The afternoon features 12 short, varied works written for 365 Women A Year by award-winning playwrights from Los Angeles, Orange County and the Bay Area. Audiences are invited to join the artists for free readings, refreshments and a chance to connect and celebrate the accomplishments and stories of women who've made their mark on history... whether we've heard of them, or not.
Inspired by diverse figures such as Wang Zhenyi, Dolores Huerta, Caroline Branham, Anna Mae Aquash, Sameera Moussa and Rita Hayworth, the 365 Women A Year in Los Angeles plays are written by Anne Flanagan, Allie Costa, Evelyn Jean Pine, Lisa A. Mammel, Jennie Webb, Paula Cizmar, Lucy Wang, Emily Brauer Rogers, Rhea MacCallum, Sara Israel and Monique Simpson. Plays are directed by noted LA-area theater artists including Maya Eshet, Anita Dashiell-Sparks, Kitty Lindsay, Jean Bruce Scott, Amber Scott and Olivia Espinosa.
365 Women A Year is an international playwriting project that involves over 200 female playwrights who have signed on to write one or more one-acts about extraordinary women in both past and present history. Since the first open call for plays was announced in 2014 by co-founders Jesslyn Chamblee and Gina Scanlon, 365 Women A Year plays and festivals have been staged all across the U.S. and Europe. From Scanlon, who recently moved to Los Angeles and will be at the event: "I think it's important for people to learn about and appreciate lost women in history. What better way to do that than to open the floor to a group of creatives who all have different modes of storytelling? We're making history. One woman at a time."
For more information on the 365 Women A Year project, including opportunities for women to write plays in 2016, visit 365womenayear.wordpress.com.
Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative (LA FPI) is an LA-based movement working to ensure that women playwrights are fairly represented on local stages, and beyond. Over the last 5 years, LA FPI has established itself in the LA theater community through its support and promotion of female playwrights and their projects. LA FPI and its co-founders, Laura Shamas and Jennie Webb, work with other organizations across the country and internationally to advance gender parity awareness and positive change for women artists. For more information, visit lafpi.com.
Samuel French Theatre & Film Bookshop has partnered with the LA Female Playwrights Initiative since January 2013, providing a home for quarterly Gatherings and Micro-Reads; in 2014, LA FPI was honored to present the first public performances in the Bookshop's Green Room, now home to frequent readings, book signings and other events.
For more information, visit lafpi.com/events
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