Women Playwrights Series (WPS)
Mikaela Kafka, Program Director
wps@centenarystageco.org
Welcome! Thank you for your interest in Centenary Stage Company’s Women’s Playwright Series and Susan Glaspell Award Contest! I am thrilled to be stepping into the role of Program
director for this Season’s Series. Under the passionate guidance of Catherine Rust, I have been involved on many levels throughout the years. I look forward to the new submissions for this year, 2023! On behalf of Centenary Stage company, I, again, thank you for your interest and I look forward to hearing from you. Theatre is a truly collaborative Art! So, Let’s Do This! Here’s to a great Series!
Mikaela Kafka | wps@centenarystageco.org
Mikaela Kafka
Since 1992,
CSC’s developmental program (WPS)….
-
has featured and helped to develop the new work of over 80 female playwrights from around the country!
-
has provided a working platform for the under-served voices of women writing the theatre.
-
has produced 20 World Premieres in as many years.
WHAT IS THE WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS SERIES?
PLAYWRIGHTS
Interested in submitting your full length play for consideration? Click here for guidelines and additional information
CALL FOR PLAYS
Submission Window: Oct. 3 - Nov. 11, 2022
The WPS is a developmental program dedicated to providing a working forum for the unique and under-served voice of women writing for the theatre today. Each season 3 new plays are selected for a collaborative workshop process, with a professional director and actors, which takes place in a brief rehearsal period of approximately 1 week, allowing time for the playwright to hear and adapt their work with other professionals. The process culminates in a presentation of the work for the general public as part of the series, giving CSC audiences larger exposure to new work.
“CSC audiences have embraced this series. Theatre is all about collaboration. As part of this series, the playwright has the opportunity to get feedback from the audience during their development process.”
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
Come join us as a volunteer! We are always grateful to our volunteers. From adjudication, to stage direction readers, ushers, they are such an important element. If interested, please reach out telling a little bit about yourself and how you would like to be involved. We will keep you in mind throughout the year.
The many plays which have successfully transitioned from development to production now include:
-
Off the Map by Christine Foster
-
Whippoorwill by Ruth Kirschner
-
Turning by Darrah Cloud
-
Apples in Winter by Jennifer Fawcett
-
Hitler's Tasters by Michelle Kholos Brooks
-
The Surrogate by Patricia Cotter
-
Start Down by Eleanor Burgess
-
In the Car with Blossom and Len by Joni Fritz
-
The English Bride by Lucile Lichtblau
-
How to Pray (winner of the 2012 PEN USA Award for Drama) by Michelle Carter
-
The Unfortunates by Aoise Stratford
-
You May Go Now by Bekah Brunstetter
-
The Poetry of Pizza by Deborah Brevoort
-
Daphne Does Dim Sum by Eugenie Chan
-
Alice in Ireland by Judy Sheehan
-
Dreamhouse by Darrah Cloud
-
The Tillie Project by Jeanne Murray Walker (commission)
-
Inventing Montana, by Jeanne Murray Walker
-
and many more!
Women Playwrights Series Archive
Recent WPS Readings
Apartment 3F
by Sarah Vander Schaaff
A tiny New York apartment is the scene for the collision of humans brought together by a bewildering and frightening circumstance. When a Chinese food delivery man is struck by a car outside Rebecca and Rob’s apartment, it sets off a sequence of events no one could have imagined. How they care for each other and respond in a time of need reveals the best and worst of our natures, with a touch of grace and humor to boot.
The Buddha's Wife
by Mary Poindexter McLaughlin
Are they so different? 2500 years disappear as the lives of the Princess Yasodhara and PhD Candidate Diane Brewster interweave seamlessly, telling a timeless story of romantic love, of motherhood, and of dreams-on-hold, revealing the very real world of challenges and choices women face throughout time, alongside revelations of the deeper meaning of love and friendship.
Off the Map
by Christine Foster
Denny and Claire have retired to the wilds of Central America, where they quickly discover that things are not as they were expecting, neither in their relationship, nor in their new property, where a mysterious Mound is discovered by a pair of archaeologists who arrive on the scene, making a shattering discovery which will challenge all their beliefs about what is ever truly real and what is imagined.