Women in Theatre: February Edition

Last year New York City women playwrights convened a meeting to discuss women's parity in playwrighting.

At an October town hall meeting of women playwrights Julia Jordan's pointed out in her introduction that:

Thirty years ago, only 7% of plays on national non-profit stages were written by women. Currently that number is around 17%. A rise of around 3.3% a decade. At that rate, if it continues, we will reach parity in just under another hundred years.

With this in my mind while I was looking at the February theatre line-up, I decided to call out the plays here in the Bay Area in production written by women playwrights. They are:

Cuckoo by Madison Clell, Jump! Theatre, Feb. 5-28

Girls War by Joyce Van Dyke, Golden Thread Productions, Feb. 16-March 8

Mud by Maria Irene Fornes, Cutting Ball Theatre, Jan. 9-Feb.15 (an extended run)

Song for Coretta by Pearl Cleage, Brava! For Women in the Arts, Jan. 22-Feb.7

Tough Titty by Oni Faida Lampley, Magic Theatre, Jan. 24-Feb. 22

In the Next Room (Or the Vibrator Play) by Sarah Ruhl, Berkeley Repertory, Jan. 30-March 15


I'm sure this list isn't absolutely exhaustive. If there's any plays that should be added to the list, please feel free to mention them in the comments section.

And Then There Were Two

That's right, this blog now has two contributors.

And who exactly am I? My name is Marisela and I'm a playwright and poet (I used to say that in reverse order, but these days I'm focused mainly on writing for theatre). And of course I'm a member of Women Advocates for the Arts in the Bay Area (WATA).

As an active blogger, I'm excited that WATA has a blog site to post thoughts, start discussions, and announce events.

I'll be back tomorrow with my first official post and I hope to see you at the next WATA event.

Next WATA Meeting

Our next WATA meeting is a great opportunity to see what we're all about. We'll be having a WATA Cocktail Hour (or two...) at Koko Cocktails at Van Ness and Geary on Wednesday, February 18 starting at 7:30. If you're a female artist in the bay area and you're interested in joining us to meet us and see what we're all about, then stop by!

Women on the Way Festival

I'm still testing good gadgets to find one that will list events, but in the meantime I'll just post events individually starting with this:

http://www.ftloose.org/wow.html

Welcome to WATA

Welcome to the WATA Bay Area blog! This is a resource for anyone who is interested in learning more about the arts in San Francisco with an emphasis on issues affecting women artists. WATA is a cross-disciplinary group of female artists who meet monthly to discuss upcoming events and issues that affect women working in the arts. We also hold workshop sessions tailored to keep ourselves educated on current trends in business and technology. Past workshop sessions include basic web-design, best practices in filing taxes, and information sessions on grantwriting.

We'll also be posting upcoming events that are happening around the Bay that are of special interest to our group.

In the next few months, we'll be holding a public kick-off event to showcase some of the artistic work our members do and begin a community dialogue on advocacy for the arts in the Bay Area. Stay tuned for more specific details on this event!

If you're interested in being a part of WATA Bay Area, please email us at watabayarea@gmail.com for details on our monthly meetings or to be added to our mailing list.