HEDGEBROOK WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL

Produced by Hedgebrook and Seattle Repertory Theatre

Now celebrating its 10th year, the annual Women Playwrights Festival (WPF) features some of the most exciting new plays and playwrights in the country.

Why just women playwrights? Although women represent more than half of the playwriting community, only about 16% of national mainstage productions are by women each year.

Launched in 1998 by Leslie Swackhamer (then-interim artistic director of ACT Theatre) and playwright Janice Kennedy, the WPF has presented work by 40 women – an impressive roster that reads like a who’s who of American playwrights.

Each year, four playwrights are selected from a highly competitive pool of writers throughout the country. They are invited to Seattle Repertory Theatre for a week of rehearsals culminating in a public reading, and followed by a week-long residency at Hedgebrook. Here, they continue the dramaturgical conversation initiated by the readings, and have time to rewrite their plays – or begin a new work.

WPF Plays have gone on to productions around the country. Several have been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize: Omnium Gatherum by Theresa Rebeck (alumna) and Alexandra Gerstein-Vassilaros (2004), The Clean House by Sarah Ruhl (2005), Bulrusher by Eisa Davis (2007) and Elliot, a Soldier’s Fugue by Quiara Alegría Hudes (2007). In 2006, Sarah Ruhl was awarded the prestigious MacArthur Genius Fellowship. Seattle Rep produced two plays presented in the Festival in its 2006-07 season: Kathleen Tolan’s Memory House and Tanya Barfield’s Blue Door. Theresa Rebeck’s Mauritius will open on Braodway at the Biltmore in 2007.