Women's Work 2011: Lisa Soland of MY FATHER'S CHAIR

Tennessee Women's Theater Project returns to Nashville's Z. Alexander Looby Theater for the fifth year running - beginning Friday May 6 - for its annual Women's Work festival of performing and visual arts created by women. Running through Sunday, May 22, the festival cuts a broad swath across styles and genres to offer eleven completely different programs: poetry and essays; one-woman shows; staged readings of new plays; film, dance, music and a display of visual art works in the theater lobby. On Friday night, May 13, audiences will be treated to My Father's Chair, a new play by Lisa Soland (directed by Charles R. Miller), a playwright-in-residence at Tennessee Repertory Theatre.

"[Audiences] should come see and hear this new play - and experience these talented actors bringing the story to life for the first time," Soland suggests. "It's very exciting to hear a new play."

Tell me about your show... My Father's Chair is a drama about a daughter who returns home after receiving news that her father has taken his own life. She watches her mother unravel as she steps in to take care of her father's estate, facing challenges that even she could never have foreseen.

How does this show reflect who you are as a woman? When I write plays, I don't think about the fact that I'm a woman. I simply try to tell the story in the most intriguing, most thought-provoking way. When it comes to suicide, however, there is a difference between the genders that I find interesting: More women attempt to commit suicide, but more men actually succeed.

What about this show speaks most eloquently to the audience? Well, I think people don't talk about suicide and it might get people talking about it. The power and lure of suicide, I think, is in the fact that it's secretive and for those sorts of things, we disengage the power when we begin to discuss it in our communities.

How does this show represent your personal point of view? Most everyone I've spoken to about this quiet killer, knows someone, a close or distant relative or friend who has taken their own life. I think it's a subject that needs exploring.

- May 13, 7:30 p.m.: Staged reading of the play My Father's Chair, by Lisa Soland. Single tickets to Woman's Work are $5 each; a $30 Festival Pass is good for unlimited admissions. Women's Work opens Friday, May 6, at the Z. Alexander Looby Theatre, adjacent to the Looby Branch Library, 2301 Rosa L. Parks Blvd. The festival continues for eleven performances through Sunday, May 22. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, and 2:30 pm Sundays. For reservations and information, call (615) 681-7220, or visit the company's web site at www.twtp.org.

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