SWAN Day Action Fest Saturday, March 29th

A Free Festival Celebrating Support Women Artists Now Day

LOS ANGELES -The LA Female Playwrights Initiative and Little Black Dress INK present a day of playreadings and connections to celebrate Support Women Artists Now Day at Samuel French Bookshop in Hollywood. The SWAN Day Action Fest takes place on Saturday, March 29 from 10:30 am - 4:30 pm. Admission is Free.

The day’s events include readings of plays written and directed by women, as well as two sessions of Micro-Reads (open to women writers in attendance) and opportunities for all theater artists to network and find future collaborators: women artists working in Los Angeles.

The SWAN Day Action Fest plays are Civilization by Velina Hasu Houston, directed by Laura Steinroeder; Douds, Iowa by Debbie Bolsky, directed by Katherine Murphy; The Stiff by Kathryn Graf, directed by McKerrin Kelly; Over Ripe by Becca Anderson, directed by Gloria Iseli; and Awesome Big Somebody by Sarah Tuft, directed by Holly L. Derr.

In addition to the playreadings, the day's events include impromptu Micro-Reads: 1 page of writing performed on-the-spot (directed by Lynne Moses and Laurel Wetzork). To have work included as a Micro-Read, women writers should visit guidelines at lafpi.com/events.

March 29, 2014 marks the Seventh Int'l Swan Day a holiday designed to showcase the power and diversity of women’s creativity. Sponsored by the Bay Area organization WomenArts, SWAN Day has been celebrated with over 1,000 events in 23 countries. This is the first public arts event in Los Angeles created for the holiday.

Samuel French Theatre & Film Bookshop has partnered with the Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative (LA FPI) since January, 2013, opening its doors for quarterly Gatherings and Micro-Reads.  The SWAN Day Action Fest will inaugurate the Bookshop's new Green Room performance space.

"We love having the LA FPI here," says Joyce Mehess, Hollywood Bookshop Manager. "It's always inspiring and fun and spontaneous--no stuffiness about anything. And with the festival it will be great to see fresh ideas come alive on our own stage. It's exciting to have live theater under the bookshop's roof."
Performers for playreadings and Micro-Reads will include actors from The Vagrancy, a female-helmed LA theater company that partners with LA FPI in producing monthly "Tactical Reads": plays written and directed by women. Plays to be read were selected through an open submission process, curated by Little Black Dress INK. 

The SWAN Day Action Fest is produced by Little Black Dress INK, an organization dedicated to creating production opportunities for women and to strengthen the female playwright network.  Now in its third year, Little Black Dress INK's Female Playwrights ONSTAGE Project will present readings of short plays by women in Sedona, AZ; Ithaca, NY; and Santa Barbara, CA beginning in April.  ONSTAGE Finalists will also receive a staged reading at the Los Angeles Theatre Center in May, and a full production in Prescott, AZ in September.   More information can be found at www.LittleBlackDressINK.org

Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative is a an LA-based movement working to ensure that women playwrights are fairly represented on local stages, and beyond. Formed in 2010, LA FPI's efforts support and promote female playwrights and their projects. The results of the LA FPI Study posted in 2011 were the first attempt ever to look at gender numbers in LA: self-reporting by playwrights and data from LA STAGE Alliance revealed a figure of 20% as reflective of the overall percentage of plays written by women in Los Angeles-area theaters.

For more information on the LA Female Playwrights Initiative and the SWAN Day Action Fest, visit lafpi.com. The site is set up as a hub for theater artists as well as theatergoers, with a popular Persons of Interest Blog, highlights of Women at Work Onstage in Los Angeles, the "What She Said" Podcast and more.

SCHEDULE:

• 10:30 am - Refreshments + Connections / Deadline to Submit Micro-Reads Pages 
• 11:00 am: Playreadings - Civilization by Velina Hasu Houston, Directed by Laura Steinroeder / Douds, Iowa by Debbie Bolsky, Directed by Katherine Murphy / The Stiff by Kathryn Graf, Directed by McKerrin Kelly
• 12:00 pm: Micro-Reads - Directed by Lynne Moses
• 1:00 pm: Refreshments + Connections / Deadline to Submit Micro-Reads Pages 
• 1:30 pm: Playreadings - Over Ripe by Becca Anderson, Directed by Gloria Iseli / Awesome Big Somebody by Sarah Tuft, Directed by Holly L. Derr 
• 3:00 pm: Micro-Reads - Directed by Laurel Wetzork

WHERE:

Samuel French Theatre & Film Bookshop

623 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90046

(at Stanley, east of Fairfax in Hollywood)

HOW:

For more information, visit lafpi.com/events

Connect with us on Facebook/LAFPI

Follow us on Twitter @theLAFPI

TICKETS:

FREE; donations graciously accepted.

PARKING:

Limited parking in back of the bookstore (off of Stanley) or street parking.