WomenArts Challenges Playwrights/Festivals in New York and Denver

WomenArts Challenges Playwrights - Write About Diverse Women At Work!  BERKELEY, CA - Women make up half of the U.S. workforce, but you would never guess that from watching mainstream plays, films, or television. To raise awareness about this issue, WomenArts has challenged 36 playwrights from PlayGround, the Bay Area's leading playwright incubator, to write 10-page plays about women at work for SWAN Day Bay Area. Since California's workforce is quite diverse, we have asked them to reflect that reality in the plays.  Six winning scripts will be selected by a team of feminist readers - Martha Richards, Executive Director of WomenArts; Lily Tung Crystal, Founding Co-Artistic Director of Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company; James A. Kleinmann, Artistic Director of PlayGround; and Annie Stuart, PlayGround's Casting Director. The six scripts will be presented as staged readings at the prestigious Berkeley Repertory Theatre with some of the Bay Area's best directors and actors. The performance will be Monday, March 21 at 8 p.m. WomenArts board member Christine Young will lead a pre-show discussion with the playwrights. Order tickets online at: http://playground-sf.org/boxoffice/  ($15 in advance or $20 at the door).  Read the WomenArts Challenge to the Playwrights>> NEW YORK, NY - Join the first-ever Live Arts Streaming Reproductive Freedom Festival! Words of Choice is producing 25 theatrical shorts about reproductive freedom, health, rights and justice from writers around the country on Sunday, March 20 from 6 to 9 p.m. EST.  Live Arts TV will stream the festival so that you can watch it for free at: http://ReproductiveFreedomFestival.org. Tune in to any or all of the six half-hour segments. Listen to interviews with the artists and experts between the performances, or join the chat room to interact with them. To get a free Listening Party Packet with ideas for interactive events, fundraisers, resources and tips to make this an event for your community, please write to ReproductiveFreedomFestival@gmail.com. Order tickets online to join the in-person audience at The TACT Studio in New York City ($8).  Read More About the Artists>> DENVER, CO - Women+Film Festival is an annual showcase of documentary, narrative and short films accompanied by in-person discussions with filmmakers & special guests, panels and receptions -  all celebrating the best in thought-provoking, inspirational stories of and by women from around the globe. They have a terrific line-up this year, including films like Speed Sisters, a documentary about the first, all-women race car driving team in the Middle East. The festival runs from March 15 - 20. Read more and watch the trailers>>