Women's Project Publishes Anthology of Plays by Young Female Playwrights

Out of Time and Place: An Anthology of Plays by Members of the Women's Project Playwrights Lab, Volumes 1 & 2, the long overdue anthology of plays by a group of contemporary female writers, will go on sale after a free reading by eight of the playwrights at The Drama Book Shop, 250 West 40th Street, Friday, December 3, at 5:00pm. The public is invited to the 5:00pm launch event.

Over the past couple decades the number of women whose work is being produced and published within the United States has plateaued or even dipped in some areas of the country-a mere 18% of the plays being produced nationally are written by women. Not only is women's work not being seen on the nation's stages, it is not being studied as often within the academic community. Professors regularly struggle to find contemporary work by women to present to their students. Out of Time and Place: An Anthology of Plays by Members of the Women's Project Playwrights Lab (Women's Project & Productions, Inc, 2010) should be the beginning of the end of that struggle.

The plays and playwrights featured in Out of Time and Place represent a wide swath of contemporary female voices working in the theater today. The Vigil or The Guided Cradle by Crystal Skillman just received its first professional production in May 2010, and went on to receive this year's New York Innovative Theater Award for Outstanding Full-Length Play. At Her Feet, by the South African writer Nadia Davids, has been seen around the globe on an international tour and won two Fleur du Cap awards following its 2002 premiere. The lyrical and sweeping The Quiver of Children by Charity Henson-Ballard, offers a fascinating glimpse of a promising new playwright awaiting her first major production, whose work is preceded by a glowing introduction by Louis Scheeder. Lynn Rosen's play Back From The Front is featured in Out of Time and Place, just as she is about to received a major Off-Broadway production of her latest piece Apple Cove, premiering January 2011 at Women's Project. And this only represents 4 of the 11 remarkable writers featured in this two-volume anthology.

http://www.outoftimeandplace.com/

Edited by Alexis Clements with Christine Evans, Out of Time and Place includes a preface by Megan Carter.

Volume 1 includes:
Back From The Front by Lynn Rosen
Rewind by Laura Eason
The Quiver of Children by Charity Henson-Ballard
The Vigil or The Guided Cradle by Crystal Skillman
Weightless by Christine Evans

Volume 2 includes:
At Her Feet by Nadia Davids
Conversation by Alexis Clements
Le Fou by Bekah Brunstetter
Sleeping Rough by Kara Manning
TBA by Carla Ching
Undone by Andrea Thome

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO OBTAIN A REVIEW COPY OF THE BOOKS: anthology@womensproject.org

Women's Project
Founded in 1978 by Julia Miles, and now under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Julie Crosby, Women's Project provides a stage for women playwrights and directors, who even today receive fewer than 20% of professional production opportunities nationwide.

Women's Project (WP) produces theater created by women, providing a forum for women's perspectives on political, social, and cultural topics. During its 33 years, countless artists have achieved significant recognition through WP productions, including Anne Bogart, Eve Ensler, Maria Irene Fornes, Lynn Nottage, Suzan-Lori Parks, Leigh Silverman, and Anna Deavere Smith, among the many. WP has produced staged over 600 mainstage productions and developmental projects, and published eleven anthologies of plays by women.

Women's Project is on a roll in the last few years: Freshwater, Aliens with Extraordinary Skills, crooked, Sand, Or, and Smudge.

 

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