Help us keep our work going! Just $10 makes an enormous impact on our work. Click here to donate to the Write For Women Campaign.
Meet Darcy Parker Bruce! Darcy’s plays have been produced or developed at Dixon Place, Great Plains Theater Conference, The Bechdel Group, 20% Theatre Chicago, and NYC's Fresh Fruit Festival, among others. She holds an MFA in Playwriting from Smith College and is currently teaching playwriting at Eastern Connecticut State University. You can find Darcy at http://darcypbruce.wixsite.com/darcyparkerbruce Tell us about your experience working with the Bechdel Group. I am so grateful for having been able to develop my play Shake Teeth Shake with the Bechdel Group, they really stood behind the play, they made space and time for the work, and having a chance to dialogue with a dramaturg about a piece in development is so crucial at such an early stage. The space is intimate, but the audience that they assembled for the talk back portion was eager to engage with the script. Your work passes the Bechdel test, but is meeting the criteria of the test something you set out to do when you write? If not, how has seeing your work, as now identified through this lens, changed or informed your writing? I think meeting the criteria of the Bechdel test is very important, but in my opinion it’s one of the lowest bars to meet when telling a story. I once saw a shirt that passed the Bechdel test. I want to tell rich stories of women helping women, and loving women, and building women up, so I think having them talk to each other at length about something other than a man is an expected part of that. The Bechdel test is, by its existence, a kind of political rubric – and now identified in film and theatre theory. Are there any other politics or rubrics that influence your work? Is it important to you to identify as a feminist writer? I consider myself a political, feminist playwright. I think it’s really difficult to engage in art without referencing the world around us. To me, theater is a direct response to our political climate and to current events. We write to work through questions we have about the world we’re inhabiting. My art is my activism. How important is getting feedback for your writing process and what do you hope to get from feedback at a reading? Feedback is the cornerstone to the growth of new work. A playwright can only do so much alone at a desk in a room of their own. I love when an audience is engaged with the work in a way that allows them to ask truly fearless questions. Feedback at readings has helped me to open the work in ways I wasn’t able to do on my own. As a playwright, there are many questions I have but can’t answer, and many pieces of the storytelling puzzle that I’m seeking to organize, so when someone comes along who can ask just the right question and unlock that door, it truly helps. How is the feedback you get from a live audience reading different from other types of feedback you seek? I think the feedback from a live audience is invaluable because the audience is reacting to the play in real time, and they’ve just experienced the play live, performed by actors, in a room full of other people who are also experiencing the play. The other major feedback I seek is from my dramaturg, who is usually reading the play in a quiet space, so the experience is very different. Tell us about a woman character you’ve written who surprised you, or took a turn you didn’t expect. Hmmm. This is a hard one. Possibly because so many of the woman characters I set out to write like to take the story into their own hands in a way that often causes me to reevaluate a script. The beautiful thing about writing is that you don’t know everything. There’s so much I learn about the world of my plays when I’m in them, and the characters often have a lot to do with that. I can make outlines and plans but ultimately when I sit down to write I go where they lead me. What comes easily, and what challenges you in your writing? When the story is right, when it’s been percolating unbothered long enough, the first draft will come easily. First drafts still have moments of hair pulling and long walks to figure out dead ends, but for the most part, if I leave an idea alone long enough, if will find a beginning, a middle, and an end. The challenge comes from forcing the story too soon. If I sit down and try to push, I might dead end myself before I get too far. That’s not to say the story can’t still be told, or that shitty first drafts aren’t wonderful, just that I always appreciate keeping a play in my subconscious for a little while, before I bring it into the world. What are you working on now, or what can we look forward to hearing about next from you? Currently I’m working on rewrites for my newest play, SOLDIER POET, which is receiving its world premier with Theatre Prometheus in D.C. later this year. http://theatreprometheus.org/
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Help us keep our work going! Just $10 makes an enormous impact on our work. Click here to donate to the Write For Women Campaign.
Meet Scott Austin! Scott teaches and directs theater at a high school in Brooklyn. He performs improv comedy at the Magnet Theater and writes plays to stay involved in theater as a practitioner. He has also created ethnodrama pieces for Ping Chong + Co. and Rarely Done Productions. He studied Education, theater and English at Syracuse University and NYU Steinhardt School. Your work passes the Bechdel test (or we wouldn’t be having this interview), but is meeting the criteria of the test something you set out to do when you write? If not, how has seeing your work, as now identified through this lens, changed or informed your writing? I’ve been teaching high school for 13 years and am always looking for interesting material for my students. For three of those years I was at a small all-girls public school where Drama was a mandatory class. I was constantly looking for scripts where the women were allowed to play vulnerable, dynamic characters. When I couldn’t find them, I started to write some. The Bechdel Group has allowed me to find other writers who are concerned with how women appear on stage and screen, particularly Ramon Esquivel. Esquivel’s play The Shahrazad Society has been a wonderful addition to my curriculum. [A note from Gina: we were honored to workshop The Shahrazad Society in our first reading series, back in 2014.] The Bechdel test is, by its existence, a kind of political rubric – and now identified in film and theatre theory. Are there any other politics or rubrics that influence your work? Is it important to you to identify as a feminist writer? Until recently, I was a less traditional playwright, concentrating on devising. My methodologies were based on the works of Moises S. Kaufman and the Tectonic Theater Project as well as Ping Chong’s Undesirable Elements series, which puts marginalized communities in the spotlight. So, most of the plays I have “written” have been interview theater, which is inherently political. I have directed and devised pieces on sexuality, education, and immigration. I think it’s a theater practitioner's role to entertain, but also to be part of a socio-political discussion, so it would be strange to think of my work as not feminist or apolitical. How important is getting feedback for your writing process and what do you hope to get from feedback at a reading? Getting feedback is tough, but necessary to make sure my work is landing the way I want it to with audiences. As a white man, I think it s particularly good for me to hear if the female roles I am creating feel realistic to the actresses they are meant for, particularly for women of color. Getting feedback helps me make sure my characters are humans, not archetypes. How is the feedback you get from a live audience reading different from other types of feedback you seek? Getting feedback from a live audience is less cerebral than getting it from someone who has read the play. I find the experience of hearing what gets laughs, what’s too wordy, seeing where audiences start to lose focus is a lot more valuable than asking someone for written notes. Tell us about a woman character you’ve written who surprised you, or took a turn you didn’t expect. The first play I wrote for Bechdel’s 24-Hour playwriting challenge was meant to be a comedy and I realized that the character of Meg was a lot angrier than I thought she was going to be. She ultimately had the most interesting conflict, and some if it was in her head. The play is about a group of women who are on a bowling team to escape their lives. Meg feels offended that one of the other women on the team doesn’t give her a “plus one” to her wedding, which Meg takes to be a slight because Meg is a lesbian. Writing the piece brought up a lot of my own issues toward the convention of marriage. As a gay man, I am always happy for friends when they get married, but there is apparently a part of me that resents the heternormativity of the ceremony. What was meant to be sit-com level humor in Meg came out as a lot heavier. What comes easily, and what challenges you in your writing? I like banter. I think I write banter well. I can sit down and write a page that flows easily. The challenge is in turning the banter into a piece with a focus and direction. I often have a hard time finding a protagonist when I start writing. I’ve done a lot of improv, so I am trained to think that all characters matter equally, but to make a streamlined story, it’s often necessary to pick a character to follow. I’m not Annie Baker or Sarah DeLappe, but I think they both do a great job of writing plays that make you feel for the entire ensemble, and hope to combine my love of group dynamics and group banter with the ability to make a point or show some truth. What are you working on now, or what can we look forward to hearing about next from you? I am working on two pieces. One is storytelling and personal, so it probably will not pass the Bechdel test…sorry. The other piece I want to keep developing is the play I started for the most recent Bechdel 24-hour challenge. It’s about a Blockbuster Video in its last days. The employees are struggling with what to do as they lose their jobs. As Amazon.com, Netflix, and online retail grow, what does that mean for the suburban life? As a country, we are starting to look at factory town and how that is changing. We will always be able to see a play about New York City, but there’s a lot in between. I want to keep exploring that. Help us keep our work going! Just $10 makes an enormous impact on our work. Click here to donate to the Write For Women Campaign.
Meet Rachel Mann! Rachel’s plays have been seen at Athena Theatre, Forward Theater Company, EST's First Brew, InViolet Theater, The PlayGround Experiment, and Naked Angels’ Tuesdays at 9. Her play CLASS MOTHER was nominated for best play at the Winterfest Theater Festival 2016. Her novel ON BLACKBERRY HILL won the 2016 National Jewish Book Award for YA. Find Rachel at rachelmannwriter.com Tell us about your experience(s) with The Bechdel Group. I attended the new play development series last spring, and the annual staged reading in the summer. I really enjoyed the discussion that followed the readings. It was great to discuss art in a place where feminism is at the forefront of the discussion, and with people who think deeply about the effect that art has on culture. Your work passes the Bechdel test; (or we wouldn’t be having this interview) but is meeting the criteria of the test something you set out to do when you write? If not, how has seeing your work, as now identified through this lens, changed or informed your writing? Yes, I do keep the Bechdel test in mind when I set out to write, and have for some time. I’m very aware of the under representation of women’s voices in media, both behind the scenes and on stage. I’m naturally drawn to women’s stories, so it’s not a stretch for me to feature them in my work. The Bechdel test is, by its existence, a kind of political rubric – and now identified in film and theatre theory. Are there any other politics or rubrics that influence your work? Is it important to you to identify as a feminist writer? Feminism informs my life in all ways--as a mother, as a citizen, and of course as a writer. Interestingly, when I started writing SAY IT OUT LOUD, the family in the play had two brothers and one sister. I changed one of the siblings from Mark to Michelle, in order to create another female role in this play. The play would have passed the Bechdel test without this change, because of the relationship between the mother and daughter, but my concern extends beyond the Bechdel test, towards creating a world on stage in which women are not “Smurfettes.” How important is getting feedback for your writing process and what do you hope to get from feedback at a reading? As a writer with a fiction background, one of the things that draws me to playwriting is the collaborative aspect of theater. Readings are a great way of getting feedback, and I would argue, an essential one. Actors breathe life into the people on the page. With each interpretive choice that an actor makes, I make discoveries about the scene and the story. Actors also ask great questions about intent. How is the feedback you get from a live audience reading different from other types of feedback you seek? Theater needs an audience to complete the circle; having an audience present to listen, react, and ask questions gives me food for thought as to what is working, and what needs more consideration. Audiences laugh and smile and cringe--each reaction tells me what effect a scene is having. Tell us about a character you’ve written who surprised you, or took a turn you didn’t expect. There are some characters whose voices I can just naturally hear, and others who take more time to let me into their skin. In this play, I could hear Judy, the matriarch professor, from the beginning, and some of her speeches tumbled onto the page full form. Her daughter Devora was a little harder for me to write, and I had to spend time digging into her motivations and desires. Devora surprised me with her genuine wish to be trusted to make her own choices. In the end, I found myself empathizing with her more than I expected to. What are you working on now, or what can we look forward to hearing about next from you? I’m a member of Athena Theatre’s 2017 Playwrights’ Group, Athena Writes. This year, we’ve been creating works around the theme of “A New Memory.” My new play, WINE AND WATER, is about a college student searching for answers on a backpacking trip around South America, and will be featured in a staged reading in December. ![]() Help us keep our work going! Just $10 makes an enormous impact on our work. Click here to donate to the Write For Women Campaign. Meet Shellen Lubin! Shellen was most recently seen as Luanne in the web series High Falls, as The Flood in The Vagina Monologues at Here Arts Center, and performing her poetry in the last Made in the Berkshires Festival. As a singer/songwriter, she was featured in Milos Forman’s Taking Off, in numerous cabaret acts and one-woman shows over the years, and on WBAI-FM. Shellen also works professionally as a Director, Playwright, and Vocal/Acting Coach. Her reflections on life as an artist--and living with artistry--have been featured in five philosophical cover pieces for Back Stage Publications and are read weekly in her Monday Morning Quotes (www.mondaymorningquotes.com). You can find Shellen on Twitter at @SHLubin and online at www.shellenlubin.com Tell us about your experience(s) reading for the Bechdel Group. I have read for the Bechdel Group twice, and both were fabulous experiences. The first play I read, Denial is Not a River in Egypt by Deborah Magid, is such a great two-woman character study, we're trying to figure out how to make a production happen as we speak. The second time was a wild ride--playing two small roles in Brenda Foley's play (whose lovely writing I have directed in the past), and then, last minute, being thrown into a very uncharacteristic role for me in Marcus Scott's beautifully challenging work with a group of actors who really took it to the max, and we all transported together to another place. I love how unfettered and chance-taking all the actors are. (Although sometimes I wish we could read a little bit more of the plays!) When in your acting career/work did you become aware of the Bechdel test and how has it changed or informed your work? I became aware of the test probably in the early 2000s. In some ways, it has always been what my work has been about (which is one of the reasons I write and direct more and act less--I'm more in a position to challenge precepts and effect change). At the same time, a number of my plays and plays I've directed are about deconstructing romantic love and/or about exposing flaws in accepted/white/male stories and perspectives, and so a number of them do NOT pass the Bechdel Test! So it has certainly made me more aware of that as well. As you know, the Bechdel Group’s monthly readings are not rehearsed – and while they are put together for playwrights to hear their work in development – what do you like about this kind of format and what do you, as an actor, get from it? I love actors throwing themselves into a character, into the text, and flying by the seat of their pants. For those who are open to that, it's a beautiful experience to both share and watch. And it definitely can reveal aspects and layers of the play that might not be revealed in more studied rehearsal. Always an adventure. Have you ever been cast outside of what you consider to be your marketable “type” at a Bechdel reading? How was that for you? That night of the Marcus Scott play, I played an aging Barbie doll type--not my usual bent at all. Had a great time playing her, and was definitely affected deeply as her (and as myself feeling her limitations) by the family arguments I witnessed as well as the ones I was a part of. Playwrights always appreciate the feedback they get from the actors at our readings. What would the perfect collaboration on a play’s development look like from your perspective as an actor? It's tricky for a playwright to hear too much feedback in the moment--I like how specific the questions are that Bechdel asks, to try and keep the conversation guided and offering perspectives instead of telling the playwright what to do. I think the most positive feedback an actor can offer a playwright is how it felt to be in that character--how moments and objectives evolved or didn't--what questions and contradictions presented themselves, and which ones you were looking for later scenes to complete (or at least reflect), and which felt unresolvable or unattainable. ![]() Help us keep our work going! Just $10 makes an enormous impact on our work. Click here to donate to the Write For Women Campaign. Carole Monferdini's career highlights include long runs in three Off-Broadway hits, an OBIE award for playing a man, standing by for Dame Diana Rigg with the National Theatre of Great Britain, playing a vampire with Charles Busch’s Theatre in Limbo, performances in two separate one-woman plays (one as the cosmopolitan fashion and trend-setter Diana Vreeland and the other as an 87-year-old woman in a small Southern town). She was one of the seven Women of Corinth in Euripedes’ Greek tragedy, Medea, and one of the four gents in the first play ever directed by Tommy Tune. She has read plays by and for both Edward Albee and Vaclav Havel, along with many other playwrights both known and as-yet-undiscovered. She has acted in regional theatres in twenty-two states, appeared in dozens of commercials, a couple of “soaps” and several films. She is a member of The Ninth Floor, a founding member of Abingdon Theatre Company and a newly inducted member of The Actors Center. She can saddle up and go full gallop on a horse and thinks it’s all been a pretty good ride so far. Tell us about your experience(s) reading with the Bechdel Group. I have been coming to Monday night readings at Jimmy's for about a year now. It's always fun and exciting to hear short plays or snippets of longer pieces read as they are being developed. I think I have read all types of roles, gender and age-wise -- although, of course, I usually read--ah hem!--"mature" women. Sometimes I have that afternoon to look over what I'll read, sometimes just the half hour before we get started and sometimes on the spot. It's always fun, no matter what. When in your acting career/work did you become aware of the Bechdel test and how has it changed or informed your work? I have to admit that I really only became aware of the Bechdel test in the past year or so that I have been involved with the Bechdel Group's readings. Even though I have long considered myself a feminist and aligned with feminist thinking, it was this group who brought this litmus test to my attention. To be honest, I don't think it has changed my work that much at this point. Let's face it--I'm an older actress and have been playing mothers for many years now. Plus I was always a bit of a character actress so the sexual element was never that great a component in the roles I've played, to be honest. But I do have to admit that, as much as I would love to stay young & lovely forever, I was actually relieved to move on into the other types of roles as I aged. As the likelihood of being asked to disrobe or play a sex scene receded, I was mightily liberated. As you know, the Bechdel Group’s monthly readings are not rehearsed – and while they are put together for playwrights to hear their work in development – what do you like about this kind of format and what do you, as an actor, get from it? As an actor, this format is a lot of fun for me. I always spend a lot of time preparing when I have a script in advance -- be it an audition or the first day of rehearsal for a play. But I also just love to "wing it", with all sides understanding the rules of the game. I think that first impulses are powerful and should not be discounted. Have you ever been cast outside of what you consider to be your marketable “type” at a Bechdel reading? How was that for you? I am usually cast within my age range at Bechdel readings, but not always. And that's no problem at all for me. I love it! I'm game to read any age group, gender or type. We're here to hear the playwrights' writings but as long as everyone is game--which it seems to me they are in this format--then I think it's great. Playwrights always appreciate the feedback they get from the actors at our readings. What would the perfect collaboration on a play’s development look like from your perspective as an actor? I always think that the greatest feedback I can give a playwright is my reading of a part in their play and what they will derive from just hearing what I hope is a good solid reading of what they have written. I do not pretend to be a dramaturg so I leave that to others. But I can tell them where I was perhaps confused or didn't feel I picked up on what their intent was (which may indicate they need to clarify what they've written) and I can tell them what I tracked and what I personally felt was compelling. As far as construction, I leave that to other playwrights. Help us keep our work going! Just $10 makes an enormous impact on our work. Click here to donate to the Write For Women Campaign.
Selma Thompson is the author of A Modest Proposal (Samuel French). Her award-winning work has appeared on CBS and USA Network, and she's written for Universal, Fox, and others. Education: Honors English, Princeton; M.F.A. Dramatic Writing, N.Y.U.; foreign study, drama, University of London. Thompson teaches dramatic writing at N.Y.U. Your work passes the Bechdel test; (or we wouldn’t be having this interview) but is meeting the criteria of the test something you set out to do when you write? If not, how has seeing your work, as now identified through this lens, changed or informed your writing? Writing work in which women are central has always seemed natural. I started writing plays out of frustration with the roles available to me as an actress. My years writing movies-of-the-week for CBS were spent in a matriarchy I never stopped appreciating: female executives and, often, producers, creating female-driven roles for largely female network stars, often based on the lives of real women. At the time, working in a female-driven television genre had less prestige than the male-centric feature film industry, yet I'll always be grateful for the chance to reach a global audience while dramatizing challenges in women's lives, often addressing sexism and racism in the process. Marlo Thomas made one of my first television movies. Geena Davis optioned a screenplay of mine, wanting to star in it, but we couldn't get it set up at any film studio. I feel grateful to have worked with both of those feminist trailblazers, but the different outcomes, I believe, speak to glass ceilings that only now are slowly being shattered.. The Bechdel test is, by its existence, a kind of political rubric – and now identified in film and theatre theory. Are there any other politics or rubrics that influence your work? Is it important to you to identify as a feminist writer? Feminist cartoonist and playwright, Lynda Barry's beautiful book What It Is is full of insights, writing prompts, and inspiration. The DuVernay Test concisely addresses standards for racial inclusiveness in drama, and I take inspiration from it; one of the projects of which I'm most proud is USA Network's Perfect Crime which was set against a backdrop of racism and sexism in the military. On a purely aesthetic level, Jose Rivera's, "36 Assumptions About Playwriting" and David Mamet's "Three Magic Questions of Drama" are essential -- even if men came up with them. Oh, and ... am I a feminist writer? Hell, yes! How important is getting feedback for your writing process and what do you hope to get from feedback at a reading? Drama is a conversation among collaborators and audience, so, of course, the writer must discover how the work is being experienced. Once she knows that, she can fine-tune what is on the page. And the magic happens when feedback reveals possibilities to be found in the writer's story which she may not have fully, consciously realized at that point in her process. How is the feedback you get from a live audience reading different from other types of feedback you seek?Drama is meant to be performed. Hearing a piece read aloud is what takes the work to the next level. What is the rhythm of the piece? Is the pacing appropriate to the story? If a reader stumbles trying to speak the dialogue--the dialogue needs polishing. If listeners start coughing or fidgeting or slipping out to make a call or find a restroom, the playwright now knows the exact spot that needs work. A talk-back afterwards may offer a zillion contradictory suggestions, which the writer may or may not find helpful ... but if several people have opinions about the same spot in the text, that means the playwright needs to ask herself what more she has to do with that beat. At a certain point, much later in the process, the writer may consider how best to present the work on the page--ways to keep the text moving, to format, to hone descriptions so that they engage, etc--the better. to seduce an important reader who needs to say yes to the project. The creative process, though, is most helped by a good table read or workshop presentation.. Tell us about a woman character you’ve written who surprised you, or took a turn you didn’t expect. CBS hired me to write a movie based on a true story about a woman who became a Grandparents' Rights advocate after her daughter gave her Downs Syndrome baby up for adoption rather than let the grandparents raise him. When I interviewed the real people, I was unnerved to discover that the "good" and "bad" characters in the story were flipped. The crusading grandmother was ill-equipped to raise a special needs child and tone-deaf to her daughter's pain. The baby's mother had bravely faced the hardest choice of her life, and out of love, found a group home for Down Syndrome kids run by a couple who'd dedicated their lives to understanding the needs of these children and had a vision of how to raise them to be happy adults. I dreaded telling this to the network, who had bought the project as a starring role for Patty Duke as the crusading grandmother; but as I took the conference call, my eyes fell on Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie on my bookshelf. That helped me spin a pitch about a sympathetic character who loved her daughter so fiercely that she couldn't see her daughter had grown and needed to make her own difficult choices in the world. The network would never have bought that story, but having already invested significant money in purchasing rights, they gave me a shot at creating a protagonist who must eventually learn she is not the hero of her own story, and that her good intentions have a dark side. Patty Duke brought so much to her role in No Child of Mine. And the real woman who has created a family by adopting some dozen Down Syndrome children calls me up every few years to say hello and thank me for getting it right, a humbling reminder of our duty as writers, as feminists, to face the truth as we find it. What are you working on now, or what can we look forward to hearing about next from you? The Bechdel Group's 24 hour challenges have inspired me to start thinking about an evening's collection of short plays that offer a mosaic of female experiences of aging. Meanwhile, I am working to finish my first novel--an art school satire. I also write film reviews. ![]() Help us keep our work going! Just $10 makes an enormous impact on our work. Click here to donate to the Write For Women Campaign. Meet Barbara Matovu! Barbara holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Drama and Minor in Spanish from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Although moving to New York to be an actress, as a theater artist, Barbara has worked as an actress, assistant director, and teaching artist. Tell us about your experience(s) reading for the Bechdel Group. I come to the Bechdel Group readings as an actor intrigued by new work. I’ve been a part of the monthly reading, 24-Hour Writer’s Challenge, and this month/August, I’m excited to be a part of the full-length staged reading of Hey Sexy: An Environmental Parable by Natalie Sacks. I love how Bechdel Group gets everyone involved. At each reading, the talkbacks are more than a Q & A, they are conversations among a community. When in your acting career/work did you become aware of the Bechdel test and how has it changed or informed your work? I had never heard of the Bechdel test until I was invited to read for the Bechdel Group for the first time about three years ago. Since then, I think I read (and listen, when it comes to attending readings) scripts differently. I pay more attention the female characters, how they are written and how they fit into the larger picture. As you know, the Bechdel Group’s monthly readings are not rehearsed. What do you like about this kind of format and what do you, as an actor, get from it? I like that it keeps me on my toes. There’s no opportunity to get too comfortable, so it forces you to stay in the moment. And, like an audition where they hand you sides before you go in, you have little time to make strong choices. The actors are there to serve the playwright. The more reading can look like final table read, the clearer the playwright can be clear on what is working and what isn’t. Have you ever been cast outside of what you consider to be your marketable “type” at a Bechdel reading? How was that for you? Yes, I think it’s happened two or three times. Each time, I got halfway through the script, when I went back to email wondering if I read it wrong, “Wait, which part did they want me to read?” The first time, I felt a little awkward, like when you interlace your fingers the with your less dominate thumb on top. It feels funny but it’s obviously not impossible. Playwrights always appreciate the feedback they get from the actors at our readings. What would the perfect collaboration on a play’s development look like from your perspective as an actor? One in which the playwright is always open to questions, even if they don’t have all the answers. That's right ... it's here. The launch of our Write For Women Campaign! And we need your help to raise $5000! This will help us:
AND! Because of our amazing partner, Linguaphile, your contributions are tax-deductible. Please take a look at our campaign page for more about our work, our goals, and our fabulous perks! AND! Please join us on Monday, September 25th to celebrate the end of the campaign, the beginning of our fourth year, and the kick off of our 2017 Fall Reading Series! We are beyond excited to invite you to the first reading of our Fall Series! Please join us at our Monday, September 25th from 6pm - 9pm Fall Kickoff Party to hear and discuss selections from Alan Olejniczak's Transgress and Rachel Mann's Say It Out Loud.
Transgress is a one-act play on the detainment of Dora Ratjen, Nazi Olympic athlete and gold metal winning woman's high jumper, who was later arrested for impersonating a man. Say It Out Loud presents us with a family gathering that brings home three adult siblings and one trans friend where a feminist professor and a food writer contend with their newly-devout Orthodox daughter.We are excited to partner with The Drama League for this reading, and will be presenting Alan and Rachel's work in The Stewart F. Lane and Bonnie Comley Studio Lab at 32 6th Ave, New York, NY 10013 (in the former AT&T building). (The A/C/E Canal Street station has an exit directly into the building during business hours (exit at the south end of the train.)) Did we mention that this event is BYOB? That's right - it's a party. Bring a drink and celebrate our playwrights, The Drama League, and the beginning of The Bechdel Group's fourth year. Speaking of Space ... Many of you have already heard the unhappy news of the closure of Jimmy's No. 43. We have been incredibly fortunate to have been sponsored by Jimmy's over the past three years and are devastated by this loss. We are thrilled to be working with the Drama League for our September reading (and our next 24 Hour Challenge), and are searching for a permanent home. How Can You Help? Our Write for Women September Fundraiser kicks off September 15th. It is more crucial than ever that we meet our $5,000 goal, now that we've lost our space sponsor. We hope to keep out work going (and expanding) far into the future - and just a $10 donation from you can help us make that happen. Although the fundraiser doesn't officially start until the 15th, you can make a donation now. Want to help spread the work? Send us an email and we'll give you email and social media templates. |
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