Women's Theatre Festival Official Season Announced

Women's Theatre Festival announces tickets will go on sale June 1 for its slate of shows comprising its "Women Are Funny" season.

Mora V. Harris' Space Girl will be brought to you by "The Sisters Koop". They are back to bring you the wonders of space as well as the surreal horror of high school. With a blended cast of high school aged and professional actors, the show features roller derby sequences and planetarium style light shows, to the orchestral sounds of deep space. Come back to high school with Arugula Suarez on June 1 at the Occupy the Stage Event, beginning at 8pm.

Additional performances are July 1 at 8pm, 2 at 3pm, July 6-7 at 8pm and July 9, 3pm at Sonorous Road Theatre in their new location at The Royal Bakery Building, 3801 Hillsborough St, Suite 113, Raleigh, NC 27607

Next, Chapel Hill based playwright Steffi Rubin brings us The Woodstock Tontine, a play about six women who meet at Woodstock. When the first one dies, the remaining gals decide to invest financially in their friendship by forming a tontine so the last friend standing receives a life-changing windfall. Who will inherit the tontine? Local director Lucia Foster directs.

Shows are at Burning Coal Theatre, 224 Polk St, Raleigh, NC 27604 on July 7, 8, 14, 15 at 8pm 9 and 16 at 3pm.

Licked Cupcake is a brand new original devised work written collaboratively by the company under the direction of Raleigh native Johannah Maynard Edwards. Inspired by a common modesty teaching for girls in the Mormon faith, the play explores the impact organized religions have on the weird and wonderful journey from girl- to womanhooD. Edwards' work has been touted as "visually arresting," "emotionally gripping," and "filled with an enviable poetic economy." Produced by Loni Lyn Price and co-conceived by local theater powerhouses Lorelei Lemon, Maxine Eloi, Ren Cleveland, and Maggie Lea as well as celebrated fiction author Cori Vella, this darkly delicious production is not to be missed! Performances will be held at from July 13-15 8pm, 16 3pm and 20-22 8pm, 23 3pm at Sonorous Road Theatre The Royal Bakery Building, 3801 Hillsborough St, Suite 113, Raleigh, NC 27607.

Maribeth McCarthy, who brought us last summer's "touching, hilarious, heartbreaking, real" Bruisers, will debut her latest work, Sweet Tea & Baby Dreams, which she penned specifically in hopes of being included in the "Women Are Funny" season. This show gives us a bird's eye view of the power dynamics and Culture Clashes at a seemingly sweet baby shower. McCarthy, known for creating complex female characters with emotional breadth, will also direct and be joined by producer Hannah Marks. Performances are at Meredith College, Jones Auditorium, 3800 Hillsborough St, Raleigh, NC 27607 from August 3-5 8pm 6 3pm and 10-12 8pm, 13 3pm.

The crowning event of the festival is Miss Lulu Bett by Zona Gale, winner of the 1921 Pulitzer Prize. Directed by Garner native, Playmakers veteran, and UNC-G grad NaTasha Thompson. This production will be WTF at its best featuring the historically inaccurate, role re-defining casting for which it is are known. Lulu Bett, an unmarried woman living with her sister's family, during a time when women had few choices, finds herself married to her ne'er do well brother-in-law. When her new husband vanishes, what will become of Lulu Bett and her family?

Performance will be at Walltown Children's Theatre, 1225 Berkeley St, Durham, NC 27705.

From August 10-12 8pm, 13 at 3pm, and 17-19 at 8pm, 20 at 3pm.

For more information on the festival, visit the WTF website at www.womenstheatrefestival.com, and find us on Facebook @WTFNC.

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