top 3 plays. Congratulations to the following plays/playwrights:

Transdroid by Catherine (Nina) Haigney

Catherine Haigney (AKA Nina) has a Ph.D. in English from the University of Virginia and taught the “Great Books Program” at St. John’s College from 1989-2016. She now lives in the Ragged Mountains of Virginia and has begun a second career in writing absurdist plays.

Ten of her scripts are posted on newplayexchange.com. She can be reached at nhaigney@gmail.com, but has no presence on social media for reasons her next dystopia may reveal. “Transdroid,” a three-minute take on Artificial Intelligence applied to replace women, celebrates the potential for solidarity between exploited beings.

Her other plays use mythology with magical realism to highlight the connection between various political oppressions and our mass destruction of nature. Her work in 2019 will center on climate change and why we cultivate denial. Catherine’s play scripts are posted on newplayexchange.org.

New Kitten by Jennifer O' Grady

Jennifer O’Grady is a playwright and poet.

Full-length plays include Charlotte’s Letters (Henley Rose Award; Newvember Festival Dublin; Semifinalist: O’Neill Playwrights Conference; BETC’s Generations Award),Paranormal Love (MTWorks Newborn Festival; Finalist: Newvember Festival), Ellery (selected for The Best Women’s Stage Monologues 2017) and Quasars (selected for The Best Women’s Stage Monologues 2014 and Best Contemporary Monologues for Women 18-35).

Her short plays are published or forthcoming in Thirty New Ten-Minute Plays(Applause), The Best Ten-Minute Plays 2017 and 2016 (Smith and Kraus) and Stage It 3: Twenty Ten-Minute Plays.

Her plays have been produced or presented by the Irish Repertory Theatre, Rover Dramawerks, Heartland Theatre, The Bechdel Group, Monster Box Theatre, 13th Street Repertory Theatre, AboutFace Ireland, Phoenix Theatre, The Factory Theatre at Greenville University, White Mouse Theater Productions and other companies.

She is also the author of two poetry books, White (Mid-List Press First Series Award) and Exclusions & Limitations (MadHat Press, 2018). Her poems have been taught, set to music and featured in numerous places including Harper’s, The New Republic, NPR, Poetry, The Kenyon Review, Poetry Daily and American Poetry: The Next Generation.

She lives with her family near New York City. You can learn more about Jennifer and her work by visiting her website at www.jenniferogrady.net

Sex Education by M. Lynda Robinson

M. Lynda Robinson has been working in theatre, film & TV for the past 30 years as an actor, director, producer, teacher, coach, and playwright in Boston, NY, & DC.

She has won numerous acting and playwriting awards and has 3 published 10-minute plays.

She teaches playwriting at the Gloucester Writers Center and Acting for Film at Boston Casting & other venues. Lynda lives in Massachusetts on beautiful Cape Ann. 

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ICWP New Members

Beth Blatt
Lynette Grace
Gayle Hudson
Debra Kaufman
Lisa Randall
Marsha Roberts
April Sigman-Marx
Morgan Smith

Spotlight Article

Necessary questions: On representation and role of women in Egypt's theatre

Nora Amin, Wednesday 27 Mar 2019

As March brings along Women’s Day and Mother’s Day, the Egyptian stage should do its part. But how can we pay tribute to women in a performative culture that has stigmatised women and created clear borders for their representation?

One should really ask if the representation of women in Egyptian theatre is still controlled by the patriarchal mentality of our culture and society?

On the whole Egyptian woman stage artists deny that any control is being practiced against them by male artists and artistic leaders, but to what extent do they belong to a patriarchal mentality?

This question is seldom asked. Are the female artists truly tackling women’s issues, or are they serving the status quo by recycling the same old stereotypes?

Some Egyptian female theatre-makers have the rare stamina to carry on with their special signature style and their issue-oriented topics, like Effat Yehia, Abir Aly and Rasha Abdelmoneim.

Others are quickly satisfied by the representation of the seductive woman portrayed as a kind of vampire. One can easily imagine a theatrical landscape of those seductive vampires fighting with the characters of Effat and Abir.

Nonetheless, the characters presented by those theatre directors will never be part of mainstream theatre, nor of the state theatre concept of female characters and issues.

https://thetheatretimes.com/necessary-questions-on-representation-and-role-of-women-in-egypts-theatre/

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Here's to the innovative, engaging and equitable theatre!

Sharon Wallace
Newsletter Editor