International Centre for Women Playwrights Newsletter

March 2023 Newsletter

Kim Sender Duvall — Fri, 10 Mar 2023 16:11:56 GMT

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September 2022 Newsletter

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June 2022 Newsletter

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December 2021 Newsletter

Kim Sender Duvall — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 18:46:00 GMT

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September 2021 Newsletter

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June 2021 Newsletter

Kim Sender Duvall — Sat, 26 Jun 2021 16:02:41 GMT

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March 2021 Newsletter

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November Newsletter 2020

Kim Sender Duvall — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 20:33:33 GMT

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August Newsletter 2020

Kim Sender Duvall — Fri, 28 Aug 2020 15:35:36 GMT

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May Newsletter 2020

Kim Sender Duvall — Mon, 25 May 2020 14:20:50 GMT

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February Newsletter 2020

Kim Sender Duvall — Sun, 23 Feb 2020 15:48:10 GMT

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November Newsletter 2019

Sun, 01 Dec 2019 02:00:22 GMT

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August Newsletter 2019

Sun, 18 Aug 2019 23:50:48 GMT

Newsletter August 2019

Greetings!

In this issue of the ICWP Newsletter, we celebrate women's theatre, bring you up-to-date with the latest happenings around the world, and congratulate our contest winners. We welcome new friends, and we say goodbye to a treasured one. Our spotlight this month is on Zimbabwean artist, Thoko Zulu.

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

Sharon Wallace

Kim Duvall

Newsletter Co-Editors

Summer Is Festival Season!

Women’s theater is flourishing across the USA. Notable festivals include the Women’s Theater Festival in Raleigh, NC, the Philadelphia Women’s Theater Festival, the Br!NK New Play Festival in Milwaukee, the Ain't I a Woman Playfest in Louisville, KY, and The Tank’s LadyFest in NYC. In Ireland, the West Cork Fit-Up Festival is based on a tradition of traveling companies from the 1950s and showcases the work of playwright Erica Murray.

Women & Playwriting around the World

Women’s Work Theater Collaborative is creating opportunities for theater artists over 40 and kicking things off with a season that explores madness.

Audiobook publisher Audible is now producing live theatre, including Margaret Trudeau's Certain Woman of an Age and Diana Nyad's The Swimmer.

In Japan, the Theatre Olympics 2019 will bring together artists from all over the world, including Anne Bogart’s Radio Macbeth and Yukio Mishima’s Madame de Sade (Act II) -- plus a Greek production of The Trojan Women, highlighting female performers.

The Southwick Players, a local amateur dramatics society in Southwick, England, is now playing Moira Buffini's Dinner, a play with West End success more than 10 years ago. ICWP Member Eliza Gull notes that the play “probably single-handedly put an end to dinner parties across the UK and hopefully silenced the ‘chattering classes.’”

Nigerian architect turned dramatist, Ifeoma Fafunwa, is featured in the August edition of The Guardian. She discusses the impact of her play Hear Word! and her dreamy debut in the Edinburgh festival. Read more

Playwrights Yuki Ellias and Sneh Sapru along with Vidit Tripathi bring Hello Farmaaish to theatres in India this season. Online news journal The Hindu writes that the play is “a heartwarming story of resourceful women who surpass the limitations of society and their surroundings, to reinvent the world they live in.”

Online publication The Theatre Times presents an insightful take on Indian street theatre and its impact on the formation of Indian feminist theatre. The article, written by Praggnaparamita Biswas and originally published by Museindia in 2018, is worth sharing today in our heightened celebration of international women playwrights.

3-Minute Playwriting Contest

Congratulations to our three winners! The theme for the July 2019 contest was Social Change. Sanjay Kumar, Director and Chief Facilitator of Pandies' Theatre in Delhi, India, served as judge. We received ten entries.

WINNERS

Metaphysics by Mona Curtis

A Better Ending for Widow Tweed by Tasha Partee

Weather Report by Catherine Haigney (her third win!)

In Memoriam

Kathi E.B. Ellis passed away July 15 as a result of complications from cancer. She was 59. Kathi was an active member of ICWP for more than 20 years. She was a frequent contributor on the ICWP discussion list, offering support, advice, and artistic insights into the art of theatre and playwriting. She gave her time, energy, and considerable talents by organising reading events of plays by ICWP members to celebrate International Women's Day and then later for SWAN day. Read more about Kathi here.

Welcome to New Members

Tracy Biggar, Ontario Canada

Sheila Duane, New Jersey, USA

Claire Ince, New York, USA

Barbara Litt, New York, USA

Vita Morales, New Jersey, USA

Rosemary Parrillo, New Jersey, USA

Candyce Rusk, Texas, USA

Welcome to three new Volunteer Staff members:

Yi-Lin Eli Chung, Ohio, USA (Dramaturg and Literary Assistant)

Kim Duvall, Ohio, USA (Newsletter Co-Editor)

Karen Serrano, Arizona, USA (Volunteer Coordinator)

SPOTLIGHT

Thoko Zulu is a multi-award winning Zimbabwean artist. Additional footprints include championing community theatre for policy advocacy at Amakhosi Theatre and Nhimbe Trust in Bulawayo, with work used for behaviour change campaigns that examine critical social issues at a national and regional level. She continues creating work, drawing attention to serious humanitarian issues. We spoke with Thoko about her experience as a playwright.

Q: What memories do you have of your childhood and how you became a writer?

A: I was born and grew up in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Life was hard for a family of eight kids living in a two-bedroomed flat where I slept on the floor under the kitchen table. A very blurry childhood traumatised by a family secret. At school I won awards for writing short plays and acting.

Q: Your biggest challenge as a female playwright in your country?

A: The industry is dominated by egoistical men who shoot stronger female players down. They resist change and gang up to close doors. Old groupies continue sticking together to win each other contracts and tenders even when not adequately qualified.

Q: How do you continue to educate yourself?

A: Downloading and reading a lot plays of successful and flopped shows to see how one play was a success and another a failure. Seminars and mentorships are also useful avenues.

Q: Achievements you are most proud of?

A: My play script publication Lunatic! in a British academic journal by Boydell and Brewer under the African Theatre Series Contemporary Dance Play 17.

ICWP is a 501-c-3 Non Profit Organization, incorporated in the State of Ohio, USA

For general questions, contact Margaret McSeveney, Communications Manager:
admin@womenplaywrights.org

For the Board of Directors, contact Pat Morin, President:

board@womenplaywrights.org

May 2019 NEWSLETTER

Sharon Wallace — Mon, 20 May 2019 23:45:52 GMT

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

February 2019

Sharon Wallace — Sat, 16 Feb 2019 23:53:59 GMT

Editor's Introduction

Greetings,

I would like to introduce myself as the new editor of the ICWP Newsletter. I have been a member of the Board and secretary since 2014. I am a playwright, poet and teacher. As of last year I have accepted the position of editor of the newsletter from Mona Curtis, who served as editor for many successful years to focus on her creative work.

The newsletter team and I look forward to continuing to produce a lively and informative Newsletter for the membership.

The Theme for this year's Newsletter: International Women Playwrights

Newsletter Team:

Sharon Wallace (Editor)

Amy Drake(Coming Soon- member productions)

Karin Williams (Articles of Interest)

Eliza Wyatt (Spotlight)

Amy Oestreicher (International News)

Other Contributors:

Pat L. Morin (ICWP President)

Debbie Miller

Thoko Zulu

Our goals

To produce the newsletter every 3 months

February, May, August, November.

Articles (written by team or invited guest from membership)
Podcast Interviews
Videos of member productions from
3 minute productions
Rehearsals
Readings
Recent Festivals

From Karin Williams VP

Introduction of New Logo

Here is the new logo, created by Indonesian artist Samul Abdi

The new logo illustrates our global mission as an organization, while highlighting the diversity of our membership with rainbow colors. Several versions are now available for different uses.

From Amy Drake

MY LIFE WITH MAHLER

A one-act reading of a monologue

by Amy Drake

Sunday, March 10 at 7:00 p.m.

Madlab Theatre, 227 N. Third St. Columbus, OH

Tickets: hhtp://www.madlab.net/index.html

PASSAGEWAYS: Songs of Connection, Abnormal and Sublime

16 March 2019 7:00 PM - Amy Oestreicher

BLUEPRINT MEDIA

Written and directed by Julia Pascal

At the Finborough Theatre

May 21- June 8, 2019

IDA .B. 'N The Lynching Tree

Written by Carolyn Nur Wistrand

Directed by Cherelle Palmer

February 15, 16, 22 and 23 2019

Cook Theatre, Dillard University

Tickets: 504-816-4857

THE OWL GIRL

Written by Monica Raymond

Directed by Bryna Raanan

February 28-March 20

The Center At West Park

Balcony Theatre

Tickets are available at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-owl-girl-tickets-53977563345

For more information, visit https://www.thml.org/

From Wendy-Marie Martin

3 Minute Play Contest Winners

ICWP is very excited to report that our 3-Minute Play Contest is off and running! With three rounds under our belt and submission levels rising, it looks like the ICWP 3-minute Play Contest is here to stay! We’d like to take a moment to thank our first three judges, Joy Hendry, Jill Patrick and Lindsay Price, and congratulate all of our Top 3 Winners so far:

JANUARY 2019 WINNERS (Theme: Secrets):

Secret Sharers by Dori Appel

Little Match Girl by Susan Cinoman

Miranda's Secret by Nina-Catherine Haigney

OCTOBER 2018 WINNERS (Theme: Epiphany)

Sea Changes by Christine Emmert

Moon Pixels by Judith Pratt

The Harvest by Michele Rittenhouse

JULY 2018 WINNERS (Theme: Survivors)

The Last Little Girl by Kay Adshead

Marney and the Cuttlefish by Elizabeth Douglas

Survivors by Carol Libman

Interviews with July 2018 Winners:

Meet the women who kicked it all off as our 3-Minute Play Contest coordinator, Wendy-Marie, has the pleasure of interviewing our first 3 winners and learning more about their writing process.

Wendy-Marie: Can you share with our members how and when you became a playwright?

Kay Adshead: From being a very small child I always wanted to make theatre. I made up plays, acted in them, roped in friends, and told everyone what to do. I also made the scenery and costumes, ran box office etc. So no change in my ambitions actually. I always wanted to write, I just left school, went to RADA, and acted first.

Elizabeth Douglas: I started playwriting this past April. As a nonfiction writer, I had gone down to the University of North Carolina to do research for a project, a biography, but this particular story kept jumping out at me as a play. So I decided not to fight it and spent the summer studying playwriting on my own, and wrote a ten-minute play as an exercise, which I then submitted to a few festivals. Incredibly it was produced in September and again in January.

Carol Libman: I'd known I wanted to be a writer from a very early age, but initially had my eye on being a foreign correspondent, getting my idea from an old movie with that title. I did manage to become a columnist for the Montreal Gazette at age 18, but foreign assignments were not to be. Married young and moved to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, for seven years, joined the Sault Theatre Workshop, started writing plays. And was forever bitten by the bug.

Wendy-Marie: How would you describe your experience creating 3 min plays?

Kay Ashead: I love short plays. I have a low attention threshold as an audience member. I get restless easily. I think there are artists who operate as marathon runners and other like sprinters. (That said of course, I normally write 90 - minute plays, and I have written very long plays.)

Elizabeth Douglas: I used to work as an editor. It always amazes me how much you can cut out of a piece of writing and still have the essentials--and how much stronger a story becomes with fewer words.

Carol Libman: I've had some experience and some success writing ten-minute plays, and liked the challenge of compressing the action still more. The shorter the play, the closer to the end is the beginning.

Wendy-Marie: What are your top 3 tips for emerging playwrights?

Kay Ashead:

1)JUST

2)DO

3)IT

Don’t be too self- critical. Don’t compare yourself to anyone else. Rewrite.

Elizabeth Douglas: I am so new, I'm the one who needs tips! But I often think about the exquisite writer Annie Dillard who said about writing, "Spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time."

Carol Libman: See plays, read plays, mull over ideas, find actors or other writers to read scenes, get feed-back, but don't be too swayed by it, unless you're convinced it's valid...keep going, take the punches, try not to be overwhelmed by so-called 'experts', meet with other playwrights for mutual support; and realize that the cliche is true: plays are not written, they're re-written.

Visit our membership page for more information on upcoming submissions for our ICWP 3-Minute Play Contest!

Not a Member? Join Here

New Members Since July 2018

Sharon Baker, South Carolina, USA
Gael Chandler, California, USA
Susan Cinoman, Connecticut, USA
Judith Cockman, Ontario, Canada
Hera Cook, Wellington, New Zealand
Suzanne d'Corsey, Vermont, USA
Chana Feinstein, California, USA
Susan Ferrara, New York, USA
Teresa Fogel, Connecticut, USA
Ed Friedman, New York, USA
Amy Garner Buchanan, Middlesex, UK
Sara Gmitter, New Mexico, USA
Stephanie Griffin, Pennsylvania, USA
Catherine Haigney, Virginia, USA
Jeanette Hill, Texas, USA
Gayle Hudson, Massachusetts, USA
Donna Latham, Texas, USA
Lylanne Musselman, Indiana, USA
Jill Patrick, Georgia, USA
Susan Jennifer Polese, New York, USA
Diane Rao Harman, Ohio, USA
Andrea Rockower, New York, USA
Moriah Shiddat, Michigan, USA
Jenifer Toksvig, UK
Eunice Uwadinma-Idemudia, Nigeria
Kristin Ward, Pennsylvania, USA
Desiree, Webber, Oklahoma, USA
Maggie Wilson, New York, USA
Ellen Wittlinger, Massachusetts, USA

________________________________

From Karin Williams

Articles of Interest

The Stage reports that women playwrights are finally getting some exposure in the West End.

India’s first International Women’s Performing Arts Festival was recently staged in Kolkata.

The Women of the World Festival in London celebrates International Women’s Day in March.

Theatermania highlights eight women whose work should be on Broadway in 2019 (even though no new plays by women are scheduled to premiere).

Another irksome parity issue in theater that’s getting some attention:the long line for the women’s restroom.

International News

The Emergence of Neuro-Theatre

Essay By Edward Einhorn

July 2018 Newsletter

Sharon Wallace — Fri, 06 Jul 2018 19:53:10 GMT

July 2018 Newsletter

50/50 Applause Award Review for the 2017-2018 season

We thank the members that nominated theatres. We also hope you had a chance to read the press release and view the video.

The International Centre for WomenPlaywrights announces its 2018 50/50 Applause Awards, honoring theatres that produce plays written in equal measure by women and men. At the same time, the Centre finds that the vast majority of theatres around the world are coming up short in terms of gender equity.

The awards honor theatres at least half of whose productions in their July 2017- June 2018 seasons are written by women. Further, a theatre must have staged three or more productions during the season and have plays authored by both males and females in their season. For the 2018 Awards, only Main Stage productions were taken into account, as that is where most theatre budgets are spent and where playwrights receive the most media attention and career advancement.

The 62 recipients of this year’s awards are found throughout Australia, Canada, Finland, Scotland, Singapore, South Africa, United States, and Wales.

For the 2017-2018 season, approximately 60% of the qualifying theatres are repeat recipients. For example, Here Arts Center has made the list for six years in a row, while off the WALL has made it for five consecutive years. Awardees range from community and college theaters to internationally renowned public theaters.

Approx 400 theatres were reviewed, 103 nominated, 62 awarded

Nominations by volunteers, theatres, ICWP members:

25 by ICWP volunteers

7 ICWP members

30 theatre nominations.

Four facts that emerged from the statistics in this year’s awards:

1.Many theatres believe that not enough women submit to theatres, giving them more male playwrights to choose from.

2.Most of the women in theatres these days are the same women playwrights, and the same plays! New plays by women still rank very low.

3.Most of the recipients from last year did not repeat this year. Most of the recipients from the year before did not repeat from the previous year, although we did change the regulations this year to “main stage” productions, and the previous year to mandating that there be at least three productions to demonstrate a real preference for women playwrights.

4.We are in the 25-28 percentile for production of women plays compared to men.

The ICWP board is reviewing how, or if, the 50/50 will continue next year given the cost and volunteer effort in relationship to the results.

Patricia L. Morin, Margaret McSeventy 50/50 50/50 Applause Award Co-Chairs

ICWP MEET AND GREET JUNE 2018 NEW YORK CITY

"Left to Right" Maxine Kern, Peggy Howard Chane, Joanna Piucci, Melba LaRose, Francesca Rizzo, Courtney Frances Fallon, Ruth Zamoyta, Donna Spector, Karin Diann Williams, Robin Rice.

Introducing ICWP’s 3-Minute Play Contest!

Looking for inspiration to write a new play every month? ICWP's new 3-Minute Playwriting Contest is here to help!

How does it work?

A guest judge will provide a theme to help get your creative juices flowing and motivate you to write a new play monthly. Winner names and play titles will be featured on our website and in our monthly newsletter.

MEET OUR JULY JUDGE, JOY HENDRY

Since 1970, Joy has been prime-mover of Chapman, Scotland's Quality Literary Magazine. Working through the magazine, she has led the way with many welcome Scottish developments – in Scots language, the teaching of Scottish literature in schools and helped steer the drift towards greater Scottish autonomy (etc!). Through Chapman, Joy helped revitalise Scottish drama by stimulating extensive and radical debate – leading ultimately to the creation of the Scottish National Theatre, and other projects.

CLICK HERE contests@womenplaywrights.org to visit our contest webpage for submission details

Or (if you can’t insert a hyperlink into the CLICK HERE) “Visit our membership page for submission details!

Link: http://womenplaywrights.org/page-1861027

Welcome New Members

Peggy Chane, USA

Elizabeth Douglas, USA

Willow Orthwein, USA

ICWP Now Playing & Coming Soon

GOD BLESS PHYLLIS SCHLAFLY

By Amy Drake

IndyFringe Festival, Indianapolis, IN

Indy Eleven Theater, IndyFringe Building, 719 E, St, Clair St. on Wed., Aug. 22 at 9:00 pm, Fri., Aug. 24 at 10:30 pm. and Sat., Aug. 25 at 7:30 pm.

Arts advocates Elise, Susan, and Ted band together to save the home of a once-revered female painter, while the studio of a male artist has become a tourist destination. The trio discuss the struggles women have faced taking their rightful place in history. Can they rescue the property in time?

HOW THE COWARDLY LION BECAME COURAGEOUS

By Amy Drake

Staged reading at Madlab, July 20, time TBD, Columbus, OHhttp://www.madlab.net/index.html

Synopsis

Prequel about the Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz

ICWP 50/50 Award goes to four theaters in Pennsylvania

Hedgebrook celebrates the 20th anniversary of its women's playwrights festival with a summit for female dramatists and theater administrators.

The number of women playwrights produced Off Broadway is actually increasing!

Two NJ Theater companies receive the 50/50 Award.

Know Theater in Cincinnati is the only Ohio theater to receive the 50/50.

Yours for innovative, engaging, and equitable theater.

Sharon Wallace
Newsletter Editor

Newsletter Banner by Mona Curtis www.famosapublications.com

April 2018 Newsletter

Mona Curtis — Fri, 06 Apr 2018 01:48:20 GMT

Member Spotlight

ICWP member Connie Bennett lives in Eugene, Oregon, where she’s just announced her retirement from her position as director of the public library. She is very much looking forward to an abundance of creative time and new business cards which will identify her as simply: “Playwright”!

Connie still considers herself an emerging playwright, as she began writing plays eleven years ago, relatively late in life. Although she was active in theatre in college, she had never heard of ten minute plays until her friend Paul Calandrino showed her the book “Take Ten.” Inspired, she began trying her hand at writing ten minute plays, as did Paul and Connie’s theatre professor emeritus husband, Richard Leinaweaver. A year later, with a number of scripts in hand, the three of them founded a regional ten minute play festival “Northwest Ten!” at the old Lord Leebrick Theatre in Eugene. The festival continues to this day (the tenth annual show slated for March 2018 at Oregon Contemporary Theatre) with Connie and Paul continuing as founding co-Executive Producers.

Connie soon discovered that writing for the theatre let her connect disparate ideas, layers of meaning and metaphor, and explore personal transformation in a way that was extraordinarily satisfying. With her undergraduate major in Philosophy, minors in Theatre and Mathematics, and her Master’s in Librarianship, Connie’s interests are nothing if not eclectic! And with her background in library management, as well as experience in all aspects of theatre gleaned in college, in dance troupes, and as the wife of a theatre professor, she also got involved in the producing side of theatre from the beginning. She enjoys finding a balance between the solitary act of writing and the intense comradery of theatrical production.

Connie joined ICWP early in her writing career, as soon as she discovered it. Not only is she an active feminist, she considers herself an “international” having lived outside her native United States during her teen years (in Zambia and what’s now Zimbabwe) and also for a year as a young wife and mother (in Costa Rica), plus she’s visited more than 50 countries. Most of her plays explore themes of female identity and cross-culturalism. For example, her play “Gray Reflections,” which was a finalist in the Actors Theatre of Louisville 2010 National Ten-Minute Play Contest, is about a teen struggling with gender identity and an older professional woman ambivalent about retirement. Her play “What Price an Orange?” was inspired by the dissonance of cultural and economic differences on a trip to Morocco; it’s been produced in Eugene and by Island Theatre in Bainbridge, Washington.

One of the joys of playwriting for Connie is connecting with other theatre people, particularly other women playwrights. Through ICWP, she connected with Paddy Gillard-Bentley, and has had several plays performed as part of the annual She Speaks in Kitchener, Ontario. Connie’s also had a play in the site-specific Kitchener festival, Asphalt Jungle Shorts. “Assigned Blessing,” a comedy about the ethics of playwriting, was performed in a bar! She very much enjoyed being hosted by Paddy and son Sam one wintery weekend in Kitchener, despite her ridiculous shoes! Connie also relished traveling to New York for an equity reading from her first full length play “Hungry Hearts” (based on the novel by Francine Prose), which was a finalist for The David and Clare Rosen Memorial Play Contest at the National Yiddish Theatre – Folksbiene.

Also through Paddy and ICWP, Connie connected to Jess Eisenberg’s 365 Women a Year Playwriting Project during 2014, its very first year, for which she wrote “Mother/Tongue” about La Malinche, the Native American woman who was translator for Cortez during the conquest of Mexico. Subsequent 365 plays have included such diverse women as anthropologist Mary Leakey, Black activist Bree Newsome, author Eleanor H. Porter (who wrote Pollyanna), socialite Alma Mahler, and Maud le Vavasour, who was the original Maid Marian. With her librarian training, she enjoys researching these amazing women almost as much as writing plays about them. Connie has produced an annual SWAN Day (Support Women Artists Now) reading of 365 plays written by Oregon-based playwrights since 2015, at Oregon Contemporary Theatre.

Connie had also been thrilled to participate in the first two years of the William Inge Festival PlayLab in Independence, Kansas. Her play “Amanda Transcending” (365 Women a Year play in 2015) was workshopped there in 2016, and has been rewritten into a full-length version which will be read in Eugene, Oregon as part of the NEA Big Read (Joy Harjo) in February 2018. This play interweaves two historical stories: a blind Native American woman, Amanda DeCuis, who was separated from her family and incarcerated in a reservation in 1864, and the contemporary woman, Joanne Kittel, who was inspired to build Amanda’s Trail as a way to begin healing the community’s historical trauma. The second Inge PlayLab (2017) workshopped Connie’s play exploring rape and informed consent: “Rouge + Noir” which will also be part of the Northwest Ten! festival this year. The Inge PlayLab is a rich opportunity to meet other participating playwrights and learn from the likes of Lee Blessing, Lauren Gunderson, Beth Henley, Alice Tuan, and David Henry Hwang.

One unusual project Connie’s been involved in is very short plays published within the stairwells of a parking garage! She curated and produced the original “Step into Theater” stairwell in 2012, which featured her “Shall We Play” and this year will be back for the updated stairwell with an Augmented Reality enhanced play, “Hex Le Key,” inspired by Eugene’s 20x21 international mural project.

Connie has tremendous appreciation of her playwriting colleagues in Eugene, particularly writing buddies Barbara, Nancy, and also Cai. She’s learned so much from fellow students in Paul’s classes, from co-teaching workshops with him, from reading hundreds of scripts over the years as a festival producer, and from her buddies at NewPlayWriMo! And of course, this article wouldn’t be complete without mention of her amazing children Jessa, Alexa, and Jeff, and her awesome grandchildren Marisa, Leo, and Olivia!

New ICWP Officers & Board

Patricia L. Morin, President
Karin Williams, Vice President
Rita Barkey, Treasurer
Sharon Wallace, Secretary

Amy Drake
Eliza Wyatt
Debbie Tan
Sophia Romma
Sithokozile (Thoko) Zulu
Wendy Marie Martin

Welcome New Members

Jeanette Bent, USA

Ronni Sanlo

Author and playwright Dr. Ronni Sanlo is the Director Emeritus of the UCLA Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center (LGBT) Center and a frequent keynote speaker and consultant on LGBT issues in Higher Education. Now retired, Dr. Sanlo was the Senior Associate Dean of Students and professor/director of the UCLA Masters of Education in Student Affairs. In a previous life, Dr. Sanlo was an HIV epidemiologist in Florida. She earned a bachelor's degree at the University of Florida, and a masters and doctorate in education from the University of North Florida in Jacksonville. Ronni is the originator of the award-winning Lavender Graduation, a commencement event that celebrates the lives and achievements of graduating LGBT college students. Ronni continues to research and write with a focus on LGBT history which is the foundation for the award-winning documentary Letter to Anita. Her memoir is The Purple Golf Cart: The Misadventures of a Lesbian Grandma. Her most recent publication is The Soldier, the Avatar, and the Holocaust, an historical novel about the last five months of WWII. Her next project is an historical novel of lesbians in Key West. She has written and produce her first readers' play, Sing Meadowlark, and is working on new plays with LGBT themes. She lives with her wife, Dr. Kelly Watson, in Palm Springs, CA and Sequim, WA. Ronni’s website is http://www.ronnisanlo.com

Nancy Temple, USA

Now Playing

"Truth Against the World: The Life and Loves of Frank Lloyd Wright" written and directed by Christine Toy Johnson (conceived by Alan Campbell and Christine Toy Johnson) will have its world premiere on April 2-3 at North Carolina State's Kennedy-McIlwee Studio Theatre in Raleigh, NC. The play stars Tony-nominee Alan Campbell (SUNSET BLVD.) as Mr. Wright. The Kennedy-McIlwee Studio Theatre is located at 2241 Dunn Ave, Raleigh, NC 27606. For details and tickets, please visit https://tickets.arts.ncsu.edu.

"Till Soon, Anne" (book and lyrics by Christine Toy Johnson, music by Bobby Cronin) will have a concert presentation on April 23 in NYC at Shetler Studios, PH1, 244 W. 54 Street, starring Abby Mueller (BEAUTIFUL) and Wade McCollum (ERNEST SHACKLETON LOVES ME), directed by Lisa Rothe. The performance is being done with support from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Creative Engagement Fund. For more details and to RSVP, please email aasongwriters@gmail.com.

Coming Soon

Lynne S. Brandon has a workshop production coming up May 18-20 at Boston Playwrights Theatre in (guess!) Boston, MA of her full-length play,"At the Line." It is about Division 1 college women’s basketball, and how a Black lesbian head coach was “outed” by an assistant coach and forced to resign. It is based on true events, with a healthy dose of fictionalization to round out the bare details that became public. An early version of "At the Line." was a semifinalist for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. All shows are free, and we’re hoping for a good turnout of women athletes!

March 2018 Newsletter

Mona Curtis — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 02:55:20 GMT

March Spotlight: ICWP

Hear what ICWP members say about our great organization.

The value of ICWP on my life? As a writer I often work in a vacuum. The organization has opened that door out to opportunities, personalities, and a wider look at writing and the women who write. I wish that we could not worry about gender in writing, but since we must, I am proud to know glimpses of other women and their work.

Christine Emmert, USA

ICWP has been a wonderful community to be part of. The advice from my peers across the globe has been invaluable in the impact it has had in my perspective as a woman playwright. As an emerging writer, I’m just learning the ins and outs of the professional playwriting and theatre world, and hearing the experiences that more savvy writers have already had, as well as actual critiques on my plays, has been so helpful!

Amy Oestreicher, USA

ICWP is a wonderful network that, not only publicises opportunities, but links us directly to women writers with whom we can share experience and ongoing questions about our practice. It also encourages generosity which makes us all more pro-active and thoughtful. I have entered in to correspondence with those who have similar passions and I have prompted conversations, as have they, which have provoked new writing projects.

Julia Pascal, UK

From overseas, a distant land, I joined ICWP where none of my compatriots had ever been a member. After my short article was placed on ICWP website, about a year ago, I received multiple messages with positive comments, and thus a window of communication with other playwrights opened to me. Joining the feedback group was an additional opportunity for me to exchange my viewpoints with others. I drew the attention of some colleagues to this subject that the unique culture of a playwright could affect the play. ICWP also motivated me to have my plays translated into English.

Overall, ICWP has provided me with an excellent opportunity to communicate with other women playwrights in various parts of the world that means a lot to me.

Mahin Mohasseb, Iran

ICWP is a sanctuary for a playwright like me who is writing in English as a foreign language from Bangladesh. Not only the opportunities to produce, write or stage English plays are very limited here but also the use of English as a creative language is quite recent and carries the burdens of colonial history. I have managed to stage my plays due to funding from the British Council and the American Center, most of which were amateur productions. So I wasn't sure about my work and what I could do about my interest in writing plays. Joining ICWP has allowed me to hear from women playwrights all over the world and I learned about their individual struggles. Veteran playwrights provided guidance and shared the story of their journey while the fledgling writers shared their passion and tenacity which uplifted my spirit and pushed me to once again go back to the work of imagining possibilities. The writer forum critiqued my new script and the feedback was so inspiring that I decided to plan for an academic career centered around creative writing. The regular updates about opportunities pushed me to produce three new scripts last year, two of which got published in the literary page of a national daily and a literary journal. So ICWP in a way has breathed new life into my play writing dreams and I am truly nurtured by this community.

Sabrina Masud, Bangladesh

Results of the Annual Meeting

Board of Trustees

Lucia Verona, our long time Vice President, is stepping down. Mona Curtis, our long time Newsletter Editor, is also stepping down. We have enough returning Trustees to provide continuity and new members to give fresh insights and talent.

Sophia Romma (returning)
Rita Barkey (returning)
Amy Drake (returning)
Wendy-Marie Martin (new)
Patricia L. Morin (returning)
Debbie Ann Tan (new)
Sharon Wallace (returning)
Karin Williams (returning)
Thoku Zulu (new)

Reports

Treasurer’s Report
The Treasurer Rita Barkey reported on the expenditures for the year 2017, including PayPal fees, annual software fees, website support and communications support.

Membership Committee
Surveying members to assess needs and opportunities.

50/50 Applause Award Team
58 recipients received the 2017 Award.

Social Networking Group
Patricia Morin gave social media statistics for Twitter and Facebook.

Newsletter Team
Current team members are Amy Drake, Karin Williams, and Debbie L. Miller. There are several applicants for the new Editor position.

Script Feedback Group
Nina Gooch continues to moderate this group.

Communication Committee
The Communication Committee has identified the goals of an enhanced website, making it more user friendly, and enhanced email communication with members.

Welcome New Members

Vicki Meagher, USA
I live in Nashua, New Hampshire. I’ve lived in the Greater Boston area since 1988. I was born and raised in Tennessee and also lived in California many years. I’ve written short stories, screenplays, and an unfinished novel, but playwriting is my true love. I’ve been enthralled by stage plays since I saw my first play as a teenager: Inherit the Wind. I was gobsmacked.

I’m a long time volunteer usher for Greater Boston theaters. I’m a member of the Dramatist Guild of America, Playwright’s Platform (Boston area), Merrimack Valley Playwrights (Lowell, Mass.), Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights, and New Hampshire Writers Project.

Emily Adler, USA

I am a playwright, screenwriter and published author from New York City. My plays include: The Frog in the Flipper (full production at the Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center, St. Paul, MN; staged reading at The Playwright’s Center, Minneapolis, MN), The Trumpet of the Swan (adaptation, full production at Hartford Children’s Theater), Supernatural Playboy (staged reading at The Danny Kaye Playhouse, NYC), Andromeda Speaks (full production at the New York New Works Theater Festival), and Face (staged reading at The Cell Theater, NYC; full production at the Overtime Theater, San Antonio, TX).

Justine Gelfman, USA

Donna Gordon, USA

I have put on five productions in San Diego. I am a playwright and University at Berkeley graduate, PhiBetaKappa. I am also an actor and costumer. I have been a teacher and caregiver in the past. I have played a lead in two of my plays, a minor role in my murder mystery reading, and I was a costumer for a dance studio. I am a native of San Diego still living there, with a roommate who is a published poet and artist.

Christie Perfetti Williams, USA

Patti Wray, USA

Now Playing & Coming Soon

If you have a play or a reading between April 1 – April 30, please email Amy (amydrake1018@aol.com) before February 15 and it will be featured in the NOW PLAYING column of the April newsletter. Any play or reading in May will appear in the COMING SOON column.

MAIZE, by Judith Pratt: a play about the genius geneticist Barbara McClintock, at Risley Theatre, Ithaca NY, Feb 23-25, Mar 2-4. Includes discussion by women scientists from Cornell and Ithaca College. https://www.facebook.com/MaizeMcClintock

Gentlemen’s Pact by Karen Howes Ivoryton Playhouse, 103 Main St., Ivoryton, CT 06442, presented as part of the Women's Project Initiative. A staged reading directed by Addie Gorlin and presented on Saturday March 3 at 8PM. Tickets are $20 for general admission, $10 for students, and $15 for seniors. Box office 860-707-7318, hours M-F 10 am to 4 pm. Here is the link for the WPI page on the playhouse website.
http://www.ivorytonplayhouse.org/2nd-annual-women-playwrights-initiative-march-2-3-tickets-sale-now

Is there an app for that? by Paddy Gillard-Bentley, directed by Colleen Daley, performed by Suzanne Langdon, Robin Bennett & Tracy Biggar
FLUSH INK PRODUCTIONS presents staged readings of short plays, monologues & poetry on the theme of #MeToo because #TimesUp.
Emmanuel United Church - 22 Bridgeport Rd. W. - Waterloo, On. Canada
March 3 at 8:00 pm
Donations at the door will go toVera's Place & Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region.
Please note: Paddy is directing other plays for this event.

The Melting Pot by Carol Lashof Everyday Inferno Theater at The Access Theater, 380 Broadway, NYC
March 16-24, 2018

Revelation by Shirley Barrie, will be produced in Shifting Spaces, a program of 3 one-act plays by Those Women Productions at Live Oak Theatre, Berkeley CA from March 23 - April 8, 2018 http://www.liveoaktheater.org/

Queen Marie by Shirley Barrie, directed by Rosemary Doyle, will be produced at the Alumnae Theatre in Toronto, April 13 - 28, 2018 as the finale of the theatre's 100th anniversary season. Visit www.alumnaetheatre.com for ticket information.s

Yours for innovative, engaging, and equitable theater.

Mona Curtis
Newsletter Editor

The image used in this newsletter is the work of Ellen Chan. It was downloaded from Pixabay on February 19, 2018.

February 2018 Newsletter

Mona Curtis — Thu, 01 Feb 2018 20:49:30 GMT

2018 50/50 Applause Award

by Patricia L. Morin

ICWP 50/50 Applause Awards Program has initiated changes in the schedule of events this year, beginning with the press releases. Nominations will begin February 15 and last for one month, until March 15th. The reason for this is the ease of checking statistics and communication with theatres during the season we are accepting nominations. March 16th-April 15th, our volunteers will vet and recheck, and confirm all productions from nominated theatres. By the end of May, theatres will verify their info, check all information, and our team will have new press releases ready to roll, requested and collected photos for the video, set up the slideshow and chosen music, ironed out any difficulties, and prepare for the final announcement, articles, and templates for the theatres’ certificates (new this year).

Also new this year, Lauren Gunderson, announced as American Theatre’s most produced playwright in 2017, will be the spokeswoman for the ICWP 50/50 Applause Award, 2017-2018.We are honored that she is a member of the International Centre for Women Playwrights, promotes gender parity in her plays, and congratulates men and theatres that equally support productions by female and male Dramatists. As Co-Chair of the 50/50 Applause Award, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ms. Gunderson.

Member Spotlight: Lauren Gunderson

Pat: Why did you become a playwright?

Lauren: I began as an actor thinking that I wanted to do acting, and looked at theatre from that perspective. But I realized pretty quickly that playwrights get to tell who the hero is, decide why they win or lose, what they’re fighting for—what’s worth telling. I could use that art form (theatre) as an activist, and it was immediate.

Pat: You learned about playwriting through acting.

Lauren: Yes, but I was writing plays when I was fifteen. I’ve been doing this for so many years, and part of the success I’ve had is because I’ve been at it for a really, really long time.

Pat: It is also an inspiration to actors. Some of them want to write plays, but don’t because they think they need an MFA.

Lauren: Yes.

Pat: What was your most rewarding experience as a playwright?

Lauren: It’s always getting the audience to react. In one of my plays, “I AND YOU”, there are several twists. And every time I sit in the back, I hear the audience gasp at the twists. It’s about getting those gasps. And that’s the best thing in the world.

Pat: What do you find the most challenging experience as a playwright?

Lauren: Trying to figure out if I’m the right person to tell this story. There are disappointments: Am I writing the same story over and over again? Then I’m trying to push myself, and think, what haven’t I thought of? It’s a hard thing: If you haven’t thought of it, how are you supposed to recognize what you haven’t thought of? What’s next and what can I expect, an existential problem for any artist.

Pat: You would like to write a story, but wonder if you’re the right person. Say you want to write a story about Ma and Pa Farmer struggling with the loss of their farm. Then you would think, maybe I can do that?

Lauren: Yeah, but why now? I ask myself. We spend a lot of time on that (question). However, if we didn’t have the answer to that in the beginning we probably wouldn’t have an answer by the end. Even now when we think about Feminism, I am a white women living in San Francisco, and I think what are my stories to tell and what aren’t? What stories am I taking from another writer if I try to use them? That’s a hard thing for any artist to say: I’m not the right person to make this art.

Pat: Of the plays you have written, which one is your favorite and why?

Lauren: Impossible to answer.

Pat: Which one resonates with you the most?

Lauren: Early one of mine called Exit Pursued by a Bear. It’s a Shakespearian tale that I turned into a fierce, Southern, contemporary comedy about domestic violence. None of those things seem to fit together. But that play was so liberating to write.

Pat: And symbolically, a bear, and exit, claws, tearing each other apart … could be gruesome.

Lauren: Yeah, but it was this crazy comedy. I think that was the most fun I had writing, the most challenging I had, and the darkest I been able to let my imagination go, and yet, the sword of that play is its comedy. I felt really inspired and excited and continued to go back what was it about that feeling, the theme, the structure, the heart that got me to write that play. That’s kind of me at my best.

Pat: How do your plays represent your values as a person?

Lauren: My plays never stray far from demanding the female perspective. There was one quote, and I don’t remember who quoted it: “When you look at the history of any country, always ask what the women were doing,” because often time no one does, and it continues to be the narrative of what great men are doing, and we know there is more to that story. Part of my soul’s work, the activism at the heart of me, there is power in the empathy that human beings naturally have when they are told a story from another’s perspective, not their own. And that is critical for women, especially now, and has always been. Not only is it important theatre, but makes for great theatre. That’s the selfish part of telling women stories, it’s harder for those characters which makes for better drama. Win win! Often I write about history, science, and women. Female characters have a lot more to prove, to risk, to lose. That's why they deserve their own plays and heroes.

Pat: So that is what is in most of your plays, the women perspective.

Lauren: The women perspective, there is always a transcendent ending. For me, the most false thing about theatre is that it ends. The story ends. Continuance is actual reality. But in theatre, we ask why did we watch this story, what is the point? So every one of my plays has transcendence. It could be very simple or very theatrical … so why not use the tools of theatre to make it that much more impossible, lifted, luminescent, instead of resort to naturalism—shutting the lights off and that’s all we see of those people—that’s the least naturalistic thing you can do. Having them turn into birds and just fly away makes just as much sense. I love using all the tools that theatre allows us, and that our imagination allows us. I love stories about discoveries and human achievement. What I want to do about women, the plays are not only about women, they are for all of us. Hamlet is not a guy’s play, it is a play for all of us.

Pat: How would you advise women playwrights to deal with gender equality in the theatre world today?

Lauren: Most audience, the “let's go and see a play audience” do not know the playwright, or the director, they see the actors in the play. They don’t care. They say, “Is this a story about a lot of dudes? Fine. Is this a play about a lot of women? Cool.” Just because you write a play as a woman, doesn’t mean you’ll be seen as a Feminist.

Pat: They are taking home one thing, and you think they are taking home another.

Lauren: Right. Writing for diversity, writing for parity is actually different. Most of my plays have more characters that are women, than men. We are the generative voices, and we are what the audience takes away. If you care about the activism of theatre, that is critical to remember.

Welcome New Members

Emile Adams, USA
As a student in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Emile Adams won awards in the Tulsa City-County Library writing contest over the course of multiple years. In the years she won for playwriting, her one acts were performed as part of the Performing Arts Center's student works shows. She also won awards for original work with the Emerging Playwrights program through the Tulsa Parks Department when her plays were performed in the student festivals held at Hawthorne Park Theatre. In 2012, Emile won the Kennedy Center VSA award for student playwrights. Her play, Handspeak, was performed for over 2000 audience members at the Kennedy Center. In her early twenties, Emile's plays were performed as part of the Oklahoma Fringe Festival, Tulsa's SummerStage festival, and her play, I Wish You Really Liked Me (and other familial impossibilities) was picked up by Heller Theatre and performed as part of their regular season. Emile's plays are filled with interesting characters, layered conflicts, and hilarious and pathos-filled moments. She deals with invisible disabilities, family struggles, and issues of gender, sexuality, and otherness. As a woman who is both queer and bi-polar, Emile addresses these issues with honesty, grit, and humor. She is currently investigating the generation gap that exists in young and seasoned lesbian relationships.

Representative Play Titles

Fever Dream, I Wish You Actually Liked Me (and other familial impossibilities), Entr'Act

Susan Eve Haar, USA
Susan Eve Haar is a lawyer and playwright living in New York City. A member of The Actor’s Studio, Ensemble Studio Theater, The Writers Guild East and H.B. Playwright’s Unit, she explores, among other topics, the intersection of our neural and lived experiences. Her work has been produced at a variety of venues including Primary Stages, The Women’s Project, 13th Street Rep, HERE, Chester Theater, Manhattan Rep, and The Looking Glass Theater and published by Broadway Publishing and Smith and Krauss.

Domnica Radulescu, an American writer of Romanian origin

While I was a student at the University of Bucharest at the height of the communist dictatorship in Romania of the early eighties I joined a countercultural theater modeled after the Poor Theater of the Polish director Jerzy Grotowski, which was called The Attic, as it was situated literally in the attic of the headquarters of the Romanian communist youth. That theater, where I spent most of my waking hours after my university classes, sometimes late into the night rehearsing in a Shakespeare play, or where I played my first important and life changing part as Winnie in Beckett’s Happy Days literally saved my life. It saved my soul from the drudgery of the daily indoctrination of the dictatorship, from the oppressive grayness of our daily material and spiritual deprivations. It helped me create a space of hope and luminosity inside me that to this day is inexhaustible. I have never stopped engaging in theater since those days, be it as performer, director, teacher, scholar of theater and, most importantly for my own artistic growth and expression, as playwright. I have never ceased to find a place of solace, resistance, hope and luminosity in the practice and the study of theater, it’s passion, it’s incandescence and it’s uncompromising claiming of the here and now. Every day, the belief in the power of theater, the knowledge that it still exists and that places of live theater like my Attic theater in Romania, still offer refuge to so many from the drudgery of various forms of oppression and a chance of authentic emotion and experience , helps me survive and saves my life.

Dale Griffiths Stamos, USA

Hello! My name is Dale Griffiths Stamos and I have been a working playwright for a number of years in Los Angeles, California. I recently transplanted to beautiful Santa Barbara, California, where I get to write looking out at beautiful hills and Eucalyptus trees. My full-length play productions include: One White Crow at Edgemar Center for the Arts in Santa Monica, CA and Arena Repertory Players on Long Island, New York, and Dialectics of the Heart at Edgemar Center for the Arts. My play with music, Blue Jay Singing in the Dead of Night received a workshop production at Pacific Resident Theatre in Los Angeles. Two evenings of my one acts have been produced: Love Struck at the Beverly Hills Playhouse in Beverly Hills, CA, and Thicker Than Water at the Promenade Playhouse in Santa Monica, CA. My 10-minute play, The Unintended Video, for which I won the Heideman Award, was produced originally at Actors Theatre of Louisville, and then worldwide at countless venues since. Many of my other short plays have been produced throughout the country. I have been a two-time top 10 Winner in the Writer's Digest Stage Play Competition and I won the Jewel Box Theatre's Original Playwriting Competition. In the last few years I have expanded into writing and co-producing short films which have appeared at multiple film festivals and have won two Audience Awards.

Playwriting is a tough business, as we all know. But it is the work of both my heart and mind and I can't imagine ever giving it up. I am equally passionate about teaching and working with writers. I lead workshops at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference and at the San Miguel de Allende Writers Conference, and I teach writing classes at Santa Barbara City College. I am pleased to be a new member of ICWP.

Vicki Meagher, USA

Now Playing & Coming Soon

If you have a play or a reading between March 1 – March 31, please email Amy (amydrake1018@aol.com) before February 15 and it will be featured in the NOW PLAYING column of the March newsletter. Any play or reading in April will appear in the COMING SOON column.

THIS FORTNIGHT IS FEMALE February 6-17, 2018

Three plays by and about women, acted by women. Developed and staged by off the WALL in Carnegie, PA, now premiering Feb. 2018 at Urban Stages 259 W 30th St. New York, NY. 10001. Link:http://www.insideoffthewall.com/this-fortnight-is-female-new-york-2018/. Mother Lode, by Virginia Wall Gruenert,Executive Artistic Director. off the WALL productions at Carnegie Stage will be running in rep with two other plays by, about, and acted by women. Also note that ICWP members can use the promotion code artists in order to take advantage of $15tickets(plus $2 processing fee).

Annual Meeting: February 21-28

All ICWP members are encouraged to join our online annual meeting, which begins February 19. Just go to the ICWP website and click on Annual Meeting. It will take you to the forums where you can weigh in on various issues in our great organization.

Letter from the Editor

Several members have responded my call for short testimonials about the impact that ICWP has had in their lives. That article will appear in the March newsletter. If you wish to be included, you can respond to this email with a short paragraph about the benefits of being an ICWP member.

Yours for innovative, engaging, and equitable theater.

Mona Curtis
Newsletter Editor

The image used in this newsletter is the work of КириллБогомазов (Lemurkov)from Novokuznetsk, in southwestern Siberia. It was downloaded from Pixabay on January 30, 2018.

January 2018 Newsletter

Mona Curtis — Wed, 03 Jan 2018 00:28:44 GMT

Member Spotlight: Sharon Wallace, ICWP Secretary

Playwriting/Theater is important to me because of the influence it can have on a community. Plays written by African American women represent the trials and tribulations of these women which may be interpreted as motivating to triumph over impediments of gender and racial oppression. So questions of identity, self-love, sexual exploitation, and race have been at the center of plays by Black women playwrights. These plays by Black female playwrights have given a mighty voice to Black women characters who recognize and validate themselves. Theater provides Black women playwrights a platform to develop Black female characters that resemble actual African American women who are refining Black womanhood. By liberating African American characters from stereotypical images, Black female playwrights write plays that provide an authentic representation of African American culture. Black women dramatists incorporate the struggle for civil rights and gender equality into literary activism; their plays not only give power to African American women, but lay the foundation for enduring social and political change.

Sharon Wallace is a full-time instructor of English Composition at Wayne County Community College District and an adjunct professor at Lawrence Technological University. She earned an Associate of Arts in Liberal Arts at Wayne County Community College District, a Bachelor of Arts in English from Marygrove College, a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies with a concentration in English from The University of Detroit Mercy, a Master of Fine Arts with a concentration in Playwriting from Goddard College and a Ph. D. in Interdisciplinary Studies with a designated emphasis in Humanities and Culture from Union Institute & University.

Her research interest include Black women dramatists and literary activist theory, critical social theory, cultural studies, as well as theater and literature studies.

Sharon Wallace’s current research investigates how plays written by African American women represent the trials and tribulations of these women which may be interpreted as motivating to triumph over impediments of gender and racial oppressions. In her own struggle for civil rights and gender equality through literary activism, she has learned how playwriting not only gives power to African American women, but lays the foundation for enduring social and political change.

Wallace is also a playwright and poet. She is a board member and board secretary for the International Centre for Women Playwrights. Her poetry and book reviews have appeared in numerous online journals including SNReview, Pitkin Review, Pitkin in Progress, Howling Wolf #11, Maxis Review, Peeling Vidalias 15 Women and one Man, and the Journal of Pan African Studies.

Sharon Wallace studied dramatic arts in New York City at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, HB Studio (Greenwich Village) and The National Black Theatre in Harlem, NY.

Welcome New Members

Emile Adams, USA

Mary Beth Smith, USA

Mary Beth Smith, Playwright and Lyricist, won the Peter Honegger Best One-Act Play award for Keep A-Breast, a play that offers insight into her bizarre experiences surviving breast cancer. Keep A-Breast was performed at The Firehouse Center for the Arts 2014 New Works Festival in Newburyport, MA.

Currently, she’s collaborating with Ethan Silver-Wheeler on a new musical called Home. Her other plays include:
An Hour at Sea was commissioned and performed by The Cape Ann (“The Annie”) Theatre in Gloucester, MA

Don’t Make a Sound appeared in Marblehead Little Theatre’s TNT (Totally New Theater) 2017 New Play Festival, in Marblehead, MA. The song, “I Didn’t Think of You Much” from Home, was also performed.

Dick and Jane appeared in the TNT 2016 New Play Festival. The song, “I Didn’t Think of You Much” from Home, was also performed.
Getting the Axe appeared in the TNT 2015 New Play Festival. The song, “You’re Home” from Home, was also performed.

Buddhists in the Basement appeared in Pigs Do Fly's Fifty Plus Production at the Empire Stage, Fort Lauderdale, FL; TNT 2013 New Play Festival; and the Warner International Playwrights Festival at the Warner Theatre in Torrington, CT

The Experiment was performed at the Fire Dog Theatre, Arlington, MA
The Mouse was performed at the Fire Dog Theatre, Arlington, MA
Weights and Measures was performed at the Universal Theatre, Provincetown, MA

Galileo’s Dowry was performed at the Universal Theatre, Provincetown, MA

Mirror Mirror Off the Wall was performed at the TNT 2013 New Play Festival and the Gloucester Writers Center new play series in Gloucester, MA

For the past 4 years, Mary Beth participated in Random Acts at the Firehouse Center for the Arts in Newburyport, Massachusetts. For 12 hours, she partnered with a complete stranger to write Pretty Things in 2013, Open Mike in 2014 and Osso Buco in 2016.

Now Playing & Coming Soon

If you have a play or a reading between February 1 – February 28, please email Amy (amydrake1018@aol.com) before January 15 and it will be featured in the NOW PLAYING column of the February newsletter. Any play or reading in March will appear in the COMING SOON column.

The Melting Pot, a remix for the stage by Carol S. Lashof, will receive a staged reading in Oakland, California on January 20, 2018, by Those Women Productions, Oakland, CA.

Performances 4 pm and 8 pm at the Temescal Art Center, 511 48th St, Oakland. Tickets are free but advance reservations are strongly recommended as the venue is small: https://themeltingpot.brownpapertickets.com/

God Bless Phyllis Schlafly by Amy Drake, Jan. 26-28, 2018, Columbus (OH) Conservative Theater Festival, The Shedd Theater, Columbus, OH For more information visit http://conservativefestivaloh.com/

Articles of Interest
Curated by Mona Curtis

Bad News

Review of 2017 by Victoria Sadler. The lot for female playwrights worsens

Good News

Women Playwrights Lead 2018 Humana Festival World Premieres

Five out of the six world-premiere plays selected are written or created by female theatre makers.

Yours for innovative, engaging, and equitable theater.

Mona Curtis
Newsletter Editor

The image used in this newsletter is the work of kareni, Rüştü Bozkuşof Turkey and was downloaded from Pixabay on December 25, 2017.

December 2017 Newsletter

Mona Curtis — Mon, 04 Dec 2017 09:17:40 GMT

Member Spotlight: Sandra Dempsey
by Thoko Zulu

Award winning internationally acclaimed playwright and performer, Sandra Dempsey is a Canadian playwright who has written full length dramas including "Flying to Glory" featuring boyhood pals enlisting in the Royal Canadian Air force and "Enigma" which examines sexuality, moral dilemmas and consequences associated with assisted suicide. "Barbie & Ken" is listed as one of her comedies, the synopsis being the world's cutest but anatomically incorrect couple who are proud parents.

Sandra has a keen sense of formidable wit writing complex narratives articulating richly drawn and emotional characters. This puts her at the top of her game and making her a popular reader for her book, "D' Arcy." Thomas D'Arcy McGee was an Irish patriot and Canadian statesman assassinated by Irish-American Finnians.

Dempsey's work also includes humanitarian and detective stories which not only maps intelligent story execution but also outstanding knowledge about wartime history, aviation and military expressions.

Her "Armagideon" has attracted very big reviews citing her work as 'provoking in the most powerful and positive sense' by John Murrell. Urjo Kareda lamented it is a very strong, striking piece which creates and sustains a world beyond experience with conviction and horror. Another follower of Sandra's work mentions the storyline, characterization and situation in "Armagideon" draws the audience into the play with a deliciousness which keeps one off balance. Sharon Pollock adds, "It is strange, violent and nutty...intriguing."

Proudly of Irish descent, Sandra Dempsey is an artist deserving a huge following by both seasoned and emerging playwrights who can benefit from the valuable industry advice given in this interview.

Interview Questions

Q - What memories do you have of your childhood and how you became a writer?

A - I am proudly of Irish blood, youngest of twelve (3 sisters, 8 brothers), and even though that sounds like a pre-made gaggle o' companions, I spent most of my time very comfortably in my own world, and observing, always observing. I relished playing on my own in our huge double-lot backyard, driving my tricycle as a city bus, encountering scores of imaginary people on my routes. My oldest brother was twenty-seven years old when I was born, my Ma spent some nine years of her life in a state of pregnancy, and we had a vile alcoholic father from whom we all scattered like cockroaches upon approach. This latter element was likely the cause of the important imprinting of 'man's inhumanity to man' upon my psyche. As these factors all presented themselves, I early on determined that I would never marry, never have children, and I would continue to luxuriate in my independence for the rest of my life. I literally can still see my pre-school self, standing by the back stairs off the kitchen, by the tea towel rack, actually quietly vowing my future to myself. Writing and creating followed, though it really wasn't so much a conscious choice as predetermination, and I just knew I was meant for the theatre, acting and writing.

To keep things exciting, I have always had scatter-shot interests with the passion for self-sufficiency, so I take my own bio photos, maintain my own website, dabble in photography, will fly in any aircraft any time, positively love driving, and still try to ride horseback when I can. But always, always, I continue to observe and file away scenes and thoughts and snippets until they are ready to present themselves in my writing.

Q - You write drama, comedy and poetry. Most playwrights find it difficult if not impossible to effectively execute more than one genre. Where do you draw inspiration to do all three and which one is most difficult to write?

A - Perhaps the trick is not knowing what I'm doing. I do not profess to have a clue about any genre. Characters, dialogue, themes, and plots all just roll about in my head until they formulate themselves and are ready to come out. They are born of their own genetics, their own formatting, and I have little to do with it. However, I do believe that humor is to be found in most things, welcomed or otherwise, and it should be embraced, especially as it will always highlight the colors of the drama around it. Curiously, I have a piece entitled "Inhumanitarianism" which is a sort of hybrid between a short play and poetry - I see and hear it on the page, feel it in the flesh, and watch it unfold both ways. Whatever the work, it is always characters who present themselves in my head, and either I let them tell me what they have to say, or sometimes I will give them a story to tell. On some rare occasions, I will give them an event or an experience which actually happened to me and allow them to make the story their own, to tell in their own words. It's a secret pleasure knowing which of my pieces have been generated from my own life, and, because I am not the one directly speaking, they become solely those of my characters. No one genre is more difficult - again, if you don't know what you're doing, it can't be difficult - and again, the work just comes out in the form it is meant to be; I have little to do with it.

Q - Who is your target audience and which play has been your memorable showcase?

A - I really don't write for anyone specifically. The characters and content of my writing are just what they are, and whether or not an audience finds it all of interest or entertainment, well, I can't control that. I really don't/don't wish to pander to any group or cause. "Flying to Glory" and "Wings to Victory" inclusive of "D’Arcy" are all history-based dramas, but that is but one element of their being. It is the characters and their journeys that are the hearts of the pieces, and the historical circumstance is but a bonus - military/history audiences might appreciate the latter, but if the drama's heart does not beat, the audience might just as well read a textbook. And while "Armagideon" is a cautionary tale about the horrors of nuclear annihilation, it is 70-year-old women and their disturbing choices that catch up the real emotions, which in turn drives any messaging. All the universalities will always boil down to their effect, their effect on individuals, and that is in essence how I go about telling my stories. Of course, I am genetically wired to speak to/for/about women, but I think my male characters have truth to them, also.

I must confess I am just vain enough to think that my most rewarding showcases have been via readings of my own work. I positively love performing my stuff before an audience, feeling the exhilaration when they're teetering on the fence-top of 'what is this woman doing?' and then feeling the sheer joy of them falling into my arms when they instead are engaged and enveloped by entire characters brought to life before them. I especially love it as my work can shape itself, a bit cat-like, in and around, and moving an audience's emotional response from laughter to actual tears. And I did really enjoy presenting a reading of scenes from "Flying to Glory" to a visiting squadron of British Royal Air Force aircrews. Afterwards, all the handsome young flight-suited lads lined up like excited little boys, pulled out their Canadian money and bought signed copies to stash in their Tornado fighters to fly back to the UK.

Q - What kind of artistic challenges have you tackled as a female Canadian playwright and how did you resolve them?

A - At this point in my life, hell...probably at every point but I care not a flying fur-ball as to who thinks what of my work. I really don't. I walked out of a 4-year university acting programme because I thought the instructors/administrations were all a whack-a-doodle bunch of misogynist idiots (actually, most of the women in my year also walked, and have all been working since) I have such low opinions of most of the male species that they have become something of a non-factor. And when I do inevitably encounter them, be it a director or an actor or a playwright, my conviction is further strengthened and I just move on. From an actor grasping at snippets of action movies in his vacuous head as he tried in vain to get a handle on Nathan in "Armagideon," or the director who jumped right in with him in the sudden male bonding of two guys sharing movies' awesomeness, I simply haven't the time or life to begin to try to enlighten them, and I just move on. Ironically, it is often the women in the audience who can see past all these nonsensical misinterpretations and grasp the true impact of the scene or piece, and that in itself is very rewarding.

Q - What is the status of Canadian theatre and women support structure?

A - I'm not really qualified to answer this. As far as I'm concerned, theatre here, as it is most places, is and sadly probably always will be male, male, male - male A.D.s hiring male directors selecting male playwrights with predominately male casts. Organizations and even governments attempt to fulfill their token obligations at support and funding etc, but really, I think we're all on our own.

Q - What kind of social issues/stories are of interest to you and why?

A - Primarily 'man's inhumanity to man' is the catalyst for my writing. It seems there are no ends to the unbelievably horrifying things to which we humans continually subject one another. My duty as a playwright is not so much to proselytize about the generalities of a sweeping issue, but to bring it down to its impact upon the life of the individual.

Q - Do you think women have reached a level where they can hold their own against their male counterparts in story execution? If no, how can we be more competitive?

A - Of course they have and of course they can, and do. But it is and sadly probably always will be male, male, male - male A.D.s hiring male directors selecting male playwrights with predominately male casts.

Q - I see your work maps intelligent execution and knowledge about history, aviation and military idioms which is uncommon to most female playwrights. How did this knowledge come about?

A - This is organic in origin. With all those brothers, I've always been interested in non-traditional-girlie things. I grew up with baskets of hand-me-down Dinky Toy cars, and G.I. Joe's (not a Barbie in sight) - and I've always been vain enough to think there was little I couldn't do, if I just took the time to figure it out. And after some years and provinces apart, when I re-connected with my oldest brother, he had just earned his private pilot's license. I had been wanting to write about World War II, but hadn't decided on which service, and I thought, of course, if I explore flying, I'll have something to share with my brother. So I went for a ride in an old WWII warplane - and I was instantly hooked. And it wasn't just boring straight-and-level flying, but *aerobatics* in the 60+ year old bird. We did loops, rolls, cuban-8s, inverted - and because I did *not* throw up, the pilot let me 'take the stick' and it was pure ecstasy. I returned as often as I could afford the hefty cost, on various vintage aircraft, doing more tricks, pulling more Gs, and even landing and taking off myself. I have no capacity for science or mathematics, so while I do have good hands and good instincts for flying, I could never in a month of Sundays pass my pilot's license. Turns out another of my brothers is plane-crazy too, so that's another wonderful connection.

Q - Which work presented the most difficult technicalities to produce in terms of venue, props, costume, lighting, etc.?

A - My work is character-driven, so there aren't many challenges for these technicalities. Both "Flying to Glory" and "Wings to Victory" obviously involve World War II aircraft, however their representation may be anything from literal, as in actual vintage aircraft in a hangar staging, to stylize. But the biggest consideration, which I even mention in the notes of the published play, is that the sounds of the aircraft must be historically true, out of respect for the play and for the history of the subject - having a giant four-engine Halifax bomber emitting the sounds of a little modern-day Cessna doesn't cut it. Jessie in "Enigma" is ill with severe rheumatoid arthritis - the actual hospital room setting can be literal or interpretive, but the actor's realistic portrayal of the specific aspects of her debilitating disease is imperative to the character and the story. Technically, I have a bit of an affinity for monologues, and using parallel - and in pieces such as "Casualties" or Shirley's monologue in "Flying to Glory." As she speaks, I can actually hear the snapping of the white sheets in the wind on the clothes-line and smell the faint scent of bleach. This could be the result of far too much time left to my own devices, but it's how my brain functions and how I present my craft.

Q - Would you change your profession if you were given an opportunity to choose another career?

A - No. Though I would love to do more writing and more voice work. But I would change my health if I could. I have had severe lung and bone disease (and on continuous oxygen) for most of my life, and had a bout with the big C. I thank god for my Canada's incredible healthcare not burdening me with impossible debts, but still the constant state of ill-health has made it extremely difficult to create to my potential or to earn any sort of decent living from writing or even supplemental jobs. In 2018 I will meet the lung transplant team. No lamentations; it's just a fact of life, but one I wish I never had to negotiate. But if I were physically able, I'm just vain enough to think I could do just about anything, if I wanted to do it.

Q - Please give advice to emerging writers dealing with industry related rejection or failure or delayed profits.

A - Above all, I would trust your own instincts. Rightly or wrongly, at least at the end of the day you will have followed your own heart, and that is reward itself. There are a very, very few people whose opinions I trust and respect or whose counsel I will seek when it comes to my writing - barely a handful, all others are but noise I choose to block. 'Arseholes do vex me' is a bit of a mantra, especially in response to rejections. And if there is any criticism attached, I will read it, assess it, and, if I deem it worthless, I will dismiss it and move on. I would advise others to do the same, especially women writers in receipt of 'advice' from males.

I have encountered many artists, writers and even a musician, who are utterly devoid of soul in their work. That is not a condition to which I will ever aspire, into which hopefully I will ever allow myself to fall. I may make the wrong choices, but so long as I have the passion of my convictions and follow the dictates of my heart, my soul will be strong and pulsing with life. Write about what catches your conscience, write it completely, and write again.

Q - Which play best describes how you want to go down in history?

A - I'm at a loss on this one. I'd probably assign that writing task to 'Cubby Caley' the cat, who has a better credit rating than I, and probably more creative artistry in his left paw than I...

Welcome New Members

Organizational Members

ICWP awards a 6-month organizational membership to recipients of the 50/50 Applause Award.

Storycraft Studio, USA

Dreamcatcher Repertory Theater, USA

Plan-B Theatre Company, USA

Sister/Lister

Ruth Zamoyta, USA

Ruth Zamoyta is an emerging playwright. She has an academic background in English literature, including dramatic works, and she has published several poems, poetry anthologies, and a novel. Her day job is Development & Communications Director for New Jersey Theatre Alliance, the service organization for the state’s 31 Equity producing theatres. Before joining the Alliance in 2014, Ms. Zamoyta worked in communications and project management in the executive offices at Columbia University, and as an independent strategy consultant.

Ms. Zamoyta’s publications include the online novel clarissa@loveless.com, published in 2001 by classic novels.com; ‘Otsu’ and Other Poems, self-published in 2006; Eating Her Wedding Dress: An Anthology of Clothing Poems, which she co-edited and was published by Ragged Sky in 2009; and Blanket Stories, a poetry anthology published by Ragged Sky in 2014, which she co-edited and which is based on a multi-disciplinary work of collaborative art orchestrated by Richard Jochum. Her poems were published in the aforementioned anthologies, as well as in Dark as a Hazel Eye: Coffee & Chocolate Poems, Ragged Sky 2016; and American Narrative Poetry, Fall 2015. She has also written articles for Howlround, a knowledge commons for the theatre industry; and over 25 cover and feature stories for architectural trade magazines;

Ms. Zamoyta holds an MS in strategic communications from Columbia University, an MA in English from New York University, and a BA summa cum laude from St. John’s University. She is a trustee of Reeves-Reed Arboretum in Summit, NJ, and was recipient of the 2010 Cynthia Carter Memorial Cup, granted by US Fencing to the top-ranked female épéeist over 40. She considers herself equally from New York City and the Adirondack Park, and currently resides with a teenager, a cat, and a few struggling houseplants in northern New Jersey.

Representative Play Titles: The Caregivers; The Fencers; The Lovers; The Friends

Ashley Lara, UK

Ashley Lara’s plays include Economy Class (10x10 Festival Play Festival at Old Joint Stock Theatre in Birmingham, UK), Author (Playwrights’ Workshop at George Cadbury Theatre in Birmingham, UK), and The Cruller Twist (High Stakes Theater Short Play Festival at The Kraine Theatre in New York City). Awards include Poetry Slam Winner at 2012 Birmingham UK Book Festival, and Best Short Play for The Cruller Twist at High Stakes Theater Short Play Festival. Other works have been presented Naked Angels’ Tuesdays at 9, Upright Citizen’s Brigade (NYC), and The Barrow Group’s First Fridays. She is currently a featured artist for High Stakes Theater Company. She has also been featured in The New York Times and TimeOut NY for her work with She Makes Me Laugh, a monthly all-female comedy showcase at the People’s Improv Theatre (PIT). Ashley Lara holds a Master of Research in Playwriting Studies from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom.

Grace Epstein, USA

As a Associate Professor at the University of Cincinnati, I teach drama, literature, and film. I have published scholarly articles, poems, fiction and plays in a variety of journals, online and off. Several of my plays have been staged around the country in college and professional venues.

Ren Katherine Powell, Norway

Poet, playwright, translator and theater teaching artist.
American-born, settled in/nationalised citizen of Norway.

Angela J. Davis, USA

Angela J. Davis is the author of The Spanish Prayer Book, a Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center - National Playwrights Conference semi-finalist, PlayPenn top-12 finalist, Julie Harris top-5 finalist, HRC Showcase finalist, FutureFest top-6 finalist, and SETC new-play award first alternate winner, among other honors. Angela's play, The Czar's Daughters, was a 2017 Pittsburgh New Works Festival finalist (scoring 98 and 94 from the evaluating judges) and is slated, along with another of Angela's plays, Charlotte, for the 365 Women a Year playwriting project. Recent work has been presented, or is forthcoming, at the Hollywood Court Theatre, The Dayton Playhouse, The Road Theatre Company - SPF8, the Pittsburgh Original Works series, and The Blank Theatre Living Room Series. Her writing has appeared in numerous national publications, including a University of Iowa Press anthology, and she has received a Pushcart Prize nomination. Angela studied comparative literature at Stanford and lives and writes in Los Angeles, where she is also a practicing attorney, an adjunct professor at Southwestern Law School (formerly at USC Law School), and the creator of an award-winning multi-media program on elimination of bias in courtroom environments.

Eva Moon, USA

Eva Moon has been writing and performing her original music and theatrical works around the Pacific Northwest since 2002. Her original musical shows include 7 Deadly Sins and Me which had a nine-month run in Seattle, My Perfect Life and Other Delusions, The Deal With It Cabaret and The Mutant Diaries: Unzipping My Genes, which has been produced multiple times across the US and UK and has a filmed version out on DVD and Amazon Streaming Video.

First You Jump, a surreal and darkly comic musical play in which five very different characters face extraordinary choices that will change their lives irrevocably, has had partial productions in London, Chicago and Louisville, and mounted its first full staging in January, 2015.

Her latest play is The Home for Dead Fairytale Mothers. Everyone knows about the wicked stepmothers, but this one-act introduces audiences to the original First Wives Club.

Eva is also an optioned screenwriter and a regular contributor to Huffington Post.

Representative Play Titles

First You Jump, The Home for Dead Fairytale Mothers

Service Member

Sithokozile Zulu, Zimbabwe

My purposes manifest as a self-invented, inspired artist whose products have earned recognition both locally and internationally. Art flows naturally in my veins and I have a dream that sees me contributing significantly towards the growth and development of my country and the region at large. My ultimate goal is growth as an artist through international collaborations and further training refining my creative production techniques to open more opportunities for professional growth.

Now Playing & Coming Soon

If you have a play or a reading between January 1 – January 31, please email Amy (amydrake1018@aol.com) before December 15 and it will be featured in the NOW PLAYING column of the January newsletter. Any play or reading in February will appear in the COMING SOON column.

Letter from the Editor

I have thoroughly enjoyed doing the newsletter for the past five years or more. However I am starting an online graphic design company and there is a very steep learning curve so I have to cut back in other areas. Each section of the newsletter is spearheaded by a Board Member. The responsibility of the new Newsletter Editor is to format all the information and images into a template on the administrative side of the ICWP website, a valuable and transferable skill. In fact, many of my skills in graphic design I have learned by doing the newsletter and other volunteer work for ICWP. (Click on the link at the very bottom of this page.) If you like design and technology, this is an exciting opportunity. I will stay on board to mentor the next editor.

Yours for innovative, engaging, and equitable theater.

Mona Curtis
Newsletter Editor

The image used in this newsletter is the work of Engin Akyurt taken in Siem Reap, a province in northwestern Cambodia and downloaded from Pixabay on December 1, 2017.

September 2017 Newsltter

Mona Curtis — Fri, 01 Sep 2017 04:57:51 GMT

September 2017 Newsletter

Member Spotlight: Kari Ann Owen

“I am sixty eight years old now, writing as I did when I was twelve at a time of approaching nuclear war. The call to courage is, must be, just as strong for creative artists as it was then: the informed conscience and the empathetic soul may be the only thing holding back the might of the generals and their “leaders”.

Kari Ann Owen

Acting and singing at an early age combined with writing to make me a dedicated playwright at a young age. My first play concerned religious rebellion by a young girl in medieval times.

While an undergraduate at New York University, I began writing a play about domestic terrorism in an effort to understand our government’s lunacy in Vietnam and the concurrent lunacy of “home grown” terrorists bombing our school and also blowing themselves up while preparing to bomb a nearby military base. The name of the play is “Circle of Silence”, and portrayed the consequences of parental rejection and emotional isolation on one young girl.

Thirty years later, autobiographies began to appear, and it turned out I had perhaps been prescient: the sixties terrorists had survived a parent’s suicide attempt, among other horrors. This particular future domestic terrorist had discovered her mother’s head in the oven at age nine. Early unresolved grief ran like a wide thread through the lives of several of the bombers, as well as emotional explosiveness, sexual sadism (men and women) and a deep urge to be violent.

I felt their frustration with our murderous government, participated in demonstrations, and had a deep personal identification with the Vietnamese (especially the children) under our B-52 bombers: the private school my sister and I attended had been directly under a double commercial plane collision in December 1960.

War, therefore, has always been a very personal matter to me.

But the political people I met were frightened by emotions, and a violent alleged member of Weatherman told me I was too fat to be acceptable in his circle (he was fatter than I was) after threatening to hit me.

I kept writing, completed my Bachelor of Arts at New York University and also won the Academy of American Poets Prize, given by my university department.

The wonderful master’s creative writing program at San Francisco State University helped me develop a wide canvas of concern which (I hope) was accompanied by fluid yet disciplined technique. I spent months writing a sequence of poems about the decline and fall of Rome with very recognizable contemporary allusions.

I have been able to produce my plays in San Francisco and Berkeley, and my play about Vietnam and the CIA won an award from the American Theatre Association. Fortunately, I have been able to combine serious modern dance studies with playwriting. “Terms of Surrender” concerns a gay male couple, a choreographer in New York and his lover in the early stages of AIDS in California. The dance segments occur in a hospice room and on the steps of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

I thank God that I have been able to grow in empathy toward other persons’ experience of violence and prejudice and write plays that demonstrate human dignity and not stereotypes. My plays comprise the quest for sobriety in prison; children and older teens and young adults surviving abuse of many kinds, realistically illustrated along with their parents’ collapses and coldness. I have written monologues for judges and correctional officers and prostitutes, and for a national security aide to Henry Kissinger, and for Nixon and Kissinger and Salvador Allende.

And after I suffered loss of mobility due to crippling sciatica, I wrote comedies about living with a service dog among ignorant people who knew nothing about such assistance. I even wrote about a cat who became a psychiatrist (“I just tucked my tail and dressed for success!). The comedies won awards at Dominican University, San Rafael, California. And my work has been performed at the George R. Moscone Center and the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

When I began my quest for artistic and moral and emotional clarity through writing, I had no idea that many men in the arts did not believe women belonged with them in their theatres, universities, poetry readings etc. My plays have never been produced on or off Broadway or at the famous regional theatres in Minnesota, Kentucky and southern California.

I blamed myself: my work just wasn’t clear enough or good enough.

Then the Princeton Study came out, and hard statistics concerning under-representation made clear that invisible wall of prejudice against women, and male anxiety toward women.

I stopped blaming myself, but felt a terrible grief that these American academic and artistic establishments prefer women to be sexually and intellectually degraded, monsters best kept at a distance.

The women and men who gave greatly of themselves to help me understand the governmental insanities of my plays about Vietnam, Chile, nuclear proliferation and many similar subjects were not prejudiced against women.

Their concern and respect for me kept me alive until medications for depression were discovered.

I am sixty eight years old now, writing as I did when I was twelve at a time of approaching nuclear war. The call to courage is, must be, just as strong for creative artists as it was then: the informed conscience and the empathetic soul may be the only thing holding back the might of the generals and their “leaders”.

I have written a position paper on impeachment, supporting the psychiatric observations of the Yale College of Medicine concerning Mr. Trump.

The memory of my beloved husband and many friends supports me.

Write your heart, write your conscience.

Now is not the time to give up. There may be no other time to be a creative artist, an interpreter of living souls, if Donald Trump suspends the Constitution and declares martial law.

Welcome New Member

Playwright, actress, lyricist Eloise Coopersmith has been performing and presenting her creative talents for the last 50 years.

Visit www.eloisecoopersmith.com

Representative Play Titles

Home for Mom, Finding Center, The Pass. Re-sil-ence

Now Playing and Coming Soon

Finishing School by Elaine Liner from Dallas, TX, opens Sept 8 (through 17) at the Bristol Opera House in Bristol, Indiana, in a production by the Elkhart Civic Theatre.

Guerrilla Girl Aphra Behn aka Donna Kaz in “Act Like a Feminist Artist - a Guerrilla Girl Unmasks” at the Decatur Book Festival in Georgia on September 3rd at 2:30PM - www.decaturbookfestival.com/sessions/view/591dd8d323c1d53b573e205a

AND

at the Baltimore Book Festival on September 24. www.baltimorebookfestival.com/participants/author/4409/Donna-Kaz

“Performing Tribute 9/11: Ordinary People, Remarkable Stories” by Donna Kaz will be presented by The Common Ground Community and The Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City on September 14 at 7PM - 7 West 55th Street, NY, NY.

www.fapc.org/

Coming to America, written by Stephanie Satie and directed by Anita Khanzadian, October 22, 2 p.m. at the United Solo Festival on Theatre Row

unitedsolo.org/us/comingtoamerica-2017

Audio Version

Board Member and Newsletter Team Member Lillian S. Cauldwell has made an audio version of the newsletter available through Passionate World Radio. Click on the icon below to listen.

Member News

My drama EVERYDAY EDNA MAE received three nominations from the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity following production this summer, including a nomination for Outstanding Playwriting for a New Script. My dark comedy LISTEN! THE RIVER received four nominations for acting and one for sound design.

I was selected to be a panelist for the Broadway Bound Theatre Festival in New York City in August.

Cheers,
Robin Rice

Top Ten Ways to Get Your Play Produced in New York

by Debbie L. Miller

Are you at a creative impasse? Burned out? Tired of sending out submission after submission, only to receive nothing but rejections? Well, don't give up! That big production deal is just around the corner. If you follow these handy tips on how to get your play produced in the Big Apple, you'll be raking in the money in no time.

1. To fund your play, rob a bank, marry Donald Trump, or bump off a rich relative. Or, come up with a novel fundraising idea. Forget bake sales and car washes. Think outside the box: host a Tupperware party in trendy Tribeca; parade around Midtown wearing a sandwich board, dressed as a duck; actually talk to people on the subway. Let desperation be your guide, and don't be afraid to make a spectacle of yourself. It’s New York, after all. Nobody will bat an eyelash. They don't call it "Show Biz" for nothing!

2. Originality is way over-rated. Forget about having your own voice. This is an erroneous belief started by a writer who read too many "how to" playwriting books and attended too many workshops. The key word here is "derivative." Copy characters, "borrow" ideas. You aren't stealing--you're paying homage to other writers.

3. Make it a love story. You'll have a hit every time. Punch it up -- have the main character fall in love with a sheep, or better still, a unicorn. Audiences love to watch romance unfurl. But, whatever you do, do not have the characters talk about anything serious! Frivolity must prevail. Create characters who muse about the weather, sing the praises of their dry cleaners, or long for the right haircut. The last thing you want to do is depress your audience by asking them to think about reality.

4. Give your play a sexual theme. Sex sells, remember? So, sex it up! Elaborately staged orgy-istic scenes, costumes out of Frederick's of Hollywood. No holds barred! If you worry about offending, you'll lose precious butts in the seats! And, is that not the name of the game? This is a marvelous way to boost ticket prices and help your bottom line. Why charge just $95 a seat when you can rake in $250?

5. Cast big names. Think "Dancing with the Stars” and celebrity chefs. And, don’t forget washed-up former child stars -- anything that makes an audience say, "Gee whiz, I thought he was dead!"

6. Remember the three S's. Fill your script with Sex, Sin, and Special Effects. Add lots of flying actors in tights and an erupting volcano or two. Spray-paint the audience with RustOleum. After all, words just get in the way.

7. When hosting a reading of your masterpiece, encourage the audience to make comments that tell you how they would write the play and be sure to take each criticism to heart. They're just trying to be helpful, after all. Nobody's out to get you. Stop being so paranoid!

8. Is your muse out to lunch? Keep writing. Haven’t had a creative thought in a decade? Write anyway. Nobody's listening to the words. The writing is just one cog in the theatrical wheel. Don't take yourself so seriously, for God's sake!

9. A word about success, that elusive butterfly. Elusive yes, but there are more important things, are there not? Moments nobody can take away from you. The expression on the face of your lead actress when she flubs her lines. The actor who misses his cue and enters a page later. The director who insists your play would be better if you closed Act One with your romantic leads doing it “doggie style" on a table. These are the moments that every playwright lives for. Forget about money and fame--these are our real bread and butter. This is why we dream of leaving our day jobs. And, why we’ll do anything to get our plays put up.

10. If all else fails, you can always take hormones to lower your voice, sprout body hair, and grow a penis, thereby dramatically increasing your chances of getting the attention of producers, backers, and agents. Come to think of it, pretty much everything else falls into place if you follow this rule.

So, there you have it. Follow these tips and soon Broadway producers will be knocking down your door.

Letter from the Editor

Thank you for your contributions. We are trying to make the newsletter more inclusive of our members and to include news and writings from them.

I have been ICWP Newsletter Editor for more than five years and love the opportunity to contribute to this great organization and to learn new skills. However I have a lot of new obligations this school year and I am trying to start my own online business. With these extra responsibilities, I will not be able to continue doing the newsletter after the first of the year. I will be happy to teach and mentor whoever volunteers for this job. You will have the opportunity to promote one of the best online communities on the web and become close friends with playwrights around the world.

Yours for innovative, engaging, and equitable theater.

Mona Curtis
Newsletter Editor

The image used in this newsletter are the work of KreativeHexenkueche. It was downloaded from Pixabay. Agust 26, 2017. It is available under a CCO Creative Commons License.

August 2017 Newsletter

Mona Curtis — Tue, 01 Aug 2017 00:08:55 GMT

Member Spotlight: Virginia Wall Gruenert
by Eliza Wyatt

Introducing Virginia Wall Gruenert, Executive Artistic Director of

off the WALL Productions

Carnegie, Pensylvania, USA

If therewas an Olympic medal for services to women in theatre, Virginia Wall Gruenert would be standing the highest on the podium wearing the gold.

ICWP recognizes this and has awarded off the WALL Productions their Applause Award three years running. Virginia herself is a three dimensional theatre person. Besides founding and running such a successful theatre, she is an actress and playwright.
 
I’d advise members to watch the vimeo clip to be seen on off the WALL’s web site, which Virginia told me has recently been uploaded to celebrate her theater’s ten year anniversary. The clip offers a tantalizing glimpse of past productions, the quality of which surprised this jaded theater-goer and makes me determined to put off the WALL on my theater going calendar and this is before I learned the staff, the crew, the design team, playwrights and directors were all women.

When I spoke to Virginia on the phone, (landlines are still useful), I heard in her voice the gravitas behind her achievements, although she was quick to credit wonderful teachers. She graduated cum laude from Syracuse University and did not stop there. She studied at the National Theatre in London, The Bristol Old Vic and with Stella Adler in L.A.

When I asked her about that experience Virginia told me Stella Adler did not suffer fools gladly but that kind of experience must have stiffened the spine of a young twenty-three year old actress trying to perfect The Method.

Asked whether she preferred acting to writing, she thought about it for a minute before replying ‘whichever one I’m doing at the time’, a sure fire mark of sanity and indicative of her immersive commitment. Shaken and Stirred was her first play, where she played all the parts herself before delegating it to four actors. Conversely, her latest play, Mother Lode, which was a commissioned by a friend, began as a play and became a one-woman show. This play, Mother Lode, is scheduled for a New York City premiere this fall.

Virginia’s philosophy of theater management in her own words is, bring ‘em in, shake ‘em up, and send ‘em home. Yes please, I’ll be waiting in line to buy a ticket.

Welcome New Members

Sharon Rose, USA

Dramatists Guild of America
International Center for Women Playwrights
Pen Center USA

Patricia Bell-Scott, USA

Patricia Bell-Scott is professor emerita of women’s studies and human development and family science at the University of Georgia, and author of the award-winning biography, The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice. Her book tells the story of how a brilliant writer-turned-activist and the First Lady of the United States forged a friendship that changed their lives, enriched the conversation about race, and fueled the movement for human rights in America. The Firebrand and the First Lady won the Lillian Smith Book Award and was named Booklist Best Book of the Year. It was also a finalist for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, as well as a nominee for the National Book Award and the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Legacy Award. She is working on adaptation of her biography for the stage.
For more information, visit patriciabellscott@charter.net

Claire Cooney, USA

Elaine Liner, USA

Elaine Liner is a playwright in Dallas, Texas, who "emerged" after a long career in arts journalism. She made her debut as a solo performer and playwright at the 2013 Edinburgh Festival Fringe and has toured with her one-woman show, Sweater Curse. Her two-act comedy Finishing School is a winner in the 2017-18 American Association of Community Theatre's New Play Fest and will premiere in September 2017 in Elkhart, Indiana. She's also written a novel, 2084: An American Parable (available on Amazon in ebook or paperback worldwide), and she's a member of the Dramatists Guild.

To earn a living, Elaine drives tours around the JFK assassination sites in downtown Dallas and sells her knitted creations online. Her next play is an adaptation of Romeo & Juliet in which an older couple falls in love at first sight -- only to have their adult children try to keep them apart.

Representative Play Titles
Sweater Curse: A Yarn about Love; Finishing School; A Ripping Christmas Carol; The Crickets' Lunch; Replaceable Blond; Cappy & Monty-A Love Story

Qurell-Amani Wright, USA

Qurell-Amani is a graduate of the Florida Statue University School of Motion Picture, Television and Recording Arts. After graduation she relocated to Beaufort, South Carolina where she was employed as an on-air personality and commercial voice-over artist at WVGB radio. Since then, she has traveled the country with Theatre IV of Cincinnati, Ohio as well as performed in several commercials including Sonic Restaurants, and the military’s Space A travel program. Her motion picture projects include several independent films and "Ghostown", produced by DreamWorks.

Qurell is currently a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild and is producing and performing her labor of love, Panther Woman, a one-woman show highlighting the female experience in the Original Black Panther Party for Self Defense. “It is my mission to use the talents afforded me by The Universe and my Ancestors to provide quality theatre featuring strong, powerful women of color. Visit the website at www.pantherwomantheplay.com

Now Playing and Coming Soon
If you have a play or a reading between September 1 – September 30, please email Amy (amydrake1018@aol.com) before August 15 and it will be featured in the NOW PLAYING column of the September newsletter. Any play or reading in October will appear in the COMING SOON column.

Women without Walls by Robin Rice, Small but Mighty Productions, August 2-6, Toronto, CANADA

F4 by Elin Hampton has been selected as a finalist in the Samuel French 42nd OOB Short Play Festival. It will be performed on August 9 at 6:30 p.m. in the East 13th Street Theater, New York, New York, USA

Shaking the Dew from the Lilies by Paddy Gillard-Bentley will be playing August 16-16 at K-W Little Theatre, Ontario, CANADA

Elaine Liner’s two-act comedy Finishing School is a winner in the 2017-18 American Association of Community Theatre's New Play Fest and will premiere in September 2017 in Elkhart, Indiana.

New Feature

Board Member and Newsletter Team Member Lillian Cauldwell has made an audio version of the newsletter available through Passionate World Radio. Click on the icon below to listen.

July 2017 Newsletter

Mona Curtis — Sun, 02 Jul 2017 02:40:53 GMT

Member Spotlight: Eliza Wyatt
Eliza Wyatt by Eliza Wyatt

This is a stop-gap Spotlight because it’s sometimes difficult to reach playwrights in other regions.

I consider myself an American playwright, formed by the women’s movement and Boston and Brandeis Universities, but I’ve ‘lived’ in three different cultures. I was born in England but was part of the Boston theatre scene for twenty five years but the majority of my plays are influenced by my Iranian marriage and my feminist protest. I wrote Mirror Images at the request of my fellow playwright, Geralyn Horton, at our Playwrights’ Platform meetings in Boston. This play is about the imposition of the veil on a group of women whose culture is unspecified. It was staged in Bilekent University, Ankara and subsequently banned. It is the only play of mine to be censured.

My five Hitler based plays represent an obsession that was probably the result of growing up in post-war Britain. I remember bomb sites and sugar rationing and how people would cringe every time a plane few overhead. My childhood experiences are now the subject of my only novel, Back From The Edge.

My American play, The Competitive Spirit, takes a critical look at an overly competitive (Boston) society. A shorter version of that play called Chronic Competition was also directed by Geralyn Horton. Techno Frantic Love, which foreshadows Google Glasses, also takes place in a Boston high-rise and is a look at our passionate love affair with technology.

I’ve been lucky in that women have championed me, Helen Warren Meyer and Lucille Lortel among others and most of my plays have been produced. I’m a proud to be a long time member of ICWP and now a board member. I’ve uploaded plays on the New Play Exchange and urge others to do the same. I’m a member of the Dramatist Guild.

I also write for Words Across Time, which is a web-site e-zine for lovers of the written word. I invite ICWP members to write book reviews for this worthy site. The book can be written at any place and at any time in our global history.

www.elizawyattplays.com

Welcome New Members

Deloris Akins

Pernille Dahl Johnsen: Playwright / Director / ActorArtistic Director of Johnsen & Johnsen Produksjoner.

A Remarkable Person is her 4th play, and the first ever to be granted its own appendix (11 pages) in the yearly magazine of The National Centre for New Playwriting.
Recipient, Work Grant, Government Grants for Artists
BA in Philosophy and Political Science.
A method actor with a 3-year education from The Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, Los Angeles.
Has worked for numerous public and private theatres in Norway, in addition to her productions in Johnsen & Johnsen.
Member of Norwegian Actors' Equity Association and Writers’ Guild of Norway

Jessica Atwooki Kaahwa is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Departments of Performing Arts and Film at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. Dr. Kaahwa has been the architect of a number of national initiatives that have sought to use theatre and media as a constructive force in conflict settings and for health improvement. She has and continues to experiment with theories that expand the discourse on theatre applications. A good example is her recent experimentation with “Theatre for Personal Meaning” and “Theatre for Conflict Analysis.” She continues to work on integrating “Processes Theory” into mainstream Applied Theatre practice. Dr. Kaahwa is also an accomplished director with a number of stage productions to her credit.

Rosa Soy

Theresa Yuschok

Cynthia Wands, USA

My play The Lost Years received it's world premiere production in April 2017, at the Contra Costa Civic Theater, directed by Marilyn Langbehn.

I am currently working on a new script, The Hoarding House and hope to have a workshop reading in August 2017.

I am looking to create language-based plays which explore the mystic and historic elements of our consciousness. I worked for many years as a stage actress in San Francisco, Boston, and Los Angeles, and had the opportunity to work with some extraordinary theatre artists. My work included plays produced at the Magic Theatre, San Francisco Rep, Celebration Theatre, and the Berkeley Shakespeare Festival. My exposure to the plays and playwrights gave me an appreciation for magical realism, and my writing explores the connection between the natural and unknown. I have studied playwright structure with Dakota Powell at UCLA, Murray Mednick at the Padua Playwrights Workshop, Leon Martell at UCLA, and with Jack Grapes in his Method Writing classes. I am currently a member of WORDS THAT SPEAK, a playwrights group in Los Angeles, California. I have developed scripts at the Ohio State University retreat for playwrights with the ICWP (International Center for Women’s Playwrights). The Dramatist Guild hosted a reading of my script The Lost Years in November 2007 for Footlight Series in Los Angeles. The Botanicum Seedlings project has also read my scripts at the Theatricum Botanicum Green Reads series. I am a member of The Dramatist Guild, ALAP (Alliance for Los Angeles Playwrights), LAFPI (Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative) and ICWP (International Centre for Women Playwrights). My theatre works include Day of The Dead, The Lost Years, Emily, and The American Woman.

50/50 Update

The 50/50 Applause Award has been extended to July 10, allowing forv acations and questions about new criteria This year, we have changed some of the criteria to reflect not only equality in women's and men's productions and number of performances, but also to ensure multiple female playwrights in theatre productions. We have expanded our reach to other countries--by searching theatre lists throughout the world. We are evaluating how many repeat award recipients have not met the criteria and why. This year, so far, more theatres are nominating themselves, and are interested in maintaining the 50/50 criteria. Many have heard about the awards through our members, social media,and the press releases. France is running at a 25% women, 75% men ratio right now.

We'll have a fuller report after we conclude the awards and analyze our research results.

Still time to nominate!

Now Playing & Coming Soon

If you have a play or a reading between August 1 – August 31, please email Amy (amydrake1018@aol.com) before July 15 and it will be featured in the NOW PLAYING column of the August newsletter. Any play or reading in September will appear in the COMING SOON column.

Listen! The River by Robin Rice s a (true) story about love, loss and hope. It will be produced for two nights only by Articulate Theatre Company. July 6 and 8. New York, New York, USA
http://www.articulatetheatre.com/listen-the-river.html

God Bless Phyllis Schlafly by Amy Grant is a 10-minute play examining the women’s movement in America. July 15 & 16, 2017, MITF Short Play Lab, The Workshop Jewel Box Theater. 312 W 36^th St., New York, New York, USA
http://www.midtownfestival.org

I’m wearing my own clothes! by Nancy Gall-Clayton will be performed July 15, 16, 20, and 23, by Looking for Lilith Theatre Company, Louisville, Kentucky, USA
http://lookingforlilith.org/unheardoutloud/

The Mess by Catherine Frid is a 10-minute play for two female actors that explores memory and forgetting, and the importance of reaching out across generations to transcend barriers and secrets. It will be presented as part of the NewMarket National Play Festival, July 22 - 23, 2017, NewMarket, Ontario, CANADA
https://www.nationalplayfestival.ca/

Plays by Carolyn Gage

Harriet Tubman Visits a Therapist, First Congregational Church, Soul Rebel Performance Troupe, July 14-16, Albany, New York, USA

Lace Curtain Irish, Buxton Fringe Festival,featuring Joanne Lavelle. Dates and venues TBA. Buxton, Derbyshire, UK
http://www.buxtonfringe.org.uk

At Sea, Fresh Fruit Festival, directed by Kathe Mull, July (TBA) New York, New York, USA
http://www.freshfruitfestival.com/

Babe! An Olympian Musical, A concert/reading, National Women’s Music Festival, the NWMF Chorus and a pit orchestra! July 6-9, Madison, Wisconsin,USA
http://www.wiaonline.org/

The Obligatory Scene, Fresh Fruit Festival, directed by Kathe Mull, New York, New York, USA
http://www.freshfruitfestival.com/

Maxine, And. by Lynne S. Brandon, part of the Athena Reads monthly play reading series. Athena Theatre Company, June 29, New York, New York, USA
http://www.athenatheatre.com/athena-reads

In the Restroom at Rosenblooms by Ludmilla Bollow will be presented on Fridays this July at Mosely Arts Center, Lake City Colorado, USA

Women without Walls by Robin Rice, Small but Mighty Productions, August 2-6, Toronto, CANADA

Articles of Interest

The Articles of Interest column is now housed right here in the News Area of the website.

The section will be curated by Karin Williams assisted by volunteers

Lillian Caldwell
Lori Marra
Eleanor Oberio (Sept 1 - Nov 1)
Debbie Tan
Naijeria Toweett

Thank you for all your hard work.

Yours for innovative, engaging and equitable theater,

Mona Curtis
Newsletter Editor

June 2017 Newsletter: Spotlight on Australia

Mona Curtis — Sun, 04 Jun 2017 02:37:30 GMT

Member Spotlight: Shannon Murdoch
by Eliza Wyatt

Shannon Murdoch holds a first class honours degree in Theatre and Creative Writing and was an Australia delegate to the International Youth Playwrights Festival. She has been aware of the magic of theatre since the age of eight but recognizes the special challenges in being a female playwright because 'women tell stories differently'. She has now given up paralegal work and is now able to workas a dramaturg and on her writing. She says she 'fiercely listens' to people who understand what she is trying to say and is a great fan of rewrites and submitting wherever and whenever possible.

Researching theatres in Melbourne, her present location, gives us some idea of what she is up against, a challenge shared by all playwrights in big cities. The number of theatres is impressive, the total population of playgoers on any given night could easily reach ten thousand people. People watching opera, dance, musicals, contemporary art and performance shows and concerts. This kind of global entertainment to be found throughout the world. Shannon is aware that Australian theatre still has to build 'its cannon' and is still finding its voice. In her work she has had access to two different Australian backgrounds, the heat and humidity of Queensland and the often cloudy, grey and windy Melbourne. Atmospheric descriptions which I'm sure will find their way into the cannon of her work.

Shannon is a winner of the U.S. Yale Drama Series Award and has a screenplay, Little Bitch, in development. She has an impressive list of productions in Australia, Canada and the U.S.

the room where she works

Q: Why did you become a playwright?

My mum took me to see CATS! when I was 8 years old. I still remember every moment of that performance and the tingly feeling I had when the lights went down, anticipating that some sort of magic was about to happen. And it did. After that, I became hooked on theatre. Couldn’t get enough of it. I acted as a kid and as a teenager and then went to drama school, where I realised that I could sit down and create that tingly feeling with my own stories. And so, here we are.

Q: Are there any special challenges in being a female playwright?

Well, the statistics speak for themselves. We are half of the population competing for a quarter of the available production slots. But that’s not the real challenge. The real challenge is the fact that women tell stories differently. Not better, and definitely not worse. But different. A different shape, that sometimes does not fit neatly into traditional structures. So, the real challenge is to not only write our stories, but to find or invent the structures that support them in the best way, and make them as valuable and as prized as traditional structures.

Q: What is special about theatre in Australia?

I guess the fact that it is still so new. In the western world, we are a very young country, borne of a history of colonisation by people that stole land and lives from the traditional owners. A shameful past, which sits uneasily in the national consciousness. Added to that, Australian stories and Australian voices have only been heard on Australian stages since the 1950s. Before that, we only had British theatre. So, I think we still are trying to find our voices and still building our canon.

Q: What advice would you give to your fellow (or aspiring) playwrights?

I’m not big on advice, but here’s what I know to be true for my writing:

Ideas and the craft you need to bring those ideas to life rarely come together at the same time. I recently found a way to complete a play that I had the first idea for 9 years ago. It’s a marathon.
Know your good. Take the time to understand what kind of plays you want to write, why you want to write them, and what the best possible version of that is. Don’t stop writing it until you have reached that best possible version.
Fiercely listen to people who understand what you are trying to do. Politely ignore the rest.
Submit. Everywhere. Make it a part of your practice to get your plays in front of every set of eyes possible. You’ll be amazed at what happens next.

Have a life outside writing. No one needs another play about artists talking to artists about the problems that artists have. There are way too many good stories out there.

Welcome New Members

Carolyn Gage, USA

Carolyn Gage is a lesbian feminist playwright, performer, director, and activist. The author of nine books on lesbian theatre and sixty-five plays, musicals, and one-woman shows, she specializes in non-traditional roles for women, especially those reclaiming famous lesbians whose stories have been distorted or erased from history.

In 2014, she was one of the six featured playwrights at the 53rd Annual World Theatre Day, sponsored by UNESCO, and held in Rome. In 2014 she also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Venus Theatre in Laurel, Maryland. In 2015, the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College acquired her papers.

www.carolyngage.com

Charmaine Spencer, USA

As a teacher and professional puppeteer, Charmaine Spencer has written numerous story adaptations for young audiences including two-actor versions of The Time Machine and Treasure Island and an audience participation comedy entitled Higgledy Piggledy Mother Goose. Her play, Fireflies, concerning the young artists of Terezin concentration camp was published by Eldridge Plays. Her one-man musical about the life of Mario Lanza was twice produced at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and she is currently working on book and lyrics for Circus Boys, a musical story of the young Ringling Brothers and Mrs Magi, an urban retelling of O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi.”

ICWP News

We are excited to announce that the 50/50 Applause Award for Gender Equity in Theatre will launch on June 5th with nominations accepted from June 5 through June 30th. Some minor changes have been made to the criteria. Nomination forms and press releases will be available in English, Spanish, and French. More announcements to come.

The 50/50 Applause Award team.

Now Playing and Coming Soon

If you have a play or a reading between July 1 – July 29, please email Amy (amydrake1018@aol.com) before June 15 and it will be featured in the NOW PLAYING column of the July newsletter. Any play or reading in August will appear in the COMING SOON column.

Liquid Lunch in Hell’s Kitchen, a monologue by Robin Rice will be part of The Strand Project. June 2, 3, 9, 10: Selah Dessert Theater, Struthers, Ohiio, USA

Everyday Edna Mae also by Robin Rice will be presented June 15, 20, 22 at Planet Connections Theatre Festivity, New York City, USA

Tops and Maxine by Lynne S. Brandon have been selected for readings by Athena Theatre Company. They will be read and discussed June 29th and July 27th at the Dramatists Guild Fund, 356 W. 40th Street (at 9th Ave.), as part of Athena Reads monthly play reading series.

Gutless and Grateful by Amy Osestreicher June 30 at 9:30 p.m. at Feinstein’s/54 Below, New York City, USA

In the Restroom at Rosenblooms by Ludmilla Bollow will be presented on Fridays this July at Mosely Arts Center, Lake City Colorado, USA

Listen! The River by Robin Rice will by presented at Planet Connections Theatre Festivity. Articulate Theatre Co. July 6 & 8, New York City, USA

God Bless Phyllis Schlafly, a ten-minute play by Amy Drake examining the women’s movement in America, will be playing July 15 & 16 as part of the MITF Short Play Lab, New York, New York, USA

The Mess, a 10-minute play by Catherine Frid that explores memory and forgetting, and the importance of reaching out across generations, will be playing at the NewMarket National Play Festival on July 22. NewMarket, Ontario, CANADA

Articles of Interest

Women in Theatre and Screen Australia believes in quotas and affirmative action in the pursuit of gender parity and gender diversity.

The Guardian reports ten groundbreaking shows by women on Australian stages in 2016.

Aussie Theater talks with Lisa Campbell about gender disparity in Australian theater.

Yours for innovative, engaging, and equitable theater,

Mona Curtis
Newsletter Editor

May 2017 Newsletter Spotlight on Eastern Europe

Mona Curtis — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 11:12:25 GMT

Member Spotlight: Ibadete Abazi

Ibadete Abazi is a screenwriter/playwright, born in 1990 in Kosovo (former Yugoslavia). She is currently completing her MFA in Dramaturgy at the University of Prishtina's Art Faculty.

She holds a Bachelor of Dramaturgy from the same University. Abazi's first play, entitled Soldier of Two Wars was produced on December 2015 at Kosovo's Dodona Theatre.

Ibadete Abazi is a screenwriter /playwright, born in 1990 in Kosovo (former Yugoslavia). She is currently completing her MFA in Dramaturgy at the University of Prishtina's Art Faculty. She holds a Bachelor of Dramaturgy from the same University.

badete Abazi is a screenwriter/playwright, born in 1990 in Kosovo (former Yugoslavia). She is currently completing her MFA in Dramaturgy at the University of Prishtina's Art Faculty. She holds a Bachelor of Dramaturgy from the same University. Abazi's first play, entitled Soldier of Two Wars was produced on December 2015 at Kosovo's Dodona Theatre.

The play is considered a very powerful production, whose focus is an American soldier who served in Balkan conflicts - specifically the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo - and married a wealthy Albanian Kosovar. The play has been translated from the original Albanian into English and Turkish. Abazi has also authored two other plays entitled Female Fragrance and Two Enemies and Soldiers, both produced in Kosovo in 2016. She is married to Kosovar-American actor Avni Abazi, and they have two daughters. In the foreseeable future, Abazi plans to live and work in the United States

Q: Why did you become a playwright?

A: It's funny how life sometimes pulls you into unexpected directions in your profession. The truth is that I never thought someday I would ever become a playwright, even though during my teenage years I wrote poetry.

I was at the end of my high school studies for architecture, when I met my actor boyfriend, who is now my husband. Following high school graduation, I tried to get into the faculty of Architecture at the University of Prishtina, but because of stiff competition, I wasn't accepted. I was very disappointed, but Avni, my then-boyfriend approached me and said that it wasn't the end of the world, because there are other things as beautiful as architecture.

He proceeded to place on a table volumes written by Shakespeare, Arthur Miller and Chekhov, noting that “books can be the biggest pain-relievers at the most disappointing times of our lives”. After reading Chekhov's The Boor, I asked Avni why he had given me only theatre plays to review. He replied that if I decided to write plays, he may have the chance to act in them someday. However, he continued, if I became an architect, he may never enjoy living in any of the buildings that I might design.

Finally, he asked me what I ultimately wanted to be in my professional life. He opined that as an architect I would help to create buildings, but as a playwright, I would have the opportunity to enhance and beautify the human spirit. And that’s how it all started.

For six months, I pored over the authors' works that Avni had recommended, and then diligently prepared for study at the Faculty of Arts. I remember the first dialogue that I wrote. Avni suggested that I plumb my memory in order to call to mind the most unique and different characters that I knew from life, and unite them.

Doing that, he said, may potentially create a conflict, and when you have the latter, you have a perfect recipe for drama. Even now as I am doing my masters, that’s the principle I apply when starting any script or a writing play.

Looking back, I couldn't be happier that I wasn't accepted into the architecture program.

Q: Are there any special challenges in being a female playwright?

A: Well, it's an out-of-the-gate challenge, because your work is judged by a double-measure compared with your male counterparts. You are obligated to create higher-quality work than a man, not because someone forces you to do it, but because you feel that in all of the discussions, male authors are held up as the best models in writing.

I personally feel lucky, because three of my plays have been produced by my husband, and I have been cooperating with him even while being produced. Now that I've passed the test on staging here in Kosovo, I've been working with an excellent British female translator named Alexandra Channer, and the good news is that we've received a positive response from Kosovo's Ministry of Culture (MOC).

We are pleased about the MOC's decision to finance the three-play publication in English. We also believe that my plays have universal themes, even though the subject matter is taken from Kosovar life. For example, the play Female Fragrance, deals with the topic of rape, and I think that everywhere in the world, women are vulnerable to many types of abuse.

I also think that Two Enemies and Soldiers, which focuses on two enemies (one Serb and one Albanian) who are fleeing from the war could be a drama that might be produced in Austria, and involve a Jew and a Palestinian. It could also take place in New York City, and deal with an American and a German in the aftermath of World War II.

So I can say that it has been a challenge to work as a playwright in Kosovo, but all things considered, I believe I've succeeded in achieving my goals. And I hope and pray that I'll find success in the U.S.A. as well.

Q: What is special about theater in Southeastern Europe?

A: I would consider the answer to lie in our great diversity of culture, as well as the major political changes from communism to democracy that the region has undergone. The latter have led to numerous senseless wars, and the suffering that people have experienced are, for good or for bad, inexhaustible resources for playwrights.

That said however, up to this point, has Southeastern Europe, otherwise known as the Balkans, utilized these events to create the best plays and novels? I really don't think so. Even years after the Yugoslav wars have ended, theatres in this part of Europe are still characterized by extreme nationalism.

Authors and directors, in many cases, have become complicit with the nationalist politics of their respective governments in almost all former Yugoslav nations. Some well-known writers who found success in the 1990s today ply their trade for daily consumption.

Depending on which country the play is produced in, theaters attempt to show that their nation's people are upstanding and progressive-minded, and entrusted with sacred missions.

The neighboring people, with whom they once fought, are formulaically introduced as evil and corrupt. The enemy, as in the case of Muslim Bosnians and Kosovar Albanians, are often typecast as terrorists.

No matter how good a play may be that is written by say, a Croatian author, it is extremely difficult for that work to be staged in Serbia or other Balkan countries. The situation is even harder with ethnic-Albanian authors from Kosovo, because of the large presence of the international community, and the latter's influence on local artists.

In Kosovo, following the war's end in 1999, the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and EU Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) helped to engender a spirit of forgiveness towards the Milosevic regime, with regard to the crimes perpetrated by Belgrade's directive in the region. And so the artistic community found itself in a difficult situation: Some adopted the same exclusionary attitude that was prevalent in other former Yugoslav countries, in order to create a kind of national folk-theater.

Others lobbied for international funds, and staged improvisations that cast negative aspersions on "outsiders and enemies". A third category violated Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) laws by performing international theatre plays - after translating them into Albanian - and producing/publishing them as their own.

I should also note that there is a popular trend among theater managers to seek offerings by American and European authors. In my opinion, this is an unfortunate development, because millions of dollars have been invested in promoting Kosovar culture by foreign foundations over the past 17, post-war years.

However, if you ask the average person whether any noteworthy local playwright has appeared on the arts-scene resulting from all of this outside "financial encouragement", the answer is an emphatic no. I therefore think the time has come for these small Southeastern European nations to form an open dialogue, and to organize dramaturgy competitions.

I am confident that the results of such collaboration would be of interest to European and American theaters, as something exotic and different for those audiences.I have, by the way, competed in dozens of American theaters with my two dramas, but have ironically been unable to break into a sole competition in the much closer neighboring countries.

It is tragi-comic, I think, that playwrights from this region need to work very industriously to be produced in western theatres, only after which our local theatres will recognize our value and produce our plays.

Q: What advice would you give to your fellow (or aspiring) playwrights?

A: If you go to a zoo to be entertained, you see a variety of wild animals locked in their cages. In my plays, I undo the latches and attempt to set the creatures free.

Thereafter, the beasts fight for their territories - for their rights, if you will. It is this catalyst that creates a conflict, which quickly evolves into a drama. That said, find the zoo both within you and around you, and throw them together. At that point, you're good to go with the resulting mix. I actually think I read that formula in an Ingmar Bergman biography.

Welcome New Member

Sidra Rausch, USA

ICWP News

Thank you to all those who participated in the online Annual Meeting for all ICWP members. All Board of Trustee members were reinstated with the welcome addition of Lilian Cauldwell. In the Board Meeting that followed, these officers were elected.

President - Sophia Romma
Vice President - Lucia Verona
Treasurer - Rita Barkey
Secretary - Sharon Wallace

Now Playing & Coming Soon

If you have a play or a reading between June 1 – June 30, please email Amy (amydrake1018@aol.com) before May 15 and it will be featured in the NOW PLAYING column of the June newsletter. Any play or reading in July will appear in the COMING SOON column.

May 2017 Half Full, Catherine Frid's play about youth anxiety for grades 7 - 10 is receiving a school tour by Mixed Company Theatre in Toronto, CANADA.

May 3 Come and seeAct Like a Feminist Artist. Guerrilla Girl Aphra Behn speaks, signs, and unmasks at CalPoly, Pomona, California, USA

Faye Sholiton’s Funny Valentine will be produced as part of the Stray Kats Theatre Company's "Still Crazy After All These Years" festival, one of 8 short plays for folks over 55. Newtown, Connecticut, USA May 5, 6, 7 Hamden, Connecticut, USA May 11, 12, 13

Elana Gartner's new play Before Lesbians will be receiving a staged reading at her 20th reunion at Oberlin College. Directed by Zoe Kushlefsky, class of 2018. May 20, Oberlin, Ohio. USA Warner Building.

An excerpt of Nancy Gall-Clayton's full-length comedy Lightening Up is one of several featured May 19-27, at Khaos Company Theatre in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

God Bless Phyllis Schlafly, a ten-minute play by Amy Drake examining the women’s movement in America, will be playing July 15 & 16 as part of the MITF Short Play Lab, New York, New York, USA

Articles of Interest

The national Theatre of Kosovo hosts a growing performing arts scene in Pristina.

Poland is home to the Polski Theatre in Wroclaw, the Gdansk Shakespeare Festival and the International Theatre Schools Festival.

The Czech Republic has a thriving theatre scene, including experimental and puppet theatre.

The State Jewish Theater in Bucharest, Romania is keeping Yiddish culture alive.

In Ukraine, civilians and soldiers are collaborating on stage to exorcise war-related trauma.

Yours for innovative, engaging and equitable theater,

Mona Curtis
Newsletter Editor

April 2017 Newsletter

Mona Curtis — Sun, 02 Apr 2017 06:03:50 GMT

Member Spotlight: Antonia Brancati

Antonia Brancati is an Italian literary agent, translator, and playwright. Her mother was famed actress Anna Proclemer and her father was the great novelist and playwright Vitaliano Brancati. In 1991 she become a Literary Agent for the theatre, representing in Italy, just to name one, Nobel Prize winner Harold Pinter. In 1993 her first play Preoccupazione per Lalla (They All Worry about Lalla) was staged with a good success at Teatro Politecnico in Rome. In 2012 she is one of the founder of CeNDIC (National Centre of Italian Contemporary Playwrights.) Her representative play is PAST IMPERFECT (AKA I Would Prefer Not To.)

What are the joys and challenges of being a playwright?

Creativity is the real joy – I mean the process of it, at any steps: pursuing, tackling, attempting, striving at, working on, missing, failing, conquering for a brief moment of elation, then starting again from scratch. The main challenge is really to find the way to at least show one’s finished work (not as easy as it seems). But doesn’t this go for any field of arts as well as crafts?

Challenges more specific to playwriting I believe are the ones we playwrights pose to ourselves: the one I personally find most intriguing is how to write the subtext without actually writing it, or how to make my characters reveal their intentions while I make them say words contrary to those very intentions.

Are there any special challenges associated with being a woman playwright?

I became a playwright when I was the wrong side of forty. My beloved father was a great writer, a novelist, a playwright, an essayist, a screenwriter – the only trouble being that he died when I was only seven. My mother was one of the greatest stage actresses in Italy. I won’t mention my Electra complex, because you may all well imagine it. Since I was a child I knew I would be a writer. When I was about twenty, I knew I actually was a writer – and also knew better than saying it out loud because I had no publication to prove it. I was a secret writer, alright, and I kept writing and writing and writing for myself.

One day I read that Teatro di Roma was launching a theatre seminar; I thought attending it would do my work as an agent good - and I decided to join in. I vaguely expected we would politely talk about theatre in general, what it is and what it should be. No polite talks, however. The maestro said “Useless to discuss theory: let’s work on your works instead.” – At which, all the other participants around me took their scripts out of their pockets with what seemed to me the sound of a machine-gun. I was the only one empty-handed. I decided I would not be left behind, and started writing my very first play. It was eventually staged. Which made it possible for me to maintain I was a writer.

As for being a woman playwright – a few years back the director of teatro Stabile in Turin sent a letter to various playwrights, including myself, asking us to write a one-act on what theatre was for us. A splendid idea, after which – and before the one-acts could be staged – he was fired by the theatre. Believe me, that explains a lot about theatre in Italy.

For that project, I wrote a piece titled “The Playwright’s Nightmare”, and it was all about a male author, a certain Paolo, who has been granted the permission to see a rehearsal of his work. He wanders about the theatre, disregarded and belittled even by the last of the props men, finds that his play is being completely distorted by the star-director, and keeps wondering why is he wearing a skirt and everybody keeps calling him Anita instead. My mother read the play and was quite amused by the antics I had given to the Director (a quite recognizable character), but wondered why I had added the bit about the Author dreaming he was an Authoress. “Elementary, Mother.”, I said. “What worst nightmare may there be in our xenophile country than to be an Italian playwright – and a woman besides!” And the situation hasn’t really improved much.

What special contribution does Italy give to theatre?

For centuries, Italy existed only as a common culture and language. But in the 18^th and 19^th century, that language was well known and spoken by intellectuals and in the courts of all Europe. It was the language of Opera everywhere.

Italy was united under the kingdom of Piedmont and Sardinia in 1861. There was a very important Company in Piedmont: Compagnia Reale Sarda founded in 1820 and generously subsidized by the government. Over 34 years the Compagnia produced 591 Italian plays and extensively toured abroad. In 1855 the subsidies were cut and the Company was disbanded. That was the dawning of the new Kingdom of Italy.

Our (exportable) theatre is mainly visual. As for that, we can offer visually excellent shows by excellent directors who tend to believe they are the only real authors of a play. As far as they are concerned, all the actual playwright has to do is to provide a meager excuse for the director’s creativity. Not a text, but a pretext.

What has been your most rewarding experience as a playwright?

I really feel rewarded any time a piece of mine is chosen and staged. I love having a play of mine staged abroad, as that gives me a perfect excuse to travel. I like to remember how fun it was being in Mexico City for the opening of a play of mine with my husband and my mother – and to see mother peacocking around: “I am the mother of the autora!” (she always had to be the absolute star!)

And of course I like good notices. I am more doubtful about compliments, however. I remember one a very important critic paid me a few years ago: “You write like a man!” – but isn’t it another way to say that if you do not have gonads you’re really not worth much? - He was so patronisingly convinced that I actually did take that as a compliment, even though I honestly found it dubious. How could I object, though? Even St. Catherine used to exhort to “be manly” men and women alike, and she is the patron saint of Italy, after all. Another critic once told me: “I hope you don’t mind if I tell you that I find your play a pièce bien faite.” I still don’t see why I should have minded.

What advice would you give to any playwright?

Write what you enjoy writing. Which really means enjoy without having your creativity hampered by worries of eventual production requirements (you know: small cast, one set, a not too controversial topic, dramedy with a hint of farce, or whatever). Leave also aside any thoughts of possible failure – and any dreams of success. Live for the moment: feel free and enjoy the feeling.

On the other hand – if you are commissioned a piece on an indifferent topic and with lots of production requirements do not turn it down: rather use it as a mental gym – a particular kind of Sudoku. That also can be fun.

Welcome New Members

Wendy-Marie Martin, USA

Wendy-Marie Martin holds a BFA in Acting and an MFA in Playwriting and has taught, directed and performed in Europe and the U.S. Her short plays have been produced in Germany, The Netherlands, Australia, and the U.S and published by YouthPLAYS, Theatrefolk, Polychoron Press and Smith & Krauss. She is creator and Executive Producer of The Red Eye 10s International Play Festival and co-producer of San Francisco Stage & Film's The Future is Female Festival readings. Wendy-Marie is a member of the Dramatists Guild, TCG, and the Playwrights' Center and currently teaches Theatre History for Allan Hancock College/PCPA. For more information about Wendy-Marie's work, please visit her website at www.wendymariemartin.com

Sidra Rausch, USA

Maya Cohen, USA

I am an undergraduate college student at Tulane University with majors in Psychology and Gender and Sexuality who loves writing plays and monologues in her free time. I'm not here to make a professional career out of playwriting, but I love feedback and want to continue to write.

Joyce Fontana, USA

After four decades in healthcare and academia, Joyce Fontana, PhD, brought to fruition a lifelong ambition to write creatively. As a seasoned theater patron and parent of an actor, dabbling in play writing was a natural draw. After one of her first 10 minute play script attempts, 23 Skidoo, was selected for production at the Durango Arts Center 10 Minute Play Festival. She was hooked.

23 Skidoo. Performed at the Durango Arts Center 10 Minute Play Contest, Durango CO, September, 2013

Trail Meetups, Performed at the Manhattan Short Play Lab, New York City, October, 2014

Satellite Buddha. Performed at the Secret Theater One-Act Play Contest. Queens, New York City, September 2015

Exhibitions at a Picture, Finalist, reading at Festival 56 New Works Play Writing Competition, Princeton IL July 2016

Joyce thrives on opportunities to see her characters and dialogues come to life, but seeks constructive feedback, encouragement, and advice from masters of the art. Thus, she was delighted to be invited to the 2017 25th Annual Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez AK. Joyce works, plays, and writes in beautiful Southwest Colorado where she lives with her husband and three dogs.

Vickie Williams, USA

Vickie L. Williams is a playwright from northeast Ohio. She is a Puffin Foundation and an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award recipient. Her play Angelic Voices In Ritardando was listed as one of the top twelve in the Sky Blue International Playwright Competition, Cambridge, Great Britain and as a semi-finalist in Manhattan’s Theatre’s Estrogenius Festival.

Her productions include: Diamond In The Rough (Cleveland Public Theatre’s Station Hope and Road To Hope festivals), Imagine Freedom (CPT’s Station of Hope festival) and Commemorative

(Karamu Performing Arts Center). Her stage readings and workshops include:

Angelic Voices In Ritardando, Even The Blind Can See, Expendables, and Vigil.

Vickie has earned a B.A. in communications and has contributed works to several anthologies, the latest being, “365 WOMEN A YEAR: A PLAYWRITING PROJECT."

Sabrina Binte Masud, Bangladesh

Sabrina Binte Masud is a BBC award winning playwright, screenplay writer, fiction writer and poet writing in English in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She is one of the founding members of Brine Pickles, first English performance literature group in the country, founder of Golpokotha bilingual writer's group, an assistant professor, and a Fulbright Scholar.

Part of her development as a writer is due to BBC international playwright’s residency in London, creative writer’s workshop at University of East Anglia, UK and learning about screenplay writing while working for BBC Media Action, from Sophia Rashid, screenwriter for the East Enders.

She is one of the founding members of Brine Pickles, the first ever English Performance Literature Group in Bangladesh, as part of the Connecting Futures Project launched by the British Council. In 2005-2006, the project culminated into the Connecting Futures Creative Writers Workshop between UK and Bangladeshi young writers that resulted in the publication the English anthology Maps and Metaphors (2006). Over the years, Brine Pickles endeavors have enabled her to stage couple of her one act plays – How To Be A Monster (2004), Messed Up Me (2005), Escaping Paradise (2007), Obviously Thou Art A Hoax (2006), and Do Not Push (2014). She has done her BA in English and MA in Applied Linguistics and ELT from Dhaka University and MA, Department of African American Studies, Temple University, Philadelphia, through Fulbright Scholarship.

At present she is working as an Assistant Professor, Department of English, Eastern University. Sabrina is one of the editors and members of the publishing committee of the anthology entitled 9th Edge, Creative Writing from Bangladesh. She is also the project director for Brine Pickles for an international creative writing project (2011-2014) funded by the American Center. The project ended with the publication of an anthology Patchwork Pages (2014).

Now Playing & Coming Soon

If you have a play or a reading between May 1 – May 31, please email Amy (amydrake1018@aol.com) before April 15 and it will be featured in the NOW PLAYING column of the May newsletter. Any play or reading in June will appear in the COMING SOON column.

A Heroine Free Summer by Jennifer Decker. Mildred’s Umbrella Theatre Company, Houston, Texas, USA. March 30-April 15, 2017

By Sandra de Helen

Sandra’s ten-minute piece A Grave Situation will be performed as part of SWAN Day, April 8, Athena Cats New Works Festival, in Santa Monica, California, USA

Sandra’s monologue, Common as a Loaf of Bread will be read April 11 as part of Diversionary Theatre's WordPlay Tuesday series. San Diego, California, USA

Alan Woods’s ten-minute play Not the Delany Sisters will be performed by THAT’s for Seniors in Holland, Manitoba, as part of “Gettin’ On” on April 9, 2017.

April 24-27, Robin Rice’s And Then The Elements Spoke Articulate Theatre, Articulating the Arts, T.Schreiber Theatre, New York, NY USA

Member Melba Larose’s ”marathon multicultural, multidisciplinary, multimedia play” After the Wall about walls around the world and throughout time is being read at Plays & Pizza at Lucky Jack's the next being April 24th at 7:30 pm. They are also read at Times Square Playwrights every Tuesday night. New York, NY USA

In the Restroom and Rosenblooms (Full length comedy) by Ludmilla Bollow April 21, 22, 23, 28, 29 - (7 performances) Memories Ballroom Dinner Theatre, Port Washington, Wisconsin USA

An Elizabethan Progress by Amy Drake at the South-Central Renaissance Conference, Austin, TX, Apr. 21, 2017.

Jamie Pachino’s play Other Than Honorable opens at Geva Theatre on April 29th. Previews begin April 26th. It's directed by Kimberly Senior. Rochester, NY USA

Articles of Interest

Broadway World provides a window into world theatre, with tickets to shows in Europe, South America, Asia and Africa.

Theatre in Paris makes French productions accessible to English-speaking audiences via projected subtitles.

The Goethe Institute celebrates the creativity and diversity of German theater and performance.

Spain’s Microteatro began a micro-theatre trend that’s spreading abroad.

The National Theatre of Greece offers an eclectic mix of classics and modern experimental work.

Yours for innovative, engaging and equitable theater,

Mona Curtis
Newsletter Editor

March 2017 Newsletter Meet the Board

Mona Curtis — Thu, 30 Mar 2017 06:26:13 GMT

Meet the Board

President: Sophia Romma

Playwright/Producing Artistic Director, Dr. Romma is the author of fourteen stage-plays which have been produced Off-Off Broadway and Off-Broadway, three of which have been produced at La MaMa E.T.C. Her play, "The Past Is Still Ahead," which she co-directed with legendary Swiss director, François Rochaix, has been performed at the Cherry Lane Theatre, praised by critics at the Midtown International Theater Festival and toured London, Moscow, Montreal and Seoul. The Negro Ensemble Company presented Romma’s "The Mire" at the Cherry Lane Theatre, directed by Charles Weldon of the NEC, which Andrew Webster of the New York Times heralded for “grinding down stubborn cultural borders with love’s symphony.” Romma’s Off-Broadway musical, “Cabaret Émigré,” was lauded by The Villager for her heart-wrenching, brave theatrical voice: “Romma has crafted an erotic American Vernacular in quantum verse, delving deep into the dislocated émigré’s soul.” Dr. Romma is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (M.F.A) and has received her Ph.D. in Philology at the prestigious Maxim Gorky Literature Institute. Romma served as Literary Manager of the Negro Ensemble Company. She is currently the Producing Artistic Director of The O’Neill Film and Theatrical Foundation. (www.theoneillfilmandtheatricalfoundation.com).

Vice President: Patricia L. Morin

Patricia L. Morin, MA, LCSW, and VP of the International Centre for Women Playwrights, began playwriting in 2011. After having four mystery short stories published, and loving theatre, she began writing plays. Her first short play, The Gatekeeper swept 2012 Fringe of Marin award, and was later voted one of the best plays in their twenty-five year history (2016). It wasn’t until joining ICWP that she realized the depth and breath of women’s issues worldwide, many not being heard, in all areas, but especially theatre. She is proud to be a part of an organization that strives to have those voices be heard.

To learn more about Pat :www.patricialmorin.com

Vice President: Amy Drake

Amy Drake is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, Board member of the International Centre for Women Playwrights and Theatre Communications Group. Amy’s plays have been performed in New York, Chicago, and other US cities. Her recent play, Eyes like Opaque Gems, was voted Most Popular Play in the Midtown International Theater Festival (MITF) Short Play Lab, NYC. Home Body received a staged reading at The Ohio State University New Works Lab in 2015 and was nominated for four awards in MITF, New York. She was voted Theatre Roundtable Best Director for Night Must Fall and was assistant director for the Actors’ Theatre production of Servant of Two Masters, which ranked among The Columbus Dispatch Top-10 shows of 2012. Amy is also a stage actor and director, commercial actor, an author, academic writer, conference speaker, and poet. She holds a B.A. from Ohio Dominican University and a M.S. degree in marketing and communication from Franklin University. Her education includes play writing, creative writing and history summer programs at Cambridge University, UK, Reed Hall, Paris, Kenyon (College) Summer Institute, and Yale University.

Secretary: Sharon Wallace

Sharon Wallace is a Playwright and Poet with a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies, with a concentration in Humanities and Culture from Union Institute and University. Her dissertation topic is African American Playwrights and the Empowerment of Black Women. Sharon earned a Masters of Fine Arts degree with a concentration in Playwriting from Goddard College. She has a Masters degree in Liberal Studies with a concentration in English from The University of Detroit Mercy, and earned a Bachelors degree in English Literature at Marygrove College. Sharon is a full-time professor in the English department at Wayne County Community College District.

Representative Plays: Long Way Home; 1967A Life of its Own, and Outside the Lions Paw.

Treasurer: Rita Barkey

Rita is a playwright and fiction writer who believes in 50/50 gender parity in today’s theaters, so she offers her time and service to ICWP. She resides in Western Montana where she formed the Zoola Writers playwrights collective to support the production of brave, new work.Over a dozen of her own plays have been produced around the U.S., and she holds an MFA from The Ohio State University.

Representative plays: The Trigger Gene, The Lieutenant Nun’s Tale

Board Member: Lucia Verona

Born in Arad, Romania, in 1949, Lucia Verona had dreamed of becoming an opera diva, studied at the Music Academy in Bucharest, then moved on and started writing. She is now a well-known playwright, with many plays produced, published and awarded major prizes, some of them translated and performed in France and the USA. She is also a successful author of fiction, her novels and short stories being well liked by critics and well bought (and loved) by the readers. Her latest books, “Crime at the Jubilee”, “Crimes at the Festival”, “Murder in the Old City” and “Death Comes to the First Night” are bestseller mystery writings with a celebrated opera diva as a private investigator. She is also known as a translator of Shakespeare's plays into Romanian. Since August 2016 she has been an advisor to the Mayor of Bucharest and a few weeks ago she was appointed manager of a new theatre in Bucharest – The Romanian Playwrights Theatre.

Member of the Romanian Writers’ Union since 1989, Member of the ICWP since 2006.
Her website and blog is partly written in English. (www.luciaverona.ro).

Board Member: Eliza Wyatt

Eliza Wyatt is a Gemini writer, who writes mostly plays but has been known to stray into poetry and prose writing. She has been active in the Boston scene for a number of years but is presently to be found in Brighton, England where she has just finished an autobiographical novel entitled The Mother Cluebook. She says she became a playwright after working in a literary agency in London, meeting many notable playwrights and seeing memorable plays.

Board Member: Karin Williams

Karin is a playwright and screenwriter whose work has been produced by San Diego's Fritz Theater (where she served as playwright-in-residence from 1992-2001), NYC's Looking Glass Theater, Art House Productions, Space 55, Long Island Theatre Collective, New York New Works Festival, Flush Ink! Productions, the Gertrude Stein Repertory Theatre Digital Performance Institute, Lamia Ink!, CollaboractionTheater, Boston Theaterworks, and many more. As a partner in the motion media company CulpepperWilliams, she wrote and produced "The Captive" (Webby People's Choice Award & NYTVF "Best Web Series" Award) and the independent feature "Jordan." Her plays are available through Original Works Publishing and YouthPlays.

I became a playwright because I believe drama communicates our wisdom and values as a culture, and I wanted to contribute to that conversation. I also believe women's voices need to be heard on an equal basis with men's, and women playwrights need to stand up and claim their power as artists. I'm proud to be a board member of an organization that has been supporting and empowering women for over 25 years.

Board Member: Mona Curtis

Mona Curtis is a self-taught artist and playwright. Her play The Postmodernist was workshopped in the Seven Devils Playwright’s Conference and produced in the Summer 2016 Mid-Town International Theatre Festival. She writes plays because scenes, situations, and dialogues well up inside her and it it joyous to be able to put them all together into a work of art. She is a student of all art and also enjoys computers and graphic design. So she has been the ICWP volunteer newsletter editor for at least four years, a process she has grown to love. She thinks ICWP is one of the most supportive organizations on the planet and is honored to be a part of it. She has a B.A. in English and a M.A. in Teaching English as a Second Lanugage from the University of Idaho. She lives and works in China.

Welcome New Board Member: Lillian S. Cauldwell

Ms. Lillian S. Cauldwell has interviewed numerous bestselling fiction and nonfiction authors on the national acclaimed phone group tour, PBP Playback Producers. She has also been a Media Advisor at The National Publicity Summit in New York Ciity at the request of Steve Harrison. For the past four years, Ms. Cauldwell has interviewed national and international authors in person and by telephone for the Miami International Book Festival.

Lillian S. Cauldwell is known in the Media Industry as ‘Passionate’ and ‘Getting Things done!’

For the past several years, Ms. Cauldwell has written theater of the absurd and black comedy plays. In addition, she has ghost-written blogs for top business executives including inter-active e-books from articles, blogs, commentaries, letters-to-the-editors, and vlogs for top business executives and authors. She helps business individuals master the techniques of presentation and interpersonal skills.

Clients engaged Ms. Lillian S. Cauldwell for her honesty, integrity, passion, getting things done, 25 years of research skills, 10 years of audio streaming and interviewing, versatility, communication and interpersonal skills.

Welcome New Member

MT Cozzola is a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists. Her plays have been produced and/or developed at Chicago Dramatists; The Side Project; The Fine Print Theatre; Victory Gardens; Donny’s Skybox; La MaMa ETC; The Ruckus; and other theatres. Commissions: Working Women’s History Project; Step Up Productions; The Side Project; and Something Marvelous: A Festival of Magical Realism. Honors: Winner, Heartland Theatre’s 2015 New Plays from the Heartland; 2015 Equity Library Showcase Finalist; 2014 Illinois Arts Council Award; Residencies at La MaMa Umbria, Ragdale, and Playa. She is represented by The Robert A. Freedman Dramatic Agency.

Now Playing & Coming Soon

If you have a play or a reading between April 1 – April 30, please email Amy (amydrake1018@aol.com) before March 15 and it will be featured in the NOW PLAYING column of the April newsletter. Any play or reading in Mayl will appear in the COMING SOON column.

By Christine Emmert

When Gertrude Came to Play will be part of the SHE SPEAKS festival in Kitchener, Ontario, CANADA, March 4 & 5.

Fragile Freedom will be shown on March 18th and From Out the Fiery Furnace will be shown on March 25th atHopewell Furnace National Park Visitor’s Center, Birdsboro, Pennsylvania USA

Say No More (an adaptation of Strindberg's “The Stronger”) will be presented at Phoenixville Library on March 30th, Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, USA

By Robin Rice

Alice in Black and White, March 9-18, Looking for Lilith Theatre Co., Louisville, Kentucky, USA

Lust & Lies, March 15, 365-NYC. Encore Theatre for the New City, New York, USA

The short play BUDFUD129ZK (about a woman scientist in the future) will be part of TheFuture Is Female Festival in NYC on March 22 (7:30, Bernie Wohl Center).

By Katherine Koller

The Lost Goddess is part of The Mommy Monologues, produced by SkirtsAfire Her Arts Festival in Edmonton, Alberta, CANADA, March 2-12, 2017.

A staged reading of Riverkeeper is presented by Alumnae Theatre in Toronto, Ontario, CANADA, as part of the New Ideas Festival on March 11, 2017.

 Ludmilla Bollow’s full-length comedy, In the Restroom at Rosenblooms March 3-5 - Shelby Community Theatre - Shelby KY, USA

And So ... by Patricia L. Morin will be a part of Flush Ink Production's SHE SPEAKS-WOMEN'S WORKS, WOMEN'S WORDS festival March 4th and 5th in Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA.

The Nearly Final Almost Posthumous Play of the Not-Quite-Dead Sutton McAllister by Kristine Bauske, March 10-26, Tennessee Stage Company, Knoxville, Tenn. USA

A Heroine Free Summer by Jennifer Decker. Mildred’s Umbrella Theatre Company, Houston, Texas, USA. March 30-April 15, 2017

World Premier Reading of Cortex Kin by Elana Gartner. March 10, 7:30 p.m. Dixon Place, New York, NY USA

A Kitten by Any Other Name by Marjorie Conn March 3, 4, & 5 at The Producers’ Club Theaters, New York City, USA

March 10-11-12, the world premiere of Precious Bane Musical by Geralyn Horton, Needham Community Theater, Needham, Massachusetts, USA

Alan Woods’s ten-minute play Not the Delany Sisters will be performed by THAT’s for Seniors in Holland, Manitoba, as part of “Gettin’ On” on April 9, 2017.

In the Restroom and Rosenblooms (Full length comedy) by Ludmilla Bollow April 21, 22, 23, 28, 29 - (7 performances) Memories Ballroom Dinner Theatre, Port Washington, Wisconsin USA

A Heroine Free Summer by Jennifer Decker. Mildred’s Umbrella Theatre Company, Houston, Texas, USA. March 30-April 15, 2017

Yours for innovative, engaging and equitable theater,

Mona Curtis
Newsletter Editor

P.S. We are looking for a European playwright (not UK or Eastern Europe) for the April newsletter. Please feel free to nominate someone or self nominate.

March 2017 Newsletter 50/50 Applause Award

Mona Curtis — Thu, 30 Mar 2017 06:13:56 GMT

Help keep the ICWP 50/50 Applause Award alive!

We're launching a Generosity Campaign to fund the 2017 50/50 Applause Award. We need your help.

Click Here to go to the Generosity Campaign

A Short History of the 50/50 Applause Award

From an ICWP listserv conversation thread back in 2007-2009, collective minds discussed the evidence-based worldwide discrimination against female playwrights, including the cultural consequences for society and the financial effects experienced by female playwrights. Emily Glassberg Sands released a study called “Opening the Curtain on Playwright Gender,” which showed that only 18% of the productions done in the United States in 2008 were female playwrights. Research statistics continued to dribble out over different news medias at that time.

What could we, the International Centre for Women Playwrights, with the mission to support women playwrights worldwide and bring attention to their work, do to increase the number of women-authored plays on professional stages? Suggestions ranged from blacklisting theatres that produced all-male or male-dominated seasons to publishing a list of theatres that practiced gender equity and applaud them. An idea was floated that we could give awards to those theatres!

ICWP expanded, from its first International Women Playwrights conference in 1988 in Buffalo, NY, where two hundred women playwrights from thirty countries around the world attended.

ICWP developed more internet based programs to service the community and in 2000 a separate sister organization, Women Playwrights International, continued to organize the inspirational triennial International Women Playwright Conferences in countries around the world.

However, over time, more issues were raised on the Listserv discussions and more research studies emerged from Canada, Australia, and the UK, illustrating the male bias in theatre. (Some of those research results can be read in the statement for the Generosity campaign.)

Why was the work of women playwrights underrepresented? Why was this issue so important? Because productions result in more professional and career development for playwrights: more commissions, more residencies, more travel, more publications, and more book sales, which results in more productions. It is an economic cycle from which many talented female playwrights are excluded.

So Elana Gartner, co-chair Rebecca Osborne, and Deborah Magid, created the 50/50 Applause Award program. In the first year, 2011-2012, five theatres received the award, all within the United States. And as Dr. Jennifer Munday, president of the ICWP during those years, stated, “These companies need special thanks for the integrity of their decision making.”

In the following years, with Kris Bauske (50/50 Award video director) as co-chair, and Margaret McSeveney as Communication Manager, the bar was raised bringing the 50/50 through different levels. An Award Committee was formed and volunteers donated their precious time. Kris introduced a video component.

By 2016, the 50/50 program awarded 107 certificates to theatres in 10 countries on 5 continents! According to the Playwrights Guild of Canada’s Annual Theatre Production Survey (2015), out of 812 productions in the 2013/14 season, 63% were written by men, 22% by women, and 15% by mixed gender partnerships. We are gaining slowly.

We have stretched the resources of the volunteer team who administer the Award and research, vet and organize the information for each theatre. We’ve had to invest in more IT such as the online database. The program has outgrown the capacity that a volunteer team can provide. This year we need monetary support to sustain the growth of the program.

What has happened as a result of the 50/50 Applause Award?

We raised the awareness throughout the theatre community, and caused theatre professionals to engage in dialog about gender disparity. We have partnered with multiple organizations to increase visibility for women playwrights in multiple countries. And, percentages of productions for women-authored plays have risen in most of the regions in the world.

As you read more about the program in the Generosity campaign page, on the right column, you can see where the money is spent, and what your dollars will support.

The campaign will run from March 3 to April 7th. Please share the Generosity link with your friends, family, and community.

And donate!

Thank you.

Link: http://bit.ly/ICWPCrowdfund

March Spotlights

These are some of the main players in the development of the 50/50 Award. However MANY members contributed MANY hours of time and effort. Time and space do not allow us to mention them all.

Margaret McSeveney is a Scottish writer of plays, poems and short stories. She has been a member of ICWP since 1997. She has supported ICWP, serving on theBoard of Trustees and at different times, as List moderator, Webmaster, Secretary, Vice-President and President. Her involvement in the establishment of the 50/50 Applause Awards grew out of discussions on the ICWP Listserv around 2007 - 2009 when various research reports about the lack of gender equity in theatre were published in the USA, the UK and other countries around the world.

Kris Bauske holds a B.A. in English from the University of Michigan. Her first play, A Good Old Fashioned, Redneck Country Christmas, written in 2008, garnered national attention and is published by Samuel French. It has been adapted for the stage as a musical and is represented by Gary DaSilva, as are all her works. The musical is also published by Samuel French, Inc. A Good Old Fashioned Redneck Country Wedding, the long-awaited sequel to Redneck Christmas is also published by Samuel French. The screenplay for Redneck Christmas, written by Kris, is in development with Lenz Entertainment of Toronto. The expected release date of the full-length feature film is November 2018.

Kris is a full member of the Dramatist’s Guild of America, International Centre for Women Playwrights, Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, and the Theatre Communications Group. She was nominated for the 2011, 2013, & 2015 Francesca Primus award presented by ATCA for Outstanding Emerging Female Playwright. Kris was co-chair for the prestigious ICWP 2014, 2015, & 2016 50/50 Applause Awards. She continues to write, produce, and direct from her home near Orlando, FL where she mentors other writers and playwrights offering advice, editing, and a shoulder to cry on as needed.

www.krisbauske.com

Internationally produced and recognized playwright Elana Gartner has written Because of Beth (Howick Little Theatre; The Workshop Theater), Daughter (UpTheater Company; PlayLab Selection, 2013 Great Plains Theatre Conference), Pilar’s Brother (Repertorio Español), Cortex Kin (Upcoming: Dixon Place), Spinning (Fabrefaction Theater Company), and Ernie Evan (Genesis Repertory Theater; Heights Players, 6x10 Festival). Two monologues from Elana’s plays Daughter and Because of Beth were published in “Audition Monologues for Young Women #2: More Contemporary Auditions for Aspiring Actresses “(Meriwether Publishing, Ltd., 2013). Elana founded the EMG Playwriting Workshop which has fostered a supportive community for playwrights since 2004. She helped to edit a second edition of “You Can Write A Play!” by Milton E. Polsky. Elana co-founded the International Centre for Women Playwrights 50/50 Applause Awards and served on the ICWP board for five years. Elana is a graduate of Oberlin College with a degree in Creative Writing and a member of the Dramatists Guild.

The 50/50 Applause Award is a huge undertaking, but due to the extraordinary dedication of our membership, we have made a genuine impact in the theatre world.

Yours for innovative, engaging and equitable theater,

Mona Curtis
Newsletter Editor

February 2017 Newsletter

Mona Curtis — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 23:38:37 GMT

FEBRUARY SPOTLIGHT: MAHIN MOHASSEB

Mahindokht Mohasseb was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1947. She holds an LL.B and an LL.M degree in Law. She is an attorney-at-law and has authored several books in her field (Genocide, Access to Justice, Human Rights and Women). Mahin has always been interested in theater and has published twelve plays focusing on women’s rights and issues.

As an Iranian playwright I joined ICWP in 2016. My favorite western playwright is Bertolt Brecht, and my favorite Iranian playwrights are Bahram Beyzaie and Gholam-Hossein Sa'adi. I concentrate on women’s issues and all my plays are about these issues. I am a lawyer and hold an LL.M degree in law.

Nowadays because of the global media everyone knows more or less about the women’s condition in the Middle East. In most countries in this area the rules and laws treat women as the inferior gender and deprive them partly or completely from a great part of human rights; access to education, jobs, as well as cultural and social positions. Marriage in childhood, no right or restricted right to divorce and custody of children are also some of the women’s difficulties.

On the other hand during the past forty years in different countries of the Middle East war has brought these women rape, loss of family, and homelessness with the young children. Despite these hardships, they are on their own and can manage their lives without any support from the society or others. They struggle with obstacles, and try hard to find a way for progress.

Some of them are even in high positions in the society for example, university professors, physicians, authors and senior managers. Now I am happy to have this opportunity to send my voice through ICWP to women playwrights across the world and propose to them to write a short play about the difficulties and the abilities of the women in the Middle East as expressing solidarity with them.

I hope my voice is heard and a collection of these plays will be published or be online.

Mahin Mohasseb

Eliza Wyatt writes:

As an old time member of the ICWP I get excited when a new member joins from half way across the globe. Mahin Mohasseb lives in Teheran, Iran and I’m honoured to write a Spotlight for her.

She’s not only an important lawyer, but a prolific playwright. I have read the synopses of twelve of her plays and she has ideas for many more. Although the plays have not yet been produced, they have been published and are on sale in bookshops in Teheran and can be read in libraries in Teheran.

Mahin confided to me that she never wanted to be famous but now she would like her work to be produced and translated if possible. She began writing as a result of her legal work. She wrote books about human rights but felt that people did not take them seriously. I’m sure she shares with all writers the frustrations of trying to appeal to people who live stressful lives and seem to have little time or patience for the weightier issues.

Mahin Mohasseb then turned to writing her legal cases out as plays. She’s naturally interested in dialogue and argument but it is obvious that her plays go beyond mere legal cases. Her favourite play is Mirage, set in an eternal present in a woodland setting. A young female student meets a Spiritual Master and learns that he is not in love with earthly things but with a heavenly Beloved. This love of the Supreme Being, however, is a special kind of love and the Spiritual Master is lacking the other, physical, kind and he tells her that he needs this physical release to calm himself.

Although I have not read the play, since it is not yet translated, their encounter sounds like the beginning of a tragedy as the young student has to defend herself when attacked. Reading the blurbs of all twelve plays, I was particularly taken with Wedding Dress, about a father who uses his absolute authority over his daughter, and The Empty Seats about two prostitutes who are defending themselves in court.

Both these plays are in the collection Cherry Earring, and I look forward to them being translated. I have been fortunate enough to attend performances of Iranian theatre when I was married to my Iranian husband. The first time, forty years ago, I saw a traditional comedy starring a Falstaffian character. In 2004 I saw a play set in Iran in 1950 which was a family drama detailing the change in Iranian culture and social life. I believe the play was set in Abadan, the oil producing area in Iran.

A country’s theatre has, necessarily, to reflect what is happening in that country and the quality of theatre, as we know in England, varies greatly even in a couple of decades. Plays and playgoers undergo a great deal of change throughout the centuries. The theatre changed drastically during Shakespeare’s time, until you could almost believe his plays were out-of-date. As a thinking philosopher and writer, Shakespeare will never go out of date. The work of the best playwrights are always more than the sum of their country’s experience. I’m sure this will be the case with Mahin and that her work will last as long as the best.

Eliza Wyatt

Welcome New Members

Mary Bonnett, USA

Mary Bonnett (Producing Artistic Director) created and cofounded Her Story Theater. Creator and director of Gloss Over, The Sex Trafficking Cycle: Shadow Town, The Johns, Money Make’m Smile, Mongers, and Cide Show. She has won numerous awards for excellence and outstanding contributions in professional theater, writing, directing, and theater education. Her plays and directing have been seen in Chicago theaters, universities and venues. She speaks regularly to various organizations across Illinois on sex trafficking and the impact the current culture has on our youth. Mary has appeared on television and radio shows, championing the need for change in laws to protect our children and women.

Under Mary's leadership, Her Story Theater has raised thousands of dollars for its partner organizations. Recently, Mary developed The Short Series: an evening of play performance and workshop. The first presentation was Court Side in partnership with Federal Judge Virginia Kendall. The play and workshop focused on the trauma based behavior and journey of the sex trafficked victim. Two more customized works are in the making for medical and law enforcement.

Beyond Chicago campaign, created by Mary, was designed to invite a participating theater and anti-trafficking organization to produce one or all of the Sex Trafficking Cycle plays to raise awareness in their community. The first to step forward on this new endeavor was Houston, Texas. The Johns will be presented at Mildred’s Umbrella Theater and partner with 3 Houston anti trafficking organizations in time for Super Bowl 2017.

Money Make’m Smile is part of a partnership with the Chicago Teachers Union in developing sex trafficking curriculum and workshop for educators which Mary leads. She is an active member in the anti-trafficking community serving on various panels and advocating city wide for change. Mary and Her Story Theater were honored with the Illinois State Senate Award for Outstanding Work In Raising Awareness on the Issue of Sex Trafficking.

She has written the novel, Alabastard of The Mound...literary fiction set in 1930 Mississippi and completed her children's novel The Adventures of Cleaver and Whizjam. Mary is a member of SAG-AFTRA, SCBWI, CWIP, American Dramatist Guild NYC. Her Story Theater is a proud member of The Chicago League of Theaters.

Mary holds a BFA in Theater Arts, BFA in English Literature, MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University, England.

BACKSTAGE.COM voted Mary’s theater as the Top Ten Best International Theaters that Change Lives”. Her play SHADOW TOWN was voted “One of the Top Ten Best Plays Of The Year” by Chicago Theater Beat.

Katie Walenta, USA

Katie Walenta fell in love with words almost as soon as she could speak them. The way they weave together, tell stories, and reveal the intimate details about ourselves has always been fascinating. Something about the dramatic structure, what is seen and unseen, called to her. She now attends New York University - Tisch School of the Arts where she studies Dramatic Writing.

Marlene Burrell, USA

My name is Marlene Burrell. I am a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. I am a playwright currently living in Charlotte.

ICWP News

The International Centre for Women Playwrights will hold its Annual Meeting February 12-20. I encourage you to visit the online forum to vote for new trustees (board members) and weigh in on topics of concern, including the 2017 50/50 Award.

The following board members are up for re-election.

Sophia Romma
Rita Barkey
Patricia Morin
Sharon Wallace
Eliza Wyatt

The board can contain up to 14 members so we are actively seeking nominations for new board members.

Since we will be discussing and voting on important issues during the Annual Meeting, the Meet the Board column and the 2017 50/50 Award information will be presented at a later date.

Now Playing and Coming Soon

If you have a play or a reading between March 1 – March 31, please email Amy (amydrake1018@aol.com) before Feburary 15 and it will be featured in the NOW PLAYING column of the March newsletter. Any play or reading in April will appear in the COMING SOON column.

February 10, 2017 at 7:00 p.m. Sandra de Helen’s LGBTQ thriller “Till Darkness Comes” will be relaunched at Another Read Through Bookstore, 3932 N Mississippi Ave, Portland, Oregon, USAI will read from the book, answer questions, and sign any of my books, all of which are carried by the bookstore.

February 11, 2017 at 7:00 p.m. she will also be signing and selling “Till Darkness Comes“ at Tabor Space, 5441 SE Belmont Avenue. She is one of seven lesbian authors participating in the fair.

Amy Oestreicher in Gutless & Grateful plays at the Metropolitan Room on 34 W 22nd St, New York, NY 10010, USA on February 5th at 7pm and February 25th at 4pm. Doors open 30 minutes beforehand.

Ludmilla Bollow’s full-length comedy, In the Restroom at Rosenblooms February 24 Shelby Community Theatre - Shelby KY, USA

Also by Ludmilla The Woman with 27 Children (One Act Monologue) will be playing at the Sha tin Town Hall (Cultural Hall) Hong Kong CHINA, February 24, 25, 26 (4 performances)

And So ... by Patricia L. Morin will be a part of Flush Ink Production's SHE SPEAKS-WOMEN'S WORKS, WOMEN'S WORDS festival March 3rd and 4th in Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA.

The Lost Goddess by Katherine Koller is part of The Mommy Monologues, produced by SkirtsAfire Her Arts Festival in Edmonton, Alberta, CANADA, from 2-12 March, 2017.

A staged reading of Riverkeeper by Katherine Koller is presented by Alumnae Theatre in Toronto, Ontario, CANADA, as part of the New Ideas Festival on March 11, 2017.

Ludmilla Bollow’s full-length comedy, “In the Restroom at Rosenblooms” March 3-5 - Shelby Community Theatre - Shelby KY, USA

Articles of Interest: Theatre in the Middle East

Al-bab , an open door to the Arab world, offers an overview of Arab theatre, both historical and contemporary.

Arab Stages is an online journal broadening international awareness of performance cultures in the Arab-Islamic world.

The Arab Puppet Theatre Foundation teaches puppetry and encourages new development in this traditional art form.

The Middle Eastern Theatre Academy trains talented young performers from across the middle east.

Noor Theatre in NYC is dedicated to developing producing the work of theatre artists of Middle Eastern descent.

January 2017 Newsletter

Mona Curtis — Wed, 28 Dec 2016 23:40:20 GMT

A Letter from the Editor,

It has been my privilege to be your newsletter editor for the past four years. There are a few small changes for 2017. First of all, the newsletter is in a new place on the website. It is in the News section and is available to the public, not just ICWP members. For 2017, I want Internationalism to be the newsletter theme. I plan to highlight a different country or region each month, starting with my own experience in China. I encourage you to nominate playwrights for the spotlight, especially those from developing countries. Also new for 2017, we will have a Meet the Board column, starting next month with our president, Sophia Romma. The February issue will give some important information about the 50/50 Applause Award.

January Spotlight: Mona Curtis

Mona is a self-taught artist and playwright. She is also an ESOL teacher living and working in Xinzheng, Henan Province, People’s Republic of China.

I have lived in very remote areas, first in New Plymouth, Idaho and now in Henan Province in The People’s Republic of China. And it’s hard to say which is more remote. ICWP and its listsev has been my lifeblood artistically. I had my first production this summer at age 58 thanks to submission opportunities that arrive in my mailbox and insights from other playwrights.

I came late into playwriting. I wrote my first play when I was 40 and had my first production at 58. And I am completely self-taught, something that is both good and bad. The good thing about it is that I’m free to have very original ideas about theater so much so that some of the things I write are completely unproduciable.

But only now, after my first production, do I really think of myself as a playwright. It’s a new and somewhat frightening avenue that has opened up in my life.

As newsletter editor, I want the 2017 newsletter theme to be Internationalism so I will tell you a little about my life in China as an English teacher. Although I live in China, I don’t speak Chinese so I’m really in no position to talk about theater in China. However I do teach at a university and know a lot of bilingual Chinese teachers and students. Last week I asked my students if they had ever been to a play and only one of 270 students had. I have several Chinese friends who are teachers and university graduates and none of them have ever been to a play either. China loves spectacles and they have some incredible performances in dance, both modern and traditional, martial arts, magic shows and puppetry, but not much in the line of what they call “modern realistic theatre.” All that being said, I’m sure there is theater in China and I will continue to look for it and keep you posted on the listserv.

A few years ago, I hired a Chinese student to help me look for theaters for the 50/50 award. I explained to her that live theater was often a critique of society. She said that sometimes there were some very short plays like the ones I described in Spring Festival Gala. The Spring Festival Gala is a live televised 2-hour (at least) program that almost the entire 1 billion Chinese watch each year.

So as for the question of free speech in China, I can only tell you what I know from my little perch. I feel very safe in China and I don’t see a lot of fear among my students either. Asia is a more resigned culture than the West. They’re not up in arms about real or imagined injustices at the drop of a hat. And they’re more respectful of traditions. China has made great strides in the last 30 years. Just as they have planted 1 million trees a year for the past 30 years, they are working hard to bring infrastructure and education to their 1.37 billion citizens. There’s certainly a long way to go, but I think the average Chinese believes that being optimistic and working toward a goal is more effective than confrontation.

As for families, we recently watched a movie about police officers in the United States. The focus of this movie was that most crimes are committed by people who come from fatherless homes. This is a big problem in the United States, but it is not a big problem in China. Almost all families are very supportive and the children, for the most part, want to honor their parents by obeying them. This is not to say that there are not problems with this attitude. When I talk with my students, I estimate that a full third of them do not like the major that was chosen for them by their family. On the other hand, I think a lot of young people in the United States would be much better off if they had some healthy respect for their parents and listened to what their families had to say. That is the value of diversity and cross cultural understanding. When we are so immersed in our own culture, it becomes invisible to us and other ways of understanding the world upset our values and force us to expand our thinking.

As for the status of women, first of all, it is not good. Secondly, like all things in China, it’s changing fast. Boys are more valued than girls even in the professional classes. One of my good Chinese friends, a college graduate and headmistress of a school, put it this way. “Until I have a boy, my mother has a headache.” Women who have at least one son are free to leave off childbearing. If they only have a daughter, they feel compelled to have more children until they have a boy. However there are many individuals and organizations in China whose sole purpose is to foster leadership among women and the landscape is changing.

Actually, I love living and working in China. The picture that you see is me with a Regong artist I met in Qinghai Province this October. And I just got back from a 2-hour massage that cost me 10 USD. The people are here friendly, optimistic and tech savvy. Most people purchase everything, including soda from a vending machine, from their phones. (I don’t. I still haven’t figured it out.) And I love the prices. A pot of acrylic paint that would cost 10 USD in the United States is 50 cents here.

Creating the newsletter from China is sometimes challenging when the Internet is not reliable. Everyone assumes China’s Internet would be amazingly fast. And maybe it is in Beijing or Shanghai. But I live in Henan, one of the poorest provinces in China, and it can go off for days at a time. That being said, I am able to successfully edit the newsletter. It just takes a little more patience.

And why do I do what I do? Quite by accident, I was nominated to the Board a few years after joining ICWP. Becoming a part of the board conversation made me aware that communication was one of the greatest needs of the organization so I suggested the newsletter. I encourage you to join in the conversation in our general meeting or in the listserve and look for a small job to do. Maybe you’ll get lucky like me and find your niche.

Welcome New Members

Courtney Fraces Fallon, USA

My mother went into labor shortly after 5AM on Friday, June 8th, 1984. Four short hours later I flew out of the birth canal like it was a water slide, with such force there was an explosion of birthing fluid that soaked my mother. Plenty of time to rinse off the mucus plug and other birthing goo and warm up with a nap in an incubator before hitting happy hour. I hit the ground running but decided to wait several decades until the time was right to blow your mind with my brilliance. NOW IS THE TIME! Be on the lookout for my work... it'll be looking out for you.

@CFFunFunFun

https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtneyfrancesfallonsuperstar

https://www.facebook.com/CourtneyFrancesFallon/

funfunfun@courtneyfrancesfallon.com

Stacey Katz, USA

I am a playwright and poet. My ten-minute play, Your Secret Beauty was produced as part of the SHORT PLAYS BY DIVAS at DivaFest, April 2, 9 and 10th, 2016 in Indianapolis. Big Hunger, a ten-minute play, was featured in the Indy Fringe and Indiana Writers Center Short Play Festival, April 17th and 18th, 2015 in Indianapolis. A one-act version of Big Hunger is in the works as is my first young adult novel.

Margo MacDonald, CANADA
Margo MacDonald is a Canadian multi-award winning actor, playwright, and theatre creator who has been making theatre for over 25 years. In 2010, she wrote and performed in the smash hit, Shadows, (about theatre maverick Eva Le Gallienne) which won the Ottawa Fringe (Canada) Outstanding Overall, Best of Fest, and Fan Favourite awards that year. It went on to the undercurrents: theatre below the mainstream festival at the Great Canadian Theatre Company (where the show’s tickets sold out a week before it opened), and has since played to rave reviews at Videofag in Toronto, Canada (curated by Jordan Tannahill and William Ellis), and the Tea House Theatre in London, England. She is the co-creator (with Richard Gelinas) of Much Ado About Feckin’ Pirates! which played at the Toronto Festival of Clowns mainstage, undercurrents festival, and SpringWorks. Her first solo show, The Elephant Girls, premiered at the 2015 Ottawa Fringe. There it sold out 100%, won Best of Fest, Critics’ Pick for Best Show, and Outstanding Overall, and was held-over for two additional performances (which also sold out). It then went on to receive three Prix Rideau Awards (Ottawa professional theatre awards) for Outstanding New Work, Outstanding Performance, and Outstanding Direction. It also sold out its entire run at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival (Canada). This show is currently touring internationally, and has recently returned from a highly successful run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. She is currently co-writing a play about punk rock (The Persistent Stain), another about a 17th-century, French, bisexual, cross-dressing, female, sword-fighter, opera singer, and duelist (Maupin), and yet another about Radclyffe Hall and Noel Coward holding séances (Rap Once For Yes).

@margo_thespian

https://www.facebook.com/margomacd

Gabriela Sosa, PANAMA
Hail from Panama - as in the Isthmus.
First play I wrote was a musical: Don Panzote en la víspera del año 2000
Currently working on a one-woman-show that is an adaptation of my novel Love in the Time of Taksim
@gabrielasosa

loveinthetimeoftaksim

Now Playing & Coming Soon

I f you have a play or a reading between February 1 – February 28, please email Amy (amydrake1018@aol.com) before January 15 and it will be featured in the NOW PLAYING column of the February newsletter. Any play or reading in March will appear in the COMING SOON column.

The Johns by Mary Bonnett is playing January 19 - February 4 at Mildred's Umbrella Theater Company in Houston, Texas USA.

Harm’s Way by Marilyn Harris Kriegel will be given a staged reading, in Paris FRANCE, produced by The Big Funk, American Fridays. January 20, 7:30 pm at Pavé d’ orsay followed by wine and snacks.Tickets can be reserved by email or directly at the door (10€). thebigfunkcompany@gmail.com

Amy Oestreicher will be performing original material at the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Allianace Annual Conference. January 14 & 15, New York City, USA

Gutless &Grateful, the inspirational one-woman musical by Amy Oestreicher, returns to New York February 5^th and25^th. Visit Amy's website at amyoes.com.

Articles of Interest: Theatre in China

China Theatre in Beijing hosts opera, ballet, drama and music performances from China and abroad.

Using the Moscow People’s Art Theater as a model, the Beijing People's Art Theatre has been creating modern, realistic drama for over 50 years.

Critical Stages details the impact on feminism on Chinese theatrical tradition, and talks about how women’s struggle is reflected in Chinese theater today.

The Global Times explains the struggle to preserve nandan, a controversial tradition of female impersonation in Peking Opera.

Based in NYC, Chinese Theatre Works brings China’s theatrical traditions to an international audience.

December 2016 Newsletter

Mona Curtis — Fri, 25 Nov 2016 00:22:00 GMT

In the holiday shopping season, let's reflect on a simpler lifestyle focusing on what we have and helping those who have less.

December Spotlight: Debbie Miller

Debbie Miller is a New York City-based playwright. She maintains a simple lifestyle in one of the most expensive cities in the world.

This is from her website www.DebbieLMiller.com

I tend to write female characters who are marginal in some way -- a tea leaf reader, a 1950s housewife yearning for freedom, a Bangladeshi immigrant, a young mother from the Ozarks, an Appalachian mountain healer, and a shopping-addicted suburban homemaker.

Q: What made you start writing plays?

A: I'd gotten involved in community theater and stand-up comedy in the 1980s when I lived in Moorhead, Minnesota. I took my first improvisation and acting classes at the Fargo-Moorhead Community Theater.

When I moved to Knoxville, Tennessee a few years later, I continued doing stand-up and took improvisation and acting classes there. I founded an improv troupe and performed in a play for the first time, at Theatre Knoxville, a community theater. Playwriting seemed the next logical step because I found creating characters and writing dialogue came easy to me, especially after learning to improvise. I wrote my first play, "Tea Leaves," in a playwriting class in 1996 during a three-month visit to New York City. "Tea Leaves" was a tribute to my mother, who died that year.

Q: What makes you continue to write plays?

A: Playwriting allows me to use my acting, improvisation, and dialogue-writing skills. When I write plays and monologues, I hear the dialogue in my head and imagine the stage and scenes in my mind. I've been an actor as well as a writer (and I've directed a few plays Off-Off-Broadway), so bringing stories to life onstage seems natural to me. I like being on stage and I like creating characters who become three-dimensional when they move from page to stage.

Q: Where are you originally from and what makes you continue to live and write in New York City?

A: I was born and raised in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. After graduating from college in 1973, I got married and moved to Missouri to attend grad school; then, lived in West Virginia, Minnesota, and Tennessee before divorcing and moving to New York in 1997. I've lived in New York (Manhattan first, then Brooklyn where I live now) for 19 years--longer than I've lived anywhere since leaving Ohio.

Q: Where have your plays been produced?

A: My plays and monologues have been produced Off-Off-Broadway and in a few states. I've performed in some of my plays and have performed several of my monologues Off-Off-Broadway, as well as performing two one-person shows Off-Off-Broadway when I was involved in a small theater company. A couple of my plays were in the Samuel French Original Short Play Festival.

Q: Do you do other kinds of writing?

A: I've been a freelance writer on and off since 1990 when I was a fact-checker at a publishing company in Knoxville. I was a stringer for the Knoxville News-Sentinel and I've recently been reviving my freelance writing career now that I'm no longer teaching English. I write memoir, personal essays, features, profiles, short stories, flash fiction, Web content, news articles, and humor pieces. I'm planning to add writing case studies and white papers to my skill set. I've also written a screenplay and plan to write a novel.

Welcome New Members

Robyn Brooks M.F.A., poet and playwright, earned her M.F.A. in Poetry, from Mills College, and her B.A. in English, from UC Berkeley. She is an Emily Chamberlain Cook Prize in Poetry recipient, former Student-Teacher-Poet for June Jordan’s Poetry for the People, and a VONA/Voices alum. Her poetry has been published in Berkeley Poetry Review, Penumbra, Milvia Street, The Walrus, The Womanist, What I Want From You: Voices of East Bay Lesbian Poets, Generations Literary Journal, and blues arrival: stories of the queer black South and migration. Her chapbook, venus in retrograde, was published by Finishing Line Press.

Brooks studied playwriting with Carol Wolf. She participated in PlayGround, in residence at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2007-2013. Her plays have been staged at Berkeley Repertory Theatre for Monday Night PlayGround, Tennessee Women’s Theater Project Women’s Work, Theatre of Yugen, S.F., CA, Los Angeles Women’s Theater Project, Theatre Rhinoceros, S.F., CA, LunaSea, S.F., CA, and Mills College, Oakland, CA.

Amy Oestreicher is a PTSD peer-peer specialist, artist, author, writer for Huffington Post, TEDx and RAINN speaker, award-winning health advocate, actress and playwright, sharing the lessons learned from trauma through her writing, artwork, performance and inspirational speaking. She has headlined international conferences as a keynote speaker, and as author and star of "Gutless & Grateful", her one-woman musical autobiography, since its NYC debut in 2012. Her writings have appeared in over 70 online and print publications, and her story has appeared on TODAY, Cosmopolitan and CBS. She's currently touring a mental health advocacy/sexual assault awareness program to colleges nationwide.

Email: amyoes70@gmail.com
Website address - amyoes.com
Facebook page - facebook.com/amyoestr

Now Playing & Coming Soon
If you have a play that will be in production anywhere between January 1 – January 31, please email Amy (amydrake1018@aol.com) before December 15 and it will be featured in the NOW PLAYING column of the January newsletter. If you have a play that will be produced anytime between February 1 and February 28, it will appear in the COMING SOON column.

"A Good Old Fashioned Redneck Country Christmas" by Kris Bauske is having at least three productions this month.

Theatre Quadra at the Quadra Community Centre 970 West Rd. Quadra Island B.C. Canada will present "A Good Old Fashioned Redneck Country Christmas" December 16, 17, & 18. To join in the madcap merriment, contact Linda Lolacher at theatrequadra@gmail.com or 250-285-2203. Visit their website for more information.

The Theatre Factory at 235 Cavitte Avenue Tafford, PA 15085 will present "A Good Old Fashioned Redneck Country Christmas" from December 2-18, 2016. Call 412-374-9200 for more information, or check their website.

Theatre Atchison at 401 Santa Fe Street in Atchison, KS 66002 will present "A Good Old Fashioned Redneck Country Christmas" December 2-4 & December 9-11. Call 913-367-SHOW (7469) for more information, or check out their website.

The Fast and Furious One-Minute Playwright Foundation (San Francisco-- @PWfoundation) shorts has six ICWP members out of their 40+ playwrights for their 70 plays. Dec 3rd at 8 PM at the Brava Theatre @Brava Theatre, and Dec 4th at 5PM. Fun is promised for all. Our members include: Roberta D'Alois, Carol Lashoff, Patricia Milton, Pat Morin, Evelyn Jean Pine, and Madeline Puccioni. Tickets on sale--really a great price!

Carolyn Kras's play "THE SUBJECT" is in the Blank Theatre's Living Room Series on Monday, Dec. 5 at 8 PM at The Blank’s 2nd Stage Theatre at 6500 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90038. It is a female-driven play with seven roles for women, and the story is about a sexual assault cover-up. The play has had over ten readings through The Subject Project, a theatre movement to raise awareness about sexual assault issues.

"Gutless & Grateful" by Amy Oestreiche, the inspirational one-woman musical, returns to New York, February 5th and 25th. It will be playing at the Metropolitan Room.

Articles of Interest: Radical Hospitality and Anti-Consumerism
by Karin Williams

Playwright Anna Deavere Smith gave a lecture on "Radical Hospitality" at Harvard University, exploring the urgent socio-political importance of the concept in today's world.

Hedgebrook, a writer's retreat for women, offers radical hospitality to people who are used to nurturing others.

Those Women in Berkeley pracitce radical hospitality with their pay-what-you-can policy and find feminism in the most unlikely places.

Minneapolis's Mixed Blood Theatre has found a new audience by eliminating cost barriers. And they kicked off Radical Hospitality with a season of challenging work.

After the bitterness of the election season, celebrate an anti-consumerist holiday with Reverand Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir at Joe's Pub in New York City.

This Black Friday, celebrate Buy Nothing Day and escape the shopocalypse.

The Buy Nothing Project offers people a way to give and recieve, share, lend, and express gratitude through a worldwide network of hyper-local gift economies.

Yours for innovative, engaging, and equitable theater,
Mona Curtis

November 2016 Newsletter

Mona Curtis — Thu, 27 Oct 2016 03:17:30 GMT

November Spotlight: Diane Taber-Markiewica
by Eliza Wyatt

Diane Taber visited me in my living room last night, even though we live three thousand miles apart. The human voice over the landline phone is still a miracle we take for granted and yet has immense importance to me, as a playwright. It was revealing to hear her laugh, her rhythms (she’s a musician) and absorb her enthusiasms.

Diane Taber was a founding member of the International Women’s Playwrights’ Conference in Buffalo, New York, where she grew up. This accords with my experience of home turf being a good place to stand when you want to reach the rest of the world. Her family were interested in the arts and there was music at home; her father enjoyed treading the boards and was an accomplished actor. Her life was changed, however, by a performance of "A Taste of Honey" by Shelagh Delaney by a local theater group, the Studio Arena Theater of Buffalo. Swept away by the play, Diane applied for and won a scholarship to study there. I note with pleasure that the work was written by a woman about a disadvantaged girl in Northern England. It was a seminal play for many of us in the U.K., a play written when Shelagh was eighteen.

Diane was inspired by her training and that play to connect with other women in theatre and provide support. Her motto was "Never Alone Again". As Communications Director, she realized the enormous potential of the fledging organization of women playwrights, which was established the year following the first conference in Buffalo in 1988. She introduced and edited a quarterly newsletter, Seasons, whose readership grew to over 1100 women in 48 different countries.

During the nineties Diane remembered being thrilled with the opportunity to read so many scripts from women across the world who wanted their plays read and performed at the conferences. The importance of the group continued to grow and have an impact by championing women who were under threat in their own countries, notably by supporting the Bosnian Women Playwrights performance tour of 1997 and the successful international effort that secured the release of celebrated playwright, Ratna Sarumpaet of Indonesia. She feels proud that the Fourth Conference in Galway in 1997 had such an impact. Not content with the International outreach, which reached women in India, Africa, South America and Canada, Diane realized, while living in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1999 that the International Women Playwrights Conference should be appended by smaller regional U.S. conferences, beginning with Dayton, Ohio. Activism has to begin close to home.

It was with great delight that I was able to access Diane’s first play, Headwind, through the magic of YouTube. This was a reading of the hour long play set in Seventeenth Century Maine. Her play was based on much research and included an authentic sea shanty, although she tells me the romance between the two main characters was fictional.

Diane has remained a passionate support of ICWP but her music career has taken off since in 2006 she began writing her own songs. She has formed her own production company, DTM-Music and Didja Tangle the Muse Publishing. Her recent work has received international airplay and praise. And the future? Diane, like all of us, hope that theatre will continue to reach young people even if venues and equity performances prove too expensive to be experimental. Perhaps the fact that halfway across the world, I could enjoy her play on YouTube is a taste of things to come.

Welcome New Members

Kristin (K.D.) Carlson’s writing has appeared in The Asheville Poetry Review, Shark Reef Literary Magazine, Daily Serving and Writer’s Digest Magazine. Her play, “The Job Interview” was a semi-finalist in the 2012 Minnesota Shorts competition. “Eudora’s Box,” a 2010 new play pick, was produced at Thunder River Theatre Company in 2012, and her award-winning drama, “Unmarried in America,” has been produced statewide in Colorado and nationally. She is currently at work on a first novel.

Her stage plays have been selected for the Playwrights Showcase of the Western Region, the Chicago Snapshots Festival, Colorado’s CCTC Festival, and the National AACT Fest, where her drama about the impact of the Prop 8 trial, “Unmarried in America,” earned the coveted Best Ensemble Production. A screenplay version is now in development with AEC Studios.

Carlson is a Bronze Tablet graduate of the University of Illinois and holds a Master of Arts in Performance Studies from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill where she was selected as an outstanding instructor. She was awarded a Dramatists Write Change Scholarship in 2015 and serves as a Colorado teaching artist in residence.

Dramatists Guild Page Link:
https://www.dramatistsguild.com/memberdirectory/getmembership.aspx?cid=36624

Elin Hampton, USA
Most recently, Elin Hampton’s ten-minute play F4, was a national finalist at CityWrights, where it received a full production in CityWrights Summer Shorts. This past summer, her ten-minute play THINGS THAT MATTERED was produced for Studio Players’ 10-Minute Play Festival in Lexington, Kentucky and had a reading at the Samuel French Book Shop at its first Short Play Festival. Her plays have also been produced at The York Theatre, The Road Theatre Co., the Hollywood Fringe Festival, Greenway Arts Alliance, The Collective (NY), Open Eye Theatre and EST/LA’s Winterfest. AMOTHER MUSICAL (book, lyrics) is licensed by Steele Spring Stage Rights, and was produced July 2016 at the Musical Theatre Guild in Butler, PA. Other works are published in Smith & Kraus’s: Best Ten Minute Plays 2015 and in Applause Theatre Book: Contemporary

Monologues for Kids 7-15. Television credits include "Mad About You," “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” "Dream On," "Pinky and the Brain,” “Rugrats,” “The Wild Thornberries,” John Leguizamo’s House of Buggin’,” “Life’s Work,” “The Gregory Hines Show,” “Barclay’s Beat,” and “The Jackie Thomas Show.”

Representative Play Titles

The Bells of West 87th, Amother Musical

Jodie Leidecker, USA

In fourth grade, I started writing poems and by sixth grade, I'd moved on to soap operas and a school play.

I've done technical writing for industry, newsletter and press release writing for colleges and nonprofits, blogging, and essay and humor writing for the web. I've written for various humor sites and self-published a series of funny essays. I've most recently begun writing plays, several of which have been performed in theater festivals in New York City.

Everyone has a story. I love finding that story and telling it.

Representative Play Titles

John; Dr. Hoxley; There Are No Straight Lines in Nature; Stockpile; Apocalypse Fatigue

Now Playing & Coming Soon

Sandra deHelen
November 18, 7:30 p.m.
A New Daddy
My ten-minute play about a Midwestern family surviving the loss of the father in 1952 will be presented as a public reading by The Scripteasers in San Diego, California. Free and open to the public, at 3404 Hawk Street.

Nancy Gall-Clayton
November 14, 7:30 p.m.
Bernice Sizemore's 70th Birthday is the first in a series of staged readings of plays with LGBTQ themes by Louisville-area playwrights presented by Pandora Productions. Surprises arrive on Bernice's birthday including a gun and a gift certificate for a tombstone. Yoga-loving square-dancing Bernice has a few surprises of her own for her workaholic daughter and the son she hasn’t spoken to since he announced he was gay.

Jeanne Drennan’s Get out of Dodge will have its premiere production November 3-20 at the Venice Theatre, in Venice, Florida. For more information, see venicestage.c

Articles of Interest: Feminism

by Karin Williams

Women who make theater and film will benefit from a new 5 million dollar fund in NYC. The program, started by the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, will also offer women opportunities to network with financiers.

For over thirty years the Guerrilla Girls have been bringing feminist theatre to the masses.

Chicago’s visionary, female-driven Artemisia Theatre Company is currently staging Shrewish, a feminist adaptation of the bard.

Equality for Women in Irish Theatre is a grassroots movement calling for equality for women across the Irish theatre sector. #WakingTheFeminists.

Feminist theatre was alive and well at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, according to the The List.

Washington Ensemble Theatre is focusing on feminism in their 2016-17 season.

Yours for innovative, engaging, and equitable theater,

Mona Curtis

October 2016 Newsletter

Sun, 02 Oct 2016 10:37:45 GMT

Announcing the 2016 50/50 Applause Awards

For the awards’ 5th anniversary, ICWP recognized 107 recipients in ten countries on five continents. The list includes theatres in Australia, Canada, England, Italy, Kenya, the Philippines, Scotland, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United States. Approximately 32% of the theatres are repeat recipients, demonstrating gender parity in two or more seasons. Recipients range from community and college theatres to internationally renowned theatres.

To watch the video click here.

Welcome New Members

Susan Fete

Renaissance Theaterworks, USA

Facebook Page

sfete@r-t-w.com

Alice Flanders

Know Theater, USA

https://www.facebook.com/knowtheatre/

aflanders@knowtheatre.com

Charlotte Higgins

coachcharlotte@yahoo.com

Morgan Manasa, USA

mamasasss6@gmail.com

Jajube Mandiela, Canada

jajube@bcurrent.ca

www.facebook.com/jajube

Mahindokht Mohasseb, Iran

Mahindokht Mohasseb was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1947. She holds an LL.B and an LL.M
degree in Law. She is an attorney-at-law and has authored several books in her field (Genocide,
Access to Justice, Human Rights and Women). Mahin has always been interested in theater and
has published twelve plays focusing on women’s rights and issues.

mahin.mohasseb@gmail.com

Macey Mott

Riot Act, Inc.

riotactinc@earthlink.net

Elisabeth Ng

Brooklyn Repertory Theatre

brooklynrepertory@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/brooklynrepertory

Now Playing & Coming Soon

If you have a play that will be in production anywhere between November 1 – November 30, please email Amy (amydrake1018@aol.com) before October 15 and it will be featured in the NOW PLAYING column of the November newsletter. If you have a play that will be produced anytime between December 1 and December 31, it will appear in the COMING SOON column.

AMELIA LIVES by Laura Shamas is a one-woman show about Amelia Earhart. It runs Sept. 24 - October 2, 2016, produced by American History Theater, San Diego, California, at the Women's Museum of California. For more details and ticket info: http://www.americanhistorytheater.org/amelia-lives

Amy Drake’s play MODEL BEHAVIOR, a 10-minute comedy about the fashion industry, will run Oct. 7-9, 2016, at the Prescott Center for the Arts in Prescott, AZ as part of the Female Playwrights ONSTAGE project with Little Black Dress INK. Here is the link for more info: http://www.littleblackdressink.org/

Nancy Gall-Clayton’s short comedy Wallaroo, the Goldfish is included in the AlphaNYC Thalia Festival, featuring plays with female characters written by female playwrights on the B and C bills. The festival runs October 6-16, at 7 pm or 9 pm. Tickets are $30. Roebuck Studio & Theater is in Times Square, 300 W. 43rd Street between 8th and 9th Avenues, Suite 402.

Articles of Interest

The Subject Project, a theatre movement dedicated to raising awareness about sexual assault issues and protesting lenient rape sentences, launched in September with multiple readings of the new play THE SUBJECT by Carolyn Kras. Readings will continue throughout 2016-2017 at theatres and universities. Check out thesubjectproject.wordpress.com for more info or to get involved.

365 Women a Year invites women playwrights to create plays about herstorical women! Now in it’s third year, the project involves over 200 playwrights who have signed on to write one or more one-acts about extraordinary women in both past and present history.

Women in the Arts and Media Coalition offers a centralized resource for the advancement of professional women in the arts and media industries. The coalition is comprised of member organizations which combine their efforts.

The League of Professional Theatre Women seeks to promote visibility and increase opportunities for women in the Professional Theatre. With a membership of nearly 500 women representing a diversity of theatre professionals in both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors, the League welcomes actors, administrators, agents, arrangers, casting directors, choreographers, company managers, composers, critics, designers, directors, dramaturgs, educators, general managers, historians, journalists, librettists, lyricists, playwrights, press agents, producers, stage managers, and theatre technicians.

50 50 in 2020 Sponsored by Women’s Project, New Perspectives Theatre, and the League of Professional Theatre Women, the goal of 50 50 in 2020 is to achieve parity for professional women theatre artists by 2020.

The Magdalena Project is an international network of women in contemporary theatre and performance. It aims to increase awareness of women's contributions to theatre and to create the artistic and economic structures and support networks to enable women to work

Yours for innovative, engaging, and equitable theater,

Mona Curtis

Septebmer 2016 Newsletter

Mona Curtis — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 09:52:18 GMT

September Spotlight: Naijeria Toweett

Naijeria Toweett is passionate about equality and empowerment especially among minority and vulnerable populations.

She is a drama graduate from Newcastle College, UK. She has worked in the arts having held the position of an administrative assistant to Dance City, Newcastle. On returning to her native Kenya in 1997, she together with other young female artists formed Women in Participatory Educational Theatre (WEPET), Kenya’s first all women theatre company. She has held various positions in several dance and theatre organizations in Kenya among them, Institute of Performing Arts (IPAL), The Theatre Company (TTC) and Dance Into Space (DIS) where she now sits on the board.

Naijeria has also worked as a program officer for Most At Risk Populations in Liverpool VCT Care and Treatment and the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya – GALCK.

Naijeria loves digital media and for the past three years she has been the social media manager of Love Matters Africa, a project that targets young people with sexual reproductive health information. The Love Matters Facebook page is ranked in the top 25 among the most engaging Kenyan-based pages.

Naijeria has recently scripted and directed a web soap series on Love Sex and Relationships for a Love Matters mobile platform.

She has been an ICWP member since 2009.

Welcome New Members

Marjorie Conn, USA
Actor and Producer
3 plays are published in Lost Lesbian Lives

Joyce Fontana, USA
jfontana@frontier.net
Nurse Practitioner
Specialty Geriatrics, Palliative Care

THEATER/INTERESTS: Theater has been a life-long interest, from enjoying community to Broadway performances, nurturing and supporting an actor son, providing financial support to local art centers, being a crowd-funder to fledgling producers, and writing one act and full length scripts, drama and comedy. Lives, plays, works and writes in beautiful Southwest Colorado where she resides with her husband and three dogs.

PRODUCTIONS, READINGS:
23 Skidoo. Performed at the Durango Arts Center 10 Minute Play Contest, Durango CO, September, 2013

Trail Meetups, Performed at the Manhattan Short Play Lab, New York City, October, 2014

Satellite Buddha. Performed at the Secret Theater One-Act Play Contest. Queens, New York City, September 2015

Exhibitions at a Picture, Finalist, reading at Festival 56 New Works Play Writing Competition, Princeton IL July 2016

Jane Prendergast, USA
Jane has had many productions of short plays, such as "NOLA Goodbye", "The Diers" "May 10" and "After the Fire" and readings by NYU's hotINK festival, Genesius Guild and other organizations of full-length plays including "Memories are Made of This", "Act of Peace" and "Echoes: 1938"

Most of my work is connected with human rights issues such as abuses perpetrated by peacekeeping forces, prosecutorial misconduct and the convictions of the innocent.

Now Playing

Christine Emmert's play, SAY NO MORE, a re-thinking of Strindberg's THE STRONGER, will be part of the Philadelphia Fringe 2016, presented on September 15,16,17 at 7:30 in Jed Williams Gallery, 315 Bainbridge Street, Philadelphia. Tickets are $10. Call 610-917-1336 for information.

The Athena Cats present the World Premiere of Blueprint for Paradise, by Laurel Weztork. Set in Los Angeles just before the US declares war on Japan in 1941. The play explores wealth, racial tensions, Nazis, the Mothers of America, and other pre-war political groups.

PLAYING AT: Hudson Theatre Mainstage, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90038
July 30 – September 4: Fridays and Saturdays @ 8:00 pm, Sundays @ 3:00 pm
Tickets: https://www.plays411.net/newsite/show/play_info.asp?show_id=4458
Check Goldstar for last-minute and discounts.

Coming Soon

MODEL BEHAVIOR, a ten-minute play by Amy Drake, will be performed in the Little Black Dress INK's Women Playwrights ONSTAGE theater festival, Oct 6-8, 2016, at the Prescott Center for the Arts, Prescott, AZ. More information may be obtain on the website: http://www.littleblackdressink.org/ and Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/LittleBlackDressINK

Articles of Interest

Project Ariadne is planning a pan-African festival of women’s theatre in Rwanda. The company was founded to tell the stories of women in conflict zones around the world whose work is changing the society they live in.

African women are making history in 2016! Read about some extraordinary women artists and their groundbreaking projects at okayafrica.

South Africa’s Olive Tree Theatre will be hosting it’s 5th The Women's Theatre Festival from 21- 30 October 2016. The festival gives women directors a platform to showcase their work.

Parity Productions is a new theatre company dedicated to equality for women and transgender theatre artists. Besides producing and promoting new work, they host a database of women and transgender writers, directors, and designers, and also commission two new plays a year.

Will writers ever be replaced by artificial intelligence? Take a look at this short film written by an AI, and judge for yourself!

August 2016 Newsletter

Mona Curtis — Mon, 25 Jul 2016 23:53:23 GMT

August Spotlight: Naomi Westerman

Begun as group of women who were frustrated by being a women in the theatre industry and united by a shared passion for theatre, Shakespeare, and feminism, Naomi and a small group of women started Little But Fierce in 2013. Rather than doing straight Shakespeare productions, they have created a mixture of Shakespeare adaptations and Shakespeare-inspired new work.

In 2013 I set up the all-female theatre company, Little but Fierce. This is how.

My theatre company started, like many of my successes, by accident. I was frustrated with the challenges of being a woman in the theatre industry, and knew many women who shared these frustrations. I started to arrange regular get-togethers where we could talk, debate, workshop, learn, play and develop work in a no-stress women-only environment. Through these sessions, a core group developed, bonded by a shared passion for theatre, Shakespeare, and feminism. I was, at the same time, doing regular improv with several of my female friends, and we had been debating setting up some kind of more formal all-female theatre group. In summer 2013, I officially co-founded and became artistic director of a new all-female theatre company. I knew I wanted a Shakespearean name, and “Little but Fierce” seemed the obvious choice. Being rather short myself (and definitely fierce), I have always felt a kinship with Hermia!

Our goal was to create female-led theatre to not only create work for women, but to prove that female theatre can be funny and mainstream and commercially successful. Our policy is to cast roles race-blind and ability status-blind, and we try to be as diverse as possible. We work not just with female actors, but also with female directors, producers, and other backstage crew, as it is women in the latter category who are the most marginalized, even in the current debate about gender equality in theatre.

We decided that, rather than doing straight Shakespeare productions, we would create an mixture of Shakespeare adaptations and Shakespeare-inspired new work (though as thecompany evolved we have gone on to stage more new writing).

Our first production was in December of that year, an adaptation of A Christmas Carol with Shakespearean characters (Juliet, Lady Macbeth, and a skull-toting Hamlet) taking the place of the ghosts; this was staged at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Christmas Stage Festival. The RSC's support and having their name on our CV opened many doors and was a wonderful debut.

Our next project, a series of dialogues between Shakespearean characters and contemporary new characters, was shortlisted at the Bush Theatre. Since then, we have produced work at the New Wolsey Theatre, Richmond, the Cockpit Theatre, Theatre N16, and even a showcase in the West End!

We are currently planning productions of Much Ado About Nothing (set in a faded regional theatre company in the 1950s) and Measure for Measure (set in the American Bible Belt), alongside more new writing, and an interactive theatre-in-education project aimed at secondary school students called: Choose Your Own Adventure Shakespeare.

The only advice I could give women thinking of setting up their own companies is: Do it. Don't worry about what might go wrong, because things will go wrong. Make mistakes. Learn. Fail better. And make sure you've got really good friends to support you.

Contact info:

http://www.naomiwesterman.com
http://www.spotlight.com/interactive/cv/1/F89661.html
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1120017/

Welcome New Members

Leah Joki, Made in Montana Press, USA

Sharon Lamb, UK
Psychologist, Psychology Professor, Playwright
I am a psychologist and psychology professor who has begun to write plays. I studied playwriting in London and I have a feminist dystopian play ready to go with really solid parts for 4 women! YAY.

Jodie Leidecker, USA
Everyone has a story. I love finding that story and telling it.

In fourth grade, I started writing poems and by sixth grade, I'd moved on to soap operas and a school play.  I've done technical writing for industry, newsletter and press release writing for colleges and nonprofits, blogging, and essay and humor writing for the web. I've written for various humor sites and self-published a series of funny essays. I've most recently begun writing plays, several of which have been performed in theater festivals in New York City. Everyone has a story. I love finding that story and telling it.

Representative Plays: John; Dr. Hoxley; There Are No Straight Lines in Nature; Stockpile; Apocalypse Fatigue

Bridgette Pope

Laura Toffler
Playwright, children’s book author, professor of writing.

Laura Toffler is a playwright, children’s book author and professor of writing. Her most recent play, ‘The Latin Beat,’ was a semi finalist in Manhattan Repertory Theatre’s 2016 one act play competition. Laura’s play for children, ‘A Boy Named Nars,’ was published in Story Works Magazine (Scholastic), and she’s had a variety of work produced in and around New York. In addition, Laura is the author of the young adult novels, The Life and Opinions of Amy Finawitz and My Totally Awkward Supernatural Crush, published by MacMillan. Having earned an MFA in dramatic writing from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, she teaches ‘Writing for Children and Teens’ at Pace University and Westchester Community College.

Now Playing and Coming Soon
In response to your comments on the survey, as of September our newsletter will have a new column, NOW PLAYING & COMING SOON to promote our members’ productions worldwide. If you have a play that will be in production anywhere between September 1 – September 30, please respond to Amy Drake (amydrake1018@aol.com) before August 15 and it will be featured in the NOW PLAYING column of the September newsletter. If you have a play that will b
e produced anytime between October 1 and October 31, likewise email Amy and it will appear in the COMING SOON column.

Articles of Interest
The Kilroys are a group of LA playwrights and producers who are taking action to achieve gender parity in theater. Every year, they survey the industry and publish a list of excellent unproduced new plays by female and trans playwrights.

Chicago’s Gift Theatre debuts a season of new work by women playwrights, featuring plays by Mona Mansour, Claire Kiechel and Janine Nabers.

LAFPI is taking a stand against sexism in Los Angeles theatre. If you’re a woman playwright in the LA area, LAFPI wants to promote your work and help you connect with other artists.

Women will make their voices heard in the Stratford Festival’s 2017 season. Women will direct eight out of the festival’s 14 productions, and the Studio Theatre will present work by three generation of female playwrights.

A study by the British Theatre Consortium and the Society of London Theatre shows female playwrights struggle to break through a “glass ceiling.” Plays by women were staged in smaller theaters, had shorter runs, and lower ticket prices.

June 2016 Newsletter

Mona Curtis — Sun, 19 Jun 2016 09:41:56 GMT

Work on the 50/50 Applause Award has shed light on that fact that there are many theaters around the globe whose mission is to produce only plays written by women playwrights. Read about two of them.

June Spotlight: Barbara Lhota
by Suzanne Richardson

Barbara tells her story of evolution from acress to playwright, embracing her sexual orientation, and plans for the future.

Barbara Lhota is a playwright and screenwriter from Detroit, MI. Currently living and working in Chicago, Barbara received her degree from Wayne State University studying acting and then going on to study at Brandeis to pursue Dramatic Writing. She was a winner of Babes With Blades' 2nd annual playwriting competition Joining Sword and Pen for her play Los Desaparecidos (The Vanished). Among many other accolades, her play Echo was a semi-finalist for the 2013 Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, as well as for the American Firehouse Theatre, and The Athena Project in Denver. Her latest show, 180 Degrees, was co-written with Margaret (M.E.H.) Lewis and finished its run in Chicago this past May. Today, she continues to write for stage and screen, and is an Associate Member Artist at the Babes with Blades Theatre Company in Chicago.

When did you start playwriting?

When I was at Wayne State University in Detroit, I was an acting major. I had a dream to be an actress but found that I lived too much in my head. I wasn’t yet out as a lesbian, and so I was a bit uncomfortable physically too. I believe when you have secrets about yourself or are holding back, I think that makes you less open as an actress or artist in general. Story writing and telling is generally revealing, so you have to be free to be yourself, with flaws showing.

I remember thinking in undergrad that the actresses were always short-changed on roles. In classics there are about three times as many male vs. female roles, and almost all the plays we were doing were written by men. Meanwhile, there were about twice as many actresses in the theater department vs actors. One of my best friends and roommate at the time, Barbara Kanady, encouraged me to write a play. That year, 1987, I started writing my first play in a coffee shop between classes. It had three women and one man. We produced it that year in one of Wayne State’s black box. My roommate directed it and my professors were quite impressed.

I did get into University Resident Theatre Auditions (URTAs) and ended up having a scholarship to be an acting major for grad school but decided not to go. Instead I ended up with a scholarship to Brandeis for dramatic writing the year after graduation. Longer story but Theresa Rebeck, who was in Brandeis’ PhD program at the time, played a large part in my deciding to go to Brandeis.

When you write, do you focus on developing characters first, or the plot?

Through the years, I have done both. When I was younger, I frequently focused on a leading character first. I was drawn into quirky characters and those I found challenging from my life. I used to struggle with plot, and now, I often hear that my plots are intricate. Certainly, my play, 180 Degree Rule, which was co-written with M.E.H. Lewis, was plot heavy. But despite that, I felt like we knew every aspect of the characters too. Both are so important and they can help feed each other.

I feel like now I start with ideas rather than characters and plot. For instance, I’m working on a play called 85 Billion Neurons to Forever. I was having dinner with a friend and she asked me how I wanted to be buried. I told her that I wish those who were dead could have their brains uploaded so we could ask their advice. I started to research transhumanism and cyborgs out of fascination. It got me thinking about what it means to be human. I started to develop the play using that idea as a question to explore.

When Margaret (M.E.H. Lewis) and I started to develop 180 Degree Rule, we were talking about how famous women artists were frequently dismissed over time. We started chatting about Dorothy Arzner, a film director from the 20s-40s, who was largely unknown. She invented the boom mic for God’s sake and managed to survive the studio system. In her films, she regularly slipped in feminist themes and lesbian overtones, which I consider pretty forward-thinking and daring. 180 Degree Rule was inspired by her and other forgotten female directors of the 30s because we started to ask questions about the struggles they faced – the life they must have or could have lived. It inspired us to fill in the blanks.

How did you learn about ICWP?

I joined a long, long time ago – in the 90s. I found the Listserv first because I had just graduated and I felt alone as a writer…it’s a lonely craft. I know I wanted to listen to other playwrights’ struggles and successes, particularly female playwrights. It also listed opportunities for women. I believe one of the leading members of ICWP at the time – maybe - Linda Eisenstein, was writing an article or quoted in an article so I went and found the site.

What is your writing process like? Do you have any rituals?

My process is different for every play. I don’t want to impose too many rules or rituals. The process is like cooking for me. I don’t tend to strictly follow a recipe. I throw in what I need at the time…I see I need more research in a moment. I do the research. I see I need a bit more understanding of the backstory. I take some time to free write about a character’s backstory. This way I stay open to possibilities. I don’t impose too many rules and obligations. It stays spontaneous and fun.

Some plays flow out pretty easily and others seem to require a lot of outlining, research, wrestling and tears. I don’t know that those that came out easier are better. The couple of things I always try to do now are 1) outline what the main character wants to have happen and what are the major obstacles, (What does the audience want to see happen?/What are we waiting for?) 2) outline first scene, act one ending or mid-way climax, and ending, 3) know in chronological order the full relationship and major events that happened between the main/pivotal characters (even if those events are never shown on stage), 4) What question am I exploring?

I also always mouth all the lines as I’m writing or re-reading my work. I play all the parts. This is why I no longer work in coffee shops. I look a bit nutzo.

Do you often work in tandem with a theatre company, or seek out a theatre after you have written a show?

I work a lot with Babes With Blades Theatre Company (BWBTC) in Chicago, where I am an associate member artist. The mission of BWBTC resonates with me. BWBTC is also a company of highly-collaborative, supportive, responsive, clever, resilient women. I tend to naturally write plays where female characters are active and the primary focus. I’m quite fond of male characters as well and like them to be uniquely placed in roles that tend to be more gentle and supportive. Because I’ve always lived in cities and grew up in Detroit during a highly turbulent time in history, violence has been part of my life experience. I think I am drawn to explore the effects of violence, which is very in-line with Babes’ mission.

I definitely match my plays to appropriate theatres and their mission. I think you have to focus on that as you try to step into the role of marketing your play. For Warped, for instance, I definitely targeted Stage Left Theatre in Chicago. I knew that play would provoke debate because it was inspired by a debate/discussion between friends. When I finish the full-length version of 85 Billion Neurons to Forever, I will definitely seek out OtherWorld Theatre Company since their mission is science fiction.

Where do you pull most of your inspiration from when creating characters?

My family and friends. I have extremely unique individuals in my life. I draw from those around me.

Do you have a favorite genre you like to write? (Comedy, drama, fantasy, etc.)

Drama mostly with a lot of comedy laced throughout. My experience in life is that somebody always cracks a joke in the middle of the most tragic circumstances. I like drama but if the play has no humor, I find that unreal.

What would you say was your most rewarding moment as a playwright or writer in general?

There are so many rewarding moments and most heart-warming moments are not about awards or fabulous reviews. What I love is that moment alone when I’m working on a particular difficult moment in a play (the part where I’m stuck or unsure) and the answer just presents itself. It’s like God or the story is talking to you. There’s so much reward in that. When I was working with Margaret (M.E.H. Lewis) I loved that because it happened a number of times when we were outlining together and we got to share that kismet moment together.

My other biggest reward in playwriting is when the director and actors get all excited about some moment in the play that was a bit of a struggle to figure out. They not only figure out how to do it, but do it better and with more gusto than I could have imagined. I love the creative process and the collaboration most of all.

What advice would you give to a young woman just starting out as a playwright?

Work on the basics: scene work with conflict and surprise, action, distinguishing character voices. Volunteer to be a script reader for a theater. If you can intern at a bigger theater company, even better, but do it where you can read a lot of scripts. It gives you a lot of insight. Read and workshop your plays, even if that’s in your living room with actors you know. Listen to feedback that is repeated by multiple people and from those you trust. Write a lot – as much as you can. Send plays that are ready out. 100 a year to try to get any response. Treat your fellow artists (directors, actors, designer) with respect and love. When you are discouraged, read the many stories of famous writers’ woes. There are many of them out there on the interwebs…find them. You are not alone.

Welcome New Members

Mayura Baweja has been working in the theatre as an actor, writer and director for more than a decade. Her first full length play Paper Thin was part of a staged reading last year in Singapore. Passionate about finding and making spaces for women's voices in theatre, she is thrilled to be part of this writing community. She currently resides in Bangalore.

Susan Miller, USA

Articles of Interest

by Patricia Morin

Carol Lashof, a longtime ICWP member, launched Those Women Productions along with Libby Vega in 2014. Their amazing journey began in the metal shop of a school, and grew into producing women's plays at Live Oak Theatre, Berkeley, CA. They were also voted the best new theatre of 2015.

How the company began:

I pitched a production of my play "Just Deserts" (the Oresteia from the pov of the Furies) as a co-curricular event to the Seminar program at St Mary's College. I told SMC we were doing a production in Berkeley and could bring it to the College. In fact, we had no plans to do the play at all and no infrastructure. SMC said yes and we scrambled to figure out what the hell we were doing. An anonymous donor emerged out of thin air (so it seemed to me) and I opened a checking account in the name of Those Women Productions. (See Those Women’s website www.thosewomenproductions.com or/and www.facebook.com/CarolSLashofPlaywright/)

Those Women Productions is a professional theater company with deep roots in the Berkeley community. Libby Vega and I met at the Berkeley Public Library and were drawn together by our shared loves of classic literature and feminism. We did not see a local theater company where those passions were integral, so we formed Those Women Productions to shake up the patriarchy while telling great stories with broad appeal. Our inaugural production in 2014 was the world premiere of my play, “Just Deserts”, a darkly comic retelling of the origin myth of the jury system told from the perspective of the avenging furies. It was performed at The Metal Shop Theater, where we began, at Willard Middle School. In 2015, Those Women Productions mounted two full productions. They returned to The Metal Shop Theater to stage “In Plain Sight”. This show offered new takes on old tales from diverse world cultures and featured the work of five Bay Area playwrights, all women. The San Jose Mercury News described it as “…a provocative mix of voices and perspectives.” The Express also named Those Women Productions the “Best Year-Old Theater Company” of 2015. The Dramatist Guild lauded Those Women for joining the fight for gender parity, “turn(ing) patriarchy on its ear.”

Mission:

Those Women Productions is an adventurous theater company dedicated to exploring hidden truths of gender and power. The company aims to bring marginalized voices to the center of the stage, to ask bold questions and instigate conversation. Because conversations are more exciting with diverse participants, they practice Radical Hospitality: everyone is invited to the theater regardless of ability to pay.

About Carol and her Work:

Carol’s plays have been broadcast on BET and NPR and staged on five continents—from the Magic Theatre and Piano Fight in San Francisco to Peking University and the University of Guam. Her publications include several scripts for teens available from Youth PLAYS, as well as work in numerous anthologies. She holds a PhD from Stanford University and is Professor Emerita at Saint Mary’s College of California. Carol’s been a member of ICWP without interruption since 2011. “But very long ago,” Carol said, “and possibly in the early 1990s when her children were young and listservs were a totally new cool thing, I was on the listserv. I can't remember how I first heard about ICWP or came to join it, perhaps through the Dramatists Guild - I've been a DG member since 1981. Anyway, I couldn't keep up and was shoving my playwriting "career" to the way-back burner, so I dropped off the list.”

Trials and Tribulations of Beginning Your Own Theatre Company:
Affordable, accessible, and available performance space is extremely difficult to find in the Bay Area. Our next show, Margaret of Anjou, will be shown at Live Oak Theatre in Berkeley, CA., a new venue, another step forward.

Trying to figure out all the various media necessary for promotional tasks.

Making time for everything that needs to be done probably is the number one issue.

Fears:
The potential for very public failure and consequent humiliation is terrifying.

Asking people for money is also terrifying and requires overcoming shame.
Ditto self-promotion.
As a producer, there is always more to do. It's like a game of Whack-a-Mole.

Advice:
Don't be afraid to ask for help!

Yours for innovative, engaging, and equitable theater,

Mona Curtis

May 2016 Newsletter: All-Women Theaters

Mona Curtis — Sat, 23 Apr 2016 23:15:06 GMT

Work on the 50/50 Applause Award has made us aware of the many all women theaters around the globe As such, they do not qualify for the 50/50 award. But they do important work in in promoting women playwrights and ICWP would like to recognize and honor them in this newsletter.

May Spotlight: The New Georges Theater

by Suzanne Richardson

The New Georges is a New York based theater founded in 1992by Susan Bernfield, Greer Goodman, and Colleen McQuade. This non-profit companyproduces and nurtures theatrically adventurous female artists. It has grown toproduce 43 premieres of new American plays, had 21 new plays commissioned (18of which were also produced), and attracted 175 affiliated artists, including playwrights, directors, actors, and designers. I spoke with Susan about New Georges and her experience working at this outstanding company for women.

Welcome New Members

AJ Baker, USA

3 Girls Theatre Company

Susan Horowitz, USA

DRSUE

Susan “Dr. Sue” Horowitz, Ph.D., Creator of “SssWitch! - A Bewitching Musical” is a Writer of Award-Winning Musicals, Comedies, Songs, Plays, Poetry, and Books. Her works include: 2015 National Winner Youth Comedy (Judy Maccabee); First Prize Hunter Playwrights (Angelface); First Prize Children’s Play Contest (The Golden Heart); Book (Queens of Comedy: interviews with legendary comediennes), Children’s Book of the Month Club (Read With Me), Cine Golden Eagle - Original Screenplay for Animated Film, CD of original songs (Keys of Love), Poetry Book (I Am Loved) Performance Awards for Acting/Singing. Education: University of Chicago, Yale Drama School, Ph.D. CUNY Graduate Center/Hunter. Training: Second City Improvisation, BMI Musical Theatre Workshop, Songwriters Guild, Summersongs, Private Music Lessons. Memberships: Dramatists Guild, Theater Resources Unlimited (T.R.U.), Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs (MAC), Musical Writers Meeting, Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI), WomenArts. “SssWitch! – A Bewitching Musical” is fiscally sponsored by TRU for tax-deductible contributions.

Kate Perry, UK
Kate Perry is from Co. Tyrone and began her career as a writer/performer in San Francisco with her one-woman show My Name is Kate Perry and I've been Drinking. Her solo performance in No Mate for the Magpie (an adaptation of the novel of the same name) premiered in the U.S. and later toured throughout Ireland to critical acclaim. Her short film Mañana premiered at the Galway Film Festival and was broadcast in Ireland on RTE. Her short film Ruthless was shortlisted for funding from Kildare Co. Council earlier this year.

Currently living in London, Perry performed her one-woman show Shh! It’s the Very Perry Show at the Royal Academy for Dramatic Arts and the 2015 Edinburgh Festival Fringe where critics awarded her 4 stars.

“Perry is a major talent, and she brings her skills in full force in this hilarious and sometimes bitter-sweet hour.” Adam Wilson, Edinburgh Festival Magazine.

Kate Perry is a fine actress, Max Stafford-Clark
Besides performing and writing her own material Kate has appeared in numerous stage productions, film and television. She has written for Woman’s Hour, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 4 Extra and RTE Radio 1. Tamsin Greig (Episodes) Doreen Keogh (The Royale Family) and Conleth Hill (double Olivier award winner, Game of Thrones) have performed Kate’s work. She graduated with distinction from Trinity College, Dublin with an MPhil in creative writing and holds a Masters Degree in Screenwriting from the Institute of Art Design and Technology, Dun Laoghaire.

Janet Preus, USA
Janet Preus has spent part of her life as a journalist and the rest of it directing and teaching theater until she started writing, primarily for musical theater. She was a New Tuners workshop member under John Sparks at Theatre Building Chicago, where she co-developed a show that was accepted into the Stages Festival. She has written for Church Musicals Inc., Nashville, won national songwriting awards and state awards in both print and broadcast journalism, and is the recipient of artist grants from the McKnight and Jerome Foundations. She has been reviewing Twin Cities (Minnesota) theater for howwastheshow.com for several years and recently co-founded the New Musical Theatre Exchange workshop and production company. Welcome to Hell, her first full-length non-musical play, received recognition as a one-act in its first competition. With a play in production last summer (Hank & Jesus) and co-production of a musical (Snip, Snap, Snute) in negotiation for 2016-17, she has renewed hope for success before her children put her in a retirement facility.

50/50 Applause Award

There is still time to nominate for the the fifth annual50/50 Applause Award, which celebrates theatres which achieved gender parity among their produced playwrights in a given theatre season. You have until May 20 to nominate theatres which meet the criteria for the award. Artistic directors and theatre employees may self-nominate.produced playwrights in a given theatre season. You are encouraged to nominate any theatre which meets the criteria for the award, and artistic directors and theatre employees may self-nominate. Please share this information with your theatre friends around the world! Eligibility requirements for the award and our video on gender parity from ICWP member/Dramatists Guild board member Christine Toy Johnson are available at http://www.womenplaywrights.org/award

The 2015/16 Season awards will be announced in September 2016.

For more information about the award and previous recipients, go to http://www.womenplaywrights.org/50/50-Awards-History

ICWP News

It has been a particularly busy season for the ICWP board. Not only did we have our quarterly board meeting, but we also held our general-membership meeting and yearly elections. We welcomed new board members and officers.

Board members and officers for 2016-2017

Sophia Romma— President
New York, New York, USA

Patricia L. Morin—Vice President
California, USA

Sharon Wallace—Secretary
Detroit, Michigan, USA

Rita Kniess Barkey— Treasurer
Montana, USA

Mona Curtis
Xinzheng City, Henan Province, People’s Republic of China

Amy Drake
Columbus, Ohio, USA

Lucia Verona
Bucharest, Romania

Karin Diann Williams
Jersey City, New Jersey, USA

Eliza Wyatt
Brighton, UK

Through the board and general membership meetings, we have formulated potential plans and projects for the future. But your opinions are important to us, and we would like your input. We would appreciate if you would take a few minutes to complete this survey.

http://goo.gl/forms/IyUsFO1ILN

It would greatly assist us with our future endeavors to provide you with programs that help fit your playwriting needs.

ICWP Benefits

ICWP board is conducting a survey in order to maximize our services to the ICWP membership. Our present services include:

The listserv—helps introduce us to each other, share opportunities, as well as present a forum for lively discussion on controversial issues: “The Count”—the low number of women in the theatre community; fees charged for submission of plays to theatres; how certain women’s roles are viewed by the audience, to name a few. Click to go to the listserve.

Information services—provides data on artists rights; samples for playwright contracts; “how to” documents (organize an event, publish and sell work, writing a good playwright resume, sample royalty statements), and more. Click to go to information services.

Professional Development—researches artists rights organizations, grant resources, frequently asked playwright questions, and The Theatre Research Institute (Dr. Alan Woods). Click to go to professional development.

Script Feedback—encourages members to share ten pages of their work with a small group of readers for feedback, coordinated by Nina Gooch.Click to go to script feedback.

Publications—published books through ICWP of plays for playwrights and actors. Click to go to publications.

Fifty-fifty awards—promotes recognition of theatres throughout the world that produce women plays fifty percent of the their season. Clcik to go to 50/50 awards.

Finally, the ICWP monthly newsletter—spotlights members of ICWP, introduces new members, and introduces articles on current events and discussions. Click to go to full version of the newsletter on the website

February 2016 Newsletter: Just Say No To Submission Fees

Mona Curtis — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 23:12:54 GMT

February Spotlight: Felicity McCall

by Suzanne Richardson

Felicity McCall was a career journalist who covered the Ireland conflict for BBC, now a fulltime writer, theatre producer, arts facilitator and occasional actor based in Derry and Donegal in Ireland. She is a founding member of Derry Writers and, most recently, Derry Literary Ladies. She is also the Ireland officer for the miscarriage of justice lobby group, Portia, and a cathaoirleach of the Irish Executive of the National Union of Journalists.

Felicity has received 2 Meyer Whitworth nominations, the Tyrone Guthhrie Award, 2 IPSG nominations, 3 Arts council awards, as well as Best Heritage Project from the Big Lottery for We Were Brothers, a cross community WW1 project in 2011, and in 2013 the all-Ireland Epic award for Every Bottle has a Story to Tell. Her portfolio includes over twenty published titles including nonfiction and young adult books, twelve plays for the professional stage, and four screenplay credits.

Also see http://www.walkingthefeminists.org

Q: When did you start playwrighting?
A: I have been writing all my life; I remember contributing to a version of Cinderella in Primary School and teaming up with a friend to write and perform sketches in my teens- we're working on a 1916 project together this year, for the first time in decades, which is lovely

Q: When you write, do you focus on developing characters first, or the plot?
A: In fiction, the characters always come first and once they come alive for me, the plot writes itself; with historically accurate writing, the research material defines both.

Q: What is your writing process like? Do you have any rituals?
A: I love the research process and will quite happily immerse myself in this for long periods; it never fails to be fascinating. The writing begins in my head and one day makes its way onto the screen in an extended, stream of consciousness, very rough draft then I'm fairly disciplined about the rewriting. Deadlines work for me, even self-imposed ones; I'm a journalist at heart. No real rituals except I know I must be difficult to be around as the writing takes over and while I'm writing there's a reluctance to return from the world I've created to everyday life.

Q: Where do you pull most of your inspiration from when creating characters?
A: With fact based drama the characters will be researched from as wide a range of sources as possible- letters are a great resource- and additional characters are often a composite of a number of different experiences, so they're emotionally honest. Otherwise, from constant observation of the drama that is everyday life; my notebooks are full of scraps of information, snatches of dialogue, anything idiosyncratic that appeals to my sense of the quirky. And I always sleep with a notebook beside the bed. Never underestimate the power of the subconscious!

Q: Do you have a favorite genre you like to write? (Comedy, drama, fantasy, etc.)
A: I love having a couple of contrasting projects on the go so that when I reach a stalemate with one I can step away from it and return with a more objective perspective; one fiction/ one nonfiction is always a good balance as on the days when creativity has fled, there's the research to work on. Favourite genre? Anything people centered and driven, and social issues; I'd aspire to have some of my work categorized as that of an artist activist as the arts are such a powerful tool for change and for giving a voice to the voiceless. Comedy must be the most challenging as humour is so individual- who dares to claim to be funny?

Q: What would you say was your most rewarding moment as a playwright or writer in general?
A: As a writer, the magical moment when an actor who 'gets' the character is on stage and it's exactly how the character has been sounding in my head. I'll never forget being in the audience at the opening of a play I produced with Derry's Street Drinking Community, Every Bottle Has a Story to Tell; effectively I was a conduit for a very marginalized, determined, committed group of writers and actors. Every performance played to a full house and standing ovation and it was humbling to be part of such a ground breaking and empowering piece of drama that went on to win major awards.
But the real joy was in their faces at the curtain call and the audience interaction afterwards- it was so emotional.

Q: What advice would you give women wanting to become Playwrights?
A: Do it. Now. Tell your own story. Accept that everyone gets rejections. Don't wait for a commission. Form your own theatre group and perform anywhere- community halls, pubs, cafes, the street, a church; it's all good experience. Make sure to build a reputation for professionalism. Network like crazy. Find the best writers group for you to give and receive constructive criticism and support. I've always found those at the top of their profession have nothing but support to offer aspiring and emerging writers; any back biting comes from those insecure in their own writing practice. And always believe your best work has yet to be written- so keep learning.

Welcome New Members

Kristin Jones – USA
Kristin Jones received her BFA in Acting from UC Santa Barbara and an MA in Playwriting from UCLA.

Sam Kumpe - United States
I've just written my first play and I'm addicted.

Evelyn Jean Pine – USA
Evelyn Jean Pine writes plays about the moment when you feel your life is brand new -- whether it is or not.
Representative Play Titles: The Secrets of the World, First, Astonishment, Walking the Starry Path

Sharon Studer – UK
Particular interest is serious drama; have had semi-staged reading of a 10 minute play and a professional production of a full length play.

ICWP Initiatives

Upcoming Annual Meeting
ICWP is a very special group. It is an international organization that exists only on-line and is staffed almost exclusively by volunteers. I hope you participate in the Annual Meeting which which takes place online in March. All members will receive an email about how to participate.

50/50 Applause Award
ICWP is gearing up for the next 50/50 Award which is now in its fifth year and is becoming one of our signature initiatives.

Articles of Interest
by Patricia Morin

More and more magazines and literary journals, as well as theatres, are asking for fees. I've been following this, not only with my mystery writing organizations, but now with playwrights.

JUST SAY NO PAYING FOR SUBMISSIONS

“Why Writers are Paying to get Published”
The Atlantic Magazine
October, 2015
By
Joy Lanzerdorfer

Note from Patricia: Since all writers, no matter what their genre are being met with the same problems, I have added playwrights in parenthesis. The article does not do this.

It’s fall, the time of year when literary journals open their doors for new submissions. Around the country, writers are polishing poems, short stories, and essays (and plays) in hopes of getting published in those small-but-competitive journals devoted to good writing (and theatres devoted to good plays). Though I’ve published short stories in the past, I’m not submitting any this year, and if things continue the way they have been, I may stop writing them altogether. The reason, in a nutshell, is reading fees—also called submission or service fees—which many literary journals (and now theatres) charge those who want to be considered for publication. Writers pay a fee that usually ranges from $2 to $5—but sometimes goes as high as $25—and in return, the journal will either (most likely) reject or accept their submission and publish it. Even in the lucky case that a piece is published (produced), most journals don’t pay writers (including playwrights) for their work, making it a net loss either way.

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/10/why-writers-are-paying-to-get-published/411274/

AUTHORS CALL TO ACTION
Authors call for boycott on non-paying festivals
Published January 15, 2016
by
Benedicte Page

Prominent writers including Linda Grant, Denise Mina, Joanne Harris and Francesca Simon have responded to Philip Pullman's protest over the Oxford Literary Festival's failure to pay author fees by joining a call for publishers and fellow authors to boycott events with the same policy.

Pullman, who is president of the Society of Authors, has stepped down from his role as patron of the festival, saying it is a case of "simple justice" that authors should be paid for their appearances.

Now novelist and critic Amanda Craig has written an open letter to The Bookseller calling for all authors and publishers to boycott literary festivals that expect authors to work without a fee. "For too long, authors have been persuaded to give our services to the public for free - even though the public is paying in good faith to see us," she wrote. "We are the only people in festivals who are not paid, and yet without us the festivals could not exist. Writing is a vocation but it is also a profession, and it is time we all stiffened our spines, dug in our heels and said No."

Craig's letter has attracted immediate support from many other authors, with Linda Grant, Louisa Young, Denise Mina, Francis Wheen, Joanne Harris and Francesca Simon among those who have put their names to it. (Full letter below)

The fact that many literary festivals do not remunerate authors for appearances has been a long-running grievance among writers, with the Society of Authors currently campaigning on the issue and "working with them [festivals] to agree reasonable fees and best practice guidelines", as chief executive Nicola Solomon told The Bookseller earlier this month.
Novelist Robert Harris yesterday tweeted a response to Pullman's comments on his resignation, saying "So true! A few (insane) punters paid £50 for a front-row seat at my last event. I was given a mug, appropriately."

If you're a writer and want to add your signature to the petition, leave a comment on this piece.

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/authors-call-boycott-non-paying-festivals-320338

Letter to The Bookseller:

Sir/ Madam,

Further to Philip Pullman's resignation from the Oxford Literary Festival, we would like to call for all authors and publishers to boycott literary festivals that expect authors to work for free. For too long, authors have been persuaded to give our services to the public for free - even though the public is paying in good faith to see us. We are the only people in festivals who are not paid, and yet without us the festivals could not exist. Writing is a vocation but it is also a profession, and it is time we all stiffened our spines, dug in our heels, and said No.

Should you wish to protest personally, to a theatre or contest asking for submission fees, a similar letter template used by ICWP members, written by Carolyn Gage regarding playwrights is available to download at the foot of the Members Area of the website.

Yours for innovative, engaging, and equitable theater,

Mona Curtis
Newsletter Editor

January 2016 Newsletter

Mona Curtis — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 00:43:12 GMT

This month's issue is on the topic of volunteerism and features outgoing ICWP Treasurer Suzanne Rakow and the woman who has graciously offered to take her place, playwright Rita Barkey.

January Spotlight: Suzanne Rakow

by Suzanne Richardson

Suzanne Rakow's serving eight years as ICWP treasurer was significant in itself. I was especially intrigued when I found out that she is not even a playwright, just an avid reader and supporter of women playwrights. It got me thinking about volunteerism and why many women, including myself ,volunteer.

Welcome New Treasurer: Rita Barkey

Q: Congratulations on becoming ICWP's new treasurer! What are you most looking forward to taking over this role?

A: Carrying on the fine work that Suzanne Rakow did before me.

Q: How did you learn about ICWP? What inspired you to volunteer?

A: It was pure serendipity. Paddy Gillard-Bentley (Flush Ink Productions) put out a call for scripts, and when I read that she loved to see ICWP membership on resumes, I checked out the ICWP website. I may not have submitted a script that day--but I did become a Sister/Mister! In 2013, I became an active member when volunteers were sought to help research theaters for the 50/50 Applause Awards. I can read German, so I thought that might be useful.

Q: What would you say was your most rewarding moment volunteering for ICWP?

A: Watching the 50/50 Applause Awards video and knowing that I participated in the research that helped make it happen.

Q: Do you volunteer anywhere outside of ICWP? How do you feel volunteering has impacted your work, if at all?

A: I currently volunteer at the local food bank. I’m not sure if volunteering has impacted my work directly, but it helps keeps me connected to the world.

Q: When did you become a playwright?

A: I started writing plays in my 20s. I’d taken poetry workshops as an undergraduate, but because my poems were dialogue driven, I suspected I might be a dramatist at heart. When my plays began to be produced at the Bloomington Playwrights Project (an Indiana nonprofit dedicated to new plays), I knew I’d found an artistic home. I started to volunteer behind the scenes because I believed in its mission, and eventually I became the literary manager as well as its treasurer. Years later, when the ICWP Board sought a new treasurer, I knew I had experience to offer.

Q: What is your writing process like? Do you have any rituals?

A: No rituals to speak of beyond a mug of coffee and “bum glue.” My plays usually begin with a vision of a scene, and the questions follow: Who are these people? What are they doing? And why? Then I write a LOT of drafts. Recently I’ve been writing some historical plays in connection with 365 Women A Year: A Playwriting Project, so I’ve had my share of researching to do as well.

Q: What advice would you give to a young woman just starting out as a playwright?

A: Go to the theater. Read plays. And get involved. I’m not an extrovert, but theater is at its heart a communal act. It requires reaching out. For example, when I moved to Montana, I signed up for The Missoula Colony--a two-week conference dedicated to the craft of plays. When I met the other writers, I found out that they, too, were wondering if we could workshop year round. And so the Zoola Playwrights collective was born. Why not? Let’s just do it. That’s at the heart of volunteerism.

ICWP Opportunities

The International Centre for Women Playwrights has a volunteer program that affords members (and some non-members) the opportunity to participate in committees, do independent research, assist with the operations of the organization and be creative. If you are interested in volunteering for ICWP, please contact our Volunteer Coordinator, Elana Gartner, at volunteer@womenplaywrights.org

Articles of Interest
by Patricia Morin & Elana Gartner
Why Do Women Volunteer?

People volunteer to develop new skills, to build networks (social or work), to feel useful and remain active. There are a few others but those are the top ones.

Susan Ellis, volunteer management guru, says the question of why people volunteer is not simple.

www.energizeinc.com/hot-topics

"Education is the single best predictor of volunteering. People with a Bachelor's Degree or higher volunteer the most, 42.8%, compared to those with an Associate's Degree, 27.7%, those with a High School Diploma, 16.7%, and those with less that a High School Diploma, 9%."

Women volunteer more than men, but not by much. (Men 22.2%, Women 28.4%)

www.thenonprofittimes.com/news-articles

Yours for innovative, engaging, and equitable theater,

Mona Curtis
Newsletter Editor

December 2015 Newsletter

Mona Curtis — Fri, 25 Dec 2015 01:54:01 GMT

This month's issue is on the topic of women and humor and features ICWP president Karen Jenyes and vice president Lucia Verona.

December Spotlight: Lucia Verona, ICWP Vice President

by Suzanne Richardson

Q: Do you have a favorite genre you like to write?

A: Yes, I love writing comedy, all my plays are comedies.

Lucia Verona is a Romanian playwright, novelist, short story writer, translator and ICWP vice president. Since 2011, she has been part of a team with the aim of translating all of Shakespeare's works and it was for this endeavor that she won the Romanian Writer's Union highest literary honor in August of this year.

"Translating Shakespeare is an award in itself." Lucia Verona

Question: When did you start playwrighting?

Answer: In 1976 or 1977, I don't remember exactly. I wrote my first three plays together with my husband, H. Salem, who was a playwright and a fiction writer. Two of them were performed, one in Bucharest as a musical comedy, the other in another town. We also wrote sketches, monologues and short plays for radio and television. My first play written alone was in 1989; it was translated to French and had a public reading in the theatre Essaion in Paris in 1990. Now I have lots of plays, some performed on stage, others had public readings. Almost all were published.

I also write fiction, novels and short stories. Since 2010 I been writing mystery fiction as well.

In addition to writing, I am also a translator, from English, French and Hungarian to Romanian. I translate novels, poetry and, of course, plays. A few years ago I became part of a team with the aim to translate all Shakespeare's work. I have already translated six plays and am working on the seventh.

Q: When you write, do you focus on developing characters first, or the plot?

A: That depends on what I want to say and how. Sometimes the plot is more important, sometimes one character "asks" for further developing. I found that characters have a way of developing themselves, almost without my help, and they can alter the initial plot. Most of the time they are right.

Q: What is your writing process like? Do you have any rituals?

A: No rituals. I think a lot - all the time - about the play or novel I want to write. I research if necessary, then I only need two or three days without pressures of any kind (no bills to pay, no friends to meet, no invitations to the theatre), then I can start. After the first pages, I usually (but not always) write the ending to be sure not to lose my way. However, sometimes I have to change the ending.

I write usually at night and in the morning. I write better when I am on holiday because I am freed from any cares. I think the best place to write is on airplanes. There the only problem is that smoking is not allowed.

Q: How did you learn about ICWP?

A: I was browsing the Internet for some resources, saw the ICWP website and I thought it could be interesting to be a part of an international organization. So I wrote. It was Mags who answered and offered me a service membership. This happened in 2006, if I remember correctly.

Q: How did you get involved in the Bucharest Writers' Association?

A: I have been a member of the Romanian Writers Union since December 1989. I coordinated the Bucharest playwrights' branch for about ten years, organizing also the Dramatists' Club every month; now there is somebody else, but I am still on the board.

Q: Where do you pull most of your inspiration from when creating characters? Do your past studies of music and opera have a large influence on your writing?

A: I am not sure. Certainly from life, though some of my best characters are entirely invented. Also, I have a few real life characters in some of my books. I cannot speak about a large influence of my musical studies on my writing, but my best-known character in fiction is a famous opera singer, a coloratura soprano who plays detective in her spare time. She appeared first in a play, then in two novels and a lot of short stories. Whether it means the influence of studies or something else I cannot say and, in my opinion, it is not important. It is only the result that counts.

Q: Do you have a favorite genre you like to write? (Comedy, drama, fantasy, etc.)

A: Yes, I love writing comedy, all my plays are comedies. But sometimes in the end there is drama, too, or even death.

Q: What would you say was your most rewarding moment as a playwright or writer in general?

A: I have many such moments - awards, performances, reviews of my books, directing a play, meeting my readers, and reading in schools. I would say though, the moment I am most proud of happened on August 31, this year: Together with my fellow translators, I got the Romanian Writers Union Award for my translations of Shakespeare, the highest literary award. Or really, it might be my best moment as a writer has been this period since 2011, when I started translating Shakespeare, which is fabulous. Translating Shakespeare is an award in itself.

Q: What advice would you give to a young woman just starting out as a playwright?

A: It is difficult to give advice. I would say to a beginner playwright - woman or man: Go and see as many plays as you can. Also, and maybe more important, read all the plays you can find, starting with Aeschylus and Sophocles to the present-day authors. Don't forget what Chekhov said: If you see a shotgun in the first scene, it must shoot before the end of the play.

To young women playwrights I would add: competition is harder for a woman, don't give up!

Welcome New Members

Antonia Brancati, Rome, Italy

Theatre runs in my family: my mother was famed actress Anna Proclemer and my father was the great novelist and playwright Vitaliano Brancati.

After living and working for years on and around the stage, in 1991 I become a Literary Agent for the theatre, representing in Italy, just to name one, Nobel Prize winner Harold Pinter.

In 1993 my first Play Preoccupazione per Lalla (They All Worry about Lalla) was staged with a good success at Teatro Politecnico in Rome. Since then, I have never stopped working as an agent, a translator and a playwright.

My plays have been often published both in volumes and on theatrical reviews.

In 2012 she is one of the founder of CeNDIC (National Centre of Italian Contemporary Playwrights)

A Dangerous Passion is the first Play I wrote contemporarily in Italian and English, while following a seminar held by Donald Freed.

Representative Play: PAST IMPERFECT (AKA I Would Prefer Not To)

M. Darlene Carson

M. Darlene Carson is the founder and visionary of Words to Life Drama Ministry (WTLDM). The theater company has a mission to evangelize the community for Christ through thought provoking, entertaining and inspirational plays. In each production, we seek to effectively inject biblically based messages in a way that reaches the heart of people and preserves the integrity of biblical text, messages and the Body of Christ.

WTLDM has been presenting live theatre for over 20 years. Though we are a community drama troupe, we strive for excellence and professionalism in all that we do. We promote and nourish community spirit, providing mutual support and encouragement to individuals, other ministries and cultural arts groups.

The curtain rose on WTLD Ministry's first production in 1986 and its original and produced dramas include: Ain't No Half-Step'n; Those Sorry Sain'ts; The Promise; A Wing and A Prayer; Shut Up In The Church; Saints and and Ain’ts; Love Knots; Love Knots, Too!; That’s Life!; and Preacher, Preacher!

Stephanie Lenore Kuehn

Articles of Interest
by Patricia Morin

Are Women Funny? Yes We Are. And That's Not Funny.

An article in the November, 2015, The Atlantic magazine, “The Plight of the Funny Female” by Olga Khazan explores several aspect of women and humor. An interesting experiment by Laura Milkes at the University of California San Diego brings to light another instance of how women see themselves in comparison to men.

Men make so many joke-attempts, in fact, they are assumed to be funnier—even when they’re not. After they had finished captioning, the students in Mickes’s study filled out a questionnaire about how funny they thought others would find their captions, and also whether they thought men or women were the funnier sex in general. Male participants said that, on a scale from one to five, their cartoons were an average of 2.3 in funniness. The women gave themselves a 1.5. Even worse, 89 percent of the women and 94 percent of men responded that men, in general, are funnier.

In a follow-up experiment, Mickes asked a new set of participants to read the captions generated by the first group and guess the gender of the writer. Both men and women misattributed the funnier captions to male writers.

ICWP tackled that same question in their 2014 contest, “Are Women Funny?” Jacqueline Goldfinger and Jennifer MacMillion co-wrote the play “Enter Bogart” for young actors, especially for girls. “No one is perfect and none of them "fit in" yet everyone is exuberantly marching to the beat of their own drum. So much of “Enter Bogart” is about embracing who you are, even if you love science, or old pop culture references, or wear headgear, or like to sing everything you say instead of speaking--it's all good if it's who you are and you're not hurting anyone else.”

ICWP President Karen Jeynes was recently in New York to attend the Emmy Awards as head writer for Puppet Nation ZA. Puppet Nation is a satirical comedy caricaturizing politicians and other celebs and was nominated in the Comedy category.

ICWP interviewer asked the question: What makes you laugh?

Jenn: I like smart, character-driven comedy. I grew up watching a lot of I Love Lucy and the Carol Burnett Show … I also think earnestness is refreshingly funny, (too many people are too jaded these days!), and larger than life characters. My wobbly special needs cat makes me laugh. People that don't take themselves too seriously make me laugh. Underdogs of all kinds have huge comedic potential (hint: we're all underdogs!). Comedy is the stuff of life, and its all around, so I'm always laughing.

The theme of “underdogs”, “not taking themselves too seriously”, and “larger than life characters that are still grounded in something identifiable” are qualities that Puppet Nation ZA, a comedy South African TV show, imbues, and for which our President, Karen Jeynes, is lead writer. The show was nominated for an Emmy in the “humor” category this year.

Puppet NationZA is satirical puppet show first produced in 2008 by Both Worlds, a Cape Town, a South African production company. The show is a daily and weekly satirical news program in the form of a mock puppet television newscast and features on both the web and TV. ZANEWS features key local and international political figures and celebrities. “Make humor and not war,” is its motto. You can see some of the shows here:

http://www.dailymotion.com/playlist/x2xj54_ZANEWS_puppet-nation-za-full-episodes/1#video=x31nh66

Karen has a “passion for personal relationships, a fascination with chaos theory, and a penchant for the comedy in everyday life. Her work includes: Vaslav, Everybody Else (is fucking perfect), The Happy Factory, I’ll Have What She’s Having, sky too big, Getting There, The Best or Nothing, and Laying Blame, as well as several short plays and monologues in the ICWP Singular Voices. I have asked to interview her by asking some questions relevant to her work and humor, as a TV puppet-show writer and playwright.

Yours for innovative, engaging, and equitable theater,

Mona Curtis
Newsletter Editor

November 2015 Newsletter

Mona Curtis — Wed, 11 Nov 2015 03:00:47 GMT

November Spotlight: Debbie Tan

by Suzanne Richardson

Debbie Ann Tan is a playwright currently living in Manila. While originally studying Marketing Management and working as a copywriter, she went on to get her MFA in Creative Writing from De La Salle University. She picked a professor who also wrote plays professionally to advise her in her studies, and after two years she completed her thesis: a trilogy of plays entitled “Yin Yang Trilogy.” “Fate’s Line” – one part of the trilogy – went on to win several awards. Other accolades include Two Palanca Memorial Awards for her plays “Time Waits” and “Teroristang Labandera” (translated from Filipino as “Terrorist Laundry Woman”) and numerous publications including “Balunbalunan Bingibingihan” (translated from Filipino as “Gizzard, Playing Deaf”) and a collection of English Plays in 2012.

She is a fellow of the 6th Ateneo-NCCA National Writers Workshop, and currently teaching at a college level. Debbie is also a freelance writer, editor, graphic and web designer, and amateur 3D animator. Be sure to check out her website athttp://dwritersgrievances.thoughts.com.

In Debbie's own words, "I would really like to thank ICWP for their acceptance and renewed sense of purpose, as well as Margaret McSeveney for her support and publishing my article on the ICWP website, Elana Gartner for being a good leader and letting her participate in the committee for the 50/50 Awards, Sandra deHelen for giving valuable advice for a play which needed feedback from an international point-of-view (sorry, Sandra, the play has not seen the light of day yet, in its right time, perhaps!), and a special thanks to the generosity, patience and kindness of Debbie Weiss, Coni Koepfinger, Cynthia Morrison, Nancy Gall-Clayton, Diane Grant and Jennie Redling who have contributed their works to my textbook project."

Q: When did you start playwriting? When would you consider the beginning of your professional career as a playwright?

A: As an amateur in my third year of high school I wrote a haunted house radio play for English class, and then a play about misfits for Filipino class my first year of college. While I really wanted to be a writer, I went on to study BSC-Marketing Management for practical reasons since the impression was it was ‘easier’ to get a job with a business course. This was not entirely true in the Philippine-political and economic landscape of the 1990s. After going into advertising as a copywriter and dabbling as a journalist for several newspapers (I was definitely not a hardboiled journalist, I wrote supplementary articles and feature articles), I was antsy.

I went to the United States for soul-searching impinging my presence on my relatives. Two of them were scared stiff that I would just try my luck in the US and be an undocumented worker. In four months, I came to a resolution to come back to Manila and try my luck applying to De La Salle University for the MFA program in Creative Writing. It must have been fate, because I went in for an interview with the chairperson with my portfolio in hand, and in less than thirty minutes I was processed and ready to start classes for the first semester.

Graduate school was not easy; I had to take a lot of the core courses in literature to fulfill the basic requirements. I had classmates who were already creative writers, and had met people who would look down on me and other newbies. I had one traumatic experience with a Canadian writer/visiting professor for fiction writing who gave me the only low grade I had, causing me to miss a medal at graduation. She did not like my murder mystery and said I had grammatical errors, which was true since I’m not a native English speaker. I loved murder mysteries, and that was a sock in the gut. Coupled with a magazine editor I worked for who told me I was a terrible writer and to quit studying since it was of no effect to me, I almost did quit school. I definitely did quit that magazine job. I went to one of my professors to quit, but he told me, “Don’t worry too much about grammar, that’s why we have editors.” He was my teacher in editing, among other subjects, and remains to this day my respected mentor. I didn’t quit school, and later discovered the intricacies of playwriting.

By the time I was thinking of a thesis in 2000, I picked a known professional playwright to be my adviser. I had thought of a niche for myself since there were only a handful of female playwrights, and no playwright writing about the modern Chinese Filipino (also known as Tsinoy) in the country. The definition is, I’m Filipino – born and raised – but I have Chinese blood. Being Chinese has a lot of implications here connected to the history of the Philippines. (read more : www.wormenplaywrights.org/25-year-blog/1454173)

It took me two years to write my thesis, a trilogy of plays I called “Yin Yang Trilogy” under a meticulous mentor, now friend. He also brought me to a writer’s group where we read and critiqued plays in a workshop style setting. Finally I said, “Enough is enough,” and submitted my thesis for defense and passed in 2002. I won awards for a monologue and one of the plays in the trilogy, “Fate’s Line” through a small writer’s group that was affiliated with a theater company then. That play also got me a grant which would then publish it into a chapbook: my first solo book.

From 2005 to 2010, I participated in a labfest showcasing new, experimental and original Filipino plays. Within that period of time I won two national awards for one act plays and had three plays commissioned for several institutions, beginning my professional career as a playwright.

Q: When you write, do you focus on developing characters first, or the plot?

A: It varies from play to play. In “Fate’s Line,” it was the characters first: the Chinese Filipino family centering on the mother, Si Ling, and her daughter, Fate. The magic realism plotline just happened, I was writing in a zone – like three days of waking up and just writing. For “Teroristang Labandera” (Filipino, translated “Terrorist Laundry Woman”), it was both the character of the burned out laundry woman, and at the same time, the plot of her kidnapping the clothes of the Chinese Filipino family tied in with elements of magic realism. I was also in the zone for this one. I had this vision of talking clothes.

With “Balunbalunan Bingibingihan” (Filipino, translated “Gizzard, Playing Deaf”), it was more plot first. This was my first play that didn’t involve any Chinese Filipino characters. The title kept replaying in my head for months, thus the gizzard of a chicken (cooked) becomes the metaphor for love between the prostitute and her booker lover.

Q: What is your writing process like? Do you have any rituals?

A: I’m not a prolific writer. I cannot churn out writing like some of my friends who have lots of books. I gestate with ideas. How I write is, I feel it in my gut. Those plays and even short stories, poems, essays that I write, which I don’t struggle with, I feel from the gut, from the soul, and thus I can continue nonstop (stopping for breaks, yes). It doesn’t happen very often, or not as often as I want when I’m so aligned with what I’m writing. Other times it’s a struggle, because I don’t like any loopholes to the plot. Thus, I do it the disciplined way, like make the outline, objectives, goals, etc. When I struggle writing, I take a lot of breaks. I like playing computer games and do crafts: origami, loom bands, other crafts. Also, since I’m not a full-time writer, I don’t have the luxury to concentrate on developing a story because I need time. Thus, I’m not prolific.

Q: Where do you pull most of your inspiration from when creating characters?

A: I take public transportation. I eavesdrop on people, sorry. There was the scene in the laundry woman play that I got from a jeepney conversation between two college boys. If one doesn’t know the context of their conversation, it was pretty violent. They were planning how to kill, kick, and box. Of course, they were talking about a video game, so that scene and faux pas drove the laundry woman to the edge.

Other characters are exaggerated versions of myself and some of my family, while other characters, like the prostitute, come from research and from my interviews with real prostitutes when I was in college. Still more are profiles, like I had a character of a fake scholar in “Mga Babaeng Toobright” (Filipino, translated “Toobright Women”), a parody on Fullbright scholars (not an insult to Fullbright, but rather the profile of someone who thought she is the “end all be all” because she studied abroad).

I want to say that I try to seek the truth in people, thus when I’m writing, I have to be sincere and get into the characters as people. They have to talk to me. It’s also very important to me to be kind to my characters. I don’t like to do gratuitous deaths just for plot’s sake. I don’t like to ‘victimize’ my characters. It’s hard to explain, but even if the character is bad, I will always show the humanity in her or him. Funny thing is, when the laundry woman play was staged, people sympathized with her. This was unexpected. I knew I also gave her justice; even though she is a terrorist, in a sense, she had a story to tell.

Lastly, my plays are women-centered because there are so few strong women characters and different women voices.

Q: Do you have a favorite genre you like to write?

A: I look like a serious person, but I’m full of comedy. But my comedy is not the ‘har-har-har-har’ comedy. I like to use lines as kickers or punchlines, some snide and sarcastic quips. Definitely, I like fantasy, the real and unreal merging while also logical and cohesive. And the reader or audience will buy into it, and even think, “Is that true?” I also think I specialize in one act plays; I know the structure and flow so well as I write. I’m challenging myself to make a SUCCESSFUL full length play.

Q: What would you say was your most rewarding moment as a playwright or writer in general?

A: I actually have several, as usual, going with my other long answers (laughs). It was very rewarding when I got published in Philippine PEN, when I got my first collection of English plays published in 2012, and receiving two national playwriting awards (Palanca Memorial Awards in 2007 and 2008). I would also have to say some of my favorite rewarding moments were my firsts: my first publication in a corporate magazine, then in a national newspaper, first play published, first awards, seeing my play staged for the first time, hearing laughter to the lines I wrote, and those first claps and cheers.

Summing up from all this though, the moment that is most rewarding is when I’m able to write from my soul.

Welcome New Members

France-Luce Benson, USA

France-Luce Benson earned an M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon University. Her plays have been produced by the Ensemble Studio Theatre where she is an honored Lifetime Member, Adrienne Arsht/City Theatre of Miami, Crossroads Theatre, The Fire This Time Festival, The Billy Holiday Theatre, and New Perspectives Theatre among others. She has also had readings and workshops at Primary Stages, Classic Theatre of Harlem, and Victory Gardens Theatre’s inaugural Ignition Festival. Awards and Honors include: Winner of the National Award for Short Playwriting, (Risen from the Dough 2015); The Kilroys List- Honorable Mention(Boat People2015); Alfred P. Sloan New Play Commission(The Devil’s Salt) Alfred P. Sloan Award for original screenplay( Healing Roots); National Black Theatre, I Am Soul Residency Finalist; Kenney Center ATF Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award (Honorable Mention-Fati’s Last Dance, 2008); three time scholarship recipient at Upright Citizen’s Brigade, and two time Schubert Fellow. She has just been published by Routledge Press, and is currently a professor at St. Johns University. Visit www.francelucebenson.com

Chris Caffrey, USA

Mariana Catalina, USA

Mariana Catalina is a playwright, performer, and director based in Brooklyn, New York. Her work centers around reviving a holistic approach to theater, exploring how the essential elements of voice, body, and psyche move, interact, and evolve. Originally from San Francisco, she studied theater at UCLA. She is currently writing and developing a new work. For more information, please visit tooth-tongue.com

Suzanne Richardson, USA

Suzanne Richardson has been involved in theater since her high school days, writing for theater since her sophomore year. After graduating in 2007, she went on to study theater at Stephens College in Columbia, MO and then finished her degree at Lindenwood University. Some of her favorite shows she has worked on have been "The Country Wife", "Fiorello", "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee", and "The Dixie Swim Club." During her college career, she participated in her college's improv troupe - the Happy Tuesday Players, started up a Sketch Comedy group, and wrote several plays which were later produced in the new play production company she started, The Backstage Productions." She is currently a board member at the High Springs Community Playhouse and is always looking for more ways to get involved.

Christine Toy Johnson, USA

CHRISTINE TOY JOHNSON is an award-winning writer, actor, director and advocate for inclusion. Her plays and musicals have been developed at such places as the Roundabout Theatre Company, Crossroads Theatre, The Barrow Group, CAP21, The Weston Playhouse, Gorilla Rep, and Leviathan Lab. A collection of her written work is included in the Library of Congress Asian Pacific American Performing Arts Collection. Other plays and musicals include THE NEW DEAL, PAPER SON, INTERNAL BLEEDING, ADVENTURES OF A FAUX DESIGNER HANDBAG, THE SECRET WISDOM OF TREES, GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT, MY BOYFRIEND IS AN ALIEN (AND I’M OKAY WITH THAT) (with Bobby Cronin), ANTONI & AN WEI (with Jason Ma), DIARY OF A DOMESTIC GODDESS (with Kevin Duda), RIDING OUT THE STORM (with Michael Mott), and the screenplay NO WAVE WITHOUT WIND (with Charles Randolph-Wright). Christine is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and the Certificate of Screenwriting Program at NYU. She was honored with the Rosetta LeNoire Award for “outstanding artistic contributions to the universality of the human spirit in American theatre” from Actors’ Equity Association, in 2013. For more information, please visit www.christinetoyjohnson.com.

Naomi Westerman, UK

Actress, screenwriter and playwright, also runs the all-female theatre company Little but Fierce which specialises in Shakespeare adaptations and Shakespeare-inspired new work.

Articles of Interest

"If life worked like the theatre, four out of five things you ever heard would have been said by men," Marsha Norman.

"Women have lived half of the experience of the world, but only 20% of it is reported in theaters," The Dramatist Guild.

The Count was a collaboration of the Dramatists Guild and the Lilly Awards. It looked at American theaters for three seasons to determine the number of productions by women playwrights and a further breakdown of the ethnicities of those playwrights. This article, in the Dramatist Guild Magazine delves deeply into the status of women in theatre, and the many inequities between men and women playwrights.

www.dramatistsguild.com/media/PDFs/TheCount.pdf

An interview with playwright, Susan Lieberman, "Women in the Chicago Theatre", touches on the numbers of women playwrights, gender parity, and equalizing the "playing field". "Men dominating the production process in theatre," Lieberman states," is similiar to men dominating the decision-making roles in business."

www.clydefitchreport.com/2015/10/chicago-theater-susan-lieberman-gender-parity

Denise Gough: Let Female Characters be Flawed Too

“I am playing one of the most flawed, broken, damaged, brilliant, human women, and I haven’t felt that people have found it difficult. If anything they’re crying out for it.”

www.thestage.co.uk/news/2015/denise-gough-let-female-characters-be-flawed-too/?utm_source=newsletter1&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter1

Yours for innovative, engaging, and equitable theater,

Mona Curtis
Newsletter Editor

October 2015 Newsletter

Mona Curtis — Fri, 16 Oct 2015 12:55:00 GMT

Member Spotlight: Donna Hoke

by Debbie Miller

Donna Hoke lives in Buffalo, New York. She’s the Western New York representative for the Dramatists Guild. Her website is at DonnaHoke.com and she also writes a blog.

Q: Did you start out as a journalist and then branch out into children's pieces and then to playwriting? Or, was it in a different order? Also, how did you "come to" playwriting?

A: I didn't really do creative writing until college. I enjoyed it, but I went down the journalism road. I've only written the one official children's book and that was shortly before I wrote my first play. It may even be what got me back to fiction, because I don’t think I realized I wanted to be a playwright as much as I thought, “I should write a play,” and the impetus for that came from Road Less Traveled Productions.

When I moved back to Buffalo, I started going to a lot more theater because it was affordable and there was easy parking. I bought a subscription to Road Less Traveled Productions, whose mission was to present world premiere plays by Western New York playwrights. They offered the Emanuel Fried New Play Workshop, and, at the time, that was the vehicle through which they developed plays for production. Since they produced everything, I thought it might be cool to see a play on stage, so I wrote one, and writing it was such a revelation, like "Ah! Why did I ever waste my time on poetry and short stories? This is what I should be doing." I never realized I could write a ninety-page anything. I was hooked.

I sent a play to the workshop but that same year, they not only changed their mission so that they didn’t exclusively do world premieres, but they also had more applicants than they'd ever had, which raised the bar. I got in and they didn’t produce my play, but by the following year I had written two more and they did produce one of them. And that’s what started the ball rolling.

Q: Can you tell me about being an ensemble playwright at Road Less Traveled Productions? Do you work with actors there, for example, in developing your plays?

A: The development process at Road Less Traveled Productions is undergoing some changes right now, but yes, there is development. For example, my play, “Safe,” which will get its world premiere in March 2016 has benefited from multiple readings, work with the ensemble dramaturg, and early casting so that we can do scene workshops with the director.

Q: Do you prefer writing full-length plays or one-acts? Ten-minute plays? Monologues?

A: I don't have any one-acts; I find that a very difficult length. That thirty to forty-five minute length is elusive for me. I do, however, have a few dozen ten-minute plays and while I prefer digging into a full-length, the ten-minutes really did wonders for my self-confidence when I started writing them because I got productions, which made me believe I was doing something right. They also paved the way to some full-length productions, so I'm a big believer in them.

Q: Do you write mainly comedy, drama, or a combination of the two?

A: I don't think of myself as a comedy writer, but I wrote two ten-minute plays that were comedies and I expanded them both into full-length plays. The rest of my plays you'd put in the drama category but none of them are without humor.

Q: Can you tell me about a character that you enjoyed writing?

A: It's actually a group of characters. After I wrote the first scene of “On the Roof,” which was originally going to be about the owner of a 1950s New York City gay bar, I realized that I was going to have to populate this bar. In the final draft, there are five guys who are regulars at Mitzi's and I fell in love with them all, but most particularly with Cruz, the macho Puerto Rican bartender, and Levi, the Jewish musical theater composer. I really missed those characters when I was done writing it, because I was so proud of them all. When we did the reading, I was able to cast them all with some of my favorite Buffalo actors.

Welcome New Members

Arlette Thomas-Fletcher, Maryland, USA

Arlette Thomas- Fletcher is a visionary and brings energy and enthusiasm to everything she does. Currently Arlette is the only African American female director, writer, producer to produce a feature length western film in the mid Atlantic region. She is an author, writer, screenwriter, playwright, actor, singer/songwriter, director and producer. She has been in the entertainment industry for more than twenty years as she began acting at a very young age. Arlette is the prolific writer/playwright of more than 15 plays 9 of which are full length. The play “Two Sisters” was selected to be in the One Act Battle at the Dc Black Theater Festival at Busboys and Poets. Her play “Daddy Where Are You?” sold out at the Dc Black Theater Festival. Arlette’s plays did so well at the Dc Black Theater Festival that she was featured one year for both her plays “Daddy Where Are You?” and “A Form of Godliness .

Arlette has received awards for scriptwriting and directing from Accolade Awards, TIVA awards, Silver Telly Award, and many others. Some of her credits include performing in productions such as “A Raisin in the Sun”, Me Nobody Knows, and A Form of Godliness, The Mystery Date, and You’re Not Alone, The Day The Aces Got Trumped, Milgram and The Fast Walkers. Now her achievements include several award winning short films such as“Assault In Brooklyn and “The Mystery Date”.”The Remodel Zone” , and “Blessing In A Storm. “ Also among her credits are award winning music videos called “You’re Not Alone,” “God Has My Back”, “Like A Star”, “Let Me Go” and many others.Her music videos have won many awards such as the Global Music Awards, Communicator Awards, Accolade Awards, and Beat 100 Award. She is also an author of Poetry for The Soul an inspirational poetry book. She has two feature length indie films in post production “The Lonesome Trial”, “Where’s Daddy?”.

Arlette is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University with a Masters Degree in Business program. She also holds a Bachelors degree in Christian Education from Family Bible Ministries Institute, College, and Seminary.www.fruitsofthespiritproductions.com www.shiningbrightproductions.com

Francesca Rizzo, New Jersey, USA

Francesca Rizzo is an award-winning East Coast writer, director and actress working in theater and film. A New Jersey State Council on the Arts Distinguished Artist Fellow, her theatrical work includes two solo plays, Dames Like Her and The Cherry Sisters: True Stories From the Kitchen Table, both garnering critical acclaim in NJ and NY. Earlier NYC productions include Good in Bed, True Tales of Seduction, Hold That Tiger and The Return of Jonesy. She developed and directed Fia Perera’s Neurotic in New York and Lori Kaye’s The Girls Room and was co-founder of The Perfectly Frank Writers Theatre, a downtown performance venue that brought 32 new works by emerging performance artists to the NY stage.

During this time, she freelanced as a writer-producer for Nickeodeon, MTV and PBS/WGBH, eventually writing and starring in the Nick At Nite ‘s award-winning satirical video, How to Be Donna Reed. She entered the filmmaking world by adapting her stage play, Sullivan’s Last Call into a sexy little film about celibacy that went on to win awards at festivals here and abroad.

She continued making films and went on to become president of the non-profit, CineWomenNY, a contributing writer for Guerrilla Filmmaker magazine and the curator of The World According to Girls, Beyond the Babe and Cinema-Femina, unique independent film screening series in the New York/NJ area.

Her current project is adapting her solo play, Dames Like Her into Dames Like Us, a hilarious ensemble comedy for actresses over 50 that crushes stereotypes and proves that one should never underestimate women of a certain age. www.francescarizzo.com www.dameslikeher.com

Delta Donohue, USA

Lorraine Midanik, California, USA

Lorraine Midanik is a Bay Area playwright who has had several of her short plays produced in including Branding (San Francisco Theater Pub, Pint Sized Plays 2015); Are We There Yet? (Playwrights Center of San Francisco’s 24-hour Fest 2015); Misunderstandings and Lack Thereof (Fringe of Marin Spring Festival 2015); and, The Revolution (PianoFight’s Shortlived Festival 2015). In 2014, two of her one minute plays were produced by Gone in 60 seconds (GI60) in the US (The Park) and in the UK (Death by Any Other Name). The Siege and Love Letters were showcased at Stagebridge in 2014 and 2013. In December 2015, her play Sparse Pubic Hair, will be produced at Playwright’s Center of San Francisco’s Sheherezade’s Final Tales Festival in San Francisco. She is a member of Theatre Bay Area where she is currently a participant in the 2015 ATLAS (Advanced Training Leading Artists to Success) Playwriting Program, a member of the Playwright’s Center of San Francisco, the Dramatists Guild, the International Centre for Women Playwrights, and Stagebridge, where she serves on the board of directors. She was a member of Playground (2014-2015), and has been a student of Anthony Clarvoe at Stagebridge since 2012.

Theatre Reward Members*

Tessa Hart, The Bread & Roses Theatre, UK

Nathan Motta, Dobama Theatre, USA

James Sweitzer, Cherry Lane Theatre, USA

*50/50 Applause Award Recipients receive a free 6-month organization membership

Messages from Members

“Notes and Quotes: The D.C. Women’s Voices Festival”

by Laura Shamas

The travel gods smiled on me this fall, and I’ve been able to catch several new plays that are part of the historic D.C. Women’s Voices Festival, currently running in the U.S. capital. The Festival’s mission is one that I support: “To highlight the scope of new plays being written by women, and the range of professional theater being produced in the nation’s capital,” as part of “the largest collaboration of theater companies working simultaneously to produce original works by female writers in history.”

About fifty-two world premieres of female-authored plays and musicals are being produced by 48 D.C. area theaters, a mix of large and small companies (Equity and non-Equity); the launch party was on September 8, and the last show closes on Nov. 22, 2015. ICWP’s Patricia Connelly is one of the playwrights included.

I am unable to see even 1/10th of the shows being offered, so I don’t consider myself an expert about the Festival in any way – just a lucky pop-in attendee. Here are some of my informal impressions, with quotes from some of the amazing artists involved in the Festival.

1) WITCHES VANISH by Claudia Barnett

The first play I got to see in the Festival was Witches Vanish by Claudia Barnett, directed by Deborah Randall at Venus Theatre. This play features The Weird Sisters from Shakespeare’s Macbeth as a metaphoric theatrical entity who witness (or sometimes cause?) vanishing women, in real life and in literature. As playwright, Barnett asks: “Why do women vanish?” With elements of puppetry, dance and fascinating vignettes, Barnett’s script interweaves scenes about “lost” women; it runs 90 minutes without an intermission. I admired the all-female cast.

I asked Barnett for her thoughts about her play and the Festival: “Witches Vanish gives voices to women who’ve disappeared throughout time—both by telling their (fictionalized) stories and by explicitly naming them in a series of chants between scenes. Given the common theme, it fit the Festival perfectly.” Claudia Barnett is the author of No. 731 Degraw-street, Brooklyn, or Emily Dickinson’s Sister: A Play in Two Acts, published in October by Carnegie Mellon University Press.

2) CHIMERICA by Lucy Kirkwood

The next play I saw related to the Festival was Chimerica by British playwright Lucy Kirkwood. Although it was not an official part of it, it was scheduled to “coincide” with the Festival. This is Chimerica’s U.S. premiere. The title refers to the domination of the U.S. and China in modern geopolitics, covering a span of twenty years. A photographer’s iconic photo taken in Tiananmen Square becomes a catalyst for a mystery that spans generations and cultures. The two-act play, masterfully directed by David Muse, at the Studio Theatre, is ambitious, powerful and quite moving. Kirkwood’s approach was cinematic in style and epic in scope; I find myself still reflecting about Chimerica more than a month after seeing it.

3) IRONBOUND by Martyna Majok

Ironbound by Martyna Majok, directed by Daniella Topol, at Round House Theatre was the next show I caught in the Festival. Majok, who was born in Poland, is an award-winning playwright on the rise (New Play Network Smith Prize, David Calicchio Emerging American Playwright Prize, among others). Majok was inspired to tell the story of Darja, a Polish immigrant who works as a caretaker and factory-laborer, because “poor women” are misrepresented in our theatres; Majok commented in an interview: “I wanted to see my own story on stage.” With a cast of four, Ironbound is a 90-minute tour-de-force that takes place mostly at an urban bus stop. We learn in real time and flashbacks about the key points of Darja’s life and relationships, from 1992 - 2006. It’s ultimately about the bond between mother and son, and the meaning of love.

Ironbound will open next in New York in March 2016, again directed by talented Topol.

4) INHERITANCE CANYON by Liz Maestri

Playwright Liz Maestri’s play Inheritance Canyon, directed by Lise Bruneau, and produced by Taffety Punk Theatre Company, was the next play I saw.

Inheritance Canyon is a zany, thought-provoking look at a scientific experiment and the meaning of life. It takes place in a canyon near a desert, and involves three friends: Shell (Esther Williamson), Sal (Teresa Castracane) and Gary (James Flanagan). They witness a mysterious explosion, and then are put under medical surveillance, a sort of limbo-quarantine, for the rest of the play. The show, in two acts, runs about two hours, with an intermission.

And speaking of intermission, the character switch that happens (during it?) between the first Shell and the other Shell (Gwen Gastorf) was theatrically fun at the top of Act Two. One of the meta-themes in Maestri's play was "performance" in modern life: if we "perform" a function (or pretend to), does that mean we become it, Maestri wonders?

I asked Maestri for her thoughts on the Festival: “The Festival is churning things up, causing trouble, changing lives, starting conversations, and catapulting new art into the world. I'm proud to be part of it.”

5) QUEENS GIRL IN THE WORLD by Caleen Sinnette Jennings

Playwright Caleen Sinnette Jennings has two plays in the D.C. Women’s Voices Festival. Jennings’ one-person show Queens Girl in the World, directed by Eleanor Holdridge and produced by Theater J, is the last piece that I saw.

Dawn Ursula plays every character in the piece. Queens Girls in the World depicts, in two acts, what it was like for a studious, bright African-American girl to grow up in the Civil Rights era, and to live through its violent days. By the end of the play, Jackie’s parents are so fed up with life in America that they move to Nigeria. Everything about the production is top-notch, and the super-talented Dawn Ursula is unforgettable.

One thing I’ve been tracking is the number of excellent female directors working in the Festival. I asked Eleanor Holdridge, the head of the MFA Directing Program at Catholic University, about this: “It's a thrilling bi-product of the festival that so many women directors are being brought along for the ride. For my female directing and playwriting students, I find the season a wonderful inspiration for what enriching strength that women theatre artists can bring to the art form in America.”

6) MORE, PLEASE:

I tweeted an inquiry several days ago, to ask if the D.C. Women’s Voices Festival might become an annual event. They responded: “Great question. At this point it's still too soon to say. We'll keep you posted on any updates.” In Holly L. Derr’s recent Howl Round post about the Festival, Nan Barnett mentions plans for a post-Festival handbook that could be used as a guide by other cities to mount their own versions of this kind of festival. Yes, please!

Martha Richards, Founder and Executive Director of Women Arts, attended the first industry weekend in the Women’s Voices Festival, and was part of a panel on October 4th. Richards notes the Festival’s significance: “Gender parity activists have been looking for ways to reach our goal of 50/50 by 2020, and large-scale festivals like this provide a perfect mechanism to push our numbers up quickly. I predict that the Washington role model will inspire theatre women all over the world to create similar festivals.”

RECOMMENDED LINKS:

D.C. Women’s Voices Festival – womensvoicestheaterfestival.org

“Women’s Voices Theater Festival: Getting a Piece of Real Estate” by Jami Brandli - http://lafpi.com/2015/09/womens-voices-theater-festival-getting-a-piece-of-real-estate/

“Something is Afoot in Washington, D.C.” by Holly L. Derr -
http://howlround.com/something-is-afoot-in-washington-dc

The Women’s Voices Festival Weekend Recap by Holly L. Derr -
https://www.facebook.com/Holly.L.Derr/posts/455673024557206

“Women’s Voices Theater Festival in Washington is An Energizing Showcase” by Charles Isherwood, New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/08/theater/womens-voices-theater-festival-in-washington-is-an-energizing-showcase.html

“Putting Women in the Spotlight” by Nelson Pressley, Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/a-stage-of-their-own/2015/08/26/b6ac7886-4a94-11e5-846d-02792f854297_story.html

Also read member Aphra Behn's 3-part article in Howlround about the Women's Playwright's International's Conference in South Africa. ICWP President, Karen Jeynes, is a resident of South Africa and helped host the conference.

Articles of Interest

Strong Roles for Women

Much ado was raised when Mags McSeveney posted a link to this Independent article about strong females roles make audiences uncomfortable.

www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/strong-female-roles-make-audiences-uncomfortable-says-leading-director-a6674276.html

"In the 25th year of CSC's Women Playwright Series, the Centenary Stage Equity main-stage season now boasts 70% of its primary theatre season penned by women authors. A member of the National New Play Network, CSC subscribes to the 50/50 in 2020 movement.."

www.broadwayworld.com/new-jersey/article/Centenary-Stage-Company-Celebrates-Womens-Voices-with-2015-16-Season-20150929

Yours for engaging, innovation, and equitable theater,

Mona Curtis

Newsletter Editor

September 2015 Newsletter

Mona Curtis — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 14:47:07 GMT

September Spotlight: Shirley Barrie

by Debbie Miller

Shirley Barrie is a Toronto, Ontario playwright, scriptwriter and producer. Her play, “I am Marguerite” directed by Molly Thom, played at the Alumnae Theatre from April 10 through 25, 2015. Shirley is a member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada and the Writers Guild of Canada. She was nominated for Best Toronto Playwright in NOW Magazine’s 2015 Best of Toronto Reader’s Choice Awards. She works as a story and script editor, and as a dramaturge for theater.

Learn more about Shirley at her website: www.shirleybarrie.ca

Q: How long have you been writing plays?

A: Professionally, I first contributed lyrics and sketches for musical theatre revues that the Wakefield Tricycle Company (now the Tricycle Theatre) toured to community centres, colleges and theatres in England beginning in 1974. The first play I wrote on my own was “The Adventures of Supergranny and the Kid” in 1978.

Q: Do you have a writing routine?

A: I have to get into the writing ‘frame of mind.’ I can’t just switch on a dime from the ‘business of playwriting’ for example, to the creation of the play, or from analysis and support for others to creation. I wish I had a sure fire method of switching hats and finding the right zone. Sometimes it’s as simple as cleaning up my desk. Sometimes I can happily ignore the "To Do" list. Other times I have to take a bite out of it before I can settle into writing. Sometimes reading over what I’ve done is enough to get me back into the work.

Q: Do you develop character first or plot first or something else?

A: In the past I’ve often been asked to write a play about a particular subject: garment workers, women and violence, history of mental health treatment. In these cases, the subject comes first. If I start with the subject I have to work through that until I find the characters.

For the most part, when I initiate a project myself the driver for the play is a character—although I am often attracted to the character(s) because of issues, ideas, and concerns that have been floating around in my mind. Most of my plays for adults have featured characters from history.

Q: When you start a play, do you use any of the following to generate character: improvisation, free writing, monologue writing?

A: Probably the closest thing to what I use is free writing. I keep notebooks for each play. They used to include a lot of research, but now since a lot of that is done on-line, the notebooks contain reminder research, character notes, bits of dialogue, behavior rationale, options for action, character descriptions, crazy ideas, outlines of scenes, and/or notes to myself.

Q: What’s the hardest thing about playwriting?

A: Getting it right. I marvel now at how much I wrote, how quickly and in what pressure cooker circumstances in my early days as a playwright. But for me, it doesn’t get easier. It gets harder, largely because I expect more of myself now.

I have two quotes on my bulletin board. One (I can’t remember where I found it) is “Great goddess of creativity, I will take care of the quantity, you take care of the quality.” The other is from a keynote address David Henry Hwang gave at the 2013 AGM of the Playwrights Guild of Canada, “If you never fail, you’re not working hard enough.”

Welcome New Members

Tasha Partee , New York, USA

TASHA NICOLE PARTEE is a New York City-based playwright and Virginia native. Since 2011, Tasha has worked with the Off-Broadway Hudson Guild Theatre Company, teaching literacy through drama and dance, as well as performing as an actor and dancer in company productions. She has numerous choreography and stage management credits with the Off-Off Broadway Onomatopoeia Theatre Company, as well as thirteen years experience as a middle and high school theatre director. Her writing has been featured by the Manhattan Repertory Theatre, the Hudson Guild Theatre Company, and on numerous middle, high school, and college stages. Tasha was a founding member of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Women’s Project, providing opportunities for women in theatre since 1997. She holds an M.A. in Educational Theatre (New York University) and a BFA in Theatre Education (VCU).

Violet O'Valle, Fort Worth, USA

I have enjoyed a long career in educational and semi-professional theatre, having begun my career as a Drama Director at Houston area high schools. I hold a B. A. from the Department of Drama And Dance at the University of Houston, and M. A. and Ph. D. degrees in British Literature, with an emphasis on Irish drama, from Texas A&M University. I am the founding Producer/Director of Pantagleize Theatre Co in Fort Worth, Texas, which produces plays from international cultures, especially those represented in our home state. I divide my year between Texas and Ireland, and my own play writing has been heavily influenced by both cultures. I am also an enthusiastic poet, a college instructor, and a student of all literary genres and all facets of theatre.

Rachana Pandey, Varanasi, India

I belong to Varanasi, the city of Ghats. Varanasi is an ancient city of the state Uttar Pradesh in India. My research area is Indian English drama, theatre and feminism. I have been engaging classes at Centre for Women’s Studies and Development (CWSD), Faculty of Social Sciences at Banaras Hindu University for three years (2012-2015). Feminism is a cause, a social duty, I believe. During research I have written a few poems and engaged in translating plays from English to Hindi but these are not yet published. I have joined the forum of 300 playwrights to explore the new voices, to interact, to grow, to contribute and to search my own voice among all.

Khai Dattoli, Los Angeles, USA

Originally from Wisconsin, Khai Dattoli has spent the past twelve years in Los Angeles writing and performing comedy. The USC graduate has worked in film, webseries, and stand-up, but her greatest passion has been bringing original comedies to the theatre. Dattoli has had four of her plays successfully produced in Los Angeles. The latest, "Off Book," is currently playing at the Secret Rose Theatre in North Hollywod, and this summer also brings her writing debut in NYC with Theatre 68's production of "Off White," the first in her series of "Off Comedies."

2015 50/50 Applause Award

This year ICWP has honored 60 theaters in nine countries, including Australia, Canada, England, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Scotland, Sweden and the United States. Our recipients range from small or new theaters to well-established larger theaters. We are thrilled that one third of the list are repeat recipients who have demonstrated gender parity in two or more seasons, indicating an increased awareness and commitment to women playwrights from the larger theater community.

See the entire list and the bilingual video on our website.

ICWP Officers

President: Karen Marijke Jeynes, South Africa

Vice President: Lucia Verona, Romania

Vice President: Sophia Romma, USA

Secretary: Sharon Wallace, USA

Treasurer: Rita Kniess Barkey, USA

First Annual DC Women's Voices Theater Festival

Launched on International Literacy Day, September 8, over 50 theaters in Washington, DC are currently participating in the first ever Women's Voices Theater Festival. Jointly they are producing more than 55 world premiers by female playwrights, along with dozens of other special events including workshops, readings and discussions. The Festival will run through the month of October and into November. The theaters involved include the Kennedy Center, the Shakespeare Theatre and the Arena Stage, some of the most prestigious in the country. It's the first time in history that so many theatres have worked together to produce a festival of original works by female writers and a major milestone in gender parity in theater.

The Festival official site

Women's Voices Theater Festival home page.

New York Times article

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/09/theater/womens-voices-theater-festival-celebrates-female-playwrights.html

You Tube

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyENNtYvKgg

Articles of Interest

The Golden Age for Women in TV is Actually a Rerun

"Comedies created by women came into vogue in the late 1980s, exploded in the early ’90s, went mainstream in the mid-90s and were shoved into the back of the closet around 1997. It took another decade before the next show solely created by a woman — Tina Fey’s “30 Rock” — made it back into the elite Emmy inner circle….."

www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/opinion/sunday/the-golden-age-for-women-in-tv-is-actually-a-rerun.html

Yours for innovative, engaging, and equitable theater,

Mona Curtis
Newsletter Editor

August 2015 Newsletter

Mona Curtis — Sun, 30 Aug 2015 00:34:37 GMT

Member Spotlight Alan Woods

by Debbie Miller

Alan L. Woods is a retired teacher of theatre at Ohio State University and an active dramaturg in Columbus, Ohio who says he's been a member of ICWP "since at least 1990 or thereabouts."

Q: What do you write?

A: I write short plays for seniors and prequels/sequels to Shakespeare.

Q: Where have your plays been produced?

A: In academic and senior theatre companies in the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Africa.

Q: What does writing plays teach you about yourself as a writer?

A: Writing plays forces me to listen to the characters as their voices are highly individual. It also teaches me to edit myself with a firm hand.

Q: What other activities associated with theatre do you do?

A: I work as a dramaturg and organizer of readings. I've been a dramaturg since about 1990 at local theatres in Columbus (CATCO, Players' Theatre, Available Light Theatre, Bread & Circus Theatre Company, Evolution Theatre Company) and at Indiana Reperatory Theatre and in Kentucky at Horse Cave Theatre.

Q: What has dramaturgy taught you?

A: Being a dramaturg helps me to constantly question, re-evaluate, rework. And revise, revise, revise.

Q: What's your most recent project?

A: The Food Plays: 5-minute plays centering on food, at the Clintonville Community market in Columbus, as part of the neighborhood festival "CrestFest" on August 22nd. The project received some 65 plays and a panel of evaluators (which included some ICWP members) selected five plays to be given staged readings.

Q: As a former theater professor, what is the most important thing you'd like theater students to know about plays and playwriting?

A: That it's a group exercise, whether one artist is central or artistic direction is arrived at by some variation of consensus. No one creates alone--no one!

Q: How can men support women playwrights?

A: By promoting their work, by agreeing to collaborate, by auditioning, by being aware of women writers, and by encouraging them.

Welcome New Members

Rosalie Greenfield Matzkiin, Philadelphia, USA

Rosalie Greenfield Matzkiin, Ed.D Born in NYC American Citizen, I currently reside in Philadelphia PA. First an English teacher, then editor and newspaper reporter in NYC, all the while writing songs and short pieces of fiction. I collaborated with a NY composer, Robert Trien, and we wrote a musical, Curse You Jack Dalton which was performed in NY at a street fair and then went to the BMI Music Theater Writing Workshop for several years. Wrote an adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion and used it as doctoral pre-dissertation coursework.

Subsequently have been working with a Philadelphia composer, Al Blatter, (teaches at the Curtis Institute of Music) and we have had two workshops of our musical No Complications Please! one at MITF in NY and the other at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, for which I wrote libretto and lyrics and Al Blatter the music.

I have been taking playwriting workshops at HB Studios and Primary Stages in NY and this spring wrote a new play in a Philadelphia playwriting workshop, at PlayPenn, called Unexpected. (It is not about her, but does use Gabby Gifford as inspiration.). I have also recently completed drafts of 5 ten minute plays and am writing a new play, Sarah and Max, that takes place near the Swiss border of Austria during WWII. Most of my work posits strong women protagonists.

l am interested in women's work, and I enjoy sharing and collaborating and being supportive.

rgmatzin@gmail.com

Mercedes Cohen, San Francisco, USA

Playwriting has been my passion for most of my life, but like many, survival and making a living got in the way. Now I’m retired and working two plays. Living in California in the San Francisco Bay area suits me well. My play, Giovanni Is Here won the Ross Alternative Works award in 2014 and had wonderful production with a great cast. The plot revolves around three diverse viewpoints during World War II in Italy.

I’m interested in women playwrights and what’s new.

mercedescohen@gmail.com.

A video of my work: https://vimeo.com/134898095

Kay Adshead, USA & UK

Kay Adshead is a poet, playwright and theatre maker. She has written over 25 plays including Thatcher’s Women for Paines Plough at The Tricycle (nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award), Bacillus for the Royal Court, Animal for Soho Theatre Company (nominated for Encore Best Play of Year), Lady Chill for the RNT‘s BT Connections, and Juicy Bits for The Lyric Hammersmith main house. In 2013, she contributed I am sad you are dead Mrs T for Theatre 503’s Thatcherwrite. In 2014, she wrote Happy Ending for Natural Shocks’ Peep. Her plays have been published by Oberon, Methuen, and Faber and Faber. In 1999, with the late Lucinda Gane, she co-founded award-winning theatre company Mama Quilla, producing The Bogus Woman (Fringe First, Adelaide Fringe Sensation Award, M.E.N. award for best actress, nominated for E.M.M.A. and Susan Smith Blackburn Award), playing the Traverse and The Bush. Their second production Bites played the Bush (nominated for Susan Smith Blackburn Award) and their third production Bones premiered at Haymarket Leicester, transferring to the Bush. All plays have subsequently been produced internationally. She has devised and directed over 15 plays for Mama Quilla, working in communities with casts of over 50. Theatre of Protest at the Roundhouse in 2012 involved over 80 performers and 8 new commissions. In 2014, she wrote Veil the Poem, directed by Kully Thiarai for Shanaz Gulzar’s immersive installation, playing The Alchemy Festival at The South Bank. In 2015, she wrote and directed The Singing Stones at The Arcola. She is currently producing Acts of Defiance, a multimedia online project, contributing five short plays and two three-minute films shot in Houston, Texas, and New York. Kay lives in Houston and London.

kay.adshead@mamaquilla.org

Jo Brisbane, Cape Cod, USA

Jo Brisbane is an actor, author and playwright, writing year round on Cape Cod, MA. Abandoned machinery and people frequently appear in her plays, prose and poetry. Her professional writing has ranged from print journalism to broadcast interview and editing. She walks the wrack line frequently, unless a Nor'easter is predicted.

jo.brisbane@gmail.com

Khai Dattoli, Wisconsin, USA

www.fallingapplesproductions.com

mikhaila.aaseng@gmail.com

Kelly DuMar, Boston, USA

Kelly is a playwright, poet and creative arts workshop facilitator from the Boston Area. She founded the Our Voices Annual Festival of Boston Area Women Playwrights, held at Wellesley College, now in its 9th year. She's a former President of Plawrights' Platform, Boston, and an Advisory Board Member of the International Women's Writing Guild and the Transformative Language Arts Association. Learn more at http://www.kellydumar.com

kellydumar@gmail.com

Anne Flanagan

Anne Flanagan is a writer/actor, theatre teacher and Women's Health Care consultant. She has also worked as a private investigator, which is not nearly as exciting as one might think.

Anne has won many playwriting awards and has been produced throughout the United States and Canada.

Publications include her full length comedy, Artifice, (Dramatic Publishing); Best Women's Monologues 2013 (Smith and Kraus), Best Contemporary Monologues 2014 (Applause)

Residencies include the Kennedy Center Playwright's Intensive, StonyBrook/South Hampton Writer's Conference, and the Kenyon College Playwright's Institute.

annemflan@gmail.com

Catherine Pearson Tully, USA

Playwright, Screenwriter, Actress,Voice-over

Born and educated in the United Kingdom. Catherine, is a prize winning author. She has written many plays, screen plays, short stories and poetry and children’s books.

March 2014 – Winner of 7th Annual International Jewish, Short Play Contest, THE LOST CHILDREN.

2014/2015 Annual Miami One Minute Play Festival. AT THE END OF THE DAY, I DON’T UNDERSTAND, THE MEAN STREETS, YOU’RE SCREWED

Winner Florida International Play contest: KISS ME, EDNA (Full length play)

Strand: Winner play contest: PLACEMENT (Full length play)

Ten Minute Plays: DRESS REHEARSAL, CHECKERED TROUSERS, THE LOST CHILDREN

Full Length Plays: OVER MY DEAD BODY, ONE-WAY TICKET, BY VIRTUE OF PRUDENCE, THE WIND HAS NO CORNERS, MAGGIE, KNOCK, KNOCK WHO’S THERE, THANKSGIVING DINNER

cathytullytalent@aol.com

Tori Rice, San Diego, USA

Tori Rice is a playwright, teaching artist (with Playwrights Project, San Diego, CA) and actress (stage/film = Tori King). Plays include PARTIAL RIGHTS (Playwrights Project, San Diego, CA); BOTTLED IN, BABY (New Perspective Festival, San Diego, CA); COMMON SKIPPERS (Lyceum Theatre, Tempe, AZ); and personal narrative pieces YARD SALE (SMoCA Lit Lounge, Scottsdale, AZ), IMPERFECT (Spark! Powerhouse Theatre, Venice, CA) and MAGNET & STEEL (Scripps Ranch, San Diego, CA). She is a founding member of the San Francisco-based Club Solo, as well as a former ensemble member of the groups New American Theatre (Los Angeles, CA) and Aurora Mime Theatre (Tempe, AZ). Favorite roles include her critically acclaimed one-person show, THE MORE MEN WEIGH (Edmonton Fringe); Patti, STRAIGHT TALK (LA, Odyssey Theatre); Ophelia, THE HAMLETMACHINE (ASU and Emporia State University); and Annelle, STEEL MAGNOLIAS (Winterstock Regional Theatre, AZ, Best Supporting Actress). She has appeared in dozens of commercials and films, with the latest film production opening soon on the Midway Museum in San Diego, CA (VOICES OF THE MIDWAY).

toririce@mac.com

Results of the August Board Meeting

During the Annual Meeting new Board members where elected. During the Board Meeting this month, officers were assigned and committee assignments given.

Karen Marijke Jeynes, South Africa, President 2013-2015

Lucia Verona, Rumania, Vice President 2013-2015, Membership Committee

Sophia Romma, USA, Vice President 2013-2015, On-line Communication Co-Chair, Fundraising Chair

Sharon Wallace, USA, Secretary 2013-2015, Networking Committee

Laurie Smilan, USA, Elected July 2015

Eliza Wyatt, UK, Elected July 2015

Patricia L. Morin, USA, Elected July 2015

Rita Kniess Barkey, USA, Elected July 2015

Mona Clair Curtis, USA, Newsletter Editor, 2013-2015, Membership Committee

Coni Ciongoli-Koepfinger, USA, Networking Chair, On-line Communication Co-Chair

Elana Gartner, Volunteer Manager, Applause Awards Co-Chair, Networking Committee

Note: Kris Bauske is staying on as co-chair of the Applause Awards Committee, although she is not returning to the Board

We also want to recognize our member volunteers.

Thank You to all our Volunteers

50/50 Applause Award

Ibadete Abazi

Diane Baia Hale

Rita Barkey

Elise Geither

Sylvie Grimm (non-member. Committe and translator)

Chi Wei Hlivka (non-member. Committee and translator)

Mami Kimura (non-member. Translator)

Arwen Mitchell

Debbie Tan

Sharon Wallace

Maximillian Hollander (non-member: Video Editor)

Guest Tweeters

Laura Shamas

Pat Morin

Jenni Munday

Sarah Bewley

Script Reading Groups

Nina Gooch

Spotlight Writer

Debbie Wilson

Articles of Interest

Successes!!

Israeli Stage in Boston has announced a full season of Israeli women playwrights.

http://www.americantheatre.org/2015/08/25/israeli-stage-announces-season-of-works-by-women/

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/08/22/theater/after-outcry-over-diversity-manhattan-theater-club-is-making-a-change.html?referrer&_r=0

http://www.larktheatre.org/blog/shakespeare-rule-and-nelson-principle/

July 2015 Newsletter

Mona Curtis — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 08:04:29 GMT

July 2015 Newsletter

The last possible day to still be called the July Newsletter. July has been a busy month. I hope you have time to read this small compilation of some recent developments in gender equality in theatre.

July Spotlight: Sofia Echaverry

by Debbie Miller

Sofía Etcheverry is a playwright, actor, teacher, and director who resides in Montevideo, Uruguay. She earned an M.A. in Theory and History of Theatre and teaches literature and improvisation at the Instituto de Actuación de Montevideo (Performance Institute in Montevideo).

Etcheverry graduated from the Escuela Multidisciplinaria de Arte Dramático (the Municipal School of Dramatic Art) and the school of Teatro La Gaviota. She’s been writing plays since 2007. “I like to explore the borders of genres: musical, dance theatre, drama, comedy, and biodrama,” she explained when asked which types of plays she writes.

Etcheverry maintains a blog at www.sofetcheverry.blogspot.com and a profile at www.dramaturgiauruguaya.gub.uy.

Welcome new and returning members:

Besides our regular forms of outreach the 3rd Annual Dramatist Conference in La Jolla, CA last month proved to be a place to engage new members and renew old friendships.

Kathy Anderson, Philadelphia, USA

Kathy Anderson is a playwright and fiction writer in Philadelphia, PA. Her plays have been produced and staged in the US and in Ireland. Her current play Next Door Gay-bors, with co-writer Bill Felty, was workshopped with Pride Films & Plays in Chicago and featured in Chicago's 2015 Rhinoceros Theater Festival.

Philadelphia Theatre Workshop produced three full-length world premieres of her plays - Incoming; The Meatpackers Book Club; and Front Row Seat. Incoming won Bloody Unicorn Theater Company's Queer Women's Play Contest and was produced in 2007 in Arizona. Incoming was selected for the International Centre for Women Playwrights Chicago HER-RAH 2007: A Festival of the World's Best Women Playwrights and Their New Plays and featured in TOSOS II Robert Chesley/Jane Chambers Playwright Project in New York City in 2008. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild and Playwrights Center.

Her short story collection was a finalist in the 2015 Autumn House Press Fiction Contest. Previous versions of the collection were finalists in the 2015 New Rivers Press Many Voices competition and the 2014 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. Her short stories have twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. www.kathyandersonwriter.com

Aphra Behn, New York, USA

Aphra Behn is the artistic director of the New York City based Guerrilla Girls On Tour, an internationally acclaimed anonymous theatre collective fighting discrimination in the arts and proving feminists are funny since 1997. In order to put the focus of their work on the issues they address, each member of Guerrilla Girls On Tour works under the name of a dead woman artist and performs wearing a gorilla mask. “Aphra” is currently working on a memoir which will be published in 2017.

aphra@guerrillagirlsontour.com

Elizabeth Coplan, USA

Elizabeth is a published essayist and a playwright. Her recent play, Hospice: A Love Story won an Island Theatre award. The play will be performed August 21 and 22, 2015 on the stage of Bainbridge Performing Arts just outside of Seattle, WA.

elizabethcoplan@gmail.com

Violet O'Valle, USA

I have enjoyed a long career in educational and semi-professional theatre, having begun my career as a Drama Director at Houston area high schools. I hold a BA from the Department of Drama And Dance at the University of Houston, and M. A. and PhD degrees in British Literature, with an emphasis on Irish drama, from Texas A&M University. I am the founding Producer/Director of Pantagleize Theatre Co in Fort Worth, Texas, which produces plays from international cultures, especially those represented in our home state. I divide my year between Texas and Ireland, and my own play writing has been heavily influenced by both cultures. I am also an enthusiastic poet, a college instructor, and a student of all literary genres and all facets of theatre.

fluthered2good@yahoo.com

Pamela Winfrey, San Francisco, USA

Pamela Winfrey specializes in surreal plays for a thinking audience. She has won several awards and grants and her works have been seen as far away as Canada and Ireland. She has been a finalist at Arts and Letters and is a founding member of Mobius Operandi, a performance group, The Alchemy Works, and Discover Novato Arts. She has a BA in theatre and a Masters in Interdisciplinary Arts. She is also a curator and senior artist at the Exploratorium in San Francisco.

www.pamelawinfrey.com

Jyl Lynn Felman, USA

Jyl Lynn Felman is an award winning playwright and performance artist who has performed her work nationally in the US and abroad, including Cuba, Australia, the Czech Republic and South Africa. She's been interviewed on NPR and the BBC. "If Only I'd Been Born A Kosher Chicken aired on C-SPAN'S performance series. She's given performance and writing workshops worldwide, most recently in Cape Town, SA and is the author of three books- NEVER A DULL MOMENT: TEACHING AND THE ART OF PERFORMANCE; CRAVINGS, a memoir, and HOT CHICKEN WINGS, short stories. An edited version of "Girl Kicks Girl" was performed in Stockholm at the 9th Women's International Playwright Conference.

www.jyllynnfelman.com

Mikaila Aaseng

mikhaila.aaseng@gmail.com

Kyra Cohen, Atlanta, USA

Playwriting Major at Emory University

esther546@gmail.com

Elena Kaufman, Hamburg, Germany

Elena Kaufman is a Canadian writer, actor and teacher who lives in Germany. Short fiction appears in: SubTerrain; 1097Mag; Women in Judaism; Pharos; and New Shoots and she won Best Foreign Short Story at The Moondance International Film Festival competition (Boulder, CO). Dramatic monologues are in New Monologues for Women by Women II (Heinemann) and Audition Arsenal (Smith and Kraus). Two one-act plays were produced at festivals in Winnipeg (FemFest)and Stockholm (FEATS). She has an MA in Drama (Toronto) and an MS in Creative Writing (Oxford).

www.elenakaufman.com

Laurie Flanigan Hegge, Minneapolis, USA

Laurie Flanigan Hegge is a playwright, bookwriter and lyricist from the Minneapolis, Minnesota. She serves as the Twin Cities Regional Representative for the Dramatists Guild of America.

laurieflanhegge@gmail.com

Prudence Holmes, USA

Prudence Wright Holmes wrote the plays Willa Cather: Her Life and Loves, Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker, Sister Girl, Agatha Christie is Missing, Leave the Drama on Fire Island, Duncan and Vanessa and Beat Chick and Bexley,OH!
Bexley OH! was produced by New York Theatre Workshop and Beat Chick was also produced by the Workshop Theater. She also wrote the books Monologue Mastery, The Voice and Speech Warm Up and Workout and Voices of Thinking Jewish Women.

As an actor, she has appeared in featured roles in the films Sister Act I and II with Whoopi Goldberg, Kingpin with Woody Harrelson, In Dreams with Annette Bening, My Own Love Song with Renee Zellweger, After.Life with Liam Neeson, God’s Pocket with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Boardwalk Empire with Steve Buscemi. On Broadway she appeared in Happy End with Meryl Streep, Lettice and Lovage with Maggie Smith and Inherit the Wind with George C. Scott and The Light in the Piazza at Lincoln Center and on the National Tour. She has appeared in numerous off-Broadway shows including the original casts of Godspell and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You. She wrote and performed her solo show Bexley, OH! at New York Theatre Workshop.

Report Out from the ICWP Annual Meeting

The ICWP Annual Meeting was held online July 10-17. Two significant accomplishments were the election of new Board members and the approval of the ICWP Mission Statement. New and returning board members are Mona Curtis, Elana Gartner, Michelle T. Johnson, Karen Jeynes, Coni Koepfinger, Sophia Romma, Lucia Verona, Sharon Wallace, Laurie Smilan, Eliza Wyatt, Patricia L. Morin, Rita Kniess Barkey. Specific offices and positions will be reported after our next Board Meeting in August.

ICWP Mission Statement

Our mission is to support women playwrights around the world by:

bringing international attention to their achievements, encouraging production of their plays, translation, publication,and international distributions of their works

providing means for communication and contact among the sister community of the world's women dramatists

assisting them in developing the tools of their craft, in determining their own artistic forms, and in setting their own critical standards

encouraging scholarly and critical examination and study of the history and the contemporary work and concerns of women playwrights

supporting their efforts to gain professional equality, and to express their own personal, artistic, social, and political vision without censorship, harassment, or personal danger

This policy states the ICWP's position on discrimination, *not withstanding the gender focus of it's mission*. This policy applies to all ICWP employees, volunteers, members, clients and contractors.

The Count

Another important event at the DG Conference was the revealing of The Count, a collaboration between the Lilly Awards and the Dramatists Guild to determine how many women playwrights are produced in the US. Led by Julia Jordan and Rebecca Stump, with the help of Dramatists Guild representatives, ambassadors, regional representatives and staff, The Count collected data on theater seasons 2011-2014 to determine the percentages of women playwrights being produced. The results were announced at the Dramatists Guild National Conference in June, 2015. The Count will be an ongoing annual project.

The criteria for theaters that were considered: significant producing theaters in the region producing at least 3 productions in a season that run longer than 21 performances. They must be known for producing new playwrights, that is playwrights from the past 50 years. Nationally, 22.18% of productions over the past three seasons have been written by women. 14% are American white females, 3% are American women of color, 2.5% are foreign white females and .4% are foreign women of color. Comparatively, 62% of the productions in the US were by American white males, 10% by foreign white males, 6% by American men of color, 4% by foreign men of color. It was found that 62% of productions were new work. The rest were revivals, defined as work that premiered at least 10 years ago. There are additional numbers that will become available.

There were four women who presented on behalf of The Count: Marsha Norman,Rebecca Stump, Julia Jordan and Lisa Kron.

Here is a link to the NY Times article that came out just before the conference and an article in American Theater.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/16/theater/small-gains-for-female-playwrights.html?_r=0

http://www.americantheatre.org/2015/07/20/the-gender-parity-count-ticks-up-slightly/

Articles of Interest

An article and infographic by Porsche McGovern, lighting designer, revealing the gender disparity of theater set, costume, lighting, and sound designers.

http://howlround.com/who-designs-in-lort-theatres-by-gender

Theater for young people usually involves more girls than boys, but there is a dearth of challenging female roles. See what one UK organization is doing about it.

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/jun/15/young-women-play-leading-roles-in-life-so-why-not-on-stage

Yours for innovative, engaging, and equitable theatre,

Mona Curtis

Newsletter Editor

June 2015 Newsletter

Mona Curtis — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 09:39:55 GMT

Member Spotlight: Laura Shamas

by Debbie Miller

Laura Annawyn Shamas hails from Oklahoma and has lived in Tulsa, Denver, and L.A. She writes plays, non-fiction, screenplays, and fiction and blogs about art and creativity. Her education includes a B.A. in Theater Arts from UCLA, an M.A. in English/Creative Writing from the University of Colorado-Boulder, and an M.A. and a PhD in Mythological Studies from Pacifica Graduate Institute. She's a member of ICWP, the Writers Guild of America West, PEN USA, the Dramatists Guild, the League of Professional Theatre Women, and Women in Film. She lives in Los Angeles.

What is your experience with and what is your impression of play festivals that feature plays by Native Americans?

I've been to quite a few as an audience member, and have participated as a dramaturg in one and as a playwright in five: Native Earth Performing Arts/Toronto; Native Voices at the Autry/Los Angeles; Native Festival at The Public Theatre (New York); Five Civilized Tribes Museum (Muskogee, OK); and I just got back from Oklahoma City Theater Company's Native American New Play Festival of 2015. I love attending them. My impression is that they are excellent and needed.

Why is it important for Native American playwrights to get their work produced? Why are their works important?

It's crucial for Native American playwrights to have their work produced today because they are the First People of this country, and they were systematically killed or removed by those who came later. The works of current Native American playwrights represent these cultures, and speak for their ancestors and for the future. These traditions and people are still alive in spite of the cultural, social, and political genocide launched against them for hundreds of years. Last year I had a research fellowship at the Autry Museum related to Native residential school experiences in the U.S. and the intergenerational effect of those schools on native families. I visited Carlisle, the site of the "first" military-style residential boarding school for native children, as part of this project. I will never forget seeing the many graves of "unknown" native children who died while attending Carlisle. Here's a link to my summary post: http://blog.theautry.org/2014/11/memories-that-haunt-and-reaffirm/

Do you self-identify as a Native American playwright? What is your connection with that world?

My heritage is mixed. My last name is Arabic - "Shamas," which means "light," from the Sumerian-Babylonian sun god Shamash, a god of justice. Both my parents have native ancestry, and of different tribes. As is traditional in terms of matrilineal roots, I'm a member of my mother's tribe, the Chickasaw Nation. I also have English, French, Irish, Lebanese and Scottish heritage. I was born in Oklahoma and grew up there, so that's my connection. Some of my plays are archived at NAWPA, the Native American Women Playwrights Archive: http://staff.lib.muohio.edu/nawpa/

Tell me about one of your environmentally themed plays. Is environmentalism a passion of yours?

The play I'm most proud of in that vein is CHASING HONEY, about the devastating loss of the honeybees, which I wrote in 2007. I'm sorry to say the play is still entirely relevant. The play has an all native cast, and is about two native families and Colony Collapse Disorder. It was analyzed by Yvette Nolan, whose work I love, in an essay published last year: "The Collapse of Worlds in Laura Shamas's Chasing Honey," in Enacting Nature: Ecocritical Perspectives on Indigenous Performance (Peter Lang Publishers, 2014, Birgit Dawes and Marc Maufort, eds.).

Environmentalism is a passion of mine, and is addressed in several of my plays. I do have a new pitch for an environmental play that went out in the past year. It would be the most environmental one yet! And the feedback I've gotten on the outline has been positive, but no one has chosen to fund or commission it and it does have a lot of on-site research involved.

Tell me about your latest ventures.

In 2015, I have 3 new theatre projects in development. One is CIRCULAR, a new two-person show about Circe, Odysseus, and PTSD. It's about a young female psychiatrist in the Army who becomes entangled in the world of The Odyssey as she serves in Afghanistan. It's a psychological study, and you don't know what really happened until the final scene of it. It had its first reading at the Lark Play Development Center in New York in April.

The next project I have coming up is a new musical that composer-lyricist Lisa Donovan Lukas (lisadonovanlukas.com) and I have been working on, LADY-LIKE, a musical biography of "The Ladies of Llangollen." It has a cast of 3 women - huge roles! Our first reading of it is going up at the end of June in Santa Monica. I'm directing the reading and I cannot wait for everyone to hear Lisa's music and lyrics. I’m honored to work with Lisa; I'm the book writer and it's adapted from one of my earlier plays also called LADY-LIKE.

Tell me about LUCKY IN HOLLYWOOD. You mentioned the Native American New Play Festival in Oklahoma City

That's my third new theater project this year, and it's based partially on an old family story. It spans the years from 1943 - 2024. It's about a native family and a "Hollywood" family, and how their lives intertwine for generations when "Lucky," a native American WWII gunner who miraculously survives a bullet straight through his bubble, is given a scholarship for acting at a famous Playhouse in the Los Angeles area. I do have a Chickasaw ancestor whose story was the spark for this. I was so thrilled that it is a 2015 finalist at the Oklahoma City Native American New Play Festival. It was wonderful to see 4 new plays at that festival last month, and they did a terrific job with my reading - very helpful to see it.

What type of characters are your favorite to write? Do you write mostly female or male characters?

I have several all female cast plays (including one co-written with esteemed ICWP member Paula Cizmar!). But all in all, I'd say it's a fairly even split for me in gender categories. For characters I like to write: characters who take action, who do actually do things. I find it's extremely tricky to write passive characters, even though we all have passive aspects to our lives. I also love to write smart female and male characters.

Do you write plays to inform people, inspire them, educate them, or something else?

Something else: You have to entertain them or else you're not writing plays. I do try to do all of the above, too, but in the end, if it's not entertaining, it's not going to work onstage. I don't think "entertaining" people in a theater is easy to do, by the way, because you're asking a group of people to suspend disbelief, to let their own thoughts and worries go, and to follow your imagination instead. That takes a lot of writing effort, especially in today's world, when most of us are now in the habit of scrolling our lives away on smart devices at all times.

Welcome New Members

Andrea Markowitz, Arizona, USA

Hooked on theatre since age seven when I saw my first Broadway show, I earned degrees in English literature, musicology and psychology, and landed jobs in several industries before authoring the play, “Feeding the Furies.” I write in multiple genres, but playwriting is special to me because of the immediate focus on character and dialogue. A New Jersey (USA) native, I moved to Arizona in 2002, where I am currently writing a second play. I would love to connect with other ICWP members to share tips, expertise and experiences that will help us reach our fullest potential.

Email andreamarkowitz@gmail.com

Elaine Fernandez, Hudson Valley Playwrights, USA

Elaine Fernandez is founder and director of Hudson Valley Playwrights, a theatre workshop for local writers developing new work. Most recently, her 10 minute play "Almost Home" received a staged reading at the Morton Memorial Library in Rhinecliff, New York, and her One Act play, "Hey, Driver," was produced at The CENTER for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck on May 9, 2015. Elaine is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America.

http://hudsonvalleyplaywrights.com

Laurine Smilan, Emerging Playwright, Recovering Lawyer, USA

lbsmilan@aol.com

Eliza Wyatt, England

Eliza Wyatt has been active in the theatre for more than thirty years, mostly in Boston, Mass. and now in England. She has won many awards for her plays, competitions and Firsts. Her plays can all be accessed and read at: www.elizawyattplays.com

ICWP Initiatives

ICWP will hold its annual meeting July 10-17, 2015, and we invite all our members to participate in the online forum on the website. One of the most important issues in this annual meeting is the election of new Board of Trustee members. Any member is eligible to be nominated. Trustees are elected to the Board for two-year terms and help to run the day-to-day operations of ICWP as well as plan for the future. Members who have served on a board previously are especially welcome and if you feel you can offer some energy, experience and general good ideas we'd like to see your name in the list of nominees.

Three of the current Trustees, Suzanne Rakow (Treasurer) Geralyn Horton, and Kris Bauske are ending the second year of their current two year term. This leaves at least 3 positions that need filled to reach the legal minimum of nine Trustees. The maximum number of trustees who can serve on the Board is 15. So please consider putting your name forward or the name of someone else you know would be a good Trustee.

Suzanne Rakow, who has served faithfully and efficiently as Treasurer for 8 years, wishes to give up her position on the Board, so we are especially looking for a Trustee who has 501-c-3 accounting or bookkeeping experience along with knowledge of software like Excel and online banking. Other open positions are: President, Vice President, and Secretary. One of the main duties of Board members is to participate in quarterly Board meetings, which take place online in the same type of forum as the upcoming Annual Meeting. During these meetings, the Board discusses different initiatives for the organization, such as participation in the Equity in Theater Conference and joining the Women in Arts & Media Coalition. The Secretary also has the responsibility of writing the minutes of said meetings.

To nominate someone (or yourself), please complete this online form. Please click the link to make a nomination. Nomination Form. If you have any trouble with this link you can email ICWP Administration using the link at the bottom of this newsletter. (secretary@womenplaywrights.org.)When making a nomination, please make sure that you have the member's permission and that they are interested in serving on the Board. The date for submitting nominations has been pushed back to 26 June, 2015. Nominations can also be made during the online meeting, but those names will not appear on the member voting ballot.

50/50 Applause Award Update

It may appear June is a quiet month for ICWP’s 50/50 Applause Awards, but nothing could be further from the truth. When nominations closed, the committee was left with a great deal of raw data that needed to be examined, organized, and verified. Each nominated organization has been contacted for additional information, and there are always questions about what does and does not make them eligible. The data is updated daily as each organization responds, and all nominees are then sorted into either the Eligible or Ineligible category. In many instances, the committee is still awaiting final responses from nominees. Co-Chairs, Elana and Kris, have also been interviewing volunteers to work on the exciting 2015 Celebration video this year. Much like the duck, all may seem still at the surface, but the committee continues to paddle ferociously underneath!

Articles of Interest

Seattle novelist Nicola Griffith has some great posts this week related to the content of novels about women, female authorship, and winning awards. Many see the correlative to theater:

excerpt: “…. I feel the part of me that floats between physical and sexual aspects of my life is the truest part – a neutral space not limited by binary concepts that make us either male or female. I have made being this “alternative hero” my work for two decades in a world where it is still prevalent in cultures dominated by ancient religions that women are considered lesser in their very essence than men, and they still have no voice. It is a privilege and joy to step outside my own gender, and let the neutral in me – and in us all – sing."

http://nicolagriffith.com/2015/05/26/books-about-women-tend-not-to-win-awards/

http://nicolagriffith.com/2015/05/28/books-about-women-dont-win-awards-solutions/

Alice Coote: My Life as a Man

Ahead of her solo Brighton festival appearance showcasing Handel’s gender-bending operatic writing, mezzo-soprano Alice Coote reflects on the complexities of a creative life playing ‘breeches’ roles.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/may/13/alice-coote-mezzo-breeches-roles-my-life-as-a-man

May 2015 Newsletter

Mona Curtis — Fri, 15 May 2015 06:00:02 GMT

Member Spotlight: Geralyn Horton

by Debbie Miller

I have been writing plays since I was first able to write

—I could read at age 3, write before age 4—and am

still at it, convinced that it is my Vocation! If there were

any play writing programs that admitted women in 1957

when I graduated from high school, I certainly did not

know about them. . . .I have no credentials, prizes, fans,

mentors, grants, honors—just persistence.

(Geralyn Horton)

ICWP member G.L. (Geralyn) Horton was born in Toledo, Ohio and now lives in Newton, Massachusetts. She says she “has been doing theatre ‘forever’—romantic comedy, supernatural tragedy, political satire”--as well as musicals and mini-opera. Horton adds that “I’ve had a life-long commitment to agitating for gender parity in the arts.” She has performed as a “singing actor” in new plays and maintains a website of her work at www.stagepage.info Her website includes 100 monologues and 200 one-minute monologues, as well as plays and musicals.

Q: Tell me about a play you’re proud of.

A: “The musical Precious Bane—I was taken on as book writer/lyricist in 2007—is special to me because it’s a long-term collaboration with a composer who is devoted to the novel it is adapted from and with a serious group devoted to writing opera and musicals….We are currently performing a fifty minute stripped down version to try to draw the attention of people who could help us towards a production.” [www.precious-bane.com]

Q: Do you write primarily male or female characters?

A: “Both. I am very comfortable writing men. . . .When I cast myself as a writer, I assumed that nothing human was alien to me.”

Q: Do you prefer to write one gender over another?

A: “I write more parts for women than for men, and particularly for older women; I consider it a duty. So few interesting parts for older women, so few women writers writing them from the inside.”

Q: What type of plays are your favorite to write?

A: “I love large cast plays that have characters from differing backgrounds and age cohorts, some ambiguity and unresolved mystery, and poetic and/or witty language.”

Q: Why do you write plays?

A: “In childhood, I had a vision/dream, wherein I was summoned to join a golden carousel of poets and playwrights going round and round to celestial music. “You are to join us in writing plays,” they said.””

Q: What advice do you have for ICWP members who are new to playwriting?

A: “Enjoy! And I wish for you that you will find actors and directors to work in close collaboration with, who will foster and nurture the children of your imagination.”

New Members

Marianna Staroselsky has been writing since age 10, starting with poetry and later delving into most genres from journalism to microfiction to pantoums. Theatre is the one that makes her the happiest. Her current writing projects include "Cry Baby Meets Audrey Hepburn," a bilingual creative nonfiction play loosely based on her life and immigration from the Former Soviet Union whose production will be partially supported by a Tikkun Fellowship, she's also writing a brand new play as a member of the Writer's Room at the New Colony, and producing and co-directing her one act plays such as "1-800-Why-Does-Life-Suck," in upcoming festivals in Chicago (Fringe Fest) as well as in NYC (Manhattan Rep.) She’s also a company member with the Orchard, a brilliant new Chicago theatre company, and BYOT Productions, a monthly 24-hour theatre fest. Her theatre training comes from classes at the University of Chicago, Second City and the Annoyance. When Marianna isn’t playwriting, performing, or directing, she’s working on her dissertation on the performance of the self and identit(ies) in life and on the stage.

marianna.staroselsky@gmail.com

*Ibadete Abazi, Kosovo, Albania

*Interesting sidetone: Abazi is the first person to join from Albania, and as such, has free membership for two years. This policy was adopted by ICWP to encourage internationalism.

Ibadete Abazi is a student of Dramaturgy in the Art Faculty at the University of Prishtina in Kosovo. She is known for writing the 26 episodic scenario for the famous TV series City without a River produced by Idea Production and broadcasted on Radio Television of Kosovo – RTK. She has written several short dramas and screen plays. Some are awaiting production in theatre, and soma have been produced by students at the University of Prishtina. Ibadete is married and has two daughters.

https://vimeo.com/groups/qytetipalume

ibadet_kutllovci@live.com

ICWP Initiatives

After much consideration, ICWP has decided to become an Affiliate Member of the Women In the Arts and Media Coalition, an advocacy and networking organization that addresses issues of concern to women in the arts, media, and new media.

We would also like to sincerely thank The O'Neill Film and Theatrical Foundation for forfeiting the $150 dollar annual membership fee.

The O'Neill Film and Theatrical Foundation is dedicated to aiding women playwrights and screenwriters from around the world in getting their work produced on the stage and screen, by drawing domestic and international attention to their artistic achievements. The Foundation is equally committed to proactively and systematically advocating for gender parity in the theatre and film industries, striving toward the day when the employment gap for women is permanently closed. www.theoneillfilmandtheatricalfoundation.com

50/50 Applause Award

The nomination period for the ICWP 50/50 Applause Awards opened with a bang, garnering 70 nominations in the first week from, at least, five different countries! We hope ICWP members and the public will continue to find theaters who demonstrated gender parity between July 1, 2014-June 30, 215. Nominations are open until May 22, 2015. http://www.womenplaywrights.org/award

Equity in Theatre Update

The EIT Symposium on April 27th, 2015, was a successful event, with approximately 100 people from various fields in attendance, who brainstormed solutions for a more equitable industry.

Resources from the day are available on the Equity in Theatre website. The focus of the day, and the ongoing purpose of the EIT Initiative, is to devise actionable items, agenda and strategies for change. The Symposium generated a number of ideas to implement as we move forward, including a Canadian Kilroy’s list, an equity-based rating system for play productions, toolkits for Boards and Artistic Directors, and more. Furthermore, the Symposium drew attention to The Palette Premise, an initiative commenced by Tanisha Taitt. Central to her project is the core belief of celebrating cultural diversity as a means to bring women of all backgrounds onto equal footing in order to make greater strides towards gender equality.

"Toronto, Ontario is in my humble opinion, the epicenter of the theatrical Canadian sphere, particularly with Toronto's various theatre and affinity group initiatives striving for deeper representation of women in the Canadian Theatre, seeking the full representation of the Pan Asian culture in Canadian theatre as well as the representation of the growing LGBQ Community, the Latino Community, the enlightened youth which seek their active reflection in contemporary Canadian theatrical pieces from which they are peculiarly absent, and the presentation and preservation of the indigenous community of current obviously underserved presence in the Canadian theatre. Most importantly, women working in the Canadian Theatre yearn to preserve the thriving scene of theatre for social justice, which is much needed in the chaotic 21st Century, and is very much in lieu of the activism present in the United States on the theatrical front. In essence, activism on the part of women working in the theatre, in unification, is a growing necessity in achieving gender parity and social justice in Canadian theatre as it is mirrored in the US."

Sophia Romma, ICWP Vice President and representative at the Symposium

ARTICLES OF INTEREST

The story behind Friday Night Light's recent episode about rape and football.

excerpt:

"Maybe one of the reasons Schumer and the overtly feminist humor she does so well is resonating right now is because the raw material available to people who view the world through a feminist lens is inherently absurd. Women are fighting for rights so obvious they shouldn’t even be up for debate.

http://thinkprogress.org/culture/2015/04/22/3649528/clear-eyes-full-hearts-dont-rape-inside-amy-schumer-writers-tell-story-behind-sketch/utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tptop3

All Female Casts, Breaking Up the Boy's Club. Two new Canadian plays, Miss Shakespeare, set 400 years in the past, and J. Ceasar, set 400 years in the future, both feature all women casts. This is a great summary article about the status of women in theater, with several quotes from ICWP Board Member, Kris Bauske.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/theatre-and-performance/new-plays-fight-gender-gap-in-theatre-with-all-female-casts/

Spaulding Gray's Catastrophe, a poignant article about the actor's illness and suicide, written by his neurosurgeon.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/27/the-catastrophe-oliver-sacks

April 2015 Newsletter

Mona Curtis — Sun, 26 Apr 2015 04:20:37 GMT

Member Spotlight

by Debbie Miller

Herlina Syarifudin defines herself as an “Indonesian woman playwright, director, and monologue actress.” Syarifudin lives in Jakarta, Indonesia, where she teaches high school and writes plays, monologues, short stories, and poetry in her native Bahasa/Indonesian language. Her plays have been produced in Indonesia (Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan, and Bali).

On November 15, 2014 Syarifudin founded the Keluarga Theater company in Jakarta. According to Syarifudin, Keluarga members represent “a wide range of disciplines” including actors, directors, playwrights, choreographers, costume designers, and models. Thus, Keluarga encompasses theatre, movies, dance, fine arts, fashion, and street performance.

Currently, Syarifudin’s play “My Name is Name” (translated from Indonesian) is in rehearsals with Syarifudin directing and producing. The play has been selected to be performed at the Women Playwrights International Conference (WPIC) this year in Cape Town, South Africa.

The following is a Q&A interview with Syarifudin. As English is not her native language, the text has been adjusted slightly in terms of grammar, but the words are her own.

Q: Did you study playwriting in a college or university?

A: No, I didn’t. I’m self-taught (an autodidact ) and I joined a short playwriting workshop.

Q: Did you study acting in a college or university?

A: No, I didn’t. I’m self-taught. I joined productions in some theater groups here, watched theater (live, You Tube and Vimeo), read books about acting, joined a short acting workshop, and discussed acting with senior theater artists.

Q: Why do you write plays?

A: Because I love theater. In theater, especially for playwriting there are many challenges with its own difficulties for us as playwrights compared if we are writing short stories. When I write a play, I’m not only in position as a playwright, but I have to imagine the play as a director also.

For example, how can I create characters and find actors who can play the characters in the script? How can I describe the situation in each scene and the space and time of the setting, considering the size and type of the stage that we will use to show the play (public space/ outdoor or indoor)? How can a lighting director, artistic director, makeup and costume designer translate/interpret my script on the stage?

Q: Do you write: monologues, full length plays, one act plays, or ten minute plays? Comedy, drama? One-person shows?

A: I have written monologues, full length plays, one act plays and ten minute plays in all genres like comedy, tragic comedy, drama, and melodrama. But, all of my plays and monologues are still in the Indonesian language. The only one that is in English is a play “My Name is Name.” So, that’s why I joined ICWP, to motivate me to start translate all of my plays and monologues into English so that they can be read and performed by theatre companies around the world.

Q: How long have you been writing?

A: When I was at Senior High School I started writing a diary book. When I was in college, my writing evolved into poetry, short stories, and plays. And I started seriously writing plays in 2006. But sometimes if I am stagnant in an idea to write a play, I move on to writing poetry, short stories, and scenario of short films. It depends on my mood.

Q: Do you write plays and monologues to educate people? If so, what do you want to educate people about? Is there a theme that underlies a lot of your writing?

A: Yes, I do. In my plays and monologues, there are moral messages about how to learn about life, humanity, and give more attention for the many things that to other people might no longer matter. For example, most of the themes in my plays and monologues talk about minorities—street children, traditional arts that are almost extinct and have been lost because people in this generation are not interested in learning them anymore, and marginalized, economic low class people. And, the struggle of women.

Q: Can you tell me about one character you are proud of?

A: I have a monologue that I perform titled “Victimizing Goddess Cokek.” The Goddess of Cokek is a representation from a figure of master Cokek artist Mak Masnah (“Mak” means “mother”). It is from the Betawi people in Java, an island in Indonesia. Mak Masnah was born in an era of warfare. She died on January 26, 2014. “Cokek” is from the Chinese language Hokkian and means a woman singer. Cokek is a traditional art of Chinese and Betawi cultures. I am interested in honoring her and lifting her story because she devoted her life to being a Cokek artist. Her jobs as an artist were not enough to finance her life and her family and she didn’t always get jobs because there were many competitors during that time. But, she was still loyal as a Cokek artist until she died. And, the problem now is that there are not people of this generation who are interested in becoming Cokek artists. I have performed this monologue 15 times between 2009 and 2014, as playwright, director, and performer. I dedicate “Victimizing Goddess Cokek” to Mak Masnah.

Here are links to two 30-minute videos of Herlina Syarifusin performing “Victimizing Goddess Cokek:”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDVmezqTyPg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REkrkzs44-U

Facebook: www.facebook.com/elang.pawestri

Website: www.keluargateater.wix.com/herlina

Welcome New Members & Returning Members

Rahmat Ismail Bint Zakari, Abuai, Nigeria

My name is Rahmat Ismail Bint Zakari. I am a Nigerian from Benue state (north central) of the country and I reside in Abuaj, the federal capital territory for the Nigeria people.

Growing up then in my secondary school days, I became interested in my school dramatic club and subsequently before graduation in 1993, I was able to put together my first play titled "The Seed of Love". Since that piece, my interest has remained uninterrupted even though I have not been able to publish any of my pieces.

The reason why I want join the conversation is to afford me opportunity to learn and improve my writing talent. I am a member of a writer's forum here my country and since joining the forum, I do know that I enjoy some level of satisfaction as I get to participate in our monthly writers' challenge in which my story once won second. I look forward to having a more gratifying experience being member of your group.

You can always reach me through my email address.

rahzak@yahoo.co.uk

Séverine Klein, Paris, France

I am a French and live in Paris. I mostly write in French and sometimes in English. I have published a novel (La vérité peut attendre, Truth can wait) and a play (Maîtres-chanteurs/Blackmailers) and have written several other plays.

I am also an actress though writing is my my main artistic interest.

Among modern/contemporary playwrights, I like most Yasmina Reza, Bernard-Marie Koltès, Jean Tardieu, Lee Blessing, Theresa Rebeck, Sarah Kane, Hanokh Levin, Arthur Miller and some Harold Pinter.

I am a trained writing coach and have helped a few writers to improve theirs drafts.

I feel ICWP can be a place where I can discuss current trends in playwriting in English. I would also like to discuss directing plays while being the author.

My website (in French): www.severineklein.net

Email: sverineklein5@gmail.com

Laylah Muran de Assereto

*Russ Travis, New York, USA

www.LifeJacketTheatre.org

*Men are welcome to join ICWP as long as they support women playwrights.

Sandra Seaton, Michigan, USA

Playwright and librettist, Sandra's plays have been performed in cities throughout the country, including New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, and her libretto for the song cycle From the Diary of Sally Hemings, set to music by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer William Bolcom, has been performed at such venues as Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center.

Seaton’s first play, The Bridge Party, set in a small Southern town during World War II, dramatizes a confrontation between members of an African American women’s bridge club and deputies engaged in a house-to-house search in the black community. www.sandraseaton.com

Christine Trageser, Red Brick Road

Paula Kamen, Evanston, Illinois USA

Among other plays, the author of Jane: Abortion and the Underground, which is excerpted in Best Female Stage Scenes and Best Female Monologues series. Also the author of four non-fiction books, the most recent being "Finding Iris Chang."

See http://www.paulakamen.com.

Katherine Koller, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Katherine writes for radio, stage and screen. Her one-act comedies have been produced at the Edmonton Fringe Festival, CBC radio, Jagged Edge Lunchbox Theatre, Winnipeg‘s FemFest, Alumnae Theatre in Toronto and Walterdale Playhouse in Edmonton.

She teaches in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta. Her website is www.katherinekoller.ca.

Jennifer Decker, Mildred's Umbrella Theater Company

mildredsumbrella@hotmail.com

Heartfelt Thank You to Donors

ICWP appreciates donations from members, former members, future members and anyone who supports women playwrights. We extend our heartfelt thanks to the following individuals who donated this quarter.

Mary O'Malley

Séverine Klein

Carolyn Nur Wistrand

Sandra Perlman

Articles of Interest

10 Words Every Girl Should Know

A discussion of daughters and the words we speak to them.

http://www.alternet.org/gender/10-words-every-girl-should-learn

We Want More Older and Real Women on TV

A study showing TV audiences' perception of women in mass media.

<http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/we-want-more-real-and-older-women-on-tv-audiences-tell-broadcasters-10142141.html

Coming Events

Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) 2015 Conference

July 30 to August 2,  Montréal Québec Canada.

http://www.athe.org/news/193492/2015--2016-Hotel-Rates-and-Conference-Dates-Announced.htm

April 27 & 28th, Vice President Sophie Romma, and member Shirley Barrie will attend the Gender Equity in Theatre International Conference in Toronto, in representation of ICWP.

Sophia is also part of a smaller working group at the conference and will give a short description of ICWP and its work on gender parity issues. She will address the questions of what our organization is currently doing, the greatest challenges we face and the strengths and resources of our organization.

ICWP Initiatives

The International Centre for Women Playwrights (ICWP) 50/50 Applause Awards was founded in 2012 to increase awareness and applaud theatres that produced a season with an equal or greater number of plays written by female playwrights. Nominations for the 2015 award open May 1.

In the November 2014 Newsletter, I reported that ICWP had nominated member Madhuri Shekar, as candidate for the Lark Pony Fellowship 2015. We would like to announce that Martyna Majok, author of Ironbound, a Top Ten play for the 2014 Kilroys’ list, received that honor. The Lark and Playwrights of New York (PoNY) reported that "Majok was selected from a very talented group of writers who were nominated by artistic leaders and graduate playwriting programs from across the country." Congratulations, Martyna.

http://www.larktheatre.org/the-lark-and-playwrights-of-new-york-announce-2015-16-pony-fellowship-awarded-to-playwright-martyna-majok/

Website Tip of the Month

One of the benefits of your ICWP membership is that you can post details of any Productions or Readings events, Awards you may have received and Publications, on the ICWP website.

The links to your listings will appear on the ICWP website Homepage under the "Achievements"

Add your

• Productions ( or Public Readings ),

• Awards ( includes Bursaries, Contest Winner, Finalist, commended, Grants received)

• Publications ( Sole Author or Multiple Author Works) .

Just log in on the website with your membership email and password. If you forgot your password, click the Forgot Password link under the login box and you will receive a password help email.

Adding your achievements -

Click on the News link in the top menu Next: In the left menu you will see the links to go to Member Awards Member Productions Member Publications As a logged in member , you should see, on each page, a button that says " Add Post". Just follow the instructions on the page

We are very happy to have Debbie Miller, New York teacher, writer and playwright, join us as Spotlight writer. We are anxious to hear from all our members. If you have any comments or if you would like to nominate yourself or someone else for the spotlight, please reply to this email.

Yours for innovative, engaging, and equitable theater,

Mona Curtis

Newsletter Editor

March 2015 Newsletter

Mona Curtis — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 11:30:14 GMT

Member Spotlight

This month, we would like to recognize the volunteerism of Nina Gooch, the facilitator for the ICWP online playwriting group.

Nina Gooch is based in Atlanta, Georgia. In addition to being a playwright, she is a lighting designer and a stage/production manager. She was a co-founder and Artistic Director of Theatre OUTlanta, an LBTQ theatre in Atlanta. Her ten-minute play Dancing on a Sweet Summer Evening was produced as part of Queer Theatre Kalamazoo’s 2014 Summer Shorts program.

Nina has been a member of ICWP for over ten years. She started as a playwright participant in the pilot program of the online playwriting group right at the start, in January, 2013, and took on the moderator role when the original moderator was unable to continue. “It was a skill I had and I appreciated what I’d gotten from the process….” said Nina.

Initially started to particularly support members in areas where they did not have immediate support, the playwriting group reads each other’s plays and answers questions posed by the playwright. New plays go out about every five to six weeks. As this is a program run by ICWP, all the members of the playwriting group are ICWP members. Playwrights receive feedback from people with very different perspectives. Nina says that she has learned just as much from reading other people’s work as from getting feedback on her own.

There are currently spots open in the ICWP online playwriting group. If you are interested in joining, please email Nina at ninagooch@gmail.com

Thank you, Nina, for all the work you do!

Welcome New Members

Beverly Bowers is the director of Womens Way of Oh-Ky, an artistic support group currently working on a play THE BREEZE BENDS THE GRASS, a musical with original score written by the Julliard trained and award-winning songwriter, Krista Detor.

www.womenswayohio.org

Liesl Lafferty is a Jessie award-winning director, dramaturg and playwright, focusing mainly on creating new Canadian works. She wrote and directed CANARY for the 2010 Vancouver Fringe, a semi-autobiographical comedy about environmental illness. Liesl is member of the Wet Ink Collective Playwriting Intensive. For more information, check out www.liesllafferty.ca.

Eleanor Oberio is an emerging playwright and recently underwent a workshop with the award winning playwright and director Dean Lundquist. She is is also working on an illustrated children's book entitled "Goodnight Emmanuel." In her spare time, she does volunteer work for community and conservation and artistic. She lives in Singapore with her chirpy 3 year old son and husband.

Rosa Nagle is an experimental playwright from Boston. Her play ON THE DEATH OF JUNE had its world premiere last summer during the NYNW Theatre Festival. She is self-producing her site-specific, interactive play OCTOBER.

Articles of Interest

Article on "The Heidi Chronicles" in the NY Times takes a sharp bend to the issue of women playwrights.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/01/nyregion/decades-since-wassersteins-heidi-the-glass-proscenium-holds-fast.html?_r=0

A Stage of their Own: Why Women Playwrights are Still Marginalized

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2015/feb/26/female-playwrights-national-theatre?CMP=share_btn_tw

Coming Events

Also, Equity in Theatre is hosting a Symposium Monday, April 27^th at The Theatre Centre in Toronto. This is a one-day event tackling underrepresentation and gender inequities in the theatre industry in Canada.

equityintheatre@gmail.com

Dramatist Third National Conference July 16-19, La Jolla, California

http://www.dramatistsguild.com/nationalconference.aspx

ICWP Initiatives

Nominations open May 1 for the 2015 50/50 Applause Award.

Welcome to the ICWP March Newsletter. As you can see, we are trying to spotlight a new member each month. I would like to extend a personal invitation for you to nominate yourself or another ICWP member for the spotlight. We are particularly interested in people in under-represented areas but welcome suggestions from all our members.

Yours for innovative, engaging, and equitable theater,

Mona Curtis

February 2015

Mona Curtis — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 23:21:12 GMT

A Tribute to Jewel

The Member Spotlight for February is a Tribute to Jewel Seehaus-Fisher, longtime member and contributor to the International Centre for Women Playwrights. Jewel was an adjunct professor of English at Rutgers University as well as Artistic Director of Teachers Theater. Twice recipient of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship in Playwriting, Jewel was a talented and prolific writer whose plays and opera librettos have been produced around the country. I could give a lengthy description of Jewel's many productions, awards, memberships, and academic and theatrical positions. However, her best tribute is the words of those who knew and loved her.

Jewel was a dear friend of mine for more than twenty years. . . . She was kind, generous, loving, talented, funny and always supportive of my work and the work of other playwrights. I had seen her with her daughter Mavis at her new opera in NYC just days before her life was ended so suddenly and senselessly. I will always miss her and carry her memory in my heart.

Donna Spector

Jewel was known to me through the network of international women writers. Her independent spirit and huge intelligence was a constant support to members and many us of felt we knew her well even without meeting her. This is testament to her success in reaching out to so many. We shall miss her. She was indeed a precious jewel whose worth is far more than rubies.

Julia Pascal

She was a friend and colleague of mine, and a true lady of the theatre.She will be greatly missed.

Rachel Rubin Ladutke

I’ve always been amazed at her ability, the power of her work, and her willingness to improve her craft and her constant commitment to a number of different theaters and projects over the years.

John Pietrowski, Director, Playwrights Theater of New Jersey

Besides her artistic contributions, Jewel was always ready to donate her time to The Theater Project. I am sure she was equally generous to the other arts groups she belonged to. . . . Jewel was an extraordinarily loving and supportive colleague. . . . We will never forget her generosity of spirit, her artistry and her affection.

Mark Spina, Artistic Director, Theatre Project

Sophia Romma, Vice President of ICWP, was able to give a fitting tribute to Jewel at the reading of her play Anthrax at the TheatreLab in New York City on February 16

Remember that March 8 is International Women's Day and Saturday, March 28, 2015 is the official date for the 8th International SWAN Day (Support Women Artists Now.) SWAN Day has very successfully highlighted women's diversity and creativity in the arts. There have been over 1,200 SWAN Day events in 24 countries during its first seven years. WomenArts has a directory where you can find or register events. You can also find it on Facebook.

Yours for innovative, engaging, and equitable theater.

Mona Curtis

January 2014

Wed, 21 Jan 2015 09:44:46 GMT

Welcome to the new and improved ICWP Newsletter.

In this issue, we have a Member Corner including New Members and a Member Marquee and news about gender parity in theater worldwide.

In future issues we hope to have more contributions by members, including a Member Spotlight and compilation of important themes from the ListServe. We also plan to put the newsletter on the website as a blog. As always, we welcome your comments.
Yours for engaging, innovative, and equitable theater,
Mona Curtis

Member Corner

Welcome new members Kal Cahoone.and Ana J. Rogers.

Member Marquee

(See the website homepage for details.)

LIGHTENING UP, SUNDAY by Nancy Gall-Clayton, Public Reading on January 18, Louisville, Kentucky.

MAYAN MASK by Lynn Snyder, January 9 - February 12, Oxnard, California

EVERYDAY EDNA MAE by Robin Rice Lichtig, February 18, 21, 24, 27, and March 1, Frigid New York Festival.

BECAUSE OF BETH by Elana Gartner, March 25-28, Auckland, New Zealand.

I AM MARGUERITE by Shirley Barrie, April 10-25, Toronto, Canada.

MY NAME IS NAME by Herlina Syarfudin, April 18-19, Jakarta, Indonesia.

Scottish National Theater 2015 Season

(a good lineup of works by and about women)

An adaptation of Muriel Spark’s The Driver’s Seat

Cora Bissett Roadkill and musical Glasgow Girls to investigate the deep-rooted cultural practice of female genital mutilation.

Douglas Maxwell Yer Granny, a new English language version of Roberto Cossa’s Argentinean smash hit La Nona. Concerning a 100 year-old granny who is eating her family out of house and home.

Compton MacKenzie’s whimsical novel Whisky Galore, touring from April 9 to May 15, is to be adapted into Gaelic for the first time by Iain Finlay Macleod in a co-production with new Gaelic company Robhanis.

Playwrights Guild of Canada

The Playwrights Guild of Canada has launched their Equity in Theatre (EIT) Initiative. The first phase will be a research study conducted by Dr. Michelle MacArthur on work being done in Canada and abroad for best practices. EIT will establish a dedicated website for women and equity in theatre.

In April, 2015, there will be a day-long, industry wide symposium event to foster conversations on a national and international scale, develop social actions that will promote change and generate awareness of Canadian women playwrights while drawing attention to the systemic issues that permeate the industry.

This will set up a plan for community events and activities for the following year. EIT is looking for partners and resources to aid them in this endeavor. You can reach out to Rebecca Burton at membership@playwrightsguild.ca

The ground is shifting

Also should add the phenomenal news that the new Scottish Government First Minister is female - Nicola Sturgeon and she has just appointed her first cabinet with a 50/50 gender balance. She also publicly urged all companies,corporations, organisations and institutions to achieve 50/50 gender balance by 2020 for their boards and management.

Women Playwrights International 2015 Conference

June 29 - July 3

Capetown, South Africa

Early bird registration continues till May 30.

http://www.wpiconference.com/

Attend workshops by leading female theatre practitioners, Listen to plays from around the world, See exciting productions from South African companies and Network with the global community of women in theatre.

December 2014

Mon, 29 Dec 2014 09:40:16 GMT

Happy Holidays,

Let us be thankful for our many gifts. Yet, the greatest gift we can give is ourselves, our time, our talent, our interest, and our passion.

Board member, Kristine Bauske has contributed this month's spotlight highlighting a special member.

Member Spotlight

It is an honor to shine this month’s spotlight on my good friend and fellow board member Elana Gartner. Aside from being a talented playwright and a busy mom, Elana has been a board member for ICWP for many years, and she has been the chair person or co-chair for the 50/50 Applause Awards since 2011. She is also the Volunteer Coordinator for ICWP. If you don’t know Elana personally, you’ve probably seen her name bandied about in one of these important positions.

Elana has had works produced in a number of U.S. states, including New York, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Georgia. One of her scripts will be produced in New Zealand in March 2015, and two of her monologues are included in “Audition Monologues for Young Women #2: More Contemporary Auditions for Aspiring Actresses”. Elana is a graduate of Oberlin College, where she continues to be active in their alumni association.

During the busy 50/50 Applause Awards season, Elana spends hundreds of hours organizing nominations and verifying the eligibility of the nominated organizations. The task can appear overwhelming, but despite her other job as a busy wife and mother to her fabulous family, Elana always manages to get the 50/50 Applause Awards completed accurately and on time. Not only that, but she tirelessly encourages the rest of the Applause Awards team and does it all with a smile. Elana is a blur of energy and activity, and we are grateful to have this effervescent personality working to further the mission of ICWP.

Next time you’d like to volunteer for a project or you need a volunteer, look forward to a quick chat or an engaging email from this month’s spotlight member, Elana Gartner!

About the Volunteer Program

The ICWP Volunteer Program provides opportunities for members to use their talents and expertise to collaborate on ICWP projects. Past opportunities have included awards committees, nominations committees, research, assistance with our website and artistic design. Our current board is creating new opportunities in 2015 to work with members in many different ways. You can always reach out to Elana about volunteer opportunities at volunteer@womenplaywrights.org.

New Members

ICWP has had seven new members since November 1, 2014. Lisa Alder of Horizon, Gweneth Hughes, an American living in Paris, Andrea Markowitz, Sabrina Masud, Madeline Puccioni, Abigail Rezneck, and Mary Spletter.

Member Corner

In my previous newsletter, I asked what you wanted incorporated in our newsletter. One suggestion was for information about theaters willing to publish cutting-edge plays. Another was a call for members to write short reviews about plays they have seen, especially those outside of the US and Canada. If you have something you would like to share, reply to me and I will try to include it in the Member Corner of the January Newsletter.

Yours for engaging, equitable, and innovative theater,

Mona Curtis

Newsletter Editor

mona83655@gmail.com

2014 November Newsletter

Wed, 26 Nov 2014 09:12:57 GMT

November 2014

Welcome!

The ICWP board feels it's important to communicate its goals, achievements, opportunities, and needs with its constituency, and we plan to put out a newsletter at least monthly, perhaps more often. That is where you come in. We sincerely seek feedback as to what you want in a newsletter.

A few of the items that we have agreed upon include our organizational achievements, recognition of important volunteers, and items of importance in theater, especially as it relates to women playwrights.
50/50 Applause Award

In that light, let me begin with extraordinary success of the ICWP 2014 50/50 Applause Award, given to theatres producing works by women playwrights more than 50% of their season.

This year, over 100 nominations were received and 67 recipients from 9 countries received awards. By comparison, the first awards in 2011 had 5 recipients from one country. It is becoming a sought-after award with theaters and directors self-nominating, expanding the reach and influence of ICWP.

ICWP would also like to recognize the Herculean efforts of the individuals on the 50/50 Applause Awards committee: Rita Barkey, Amy Drake, Elise Geither, Ellen Margolis, Adrienne Pender, Debbie Tan, Lucia Verona and Sharon Wallace.

This committee did their work as a team, in addition to their individual research. They supported one another and were quick to respond to challenges others were encountering. Members who had previously volunteered on this committee lent their wisdom and advice.

Through their efforts, we were able to reach out to theaters in more countries than ever before, send press releases to international theater bloggers, and translate our communications into multiple languages.

After the nominations window, they offered thoughtful suggestions on improvements for next year, based on their experiences. ICWP sincerely thanks and recognizes the work and efforts of this group who truly worked as a team.

Read More http://womenplaywrights.org/award Recipient
Theatres thank you video http://womenplaywrights.org/award-video

The nomination of Madhuri Shekar for the Lark/PoNY Fellowship

Many prestigious competitions and fellowships do not have open submissions. They require nominations from organizations or agents. Playwrights of New York and Lark Play Development Fellowship offer a one-year residency in New York. Living expenses, medical insurance, and artistic support are provided to a serious young playwright.

ICWP was asked by the search committee to submit a nomination. After reviewing the Fellowship's goals, ICWP nominated Madhuri Shekar, Indian-American writer and ICWP member.

Ms. Shekar was strongly recommended by her professor, Paula Cizmar also an ICWP member, as a unique and poignant writer in a critical point in her career.

It is an honor for an organization to be asked to nominate and careful consideration and appropriate recommendations legitimize our organization and position us to participate in other nominations.

For this reason, ICWP is creating an awards committee that will be responsible for selecting candidates when ICWP is asked for recommendations.

Read More about the Lark PONY Award http://www.playwrightsofnewyork.org/about.html

Current events about gender parity in the arts, especially theater

Women Playwrights International has been dedicated to planning and convening inspirational triennial international conferences, for women playwrights and allied theater artists, that began in 1988.

It has organized conferences in different parts of the world in an effort to give access to underrepresented regions.

Next year's conference will be June 29 - July 3 in Cape Town, South Africa.

ICWP President, Karen Jeynes, is active in organizing the event.

Registration is now open at http://www.wpiconference.com/

The ICWP Member Directory

The Member Directory link has been moved to a more prominent position on the website, linked from the Homepage. Here you will be able to see how your playwright profile looks to the public. http://www.womenplaywrights.org/member-directory

Member Corner

Now, I leave it up to you. Please give me feedback about the contents of this newsletter and your suggestions for future issues.

I am also interested in including personal accounts from members, not production notices but informative accounts of working on a play in any capacity.

This would be a mini-article where you could expand upon your experience for the benefit of all.

Yours for equitable, engaging, and innovative theater.

Mona Curtis

Newsletter Editor
monacurtis@hotmail.com

International Centre for Women Playwrights Newsletter

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May 2019 NEWSLETTER

Karin Williams

February 2019

Editor's Introduction

Introduction of New Logo

3 Minute Play Contest Winners

Interviews with July 2018 Winners:

New Members Since July 2018

Articles of Interest

International News

July 2018 Newsletter

April 2018 Newsletter

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The image used in this newsletter is the work of КириллБогомазов (Lemurkov)from Novokuznetsk, in southwestern Siberia. It was downloaded from Pixabay on January 30, 2018.

January 2018 Newsletter

December 2017 Newsletter

September 2017 Newsltter

August 2017 Newsletter

July 2017 Newsletter

June 2017 Newsletter: Spotlight on Australia

May 2017 Newsletter Spotlight on Eastern Europe

Member Spotlight: Ibadete Abazi

Q: Why did you become a playwright?

Q: Are there any special challenges in being a female playwright?

Q: What is special about theater in Southeastern Europe?

Q: What advice would you give to your fellow (or aspiring) playwrights?

Welcome New Member

Now Playing & Coming Soon

Articles of Interest

April 2017 Newsletter

March 2017 Newsletter Meet the Board

March 2017 Newsletter 50/50 Applause Award

February 2017 Newsletter

FEBRUARY SPOTLIGHT: MAHIN MOHASSEB

Welcome New Members

ICWP News

Now Playing and Coming Soon

Articles of Interest: Theatre in the Middle East

January 2017 Newsletter

Articles of Interest: Theatre in China

December 2016 Newsletter

November 2016 Newsletter

by Karin Williams

October 2016 Newsletter

Announcing the 2016 50/50 Applause Awards

Welcome New Members

Now Playing & Coming Soon

Articles of Interest

Septebmer 2016 Newsletter

August 2016 Newsletter

June 2016 Newsletter

June Spotlight: Barbara Lhota by Suzanne Richardson

by Patricia Morin

May 2016 Newsletter: All-Women Theaters

May Spotlight: The New Georges Theater

by Suzanne Richardson

February 2016 Newsletter: Just Say No To Submission Fees

January 2016 Newsletter

December 2015 Newsletter

November 2015 Newsletter

October 2015 Newsletter

September 2015 Newsletter

August 2015 Newsletter

July 2015 Newsletter

June 2015 Newsletter

June Spotlight: Barbara Lhota
by Suzanne Richardson