The League of Professional Theatre Women, in association with the theater department of Marymount Manhattan College, will present Women at the Barricades: Playwrights Political Vision, a panel bringing together seven award-winning dramatists to talk about their political plays and the political issues that stir them to create.
The free panel will take place at Marymount Manhattan College's theater on October 16, 2006, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The college's theater is located at 221 East 71st Street.
The featured playwrights will be: Jessica Blank, author of the play and the film
The Exonerated, based on interviews conducted with exonerated death-row inmates; Cindy Cooper, whose
Words of Choice has toured 40 cities; Quiara Alegría Hudes, whose drama,
Elliot: A Soldier's Fugue, was produced last season at the Culture Project; Shirley Lauro, the author of
A Piece of My Heart, about women who served during the Vietnam War;
Emily Mann, artistic director of the McCarter Theatre (
Execution of Justice); actor and playwright Dael Orlandersmith (
Yellowman); and Diana Son, whose drama
Stop Kiss has been produced at over one hundred theaters throughout the world.
The panel will be moderated by Alexis Greene, theater critic, author, and editor of
Women Who Write Plays, a collection of 23 interviews with American dramatists, and
Women Writing Plays: Three Decades of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. "This powerful array of dramatists will discuss the political issues that motivated them to write their plays, their varying creative approaches, the impact of political theater, and how playwrights can respond to contemporary political situations.
The League of Professional Theatre Women in a not-for-profit advocacy organization promoting visibility and increasing opportunities for women in the professional theater. For further information about the League, please go to the Web site:
theatrewomen.org.
The event is open to the public free of charge, but reservations are required. Call 212-501-6667.
