Founding artistic director Kelley Girod, director Candis Jones, and playwrights Sandra A. Daley-Sharif, Shelley Fort, Gethsemane Herron-Coward, Charly Evon Simpson, and Mona R. Washington talk about The Fire This Time Festival and being women of color making theatre.
Read more
Southern Vermont is currently experiencing a theatrical renaissance, helmed by Dorset Theatre Festival’s Dina Janis. Since becoming Dorset’s Artistic Director eight years ago, Dina has revitalized the community by shifting her theatre company’s focus towards nurturing and highlighting new playwrights, especially female playwrights. We speak with Dina about her goals as an artistic director, why she thinks there is currently a window of opportunity for female directors at regional theatres, and more.
Read more
Out of the 21 plays currently on Broadway or are upcoming this season, only three (a dismal 14%) are directed by women. However, Off-Broadway, there is a vibrant group of emerging new directors, many of whom are women staging exciting new work. We talk with Colette Robert, Arpita Mukherjee, and Christa Scott Reed about their desires to bring diverse stories to the stage; the challenge of balancing directing with their myriad other jobs, including acting, writing, and artistic directing; the importance of building community in the rehearsal room; and more.
Read more
The Thanksgiving Play, currently in previews at Playwrights Horizons, marks the New York debut of Larissa FastHorse and is believed to be the first time a play by a Native American has been produced at a major Off-Broadway theatre. We speak with Larissa about the inspiration for the play, satire in the American theatre dealing with race, the pressure of her New York debut, and more.
Read more
It’s once again time for the New York Musical Festival. NYMF’s goal is to support the development of new and diverse works of musical theatre. We asked a mix of artists involved—from performers to directors to writers to designers—to answer some questions about their shows and what inspires them. The shows they’re a part of represent a range of styles and subject matters, and are all at different stages of development.
Read more
Set designer Christine Jones has been nominated for a 2018 Tony Award for her imaginative, elegant set, full of secrets and illusions, upon which the play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” occurs. We speak with Christine about her approach to designing the set for the well-known and beloved wizarding world, how her kids have impacted and shared in her experience of Harry Potter, her impressions of the ways in which the field of set design has changed for young women who are just starting out, and more.
Read more
In “Today Is My Birthday,” a woman returns home to Hawai’i to figure out her life. In an unusual twist of form, the play’s over 50 scenes all happen over the phone, on the radio, or through other forms of indirect communication. We talk to Susan Soon He Stanton, Palmer Hefferan, and Jennifer Ikeda about the play.
Read more
Profiles of Hallie Flanagan, Barbara Ann Teer, Shauneille Perry, Elisabeth Marbury, Wakako Yamauchi, Aline Bernstein, and Silvia Brito. Women from diverse backgrounds and a range of theatre disciplines who you should know.
Read more
Throughout July and the beginning of August, we will once again feature women involved in this year’s New York Musical Festival. Featuring the women of “Painting Faye Salvez,” “The Fourth Messenger,” “Matthew McConaughey vs. The Devil: An American Myth,” “The Goree All-Girls String Band,” “Play Like a Winner,” “Camp Wanatachi: In Concert,” “Freedom Riders: The Civil Rights Musical,” “Motherfreakinghood,” and the women of the Student Leadership Program.
Read more
Alexandra Silber writes about the impact of her mentor, Tyne Daly, and why having mentors is an important part of life and art.
Read more
We talk to Shaina Taub about her process for adapting and composing Twelfth Night for Public Works of The Public Theater, and her next project, a musical about the women’s suffrage movement.
Read more
Throughout July we’ll be featuring women involved in this year’s New York Musical Festival. We visited them at rehearsal studios throughout Manhattan to find out about their shows and their thoughts on the theatre. Featuring “Remission,” “Molly Murphy & Neil deGrasse Tyson…,” “A Lasting Impression,” “Normatively,” “Eh Dah? – Questions for My Father,” ” One Child Born,” “Tink!” “Forest Boy,” and “Dust Can’t Kill Me.”
Read more
Elizabeth Swados was a pioneering woman of the theatre. Liz was a writer, composer, director, choreographer, and so much more. When she passed away from esophageal cancer in January 2016, she left behind an impressive theatrical legacy not only in terms of her shows, but also in how profoundly she impacted young people, and notably, the young women with whom she had worked.
Read more
We talk to Halley Feiffer about I’m Gonna Pray For You So Hard, being a writer and actress, her process, writing female characters, and much more.
Read more
We talk to Laura Eason about having two of her plays in New York in one season, her thoughts on writing female characters, her writing process, and much more.
Read more
We talk to Heidi Schreck about her play Grand Concourse, being a writer and actress, her time in Russia, and much more.
Read more
We talk to Susan Bernfield about New Georges, playwriting, producing theatre in New York, and more.
Read more