6 Women@60 in 2006-Premieres in Oakland Park, Florida

   
 

6 Women Playwrights Turning 60 in 2006 

PREMIERE OF UNIQUE TRAVELING PLAY FESTIVAL
  BY 6 WOMEN BABY-BOOMER PLAYWRIGHTS
 
  
  Enjoy a fun and fattening evening at the theatre with a staged
reading, talkback and birthday cake too!  As participants in the First Annual
South Florida Theatre Festival, The Women's Theatre Project brings a
unique theatre experience of short plays, written by women who are
turning 60 in 2006.  The readings feature a cast of professional actors
including South Florida favorites Elayne Wilks, Iris Acker, Joanne Marsic
and Jennifer Gomez.  The director is Genie Croft, Artistic Director of
The Women's Theatre Project.  
  
  Suggested donation is $10 and the box office is cash or check only. 
Call 954-462-2334 for reservations.  For more information visit:
www.6womenat60in2006.com   
   
  Performances are three nights only on April 6 - 8, 2006 at 8PM at the
City of Oakland Park Library located at 1298 NE 37 Street in Oakland
Park. 
  
  DIRECTIONS to Oakland Park Library: Take I-95 to Oakland Park Blvd.
East.  At N DIXIE HWY, make a left.  Turn right on NE 36TH ST (crossing
over the RR tracks). Turn left on NE 12TH AVE. Turn right on NE 37TH
ST.
  
  THE BACK STORY  
  Organized by award-winning playwrights Donna Guthrie and
Nancy-Gall-Clayton, the year-long festival celebrates the energy and creativity of
the older female artist. Says co-creator Donna Guthrie,  "We worked
hard to find plays that span a variety of interests to audiences of all
ages. I think seniors as well as men and women of other generations will
find the plays captivating."
  
  When Donna Guthrie of California and Colorado and her sister
playwright, Nancy Gall-Clayton of Kentucky, invited four other female
playwrights, all celebrating their sixtieth birthdays this year, to help create
a blockbuster sixtieth-birthday celebration, 6@60 in 2006 was
conceived. Each woman submitted a short play that reveals her take on issues
related to women's aging in America. Beginning in April, the series will
be staged in six regional theatres throughout 2006, the writers'
birthday year.
  
  6@60 in 2006 is an artistic response to the lack of progress in the
portrayal of older women on stage and screen. Answering subtle sexism
and marketing myopia with candid humor and pointed dialog, the six
authors created remarkably brilliant plays that are sure to draw both
laughter and sighs. All are simply staged and, in the hands of gifted local
actors, ready to pierce to the bone in spite of the laughs. Donna
Guthrie, the creative force behind the project, explained that this is a
grassroots production, purposely done on a small budget. She is particularly
excited about working with local directors and actors in small theaters
across the nation.
  
  Following each play, audience members can enjoy birthday cake with
the writers, cast, and directors. Meredith Lasher, Producer for The
Women's Theatre Project in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, the first city on the
tour, says of the event, 6 Women @ 60 is a unique theatrical event and we
are proud to continue our history of presenting premieres. This
exciting festival will tour to other venues around the country including
Denver, Colorado, Louisville, Kentucky and Waitsville, Vermont.
    

  6 Women Turning 60 in 2006
     
  1 .        KITTY DUBIN (Mimi and Me) is an award-winning playwright
whose productions include Mirrors, The Last Resort, Change of Life, The
Day We Met, and Dance Like No One’s Watching. Her newest play, Coming
of Age premieres in 2006 at the Jewish Ensemble Theatre in West
Bloomfield, Michigan. Kitty has been a semi-finalist twice as well as a winner
in the Turnip Festival of Short Plays. Mimi and Me was included in the
American Playwright Theatre Festival in New York City. She received a
Jewish Woman in the Arts Award for lifetime achievement in the Detroit
Metropolitan area and received two playwriting grants from the Michigan
Council of Arts. She teaches playwriting at Oakland University and is a
popular speaker at writers' conferences. She is a member of the
Dramatists Guild.
  
  Mimi and Me
  A perky young volunteer attempts to cheer up a 90-year-old nursing
home resident whose only wish is to die.
  
  2.         JUDITH ESTRINE (She & He) Pinochle & Roses: NYC Equity
showcase, teleplay short listed for the Eugene O'Neill National
Playwrights Conference; Ghost Mommy: Renaissance League Festival winner;
Nothing Personal: performed at Friars Club in Manhattan and published by
Brooklyn Publishing; She & He: First Place at Nantucket's Annual Short Play
Competition and Scripteasers Award. Co-author of Midlife: A Manual
(Elements Books, USA: Chrysalis Publications, UK).  Judith is a member of
the Dramatists Guild.
  
  She and He
  An amazingly short yet poignant and comprehensive story of a lifelong
love.      
  
  3.         NANCY GALL-CLAYTON (Felicity's Family Tree) won the
Streisand Festival of New Jewish Plays (General Orders No. 11) and the Eileen
Heckart Drama for Seniors Competition (Felicity). Just Taking Up Space
was a mainstage production at Kentucky Repertory Theatre. Nancy has
been a Finalist three times for Actors Theatre of Louisville Heideman
Prize. Her work has been supported by Pleiades Theatre Company, the
Kentucky Foundation for Women, and the Kentucky Arts Council. She is published by Dramatists Publishing, Meriwether, and Smith & Kraus. She is a
member of the Intl Centre for Women Playwrights and Dramatists Guild.
  
  Felicity's Family Tree
  Is Felicity a danger to herself or just someone who loves her family?
             
  4.         DONNA GUTHRIE (The Missing Zygote) is the author of 23
books for children. Her one-act The Wedding Trunk has received staged
readings through Carlsbad Playreaders (CA), The Kennedy Center Imagination
Celebration, Smokebrush Theatre (CO), and Western Heritage Days (CO),
Heartland Stage Company (IN), New Voices of the West, Foothills Theatre
(NV). Sweet Hour of Prayer was selected for Edward Albee's Last
Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez, Alaska. Donna was awarded a Masters in
Fine Arts in Children's and Young Adult Writing by Vermont College in
January 2006. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild.
  
  The Missing Zygote
  A mix-up in Heaven 60 years ago results in the creation of a writer
who is just now unraveling the mystery of her beginnings. 
             
  5.         LINDA HOLLAND RATHKOPF (The Airport Encounter) is an
award-winning fine artist/illustrator and cabaret singer, who has written
much of her own material. Her plays have been produced in New York and
Who Stole the Mona Lisa? in the archives in the Louvre, France. Linda's
other genres include short stories and her illustrated children's book
Great Jewish Enjoy-A-Trivia Book for Kids. Her fine art has been in
galleries throughout the Northeast. She is a member of the Dramatists
Guild.      
  
  The Airport Encounter
  A seemingly chance encounter allows a woman to confront her former
therapist.
  
  
  6.         SUSAN SHAFER (Sadie & Ida) won the Theatre League of South
Florida 2003 one-act play competition for Sadie & Ida. Her play Pass
the Horseradish was given a staged reading at The Neighborhood Playhouse
in November 2005, where Susan is a member of Charles Maryan's
Playwrights/Directors Workshop. The author of three plays for children, Jesse
Owens, Thomas Edison Invents the Lightbulb and Ponce de Leon (all
published by Benchmark Books,)  Susan is a member of the Dramatists Guild.
                                                             
  Sadie & Ida
  You wouldn't think two octogenarians who've lived together for 30
years would have any secrets, but Ida has a big one.

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