The Women’s Voices Theater Festival in Washington, DC is inviting theatre artists around the world to organize free readings of unproduced plays by women playwrights on January 21, 2018 as part of the new celebration called International Women’s Voices Day.
The Women’s Voices Theater Festival made history in 2015 by producing 52 world premieres of plays by women in two months – the largest festival of women playwrights ever. The festival will return in January and February 2018 with full productions of contemporary plays by women at 26 theatre companies in Washington, DC. Allison Janney is Honorary Host this year.
In addition, the festival has teamed up with National New Play Network and the New Play Exchange® this year to create International Women’s Voices Day. Their goal is to encourage free readings of unproduced works by women around the world. The celebration has been scheduled for January 21, 2018 in honor of the one-year anniversary of the historic Women’s Marches last year.
How To Participate
It’s easy to participate – just pick an unproduced play by a woman, secure the rights if necessary, organize a free public or private reading, and let the Festival know you are doing it by emailing them at IWVD@WomensVoicesDC.com. That’s it! You will officially be part of International Women’s Voices Day!
If you are doing a public reading and want it to be included in the Festival’s marketing and press materials for International Women’s Voices Day, you need to send the Festival producers information about your event and proof that you acquired the rights to do the reading by January 15, 2018.
You will also be asked to post pictures from your readings on the Festival’s social media pages. You can contact the Festival producers at: IWVD@WomensVoicesDC.com.
Need Help Finding Plays? Use the New Play Exchange!
Allison Janney is Honorary Chair of the 2018 Women’s Voices Festival
Theatres or individuals who need help finding a play can use the New Play Exchange®, which contains more than 15,000 new plays and musicals from artists in 45 countries. There is information on more than 6,000 full length, unproduced plays by women. You can search for plays by genre, play length, cast size, ages of actors required, playwright location, and more. Over 2,500 of the unproduced plays by women are available for immediate download.
Also, if you are a female playwright, you can create a profile on the New Play Exchange® so that your work can be discovered on the database. Writers who are already on the New Play Exchange should make sure that their profiles are up to date and that their scripts are available for download.
It normally costs $25/year for theatre companies and $10/year for individuals to join the New Play Exchange®,. Discounts may be available if you contact the Festival organizers.
Want More Information?
Learn more about the Women’s Voices Theatre Festival on their website at: WomensVoicesTheaterFestival.org. You can also follow them on Facebook or on Twitter @WomensVoicesDC.