Tennessee Women's Theater Project's 10th Annual WOMEN'S WORK Festival

Tennessee Women's Theater Project's Tenth Annual Women's Work festival returns to Nashville's Z. Alexander Looby Theater beginning Friday May 6, featuring performing and visual arts created by women. Running through Sunday May 22, the festival spans a wide variety of styles and genres to offer a completely different program at every performance: poetry and essays; one-woman shows; plays and readings; dance, music, film and a display of visual art works in the theater.

Middle Tennessee's first and only annual showcase for the creative efforts of women was created when Maryanna Clarke, company founder and artistic director, suffered a back injury in early 2007: "After weeks with my pain meds and my walker, I had to concede I would not be able to direct the play we had booked for May that year," she recalls. "I emailed every woman artist I knew, offering our stage for their plays, poems, films - all varieties of performing arts."

Women from Nashville and across the country responded, and ten years later, TWTP's showcase is going strong.

Women's Work Highlights

The tenth annual Mother's Day Poetry Sunday on May 8 features readings by returning poets Barbara Russell and Sylvia Forest Crawford, and newcomers Mimi Pantelides, Carol Campbell (read by Laura Ware), and Jamie Cutler.

The always-popular Dance Night (May 14) includes return appearances by several choreographers including Elaine Husted/Husted Dance, Jen Jen Lin, Marci Murphree and REASONs Contemporary Dance, and a piece choreographed by VU dance instructor and Women's Work first-timer Maria Maggipinto.

Women's Work offers playwrights a stage for readings and workshop performances - audience exposure is crucial to the development of a play. Robyn Brooks of Maryland, Marilynn Anselmi of North Carolina and Nashville's Judy Klass understand the benefits: all are presenting readings of new plays for the fifth year in a row. Back this year is Sue Fabisch, whose Motherhood: The Musical was workshopped at the festival in 2008 (and since has toured from New York to Australia) bringing a new work called Me and My Smother.

First time playwright presenters this year include Brooke Bryant (Night Warrior), and Nashville School of the Arts faculty member Misty Ayres-Miranda (Falling Apples), and a pair of one-acts from Natalie Parker-Lawrence. The closing performance on Sunday May 22 is the reading of a new play commissioned by Tennessee Women's Theater Project. Written by the actor, educator and playwright Becky Wahlstrom, A Modern Day Quilt is based on a real group of Nashville women who for two decades have gathered weekly in a Centennial Park studio to sew, share a potluck meal and the stories of their lives.

More highlights of Women's Work 2016: Films, including Midnight Munchies, a short by Karen Linton and Snow Globe, by Madeleine Hicks, winner of the Tennessee Filmmaker Award at the 2016 Chattanooga Film Festival. Amanda Bloomer contributes a monologue entitled Pumpin' Ain't Easy. Music includes "Joy - A Work in Progress," a cabaret performance by Kim Kinsley; and "Look into my eyes {she pleads}," by Rebekah Alexander, a vocal piece inspired by a line in Racine's adaptation of the Phaedra myth. This year's visual art display includes photography by Nikki Staggs, calligraphy by Carol Ann Baily, and water colors and textile art by Melanie Menefee Carter.

Single tickets to Women's Work are an affordable $10 each; a $30 pass offers admission to any four performances, and the $60 Festival Pass is good for admission to all shows. Ticket revenues and the support of sponsors and grantors including The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, are enabling the company to compensate the presenting artists for their appearances: $6 of every $10 in ticket sales will go to the presenters.

Women's Work opens Friday May 6 at the Looby Theatre, adjacent to the Looby Branch Library at 2301 Rosa L. Parks Blvd. The festival continues weekends throughSunday May 22. Showtimes are at 7:30 pm Thursday through Saturday, and 2:30 pm Sundays. For a complete schedule of performers, show dates and times, reservations and information, call (615) 681-7220, or visit Tennessee Women's Theater Project on Facebook or online at www.twtp.org.

The Women's Work 2015 roster as of April 29:

Friday May 6, 7:30 pm - Short Plays and Stories: Song for Miranda Lambert, by Pam Tate and Robin Rich; Unending Drama, by Judy Klass; Earlybirds and Planting Firewood, by Natalie Parker-Lawrence; and Pumpin' Ain't Easy, by Amanda Bloomer

Saturday May 7, 7:30 pm - Music Performance: Joy - A Work in Progress, a cabaret performance by Kim Kinsley; and Look into my eyes {she pleads}, by Rebekah Alexander, a vocal piece inspired by a line in Racine's adaptation of the Phaedra myth.

Sunday May 8, 2:30 pm - Tenth Annual Mother's Day Poetry Reading featuring Barbara Russell; Mimi Pantelides; poems of Carol Campbell, read by Laura Ware; Jamie Cutler and Sylvia Forest Crawford.

Thursday May 12, 7:30 pm - Theater: staged reading of Night Warrior, by Brooke Bryant

Friday May 13, 7:30 pm - An evening of Short Plays & Films: featuring Snow Globes, a film by Madeleine Hicks; [UN]MASQUE, a play by Robyn Brooks; The Persephone Project, a short play by Liz McCreight and Midnight Munchies, a short film by Karen Linton

Saturday May 14, 7:30 pm - Dance Night: featuring works from Elaine Husted/Husted Dance; Jen Jen Lin; Marci Murphree's REASONs Dance Ensemble and Maria Maggipinto

Sunday May 15 - NO Performance

Thursday May 19, 7:30 pm - Theater: staged reading of Falling Apples, by Misty Ayres-Miranda

Friday May 20, 7:30 pm - Theater: staged reading of Me and My Smother, by Sue Fabisch

Saturday May 21, 7:30 pm - Theater: Staged reading of After The Fall, by Marilynn Barner Anselmi

Sunday May 22, 2:30 pm - Theater: Reading of A Modern Day Quilt, by Becky Wahlstrom, a play commissioned by Tennessee Women's Theater Project

Visual Arts

Photographs by Nikki Staggs; Calligraphy by Carol Ann Baily; and Water Colors and Textile Art by Melanie Menefee Carter will be on display for the run of the festival

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