Announcing the 2007-08 Season

BRAVA to area theaters who are
producing 22% of plays that were written by women!

Swimming After Dark by Emily Dendinger is the winning play and playwright from our recent short-play competition

May 28 - June 1, 2008
Swimming After Dark by Emily Dendinger - The Southeast Premiere
Wed-Sat at 7:30pm, Sunday at 2:30pm
The Fred Stone Theatre, Rollins College, Winter Park FL
$15 general, $12 seniors (65-plus) and students all performances

About the play
A bittersweet tale of love, literary intrigue, and ownership where past and present collide.

About the playwright
Virginia native Emily Dendinger is an emerging playwright with awards, productions, and a published play in her credits. Swimming After Dark itself has received two staged productions in Massachusetts. She's finishing her M.A. in the Humanities degree in June, and expects to be in Orlando for talkbacks following two performances. Emily decided she wanted to be a playwright in high school and has studied with Arthur Kopit and David Ives among others. Her inspiration for Swimming After Dark started in Miami at a cousin's home with a pool and includes her long-standing respect for mother-daughter relationships. "These themes are far more prevalent in earlier theater, and more often written by men!"

About tickets
Purchase tickets in advance at www.redchairproject.com or cash and checks only at the door.

Contacts:
Courtney Miller, courtneymillerproductions@gmail.com
or Julia Gagne, 407-273-9723, julesgee@cfl.rr.com

Artist-in-Residence Arlene Hutton
WPI is proud to be a guest theater at PlayFest for the 4th year. We'll bring notable playwright-director-actor Arlene Hutton to Central Florida for a residency that includes two readings of her new play Letters to Sala at PlayFest, as well as further development of theplay with the cast and
director. Letters to Sala is Ms.Hutton's latest andnewest work and has not been presented anywherein the Southeast. The play is based on a true story, adapted from the book Sala's Gift by Ann Kirschner, Sala's daughter.

About the play:
In 1940, sixteen-year-old Sala Garncarz volunteered to take her sister's place in a Nazi forced labor camp. During the next five years, in seven different camps, Sala received over 350 pieces of mail. Risking her life, she managed to save every single letter...and then hid them for almost fifty years.

WPI's director for Letters to Sala is Laura Lippman, an avid new works enthusiast. Here's the reading performance schedule for Letters to Sala, presented at the Lowndes Shakespeare Center, Loch Haven Park, Orlando FL.

Sunday, Feb 10 at 5pm - Reading #1 in Studio B at PlayFest
Saturday, Feb 16 at 3pm - Reading #2 in Studio B at PlayFest

PlayFest is a 10-day theater event packed with dynamic new plays and new play programming...Buy a PlayFest button and step into the interactive theatrical maelstrom ofreadings, workshops, world premieres, seminars, master classes and more! (excerpt from Orlando Shakespeare Theater's website )

Call for Short Plays
See Call for Scripts for numbers of entrants in the Fall 2007 competition.

Summer's End by Martha Humphreys- a Reading directed by Tre Garrett October 15, 2007 at 7pm

Studio Theatre,398 W. Amelia Street, Downtown Orlando (just west of I-4)

Summer's End centers around cousins Millie and Carolyn, just coming of age in 1964, who are forced to face some of the harsh realities of an unpopular war and family life in Tidewater, VA.
$3 admission/donation

Third annual Playwriting Workshop

General contact: Jennifer Cavenaugh, 407-691-1268, jcavenaugh@rollins.edu

Building on the success of our most recent playwriting workshop, WPI will be hosting its 3rd Annual in 2008, again featuring Deborah Brevoort (author of The Women of Lockerbie) as facilitator and workshop leader. Ten women participated in the 2007 workshop, all of whom gave positive feedback on their time with Ms. Brevoort and the lessons learned. For 2008, we hope to make the workshop available to more participants by offering scholarships to promising women playwrights. If you'd like to sponsor a playwright or would like more information, please contact Jennifer Cavenaugh.

Wave of Women Writers (WOWW!) - Season long emphasis on plays written by women that are being produced by various theater companies in Central Florida. They'll be promoted and publicized as never before, so our loyal fans and newest devotees can follow the growing wave of interest in plays by notable and emerging women playwrights!

What they're saying about WPI

The WPI is a much-needed program in the American theatre where plays by women are sorely under represented on the nation’s stages. WPI is an important incubator. My only regret is that they were not around when I was starting out as a playwright 17 years ago!

Deborah Brevoort – Playwright of The Women of Lockerbie, Workshop Leader June 2007

Thank you for a wonderful, invigorating theatre experience with Women Playwrights' Initiative. I believe in the work you do and I appreciate your efficiency and professionalism!

Heather Ross - Actor

WPI is a great organization, producing readings and even productions of plays by women and promoting their work in general. They sponsored a reading of my play GULF VIEW DRIVE for Orlando Playfest and covered my expenses. They have strong leadership and a dedicated group of board members. I've been very impressed for the three years I've known them.

Arlene Hutton - Playwright of The Nibroc Trilogy, Workshop Leader June 2006

Partnerships such as the one that has been created in the past between PlayFest and WPI strengthens local awareness of the arts and creates a buoyancy that lifts all boats.

Patrick Flick – Director of New Play Development, Orlando Shakespeare Theater

I am so impressed with the quality of the pieces you find and with the level of professionalism with which you present them. The artist talk-back sessions are enlightening and inspiring.

Sarah Moore - Composer, Vocalist

While I have won over a dozen playwriting contests, this is the first to fly me out and house me for the reading and performance. By providing me with the financial assistance, WPI has done me an immeasurable artistic service.

Stacey Lane – Playwright, A Thousand Variations on a Lie Told Once.

The reading was beautifully cast, paced and caught – important to me because only when the reading is good can I see what needs doing to the play.

Janet Burroway – Professor Emerita, Department of English, Florida State
University, author of Sweepstakes and Parts of Speech

The Initiative is something that is long overdue. Traditionally, women have been neglected and their talents have been overlooked for lack of resources and opportunities.

Dora Casanova de Toro – Editor, La Prensa.

We applaud our 2007-08 sponsors