Our Voices Together II

Our Voices Together II
2008 ICWP Showcase of Playwrights' Platform Women Writers's New Work
May 17th, 7:00pm Ruth Nagel Jones Theatre, Wellesley College, MA.
Free and open to the public. See some of the Boston area's best actors in Staged Reading premieres!

7:00 pm Pre-show reception with refreshments.
7:30 pm the short plays:

Russian Master Class by Ludmila Anselm *
Cut by Holly Jensen
Unconditionally by Lida McGirr
Shopping Cart by Regina Ramsey*
The Acolyte by Kelly DuMar *

Intermission

The Unveiling by Ellen Davis Sullivan
Last Glance by Hortense Gerardo *
Best Practice by G.L. Horton *
Pull a Costner -by Phyllis Rittner

9:15 pm Post-show discussion moderated by Platform board members Chris King and Kelly DuMar.

* members of the International Centre for Women Playwrights, co-sponsor of this second annual celebration.

Web Links:
Stage Page Pod Cast Re: Our Voices Together >
Ruth Nagel Jones Theatre, Wellesley Summer Theatre
International Centre for Women Playwright
Playwrights Platform

Annoncement: ICWP/Swanday Celebration

2^nd Annual MARCH MADNESS

SWAN Day Celebration! 

Readings and Performances of the work of 

Boston-area Women Playwrights and Artists

Boston Playwrights' Theatre

Saturday Afternoon, March 29 @ 2-5 PM

Come join us for a program of readings and performances of eleven theatre pieces created by local Boston playwrights and artists.  This year there is a theme of relationships and all work treats the subject in some way.  The work, all new and not previously presented, includes short plays and scenes (including one from a new musical!) plus a movement piece---  from area artists Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro, Ludmila Anselm, Sue Brody, Hortense Gerardo, Lyralen Kaye & Amy West, Lynn Liccardo, Miriam Raikin-Kolb & Geralyn Horton, Monica Raymond, Diane Ripstein, Phyllis Rittner and Debbie Wiess.  Some of the Boston theatre scene's favorite directors and actors will be involved such as Danny Gidron, Ken Baltin, June Lewin, Bobbi Steinbeck and Jerry Bisantz.  After the program, there will be a party with light refreshments for mingling and socializing

This event is part of a new international celebration of women artists called SWAN Day (Support Women Artists Now Day), and is being organized under the auspices of the International Centre for Women Playwrights.  March Madness takes place at the Boston Playwrights' Theatre located at 949 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, (Pleasant Street stop on B-line) on Saturday afternoon, March 29, from 2-5pm.  There will be no ticket sales, but donations ($5 suggested) at the door are welcome.  All proceeds of the event will go to The Fund for Women Artists organization, one of the two groups, which conceived SWAN Day, to support its efforts.  For more information, please contact Debbie Wiess

ICWP Monologues by Women at the BPT

Last night at Boston Playwrights Theatre was great! Everyone was so proud and pleased. However, "everyone" wasn't as many as we'd hoped-- nearly full but no need to put out extra chairs. We had a record cold temperature, near zero, and cars and public transit were less than reliable. Our family's excellent old car-- it has 170,000 miles on it-- refused to start for the 1st time ever, and I arrived at the theatre just 1 hour before the performance, rather than the 2 hours early for set up that I'd promised. Everyone else was was late too, but all helpful and efficient and the shows ran like clockwork. We'd had to hire a young pro from Boston University to stage manage and run sound and lights, but she knew the theatre's equipment very well and worked magic, dimming and blacking out and picking up actors in a spot without any tech rehearsal! All the actors and playwrights made it in spite of the weather-- some just barely in time-- but I know that some of the audience stayed home due to the arctic conditions. My email is full of regrets. Amy Merrill's playwright husband, Robert Johnson, took pictures. He's going to send them to me and I'll add identifying captions and send them to the International Centre for Women Playwrights for the web page. I think everyone will be delighted to see the range of characters represented by these monologues-- the youngest was about 9 years, and the oldest-- well, old. The contrast in voices was just as vivid: rural, urban, New England, Southern... four included singing... and there were even a few Good Men! The actors were among Boston's best-- some of whom, like Richard McElvain, are among the best in the world, IMHO. Robert Bonotto did a heart-wrenching performance of the monologue from my play "Elegy", and Joan Faber sang a touching caberet version from the Dancing Princess song from "Lullaby": my lyrics, Bonotto's music. And some people came up to me-the-actress afterwards and told me I was brilliant in Rosanna Alfaro's "Martha" and "I didn't even recognize you!"-- which of course makes any little frustrations vanish. What is more satisfying than to feel that you are in good company and worthy of being there?

I am worried about Sat at Cambridge, though. This event was somehow cut out of the listings that have appeared-- maybe because it features a writing workshop as well as readings and had an open invitation to newcomers??? And people in the audience at the BPT did NOT pick up many of the flyers for the remaining events or-- except for a few-- take advantage of the Virtual Participants packets. So much for that brilliant idea! I will try to "sell" the monologue packets at the remaining events and bring leftovers with me to NYC for the ICWP Celebration at the Drama Book Shop on the 23rd. Anyway, I'm asking people who have friends in this area to please call them and urge them to show up in Cambridge this Saturday for the writing Workshop at 10 am and/or the shows at 11:45. We have good pieces, and good actors, and should have a Real Good Time if enough people show up to constitute a Workshop and an Audience. My feeling is you need at least a dozen for a good class and 3 dozen for a responsive audience, especially for comedy. Nobody wants to laugh alone.

Blog Against Sexism Day

Every Dog Has His Day: What About Us?

Raina on playsandplaywrights posted: "I've been a member of this group for a couple of years, and I can't remember this being discussed, although I know it is old news. All studies show that women only write about 20% of the plays that are produced, and only direct about 20% of the plays that are produced, despite comprising 52% of playwriting MFA students, and 60% of the playgoing public. Since yesterday was Blog Against Sexism day, I thought I'd send my blog post to the group, and ask for commentary."

I replied: I discuss it all the time. I get quite shrill on the subject.
Really want to get depressed? It's now down to 16% women written
plays, after rising to 22% in the late 1990s. Which is still a
smaller % than the plays written by women that were produced in the
1890s! I didn't blog against sexism today-- unless you count the quick
description I put up around 11:30 pm on my Stageblog re: the
International Center for Women Playwrights International Women's Day
Celebration I co-produced at the Boston Playwrights
Theatre. Back in the Dark Ages, I was the only female in my
university play writing class. My (all male) English professors
taught their students that there had never been a good play written
by a woman, and my (all male) psychology professors assured me that
there never would be one. I swore then and there to do everything in
my power to make it very difficult for a professor to say such things
to my great-great-granddaughters. Or yours. People, male or female,
who share this goal might consider joining, on the ICWP web site.


I've got two more Celebrations I'm producing this coming week: at
Central Square Branch Library in Cambridge Saturday 10am-2pm, and at
the Brighton Branch of the Boston Public Library Thursday 7-9 pm.
You can read all about them on the ICWP web site. If you're near
Boston, come!

Boston missed the "boom" in women playwrights in the 1990s. Most
companies here went season after season without a single female
author featured. But this seems to be a breakthrough year. I just
checked this week's listings in the Boston Phoenix: 24 items under
"Theatre" 3 plays by women, 2 musicals with a woman writer. Two
others just closed. 5 or 7 out of 24 doesn't sound great; it's still
around 20% -- but it's a heck of a lot better than 5 or 10 years ago!