We like to serve as a springboard to help LA-area theatermakers connect to female playwrights and theater artists, a starting point for women artists to investigate opportunities locally, and a source for theatergoers who want to support the work of women onstage.
If you are a female theater artist, you ARE a resource: Send us your information! If you know of more resources for playwrights, have updates or are part of an organization we should know about, email us at [email protected].
- For LA Theatermakers – a list of women playwrights, directors, designers and producers.
- For Female Playwrights – groups, projects and theaters of interest to women playwrights.
- For LA Theatergoers – find out where to see the work of women playwrights onstage.
- For Everyone – news and facts about gender parity.
For LA Theatermakers
The women playwrights and theater artists below are active in supporting the goals of the LAFPI. Use this list to see whether their talents can help you do the same.
PLAYWRIGHTS
- Nayna Agrawal – Award-winning writer for the stage and screen.
- Rita Anderson – Award-winning playwright, focusing on female casts/significant roles for women.
- Tiffany Antone
- Lesley Asistio – Playwright/Director/Actor/Solo Performer/Teaching Artist/Impresario, VirginMotherWhore Project.
- Nancy Beverly
- Debbie Bolsky
- Robin Byrd
- Sarah Cho – Graduate, Iowa Playwrights Workshop, playwright/director of all things comedy.
- November Christine – Playwright/Composer/Lyricist, woman of color, rebel with a cause.
- Paula Cizmar
- Allie Costa
- Dee Jae Cox
- Maryam Myika Day
- Kelly DuMar
- Larissa Fasthorse – Playwright and choreographer, published and nationally produced.
- Kitty Felde
- Laura Ferejohn – Eclectically traditional (O’Neill, Stoppard). Rage and hope ridiculed and embraced.
- Colette Freedman
- Victoria Goring – over 20 produced plays, shortlisted for Juilliard twice.
- Diane Grant
- Leslie Hardy
- Janis Butler Holm – Writer, Professional Editor
- Velina Hasu Houston
- Stephanie Hutchinson – Playwright/Composer/Lyricist; plays and musicals incorporating hope.
- Sara Israel
- Katherine James – Asks the big questions in ways audiences, directors, actors crave.
- Laura Jenkins – Writer and performer of the solo show “Triangles are my favorite shape.”
- Anne Johnstonbrown – Author/Director of the play, LYMAN, and Professor of Theatre Arts
- Daliya Karnofsky – Actress/Writeress/Bakeress igniting domesticity in an explosion of comfort and joy.
- Lyralen Kaye – Award-winning playwright and screenwriter, foregrounding women’s lives and relationships.
- Janice Kennedy
- Carol S. Lashof – I reimagine classic stories from marginalized points of view.
- Maureen Lee Lenker
- E.M. Lewis
- Elizabeth Liang – Writer/producer of the solo show, Alien Citizen: An Earth Odyssey.
- Robin Rice Lichtig – Playwright: award-winning, published, produced worldwide.
- Shellen Lubin – Playwright, Songwriter, Co-President www.womenartsmediacoalition.org; DG, BMI, LPTW.
- Elisa Manzini – Playwright, member of the Actors Studio West.
- Marella (Ella) Martin
- Sarah McLean – TV/film/web writer, Improvisor, focusing on the funny.
- Ann Meredith – Tackles the tough subjects and tells passionate compelling stories.
- Makena Metz – Playwright, lyricist & librettist.
- Lynne Moses
- Krystal Anaís Amaya Navarro – I intend to heal and raise awareness – through my many forms of expression
- AR Nicholas – Award-winning playwright, novelist and actress. Mission: To enlighten and entertain.
- Linda Ravenswood, writer, singer, theatre maker, vis / sound installations, performance art, poetry
- Analyn Revilla
- Sally Richter
- Scarlett Savage – Multi-award-winning playwright/novelist; “She Effin’ Hates Me” in stores now.
- Jule Selbo – Historical, dramedies, sci-fi; full length and short plays.
- Laura Shamas
- Kat Sparks
- Mary Steelsmith – Award-winning playwright, specializing in ten minute plays.
- Constance Strickland – Physical theatre performer using interdisciplinary art to create original pieces.
- Stacy Tanner – Writer, Composer, Terminal Dreamer, and helping others do the same.
- Tami Tirgrath – A writer of plays, poetry, and stories–and a novel.
- Sarah Tuft – Writer for Stage, Screen, TV – published by Playscripts.
- Ilana Turner
- Laureen Vonnegut, writer/director, THE PORCINI TEST, about three women on the verge.
- Robin Walsh – Creating characters and movement from what others consider inanimate objects.
- Lucy Wang
- Cynthia Wands
- Lolly Ward – Darkly funny plays: chess, physics, performance art, and family secrets.
- Jennie Webb – Dark comedies for strong women actors; domestic absurdism.
- Laurel Wetzork – Historical plays (WWII), sci-fi, and dark comedies.
- Denise David Williams – Playwright, Producers, Mystic
- Annie Wood – Playwright, screenwriter. pathos enthusiast, runs twitter page for WGAW: @WoWGAW.
- Desiree’ York – Woman playwright/director who writes for women and underrepresented voices.
- Gina Young – Contemporary queer feminist work for the next generation of theater.
DIRECTORS
- Lesley Asistio – Playwright/Director/Actor/Solo Performer/Teaching Artist/Impresario, VirginMotherWhore Project.
- Kate Bergstrom – From kitchen sink dramas to feminist-centered avante-garde performance art.
- Katie Chidester – Strong desire to work with female-centric pieces in new/alternative works.
- Allie Costa
- Reena Dutt – My motto: “Create with a Conscience”
- Victoria Goring – over 20 produced plays, shortlisted for Juilliard twice.
- Bari Hochwald
- Sara Israel
- Katherine James – Playwrights, actors, productions nurtured to achieve perfect work every time.
- Anne Johnstonbrown – Author/Director of the play, LYMAN, and Professor of Theatre Arts
- Lyralen Kaye – Feminist director of devised theatre, making work from women’s voices.
- Marella Martin Koch
- Beth Lopes – Specializing in ensemble driven projects and adaptation of classical work.
- Shellen Lubin -Director, Co-President
www.womenartsmediacoalition. org; SDC, AEA, LPTW. - Ann Meredith – Tackles the tough subjects and tells passionate compelling stories.
- Lynne Moses
- Krystal Anaís Amaya Navarro – I intend to heal and raise awareness – through my many forms of expression
- Sabina Ptasznik
- Laura Steinroeder – Has a passion for working on new play development.
- Miranda Stewart – Seeking emotional truths, witty characters, balancing comedy and tragedy.
- Randee Trabitz
- Laureen Vonnegut, writer/director, THE PORCINI TEST, about three women on the verge.
- Desiree’ York – Woman playwright/director who writes for women and underrepresented voices.
Click Here to check out the Female Director Database from 365 Women a Year!
PRODUCERS
- Reena Dutt – My motto: “Create with a Conscience”
- Bari Hochwald
- Ann Meredith – Tackles the tough subjects and tells passionate compelling stories.
- Krystal Anaís Amaya Navarro – I intend to heal and raise awareness – through my many forms of expression
- Kat Primeau
To add yourself to the list above, send your name, category (more than one’s okay) and website or contact info along with (if you’d like) 10 words or less about you and/or your work to [email protected].
For Female Playwrights
This is a place for submission opportunities, groups and theaters of interest to women playwrights, regardless of location. (Click Here for LA-area female directors and producers!)
Opportunities
Please let us know if any of this information is no longer correct or if a link is broken so we can update or remove inaccurate listings as soon as possible.
Women in the Arts & Media Coalition
Women in the Arts & Media Coalition have teamed up to take over the WomenArts funding newsletters. The Coalition is compiling and sending out both #StageOpps (theatre) and #ScreenOpps (film/video) monthly submission opportunities, with both available on the Women in the Arts & Media Coalition.
Lists theaters and playwriting contests; often designates those looking specifically for plays by female playwrights, or featuring strong women characters.
The Playwrights’ Center Writer’s Opportunities
This extensive database of information contains information on contests, theaters, publication and submission opportunities.
Groups and Theaters of Interest to Women Playwrights
50/50 in 2020 (NYC)
Working proactively for parity for professional women theater artists. Facebook group fostered by New Perspectives Theater Company, Women’s Project, and The League of Professional Theater Women.
Guerrilla Girls on Tour! (NYC)
An anonymous touring theater collective that creates comic pieces addressing sexism and discrimination in the performing arts and beyond. The Girls’ blog is a great way to find out what’s going on across the country in terms of gender parity in theater and to get inspiration from their fighting words . . . and actions!
Hedgebrook (Washington state)
Founded to nurture and support the work of women writers, based in Washington state; works in partnership with major regional theaters.
Honor Roll! is an advocacy and action group of women+ playwrights over 40 as well as our women+ over 40 allies. The term “women+” refers to a spectrum of gender identification that includes women, non-binary identifiers and trans. Visit the Members Profile Project.
International Centre for Women Playwrights
Dedicated to the support of female dramatists around the world, maintains an active listserv and other activities.
League of Professional Theater Women (NYC)
The League of Professional Theatre Women is a not-for-profit organization that seeks to promote visibility and increase opportunities for women in the Professional Theatre.
Los Angeles Women’s Theater Festival
The Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival (LAWTF) empowers women artists to engage and inspire communities through the production of multidisciplinary solo performers and educational outreach. The Annual Festival honors the achievement of extraordinary women in theater.
Playwrights Foundation (Bay Area)
Playwrights Foundation is dedicated to discovering and supporting local and national American playwrights across a broad spectrum of artistic and career positions, in the inception and development of new plays that speak to and from an increasingly diverse society.
Tennessee Women’s Theater Project (Nashville)
Based in Nashville, dedicated to giving voice to women through theater arts.
Theatre Roscius, a Los Angeles-based experimental performance art theatre troupe, was founded on the simple idea that stories must be shared. That the simple act of sharing, when individuals gather to explore the many facets of being human, ultimately reveals our hidden similarities, and people otherwise easily mistaken for strangers, foreigners, outcasts, when put together in one room, can find they have always known one another. Theatre Roscius aims to create innovative, relevant, and compassionate theatre.
A worldwide community of artists and allies that works for empowerment, opportunity, and visibility for women artists. WomenArts provides a variety of free online networking, fundraising and advocacy services. WomenArts also organizes Support Women Artists Now Day (SWAN Day), an annual international holiday celebrating women’s creativity in all its forms. We believe in the power of women artists to create, connect, and change the world.
As the nation’s oldest and largest company dedicated to producing and promoting theater created by women, Women’s Project remains the magnetic force field for innovative artists and adventurous theatergoers from around the world.
Women’s Institute for Freedom of Press
For LA Theatergoers
Help us support women playwrights and deliver a big box office message to LA-area theaters: it pays to hire women. Make it a point to see Women at Work Onstage.
News
Check out LAFPI news and also our eBlast archives – newsletters with events, submission opportunities, updates about where women are working and other info of interest to playwrights.
The Facts
Some gender parity statistics from over the last century.
