BWW Previews: EIGHT NEW WORKS COME TO LIFE during SheVolution at Powerstories Theatre

Celebrating Women's Month, opening tonight is SheVolution Fest at Powerstories Theatre. SheVolution Fest was birthed 10 years ago, when a group of women wanted to do a strong play about female empowerment. Performed annually through 2012, in 2018 Powerstories founder Fran Powers realized she missed the special event and brought the festival back to help women tell their stories and express themselves artistically.

Tonight, and tomorrow evening, SheVolution will reunite Fran with Cheryl Flowers, Janice Nepon-Sixt, Georgette DeSalvo and Pegotty Cooper, several of the women of the inaugural SheVolution for a story concert "SheVolution Act III" to honor the female lineage.

Throughout the month local playwrights and poets will showcase their original female-centric works. The lineup consists of:

• "SheVolution III" - March 7 and 8, 8pm
• "Twirling in the Woods - Nature Poem and Stories" - March 9, 8 pm
• "The Lady from Havana" - Mar 10, 8pm
• "It's About Time" - March 15, and 21, 3pm
• "C'est La Vie" - March 16, 2pm and 7pm
• "NINE" - March 17, 3pm
• "Shattering the Silence" - March 22, 8pm
• "The ThinkFast Experiment" - March 24, 6pm

Magda Santos, author of "Twirling in the Woods - Nature Poem and Stories" explained that her show is performance art, a night of story, poetry, and nature "with a little whimsy" based on her poetry book "Twirling in the Woods."

Directed by India Davison and Kidany Camillo, "The Lady from Havana" explores hilarious and bittersweet relationship between a recently exiled Cuban aristocrat, her daughter, and a feisty maid.

" 'The Lady from Havana' is Fluid Expression's first Hispanic production and we are very excited to bring this beautifully written play by Luis Santeiro to life," said India.

Written by Janet Scaglione, PhD, "It's About Time" is a musical making its developmental reading debut about a menopausal mother disillusioned with the American Dream.

Gretchen Suárez-Peña, "C'est La Vie" playwright and 2018 SheVolution participant said, "As a playwright, it's hard to get workshops and stage readings of your shows. SheVolution is giving me the opportunity to have a test audience for a new work. It's a great idea to have this during Women's History Month, and as a female playwright, I couldn't be more thrilled to be part of it.

"The audience should expect monologues, lots of them. This is kind of in the format of 'Motherhood Out Loud' or 'Pieces of My Heart' (great shows done at Powerstories last year) so if you liked those you will like this one... Or maybe people are more familiar with the 'Vagina Monologues' - bold, sometimes uncomfortable vignettes and monologues about real life."

Written by Clark Brooks, "NINE" is described as "nine amazing women, nine amazing stories."

"Shatter the Silence" writer Iana Thomas discussed how she hopes her piece starts a conversation about violence. A clarion call, written to generate conversation about and take action against the increasing levels of violence and abuse taking place in many relationships, today, with vivid, transparent details of her own personal accounts of abuse, the author invites you, for a moment, to climb inside of her heart and mind, as she takes you on this journey. In her literary debut, she tells this story with hopes of encouraging others, sitting in silence, to do so, no more.

Iana said, "I'm most excited about having the opportunity to spread awareness about not just domestic violence, but about how to truly live life, in peace, from the inside out. I would love for the audience to come with an open mind and leave with some level of transformation regarding their perspective on domestic violence, mental health and how to move on, in peace."

To close the festival, local playwright Deb Kelley has partnered with 9 other playwrights to create a new work in just 8 hours. Combining all ages and levels of experience, "The ThinkFast Experiment" will showcase the talents of Deb, Martha Velez, Danielle Trzcinski, Brick Brickel, Samantha Marti Parisi, Beth Behner, MaryBeth Wells, Chelsie Camaro Smith, Madi Maha, and Tiffany Razzano. Coordinated by Kym Welch, directed by Nicole Evans Haumesser and stage managed by Nora Paine, the original collaboration will go on stage the next evening as an active staged reading.

"I was involved in writing a short piece overnight with Brianna Larson's 4x6 Festival in 2018, competing with some incredible playwrights. It was a challenging, amazing experience and the inspiration behind The ThinkFast Experiment. Instead of competing, I want to see what 10 women can create when they collaborate together. Each woman will bring an opening and closing line of dialogue and a theme to Powerstories on Saturday morning. Kym, our typist coordinator will draw out one of each and we will have to develop a story from whatever is randomly selected," explained Deb. "Nicole will audition the roles for the 26 actors that have been patiently waiting for the original script in a Facebook group. I have no idea what we're writing, but these women are incredible, so I know it's going to be a fun and wild ride."

Fran is excited use her venue to showcase women-centric stories and bring these original works to the public.

"By far, the SheVolution Fest is one of the most rewarding events we do at Powerstories Theatre. Offering a space for women to safely explore their creative voices in front of an audience is at the core of our mission," said Fran. "It's a joy to have so many new artists experiment with their artistic dreams."

To purchase $10 tickets for SheVolution, visit https://powerstories.com/calendar-event/shevolution-march-6-to-march-23-2019/

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