WomenArts: 365 Women A Year & Other SWAN Theatre Events

Home   |   Blog   |   SWAN Day   |   Funding Info   |   Donate   |   About Us  |   From New York to Eugene & In Between: 5 SWAN Events Celebrate Women in History Dear Women in the Arts & Media Coalit, As part of this year's SWAN day festivities, five different groups are participating in 365 Women A Year, an international playwriting project that is designed to reclaim women's history. Groups in New York, Oregon, Vermont, North Carolina and Texas will present staged readings of short plays about extraordinary women in history who have been forgotten or misrepresented.   Playwright Jessica Eisenberg created 365 Women a Year after co-founding Chicago's Prologue Theatre Company, which is dedicated to underrepresented voices.  She realized that there was a special need to preserve women's names and works, and she set a personal goal of writing plays about 365 women in one year, but quickly realized that she could not do it alone. She brought on co-founder Gina Scanlon, and together they put out a call to playwrights in 2014. Women writers around the world stepped up. In the project’s first year, over 200 playwrights from the United States, Spain, Russia, India, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Chile and other countries wrote one-act plays loosely based on approximately 365 remarkable historical figures. Many of these plays have already been produced around the country and the world. In addition to the five SWAN events featuring the plays this month, there will be several other festivals of the plays this spring, including in Madrid and Kitchener, Canada. Also, 365 Women A Year will be live-streaming its plays on March 27 for World Theatre Day in collaboration with Howlround and NITE. 5 SWAN EVENTS FEATURE PLAYS FROM 365 WOMEN A YEAR OREGON Oregon Contemporary Theatre and Northwest Ten (a group specializing in 10 minute plays) will present four new plays on SWAN Day, including a comedy about the rehabilitation of Cleopatra’s reputation; a play about La Malinche, the translator between Cortez and Montezuma; and a piece featuring both Angela Davis and Marilyn Monroe. You can hear more about the plays and the festival in an excellent NPR interview with playwright and director Connie Bennett. Date/Time: March 28 at 2 pm Venue: Oregon Contemporary Theatre, 194 W. Broadway, Eugene, OR Tickets: Free, with donations going to support Ophelia’s Place, a community organization for girls; no reservation required. NEW YORK 365 Women NYC presents staged readings of 10-minute plays by 15 playwrights about women including Shirley Chisolm, Beatrix Potter, Wilma Rudolph, Condoleezza Rice, Sonia Sotomayor, Butterfly McQueen, and Anais Nin. Date/Times: April 11 at 6:30 pm, 7:45 pm, and 9:00 pm Venue: The Sheen Center, 18 Bleeker Street, New York, NY Tickets: Suggested donation, $10 for each program. Reserve tickets online. NORTH CAROLINA Prizes of Accident Theatre Company will host a staged reading of eight pieces from 365 Women a Year including plays from Shellen Lubin, Robin Rice Lichtig, Cindy Cooper, and Natalie OSborne. Date/Time: March 26, 7:30 pm Venue: Upstage, 3306-C North Davidson St., Charlotte Tickets: Suggested donation, $5. VERMONT NOplays will host a festival featuring four one-acts written by Bennington College students and alumni. The festival will be live-streamed for World Theatre Day in collaboration with Howlround and NITE. The plays will be Making Frankenstein by Natalie Osborne (about Mary Shelley), Feelin' Lonely by Catherine Weingarten (about Elizabeth Bishop), En El Medio by Maia Villa, and After the Thin Man by NY playwright Shellen Lubin (about Stella Adler and Sylvia Gassell). Date/Time: March 27, 7:30 pm Venue: Bennington College Student Center, One College Drive, Bennington Tickets: Free; no reservation required. TEXAS Rover Dramawerks produced a festival of 10 plays from 365 Women a Year in Plano, Texas from March 19-22. Their program included plays about Anne Sexton, Mary Todd Lincoln, and Anne Sullivan. 365 Women A Year Seeks Playwrights, Directors & Others! To find out how you can join the 365 Women A Year Project as a playwright, director, actor or producer, please visit their website. Remember to Post Your SWAN Event! To be included on our official List of SWAN Events that will be sent world-wide on Saturday, you must post your event no later than midnight PDT on Wednesday, March 25! Need help? Check out our step-by-step guide to posting your event. Athena Project Hosts 200+ Denver Women Artists Publicity image for this year's Athena Project "Truth & Perception Festival" Congratulations to Denver's innovative Athena Project Festival for their astonishing growth over the past three years.  Founded in 2013 to boost women's artistic presence in Denver's theatres and the wider community, the Athena Project's 2015 Truth & Perception Festival will feature over 200 artists and events in 5 of Denver's metro area Arts Districts from March 20 to April 5. The world premiere of Marilyn Harris Kriegel's play, Harm's Way, will be a highlight of the festival. Set in the first decade of the 21st century as the U.S. struggles to protect itself from terrorism, the play will feature Karen Grassle, best known for her role as the mother in the TV series Little House on the Prairie. Please see our blog post about the festival for more information about their other events and a video describing their goals.  Other Great Theatre Events on SWAN Day! We are thrilled at all the great events happening on SWAN Day this Saturday.  We don't have space to cover all of them, but we wanted to mention a few of the other amazing SWAN theatre events: SWAN Day Action Fest - The Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative offers its second free day of playreadings and networking. Saturday, March 28 at noon at the City Garage Theatre in Los Angeles. Reservations not needed. More info is on their website. Our Voices Collective SWAN Day Evening - Our Voices Collective will offer a free reception and evening of poems and monologues by Boston area women writers. Saturday, March 28 at 7 p.m. at the Third Life Studio in Somerville, MA. More info is on their Eventbrite page. Coming Into View: Equity in Theatre Atlantic Panel - The Canadian Equity in Theatre project will host a free panel discussion about the challenges facing emerging women playwrights. Saturday, March 28 at 7:30 p.m. at Theatre Nova Scotia in Hallifax. More info is on their Facebook event page. DC SWAN Day Staged Reading Marathon - Guillotine Theatre will offer its 8th annual free Staged Reading Marathon. Saturday, March 28 from 12noon – 2:00pm at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC. More info is on their website. Everyone Is Invited to Celebrate SWAN Day! Support Women Artists Now Day/SWAN Day is a grassroots "do it yourself" holiday, and everyone is invited to join us in honoring women's creativity. The official date for the 8th International SWAN Day is Saturday, March 28, 2015, but please feel free to celebrate it any time during March or April that is convenient for you. The spirit of SWAN events is far more important than the exact dates. There are no fees or application forms required to participate in SWAN Day. If you decide to create a SWAN event or if you are doing any event in March or April featuring women artists, we invite you to create a free listing on our official SWAN Calendar. If you want to be in our annual list of SWAN events that we will send out on Saturday, please be sure to submit your event by midnight on Wednesday, March 25.  We will be featuring SWAN events in the WomenArts Blog and  newsletters during March and April 2015.  If you want us to write about you, creating a listing in the SWAN Calendar is the best way to let us know about your event. Did You Get Your Free #StageOpps & #ScreenOpps Newsletters? Women in Arts and Media Coalition in collaboration with WomenArts and the League of Professional Theatre Women is publishing free newsletters for theatre and film/video artists listing submission opportunities, grants, auditions, residencies and more.  Click the links below or follow the #StageOpps and #ScreenOpps tags on Twitter.  There are links at the bottom of each funding newsletter which will let you sign up to receive them by email. Theatre Artists - You can see the current issue of #StageOpps (formerly the Theatre Funding News) by clicking here. Film/Video Artists - You can see the current issue of #ScreenOpps (formerly the Film/Video Funding News) by clicking here. To Submit a Listing - To submit a listing for the #StageOpps or #ScreenOpps newsletters, please visit the Women in Arts and Media Coalition's Submit a Listing Page.