Variety Celebrates Distinguished Women In The Arts On Stage And Off

Yesterday, Variety's Women in Theatre Reports were ripe with briefings on some of the industry's most accomplished women, on stage and off. Among the talents featured were Sigourney Weaver, Anne Hathaway, Lynn Nottage, Diane Paulus, Alice Ripley, Karen Olivo, and Sonia Friedman.

Though one of the most high profile performers in the world, Sigourney Weaver has not forgotten where she came from. Famous for her roles on Broadway in THE CONSTANT WIFE, HURLYBURLY and SEX AND LONGING and films such as "Aliens," "Ghostbusters," "Gorilla's in the Mist" and 'Working Girl," Weaver built her career on the Off-Off Broadway circuit. In an ode to her former artistic home, the Flea Theatre, Weaver continues to make considerable contributions to the Off-Off Broadway house, founded by her husband, director Jim Simpson, in 1996. On her participation with the Flea, Weaver says: " "I found that working in Off Off Broadway shows was a real artistic home. I learned on my feet working with new plays and writers; that's where my true training really began...Art helps us learn how to live, it helps us learn about who we are as a species, and it's something that has consistently gotten the short shrift in this country. You've got to water that plant. I feel that art is transforming -- it illuminates the human heart, and it brings us all together," Variety quotes.

To read the full story in Variety, click here.

Anne Hathaway made the list for both her banner year on the screen and stage, and for her charitable work with Service Nation, the first campaign of the nonprofit Be the Change that aspires to make service a core ideal in American society. Hathaway began the year with an Oscar nomination for her role in "Rachel, Getting Married," which she followed up with a critically acclaimed performance as Viola in Shakespeare in the Park's TWELFTH NIGHT this summer, validating both her screen and stage credibility. As for her involvement with Service Nation, Variety quotes the star as saying, "I think service is important, and I really like how far-reaching Service Nation is -- there are lots of opportunities to make a difference...I plan to focus my efforts on bringing awareness, fund-raising and, of course, being of service." The organization was key in drafting the 2009 Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which authorized the biggest expansion of national service in the country since FDR's Civilian Conservation Corps. Like her career on the stage and screen, no doubt Hathaway's performance here will be impressive.

To read the full briefings on Hathaway's accomplishments in performance and service in Variety, click here and here.

Making a difference in a different way is Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright Lynn Nottage, whose socially conscious plays aim to enlighten the audience to little explored, though no less serious, social issues.  In the Pulitzer-winning RUINED, she dives into underbelly of the Congo, telling tales of the ongoing conflict in the country from the perspective of female brothel owners. No topic is off limits for Nottage, raw though they may be, including rape and malnutrition.  Says Nottage in Variety, "I'm interested in people who are dwelling outside the mainstream...And very often those people happen to be woman of color." The play opened at Chicago's Goodman Theater in 2008 and premiered in New York at the Manhattan Theater Club earlier this year.  

To read Variety's full report on Nottage, click here.

Arguably, no woman in the arts had a more successful year than Diane Paulus, who made her Broadway debut with the monster hit HAIR this year.  Not only was HAIR a near-impossible ticket to secure when it played in Central Park in 2008, it is the first show of the 2008-2009 season to recoup.  Writes Robert Hofler in Variety, "Paulus is very much aware that women who have directed recouped Broadway musicals belong to a pretty small club: Susan Stroman, Kathleen Marshall and Julie Taymor are among the few. The fact that Paulus now runs a nonprofit theater may make her a singular sensation." (Paulus was recently made Artistic Director of the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts). Next up for Paulus: restaging her Off-Broadway hit THE DONKEY SHOW, amongst additional projects.

To read the full article in Variety, click here.

Alice Ripley is yet another woman in the business who can boast exceptional success, nabbing a Tony for her role as a bipolar mother in NEXT To NORMAL.  Once upon a time in its development, NEXT TO NORMAL was surrounded by serious doubt as to its commercial viability.  By the time the show premiered on Broadway after runs in New York at Second Stage Theatre and in Washington D.C., it had been deemed by many the standing example of just how far a show can come in the development process.  Says Ripley of her role and the show's success: "The role takes a woman onstage in a musical to a place she has never been, and takes the audience as well," quotes Variety.  The role and her Tony honor enhance her already distinguished stage career, having starred in such original productions as "Side Show," "The Rocky Horror Show," "Sunset Boulevard" and "The Who's Tommy."

To read more about Alice Ripley's success, click here.

It would be difficult to speak of successful actresses in 2009 without recognizing Karen Olivo, who received a Tony Award for her portrayal of Anita in WEST SIDE STORY.  Following in the footsteps of Chita Rivera must have been daunting, but Olivo handled it with grace, or attitude, one could say.  As quoted in Variety she explains: "It was a question of do I really want to jump off this cliff...but when Arthur Laurents (who wrote the show's book and directed this production) said he was dead-set on a different take on it, I thought, OK, I can do that. If you give me a blank slate, I can fill it with color." Olivo originated the role of Vanessa in the Tony Award-winning musical IN THE HEIGHTS both on and off Broadway and has appeared on Broadway in RENT and BKLYN.

To read more from Variety, click here.

Not to be forgotten is theatrical producer Sonia Friedman, who won two consecutive Tonys for best revival of a play with BOEING BOEING in 2008 and THE NORMAN CONQUESTS in 2009.  The overachiever has eight shows in production at the moment, including Broadway transfers of recent London hits LA CAGE AUX FOLLES" and A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, and others in longer-term development (including a musical version of "Shakespeare in Love" co-produced by Harvey Weinstein).  

To read more about Sonia Friedman in Variety, click here.

2009 has been a year inspired by change on many fronts socially, politically, economically and culturally.  These role models prove that certainly now in the arts, any glass ceiling hanging over the heads of women just got seven new significant cracks.