The Work Of Westchester Women Playwrights to be Featured In THAT'S (NOT) ALL SHE WROTE II

From Friday, July 28th through Sunday, July 30th, Westchester Collaborative Theater will showcase a collection of plays and monologues written and performed by eight local women playwrights and WCT members in That's (Not) All She Wrote II. The writers will read from their own work in a specially created salon-like setting with audiences seated around the space cabaret-style to provide a more immersive, participatory experience. The festival is a sequel to last year's much-lauded inaugural event - though with a novel twist. WCT actor/director Melissa Nocera from Yorktown Heights is reprising her role as director and WCT writer/actor/director/producer Lori Myers of Nanuet will once again be the executive producer. Kim Chandler of New Rochelle is the stage manager.

This year, the work by female playwrights needed to 'pass' The Bechdel Test, a method developed in 1985 to evaluate the representation of women in film, TV, and theater. Bechdel rules decree that at least two female characters talk to each other about something other than a man. A monologue with a woman speaking to a woman who isn't seen on stage was deemed to fulfill the mandate by WCT.

Says Myers, "The talented female writers in our production have encountered both challenges and revelations when realizing the frequency with which their work revolves around male characters. However, they have managed to create remarkable and surprising pieces that fulfill the given criteria, allowing for a distinctive examination of the human condition. Audiences can eagerly anticipate an extraordinary and unique experience as these voices scold, plead, explode - and so much more!"

The plays are: Hunter's Moon (excerpt) by Barbara Dana of Katonah, a veteran actor of stage, film and TV and a playwright and award-winning children's book author. This is Dana's third full-length play.

• An artist in her late seventies is kicked out of her house by the wife of her former husband.

Cluck by Linda Bidwell Delaney of Yorktown Heights, an award-winning playwright whose works have been widely seen in the tri-state area. She is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America, Honor Roll! and the Brewster Theater Company's Writers Workshop.

- Three aging chickens from widely diverse backgrounds meet in a bar and discover that "Wing Night" doesn't mean what they thought it did.

Assisted Living by Brenda Hettmansberger of Ossining, an actor, writer, director, and model who has workshopped several one-act plays with WCT.

• How does one come to terms with the pain - whether hidden or revealed - that can result when a family is splintered by the trauma of divorce?

From Ballet to the Battlefield by Kimberly Mallory, a playwright and novelist living in Upper Westchester.

• Sophia, a 27-year-old ballerina, yearns to do something meaningful with her life. But will her mother, mired in alcoholism and depression, hold her back?

Sleep Study by Evelyn Mertens of Briarcliff Manor whose plays and a short film have been produced through WCT, Axial Theatre, Glass Ceiling Breakers, the Aery and Ariane Festivals, and Irvington Arts Incubator. She is a member of Honor Roll! and the Dramatists Guild.

-A mother confesses a harsh truth to her sleeping daughter the night before the young woman is deployed to a war zone.

Filled and Hunger by Serena Norr of Mount Kisco, a writer, playwright, and founder of Let's Make a Play whose plays have been performed at the Omaha Fringe Festival, White Plains Performing Arts Center, the New Deal Creative Arts Center, WCT, the Rogue Theater Festival, the NYC Short Play Festival, the University of Alabama, and various Zoom productions. Her work has been published in ellipsis... literature & art Drama and the Stonecoast Review.

- Filled (monologue): Rae desperately wants to be filled by spending her days stealing from 99 cents stores and her nights online shopping. Hunger (excerpt): Cybil, a teenager, tries to repress her hunger as Lulu, a model from her magazine, learns how to fill her own.

Mother Tree by Loretta Oleck of Ossining, whose full-length play, Paper Chains, was a finalist in the Henley Rose Playwright Competition for Women, a semi-finalist in the Garry Marshall Theater New Works Festival, and was included in The NYC 's International Human Rights Arts Festival.

• Two sisters, one an idealist and one a pragmatist, engage in a passionate debate weaving past challenges with present and future ideals all while in a perilous surrounding.

A Fashionable Funeral by Bette Carlson Siler of Nyack an actor, director and playwright whose plays have been produced/read in NYC's Estrogenius Festival, NJ Rep., George Street Playhouse and The McCarter Theatre, among others.

• Two close girlfriends don't approve of Nancy's appearance at her funeral.

That's (Not) All She Wrote II will be performed at the WCT Theater at 23 Water Street, Ossining on Friday, July 28 at 8 pm; Saturday, July 29 at 2 and 8 pm; Sunday, July 30 at 3 pm. All tickets are $15. To purchase tickets: https://wct-presents-thats-not-all-she-wrote-2.eventbrite.com For additional information, visit wctheater.org

About Westchester Collaborative Theater

Since its opening in 2017, the WCT black box performance space has become increasingly known as a venue showcasing WCT plays and readings, as well as live music and a variety of performance artists. For upcoming theater and music events visit http://www.wctheater.org/

Westchester Collaborative Theater is a multicultural, cooperative theater company located in Ossining, NY, dedicated to developing new work for the stage and bringing live theater to the community. It is comprised of local playwrights, actors, and directors who employ a Lab approach in which new stage works are nurtured through an iterative process of readings, critiques, and rewrites. When work is ready for production, it is presented to the public.

WCT is committed to furthering theater arts in our community. It is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation and is proud to be a grantee of ArtsWestchester with funding made possible by Westchester County government with the support of County Executive George Latimer.

To post a comment, you must register and login.