13th Street Playhouse Hosts Women in the Theatre ...and Over 50

This past weekend, 13th Street Playhouse played host to a room of some of New York's female power players with Wisdom Voices: Women in the Theatre and Over 50. The panel included Broadway veteran Polly Adams; Emmy-winner Ellen Parker; actress & playwright Leigh Curran; actress & scholar Heather Rasche; performer & playwright Shellen Lubin; actress & fine artist Leah Friedman; actress, playwright & performance artist Elizabeth Hess; and veteran playwright & producing artists director of the 13th Rep Susan Merson. Celebrated actor, author, and director, Austin Pendleton moderated the spirited panel. Thought-provoking topics including roles for women of a certain age, the importance of off-off Broadway, and shifting theatrical norms filled the room.

The audience also sported theatre dignitaries: Obie & Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Dael Orlandersmith and celebrated author Elsa Rael, who shared stories of her urging founder of the Public Theater, Joseph Papp, for more opportunities for mature women. Leigh Curran, on discussing her latest chapter in her life included in her acclaimed one-woman play Why Water Falls, said "I love being in a place of not knowing [the future];" and Shellen Lubin summed up what was on the lips of many that afternoon: "the ever-changing theatre must change again."

The 13th Street Repertory's "Rep Resurgence," thanks to producing artistic director Susan Merson, presents quality works like Leigh Curran's one-woman show, Why Water Falls as part of the new higher standard audiences can expect when they spend an evening at the new 13th Street Playhouse.