Following the enormous artistic and cooperative success of our first Festival in 2015, the Women’s Voices Theater Festival will return Winter of 2018 in January and February, with the continued mission of highlighting both the scope of plays being written by women, and the range of professional theater being produced in and around the nation’s capital.
Led by the area's premiere theaters, including Arena Stage, Ford's Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Studio Theatre, Signature Theatre, Round House Theatre, and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, the 2018 Festival will advance this mission with unprecedented collaboration across the D.C. artistic community, with an expected 30 professional theaters producing plays by some of the nation’s most talented and innovative female and female-identifying playwrights. While the 2015 Festival was limited to world premieres only, the 2018 Festival will include second and third productions of works by female playwrights, nationwide Festival-related activities, and a variety of events for theater-makers and theater-lovers from across the country.
Festival History
Presenting 52 world-premiere plays by female playwrights at more than 50 theaters, the 2015 Festival successfully expanded an important conversation about gender parity in theater and sparked new thinking in season planning beyond the Festival. Heralded as “inspired” by The Washington Post and “an energizing showcase” by The New York Times, it showcased the impressive breadth of local artists and companies, generating interest and dialogue on a national level.
