Photo Flash: Anderson, Osborne and Vega Honored with Women's Project's 2010 Award

Laurie Anderson, Joan Osborne and Suzanne Vega received Women's Project's 2010 Women of Achievement Award March 8.  The 32-year-old theater company dedicated to producing the work of female theater artists made the awards last night on International Women's Day at Women's Project's home, the Julia Miles Theater, 424West 55th Street.

The 2010 Women's Project Women of Achievement Award pays tribute to the remarkable accomplishments of women in a variety of disciplines. 

32 Years of Presenting Women Theater Artists: Founded in 1978 by Julia Miles, and now under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Julie Crosby, Women's Project provides a stage for women playwrights and directors, who even today receive fewer than 20% of professional production opportunities nationwide.

Women's Project (WP) produces theater created by women, providing a forum for women's perspectives on political, social, and cultural topics. During its 32 years, countless artists have achieved significant recognition through WP productions, including Anne Bogart, Eve Ensler, Maria Irene Fornes, Lynn Nottage, Suzan-Lori Parks, Leigh Silverman, and Anna Deavere Smith, among the many.  WP has produced staged over 600 mainstage productions and developmental projects, and published ten anthologies of plays by women.  In 1998, WP purchased a historic off-Broadway venue on Manhattan's West 55th Street, making WP the first and only women's theater company to hold the keys to its own stage.

The National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C. is no longer funding Women's Project's development of female playwrights and directors, perhaps figuring that Women's Project, coming off its most successful seasons in recent history (Freshwater, Aliens with Extraordinary Skills, crooked, Sand) and this year's hit, extended by popular demand, Or, by Liz Duffy Adams, can create great theater by women without Federal support or stimulation.  (Women's Project was also rejected for NEA stimulus money and therefore no woman's job was saved by the Federal government.)  Have no doubt, Women's Project will present women theater artists no matter how the  winds blow in Washington.

Photo credit Sylvain Gaboury