Reading Series to Showcase Women Writers

The International Centre for Women Playwrights has announced a schedule of free staged readings in March in New York City to celebrate International Women's Day.

The line-up includes complete short plays and excerpted productions of longer works, showcasing 16 member playwrights from the women's organization.

The group was founded to support and bring attention to women writers around the world by facilitating communication within the sister community of the world's women dramatists, furthering the critical examination and study of the history and contemporary concerns of women playwrights, and supporting their efforts to gain professional equality.

Other sponsored events to mark International Women's Day will be held in Boston, Arizona, Ontario, and even Bucharest in Romania.

Each evening reading will be followed by a reception.

The readings will be held March 9 in The Loewe Room at The Dramatists Guild, 1501 Broadway, Suite 710 and March 23 at The Drama Bookshop, 250 W. 40th St., both at 6:30 p.m.

Playwrights on the schedule for the first evening will include Judith Pratt, Donna Spector, Rachel Rubin Ladutke, Mary Steelsmith, and Carolyn Gage, an award-winning writer/actress based in Maine who will perform her solo piece about Calamity Jane.

The second evening will include works by Sandra Dempsey, Kimberly Pritchard-Ramirez, Carolyn Nur Wistrand, and Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro, whose most recent work premiered it at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

For more details, please contact Rachel Rubin Ladutke at icwpmem@rachelwrites.com or (201) 430-4517.