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San Francisco and Beyond
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What makes a show/event a part of baWTF
Mission & Criteria
Our goal is to create an intersectional Bay Area-wide Women’s Theatre Festival, which will help to usher in the widely-held gender parity goal of 50-50 with SWAN DAY (Support Women Artists Now) at its center.
All of the theatre works will be written and directed by theater practitioners who are women+ or non-binary and at least 50% of the performers and the designers will be women+ or non-binary folx. The festival will include:
- New plays, devised works and classical plays written and directed by women+ or non-binary artists
- Full productions produced by participating Bay Area theater companies and promoted by baWTF
- Amplify! - a 24-hour performance marathon of women+ taking the stage including solo works, stand up, short plays, staged readings, devised works, improv, clowning, workshops and more.
- Women of Color Staged Reading Series - a curated reading series of contemporary plays by local and internationally known women+ and non-binary playwrights of color, directed by women+ and non-binary artists of color.
- Classical Staged Reading Series - working in collaboration with Bay Area Shakespeare companies, baWTF will have a series of staged readings of works by women+ from the Restoration era to the 1930s
Bay Area Women’s Theatre Festival
*A NOTE ON INCLUSION (thank you to the Statera Foundation for development of this language)
Women: We recognize the limiting nature of the binary use of woman. We use the term “women+” to represent the expansive definition of women to include women+, womyn, womxn, wimmin, womin, woomin and trans persons. Our artists include women+, non-binary and genderqueer folx.
Intersectionality: baWTF works through an intersectional lens for gender parity. We understand and acknowledge that systems of oppression and discrimination are interdependent and span all social categorizations such as race, class, gender, ability, and sexual orientation as they apply to a given individual or group. Addressing one spoke of systematic discrimination or disadvantage means holistically addressing them all.
IRETONIA: A Sc-Fi Fantasy in rehearsal. Photo courtesy of Wry Crips Writer's Theatre for Disabled Wo
the history of baWTF
Inspired by the success of similar events, the 2-year Women's Voices Festival in Washington DC and the ongoing Women's Theatre Festival in Raleigh, North Carolina (where Lead Instigator Michaela Goldhaber's play The Lady Scribblers was featured), we organized the Bay Area Women’s Theatre Festival to take place in spring 2020. This is how we asked our community to participate:
Theaters:
- Is there a play by a woman+ or non-binary playwright with a cast that is at least 50% women or genderqueer that you are considering producing? If not, can we help you find one?
- If you DO have a play that fits our guidelines, would you consider producing it in March, April or May 2020 as part of the Bay Area Women’s Theatre Festival? And committing to a woman or non-binary director and a design team that is at least 50% women+ or non-binary?
- If not, would you consider hosting a staged reading, or an event (such as a panel discussion, or a party) during the festival that meets the same artist criteria? Or offering your space to another producing company?
- Would you like to get involved in organizing three months of advocacy, activism and art? We are currently holding planning meetings and communicating online to build the festival and produce the first Bay Area Women’s Theatre Festival!
And then COVID-19 came...
Individuals:
- Keep in touch with us by filling out our interest form and/or joining our mailing list. We are particularly looking for individuals to work events, including Amplify! our 24-Hour Performance Marathon.
- Buy tickets and/or donate to help fund the baWTF and pay our many artists! We are fiscally sponsored by Intersection for the Arts, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which allows us to offer you tax deductions for your contributions. To donate via credit card, please click here. If you would prefer to mail in your donation, please make checks payable to Intersection for the Arts, and write BAY AREA WOMEN'S THEATRE FESTIVAL in the memo line. This ensures that you’ll receive an acknowledgement letter for tax purposes, and your donation will be available for our project. Checks should be mailed to: Intersection for the Arts, 1446 Market Street, San Francisco, California 94102.
Michelle Talgarow in TWO MILE HOLLOW by Leah Nanako Winkler at Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company