In the spring of 2013, seven of Washington, D.C’s most influential theater artistic directors met to explore how they could enhance the state of their art. Although Washington hosts one of the largest number of theaters in the country, the theater community’s impact as a whole lacks recognition. Part of this invisibility is geographic, since Washington’s theaters are spread throughout the region rather than strung along a singular “Great White Way.” Another reason is financial, with competition for funding creating more of a silo sensibility than an embracing collaborative spirit. xxxxxx

One of those attending the 2013 meeting, Round House Theatre’s producing artistic director Ryan Rilette, told me in a recent interview that everyone at that meeting wanted to collaborate on a major event that would celebrate the range of professional theater being produced in the nation’s capital. Ultimately, the idea that generated the most excitement was for a city-wide festival that would spotlight the impact women playwrights are having on 21^st century theater.

Right: Martyna Majok’s ‘Ironbound’

The theater impresarios were fully aware that “Women’s Empowerment” is today’s hot-button issue. Recent surveys have quantified such devastating statistics as the fact that only 4% of last year’s major Hollywood releases were directed by women; according to “The Count” compiled by the Dramatists Guild of America, only 22% of the plays produced from 2011 to 2014 were by women. Optics are having an impact: when the Manhattan Theatre Club announced an upcoming season of seven plays written by white men, a public outcry forced an instant re-think.

Left: Sheri Wilner’s ‘Cake Off’

In Washington, that 2013 theater meeting has now resulted in the “Women’s Voices Theater Festival,” a community-wide event highlighting the scope of plays being written by women. The festival opened this month and will continue through the fall at more than 50 Washington theaters.

Rilette’s Round House Theatre is presenting the world premiere of Martyna Majok’s Ironbound [see play synopsis 1, below], and other playwrights include seasoned veterans like Karen Zacarias, whose repertoire encompasses such award-winning plays as The Cook Club Play; her new play Destiny of Desire will be performed at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. The festival also includes such first-time playwrights as poet Marcia E. Cole, whose play A Matter of Worth will open in mid-September at a small black box theater, the Live Garra. Among the most tantalizing other offerings are Sheila Callaghan’s Women Laughing Alone with Salad [2] at the Woolly Mammoth Theater; Cake Off by Sheri Wilner, Julia Jordan, and Adam Gwon, at the Signature Theatre; and Yaël Farber’s adaptation of Salomé at the Shakespeare Theatre Company.

Right: Sheila Callaghan’s ‘Women Laughing Alone with Salad’ 

Ford’s Theatre will present Jessica Dickey’s The Guard [3], a comedy-drama about a museum guard who touches a famous Rembrandt painting and is launched into a remarkable journey across the ages. The play spans centuries of human experience to explore the power of creative expression and the sacrifices made in pursuit of love and beauty. For this work, Dickey received the 2015 National Theatre Conference award celebrating an emerging playwright.

The award-winning movement-based Synetic Theater Company is producing Lloyd Rose’s adaptation of Alice in Wonderland [4]. Ms. Rose, a Helen Hayes Award nominee for Synetic’s 2014 production of The Island of Dr. Moreau, has written for The New Yorker, The Washington Post (Theater Critic, 1989-2001), and The Atlantic among others, and has served as a Dramaturg for Round House Theatre, Theater J, and Synetic Theater. She told me in a recent interview that unlike the usual dialogue-free plays performed at Synetic—and unlike Christopher Wheeldon’s ballet, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland– this version will use much of Lewis Carroll’s magical dialogue.

Left: Synetic Theater Company with Lloyd Rose’s adaptation of ‘Alice in Wonderland’

Her creative role has been to provide a script with a strong narrative foundation from which the company’s artistic director and choreographer, Paata and Irini Tsikurishvili, can build their signature cinematic performances. Founders of Synetic Theater in the 1990s, the Tsikurishvilis are renowned for combining the rich traditions of the Caucuses with American styles to tell classic stories through movement, music, technology, and the visual arts. Lloyd Rose told me that the episodic nature of Alice in Wonderland suits Synetic’s movement-based style beautifully. She met with the Tsikurishvilis at the beginning of the production, and her role since has been to write a script that provides a narrative through-line that assures continuity as the artistic production evolves.

A Matter of Worth [5] is Marcia E. Cole’s (right) first play after a writing career that has previously focused on poetry and short stories. She is an educator and a strong advocate for literacy, and told me in an interview that she decided to write a play that would examine how we value one another’s humanity. Her play is described as a “voice-over collage” set in Baltimore in 1855; the narrative is seen through the eyes of Hannah, a 73-year-old slave who is about to be sold. The play began as a ten-minute exercise in a 2003 theater workshop, and as it has evolved, now tells Hannah’s story in words that express how the playwright herself would feel if she were Hannah, waiting on the auction block. Ms. Cole explains that the play is very much in the spirit of “Black Lives Matter,” and pointedly poses the essential question, “Who among us has the right to assess another person’s value?”

As dynamic as these diverse plays are, the lasting impact of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival remains to be seen. The most important result, as co-organizer Ryan Rilette told me, will be for artistic directors to awaken to the enormous potential women playwrights offer theater today. The creative pipeline is filled with plays by women, but momentum for presentation of these works has to come from within the theater community. Rilette hopes that the festival will at least inspire artistic directors and producers to explore and pursue this work. As it stands, Round House is the only theater among the seven organizing Women’s Voices Theater Festival companies to program a 2015-2016 season that features at least 50 percent women playwrights.

Left: Ryan Rilette, ClintonBPhotography

Interestingly, the 2015 Telluride Film Festival is also focusing on women. It opened last week with the documentary, He Named Me Malala, and Meryl Streep’s new movie, Suffragette, is also being screened. Ms. Streep offered a sobering note about whether “women’s empowerment” will lead to lasting change. For her, the essential thing is presence: “I just want women to be included.”

By Amy Henderson, Contributing Writer

Amy Henderson is a cultural critic and Historian Emerita of the National Portrait Gallery

The festival website is: www.womensvoicestheaterfestival.org

Partial Listing, Performance Synopses:

1.Ironbound: Waiting for a bus in a run-down Jersey town, an immigrant cleaning woman gives her cheating boyfriend a long-deserved tongue-lashing. She’s done talking about feelings; it’s time to talk money. Over the course of three relationships (and three presidencies) spanning 22 years, Darja negotiates for her future with men who can offer her love or security, but never both. Ironbound is a clear-eyed, compassionate portrait of a woman for whom love might not be enough.

2.Women Laughing Alone with Salad: What’s on the menu for Meredith, Tori, and Sandy: the three women in Guy’s life? Healthy lifestyles, upward mobility, meaningful sex? Or self-loathing and distorted priorities? Award-winning playwright Sheila Callaghan serves up a world premiere on a bed of bawdy language in a gender-bending comedy vinaigrette, inviting everyone—men and women, mothers and sons—to savor this complex recipe of desire and shame. ‘Women Laughing Alone with Salad’ dishes out our image-obsessed culture with abrasive imagery, biting social critique, and devastating humor.

3.Cake Off: A hilarious world premiere musical adaptation of Sheri Wilner’s riotous battle-of-the-baking-sexes play starring Sherri L. Edelen. It’s the 50th Annual Twillsbury Bake-Off. The legendary jackpot: one million dollars for the best homemade sugary delight. After a chilly pre-heating, hardy contestants Paul and Rita don their aprons, strap on their oven mitts and square off. Armed with whisks, bowls, knives and eggs, the two engage in an increasingly ludicrous all-out brawl – and only one can remain standing when the timer dings. Ferociously funny, there’s nothing sweet about this wild musical satire.

4.The Guard: In this world-premiere comedic drama, playwright Jessica Dickey paints shimmering portraits of Rembrandt, Homer and those who protect the art we cherish. The play opens in a modern-day art museum where three individuals yearn to experience first-hand the wonder and glory of Rembrandt’s work. When a museum guard decides to touch a famous Rembrandt painting, a remarkable journey across the ages ensues. Spanning centuries of human experience, The Guard movingly explores the power of creative expression and the sacrifices we make in the pursuit of love and beauty.

“The Guard” with (l to r): Mitchell Hébert, Kathryn Tkel and Josh Sticklin. Photo by Scott Suchman.

5.Alice in Wonderland: The award-winning, movement-based company Synetic Theater continues expanding their repertoire of classic literature adaptations with Alice in Wonderland. The whimsical Alice tumbles down the rabbit hole soon finding herself in the mysterious world of Wonderland. Synetic’s darker adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s tale will bring to life classic characters such as the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, and the murderous Queen of Hearts with Synetic’s signature physical style, directed by Paata Tsikurishvili with choreography by Irina Tsikurishvili and adapted by Lloyd Rose. Synetic Theater emerged from the creative vision of founders Paata and Irina Tsikurishvili, Georgian artists who moved to the United States in the 1990s. The Tsikurishvilis combine traditions of the Caucuses with distinctly American styles to tell classic stories through movement, music, technology and visual arts. Synetic’s unique brand of physical theatre has earned the company 116 Helen Hayes Award nominations and 24 Awards.

6.A Matter of Worth: A vo-collage play seen from the eyes of Hannah, a 73 year-old slave; her sharp mother-wit proves she’s worth much more than what’s being sold on auction day. The action takes place in Baltimore County in the summer of 1855. It is the day of the estate inventory for a deceased plantation owner held in the courtyard. It is midday on the estate of Caleb D. Goodwin.