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Women Playwrights Series (WPS)

Mikaela Kafka, Program Director
wps@centenarystageco.org

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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! 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. 18 - Nov. 18, 2023

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.

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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

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Abducted

by Michele Aldin Kushner

​A successful businesswoman and mother of two grown children, Diane, is getting her things in order. As she prepares for 'departure' from her present life, her daughter fights to get her psychiatric help.  Her boyfriend wants to reclaim the woman with whom he fell in love - and her son wants to go with her.  Is this departure being forced upon her or does she wish to leave life on her own terms?

Jane, Queen's Foole

by Barbara Blatner

It's the 16th Century, The reign of the Tudors, King Henry VIII. Jane, a "crazy," starving country girl by chance encounters Princess Mary Tudor, Henry VIII's rejected daughter becoming the first female Foole of the court. Amidst Bawdy humor, tumblers, and an entertaining, poetic hand, we join two very different women as they bond finding agency in the male-centric English court. 

Backwards Forwards Back

by Jaqueline Goldfinger

When a soldier returns from war carrying the ghosts of their tour, they're faced with a sobering decision:  address their alarming PTSD with Virtual Reality therapy, or risk losing access to their family forever.  Can this new technology recalibrate the brains and bodies of wounded soldiers?  This electric, vivid, one-person show explores the power of healing and finding strength in vulnerability.  Developed with support from the Sloan Foundation and Operation Warrior Resolution.

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Blood of the Lamb

by Arlene Hutton

Two Women, one traveler in need of medical attention, just needing to retrieve her belongings. One Lawyer, just doing her job. In this surreal, Kafka-esque world, we find these women at opposite sides of the table amidst legal precedents, bureaucratic chaos, and moral obligation to humanity.

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