First Female Playwrights Chosen For Inaugural Women In Theatre Lab Announced

The first female playwrights chosen for the inaugural Women in Theatre Lab have been announced.

The Women in Theatre Lab is a UK version of America's ground-breaking Women's Project (WP) Lab and Australia's Women in Theatre programme which helped lead to gender parity being reached in Australia's top eight theatres.

Leading women contributing sessions to the UK's new Women in Theatre Lab, which will provide advice sessions from leading female playwrights, craft skills, business skills, one to one mentoring, a seed commission, and a showcase, include leading female playwrights April De Angelis, Timberlake Wertenbaker, Australian playwright Suzie Miller, who wrote hit play Prima Facie starring Jodi Comer and American playwright Dorothy Fortenberry who wrote The Handmaids Tale and Extrapolations starring Meryl Streep.

Other contributors include producers and Artistic Directors Stella Kanu and Stella Powell-Jones, BAFTA winning actress Joanna Scanlan and Emmy winning actress and co-founder of Smack the Pony Doon Mackichan who recently wrote the book My Lady Parts amongst others.

The Lab is run in partnership with Her Story Productions, the new company supporting women in theatre, television and film, led by co-Directors Polly Kemp, co-founder and Director of ERA 50:50, the equal representation for actresses campaign whose supporters include Emma Thompson and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and co-Director Jennifer Tuckett, the former Research and Literary Director at Sphinx Theatre who has recently finished a major five year research project into women in theatre in partnership with The Writers' Guild of Great Britain, Equity, ERA 50:50, Sphinx, Black Womxn in Theatre, WOW, Parents and Carers in Performing Arts and other partners.

The other partners on the new Women in Theatre Lab include the Jermyn Street Theatre, the West End's Studio Theatre, which has produced leading female playwrights including April De Angelis and Timberlake Wertenbaker, The Writers' Guild of Great Britain and ERA 50:50, the equal representation for actresses organization whose supporters include Emma Thompson and Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

A number of additional leading Theatre Partners, including Tamasha Theatre Company and Theatr Clwyd, will be announced shortly as the Women in Theatre Lab aims to create a new model to support female playwrights who theatres around the UK would like to support by offering places on the Lab in partnership with those theatres, in order to help support the development of female playwrights theatres would otherwise be unable to support, as well as supporting open call female playwrights, in order to help address gender inequality in theatre in the UK and develop an ongoing paid pipeline to support female playwrights in the UK.

The ten female playwrights selected for the inaugural Women in Theatre Lab from the open call include Rafaella Marcus, who recently wrote of how she has struggled to secure another production since her first hit play "Sap", Sumerah Srivastav, who has been writing for many years but has yet to have her first theatre production, and Manchester- based Naomi Sumner Chan, who has found herself often supporting initiatives rather than being supported for her writing in the past.

The rest of the ten include emerging and mid-career writers including Charlotte Small, Elle Van Lil, Millie Bloom, Nina Berry, Titilola Dawudu, Karis Kelly, and Emma Baim.

A shortlist and longlist is also available on the Women in Theatre Lab website, highlighting over 80 of the UK's most promising emerging and mid-career female playwrights with the aim that other theatres and interested parties will take a look at the list.

Jennifer Tuckett, co-Director of the Women in Theatre Lab said: "We were overwhelmed by the number of excellent applications we received for the first Women in Theatre Lab in the UK - over double the number of applications received for previous one-off programmes Polly and I have run. It was a difficult decision choosing the final ten and we wanted to support many more - we hope those not chosen this year will apply again in future years. The number of applications is also a sign that women in theatre are in need of support - we were pleased that Arts Council England recently agreed to take action at a historic meeting to mark the end of my five year research project into women in theatre which I ran with The Writers' Guild, Equity, ERA 50: 50 and Sphinx amongst others. Actions the Arts Council agreed to take included working with Parents and Carers in Performing Arts on childcare issues from the research, considering boards, new writing and info sheets and considering setting up a gender advisory group and we hope the sheer number of applications we received from women in need of support will encourage them to commit to the gender advisory group in particular".

Leading female playwright April De Angelis, who has written for The National Theatre amongst many other theatres and whose play "The Divine Mrs S" is currently on at the Hampstead Theatre, said: "It is brilliant to see the first female playwrights for the Women in Theatre Lab announced. A UK version of America's Women's Project (WP) Lab and Australia's Women in Theatre programme has been much needed to address the gender inequality in theatre found by Jennifer's research and other sources and I look forward to contributing a session to the Lab."

Leading female playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker, whose most famous plays include "Our Country's Good" for The Royal Court Theatre and "The Love of the Nightingale" for the RSC, said: "The Women in Theatre Lab is an exciting and much needed UK initiative. It is still shockingly difficult for women to find encouragement and a secure place in the theatre and this will certainly go a long way to help."

Emmy-winning actress and co-creator of "Smack the Pony" Doon Mackichan, who recently wrote the book "My Lady Parts" said: "Women continue to be underrepresented in writing for theatre. The huge number of submissions to the Women in Theatre Lab demonstrates how necessary it is for opportunities like this to exist so we can begin to turn the tide for women. This is an opportunity to assist and provide a platform for their work that I am delighted to support!"

Stella Powell-Jones, Artistic Director of the Jermyn Street Theatre, and David Doyle, Executive Producer of the Jermyn Street Theatre, said: "We're thrilled to be a partner on the Women in Theatre Lab. The U.S. and Australia both show what meaningful progress pipeline programmes like this can make to achieve gender parity on stage. This programme couldn't be off to a stronger start than with these 10 extraordinary writers. We can't wait to see what comes next!"

The Women in Theatre Lab builds on Jennifer Tuckett's five year research project into women in theatre, which was conducted in partnership with The Writer's Guild of Great Britain, Equity, ERA 50:50, Sphinx, Parents and Carers in Performing Arts, WOW, Aurora Metro Books, and others. The group secured an agreement from Arts Council England to take action on the issue of discrimination against women in theatre for the first time during the five years at a meeting at the end of March and wrote an open letter to Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer on December 4th 2023 requesting a government inquiry into the under-representation of women in the arts but have yet to hear back.

The full longlist, shortlist and selected writers are available on the Women in Theatre Lab website.

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