Celebrate the strength, resilience, and achievements of women around the world with our curated selection of titles for International Women’s Day! Navigate the emotions and relationships of womanhood in these stories. Join us in honoring the contributions of women everywhere and fostering a more inclusive and equitable world for all.
Dramatists Play Service
Broadway Book Club Women’s Voices
This collection celebrates not only women’s stories, but also the power and breadth of the writings of women in the theatre. This pack includes titles by Lauren Gunderson, Suzan-Lori Parks, and more!
Broadway Book Club Paula Vogel Specialty Collection
You asked, and we answered: a curated collection of plays by the Pulitzer Prize-winning, master playwright Paula Vogel. Each play showcases the breadth of wit, passion, craft, and excellence that make her one of the most produced writers of all time. From The Baltimore Waltz to Indecent, get ready to experience theatre at its finest.
Good Grief by
Good Grief follows Nkechi, or N—a med-school dropout, a first-generation Nigerian, a would-be goddess—as she navigates first loves and losses, and tries to find answers in her parents, the boy next door, and the stars.
The Women of Lockerbie by
A mother from New Jersey roams the hills of Lockerbie, Scotland, looking for her son’s remains that were lost in the crash of Pan Am 103. She meets the women of Lockerbie, who are fighting the U.S. government to obtain the clothing of the victims found in the plane’s wreckage. The women, determined to convert an act of hatred into an act of love, want to wash the clothes of the dead and return them to the victim’s families. The Women of Lockerbie is loosely inspired by a true story, although the characters and situations in the play are purely fictional. Written in the structure of a Greek tragedy, it is a poetic drama about the triumph of love over hate.
School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play by
Paulina, the reigning queen bee at Ghana’s most exclusive boarding school, has her sights set on the Miss Global Universe pageant. But the arrival of Ericka, a new student with undeniable talent and beauty, captures the attention of the pageant recruiter—and Paulina’s hive-minded friends. This buoyant and biting comedy explores the universal similarities (and glaring differences) facing teenage girls across the globe.
Crimes of the Heart by
Winner of the 1981 Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play
The scene is Hazlehurst, Mississippi, where the three Magrath sisters have gathered to await news of the family patriarch, their grandfather, who is living out his last hours in the local hospital. Lenny, the oldest sister, is unmarried at thirty and facing diminishing marital prospects; Meg, the middle sister, who quickly outgrew Hazlehurst, is back after a failed singing career on the West Coast; while Babe, the youngest, is out on bail after having shot her husband in the stomach. Their troubles, grave and yet, somehow, hilarious, are highlighted by their priggish cousin, Chick, and by the awkward young lawyer who tries to keep Babe out of jail while helpless not to fall in love with her. In the end the play is the story of how its young characters escape the past to seize the future—but the telling is so true and touching and consistently hilarious that it will linger in the mind long after the curtain has descended.
Usual Girls by
Kyeoung has spent her entire life negotiating the double standards imposed on her as an Asian American woman. Bullied by boys in childhood, ostracized by girls as a teen, and gas-lit by men as an adult, her experiences with sexuality grow more and more challenging. As we trace Kyeoung from the insecurity of puberty to the disenchantment of her adult life, USUAL GIRLS chronicles the wonder, pain, and complexity of growing up female.
Fireflies by
From the novel Eleanor and Abel by Annette Sanford. Retired schoolteacher Eleanor Bannister lives a quiet life alone in tiny Groverdell, Texas, set in her routines and secure in her position as the town’s most respected woman—until a hole in her roof draws the attention of Abel Brown, a smooth-talking drifter intent on renovating Eleanor’s house, and possibly her life. Can the unexpected sparks of late-life romance be trusted, or is there truth in the gossip that Abel isn’t all that he seems to be? Either way, the whole town is talking.
Fabulation or, The Re-Education of Undine by
Fabulation is a social satire about an ambitious and haughty African American woman, Undine Barnes Calles, whose husband suddenly disappears after embezzling all of her money. Pregnant and on the brink of social and financial ruin, Undine retreats to her childhood home in Brooklyn’s Walt Whitman projects, only to discover that she must cope with a crude new reality. Undine faces the challenge of transforming her setbacks into small victories in a battle to reaffirm her right to be. FABULATION is a comeuppance tale with a comic twist.
Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous by
A lifetime ago, actress Anna Campbell and manager Betty Samson ignited a major theatrical controversy with a performance of monologues from August Wilson’s Fences that came to be known forever as Naked Wilson. After decades of self-imposed exile in Amsterdam to escape the critics, they receive an invitation to perform the show at a women’s theatre festival promising to be “angry, raucous, and shamelessly gorgeous.” Uncertain of what kind of reception she will get, and unmoved by Betty’s reassurances, Anna’s insecurity grows when she meets Pete Watson, the ambitious young performer who has been chosen to replace Anna in the role but whose theatrical experience is so far limited to the adult entertainment industry. Searching for common ground, Anna and Pete must confront their ideas about themselves and each other as they reconcile two vastly different worldviews. With humor and grace, Pearl Cleage finds a meeting place where both women can not only find each other, but make peace with a few lingering ghosts just in time for opening night.
Morning Sun by
In Greenwich Village a generation or so ago, the city is alive. Joni Mitchell sings, friends and lovers come and go, and the regulars change at the White Horse Tavern. As fifty years pass, one woman’s life is revealed in all its complexity, mystery, and possibility in this enthralling piece about mothers and daughters.
The Mother by Florian Zeller, translated by Christopher Hampton
Anne’s adult children are off living their own lives and her husband is busy with his career. So where does that leave Anne, who has built her identity around creating a family and being a good mother? On the night before her husband is set to leave on a business trip, her son comes home to sleep in his old room. Or does he? It’s impossible to know for certain in this riveting play about a woman whose inner life is constantly shifting.
Wine in the Wilderness by
As described in the Boston Herald Traveler: “The drama was woven around a young girl, played by Abbey Lincoln, befriended by an artist looking for a model of a grass-roots woman, ignorant and unattractive, for his triptych. It opens amidst Negro riots that have burned the girl out of her apartment and Abbey gets off a few cracks that hit home when the artist and his friends haul out the Afro-American bit by crying, ‘The Afro-Americans burnt down my home. They holler ‘Whitey’ but who did they burn down—me!’ There were many poignant moments as the two were magnetically drawn together and pushed apart. Abbey’s fear of falling in love with the artist, his desire to hold her there only long enough to paint her for his triptych, her disillusionment when she finds out, from Old Timer, one of the neighborhood’s characters, that he wants a woman who’s ugly and ignorant for his model. What WINE IN THE WILDERNESS captured was the turmoil the blacks feel, the pretenses they assume—like wearing straight-haired wigs—the looting of their own people in a riot—something Old Timer rationalized in a humorous manner.” But something which, like the other deeply felt revelations in the play, goes directly and surely to the heart of the racial dilemma.
Shutter Sisters by
A heartfelt dramedy, Shutter Sisters tells the story of two women living parallel lives. A white woman named Michael struggles with strained family relationships at her adopted mother’s funeral, while a Black woman named Mykal navigates a challenge of her own: becoming an empty nester. A surrealist journey through womanhood, identity, and what it means to belong.
Men on Boats by
Ten explorers. Four boats. One Grand Canyon. Men on Boats is the true(ish) history of an 1869 expedition, when a one-armed captain and a crew of insane yet loyal volunteers set out to chart the course of the Colorado River.
Susie Sits Shiva by
A high school student deals with the death of her biology class lab partner through a religious ritual about which she knows nothing. Family, friends, and social media collide and connect in Susie’s living room as she learns to mourn (and to sit) while honoring the memory of her friend and his culture. Commissioned by the Educational Theatre Association, SUSIE SITS SHIVA is a heartfelt reflection on life after unthinkable loss.
Nice Girl by
In suburban Massachusetts in 1984, thirty-seven-year-old Josephine Rosen has a dead-end job, still lives with her mother, and has settled into the uncomfortable comfort of an unintended spinsterhood. But when a chance flirtation with an old classmate and a new friendship at work give her hope for the possibility of change, she dusts off the Jane Fonda tapes and begins to take tentative steps towards a new life. A play about the tragedy and joy of figuring out who you are and letting go of who you were supposed to be.
Auntie Mame by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
Based on the novel by Patrick Dennis
This fabulously successful hit hardly needs introduction. Besides being the source for one of America’s most popular musicals, Auntie Mame set a standard for Broadway comedy that’s been sought after ever since. “Auntie Mame was a handsome, sparkling, scatterbrained and warm-hearted lady who brightened the American landscape from 1928 to the immediate past by her whimsical gaiety, her slightly madcap adventures and her devotion to her young nephew, who grew up to be Patrick Dennis. Through fortunes that rose and fell and a pleasant but brief marriage to a likable Southerner, who had the bad luck to tumble down from the Matterhorn, Auntie Mame’s chief concern was that nephew, whom she raised.
Georgiana and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon
The third and final play in the Pemberley trilogy. (Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley)
Georgiana Darcy is an accomplished pianist but wary of romance. Kitty Bennet is a bright-eyed optimist and a perfect best friend. These two younger sisters are ready for their own adventures in life and love, starting with the arrival of an admirer and secret correspondent. Meddlesome families and outmoded expectations won’t stop these determined friends from forging their own way in a holiday tale filled with music, ambition, sisterhood, and forgiveness.
Pride and Prejudice by
Based on the novel by Jane Austen
This isn’t your grandmother’s Austen! Bold, surprising, boisterous, and timely, this P&P for a new era explores the absurdities and thrills of finding your perfect (or imperfect) match in life. The outspoken Lizzy Bennet is determined to never marry, despite mounting pressure from society. But can she resist love, especially when that vaguely handsome, mildly amusing, and impossibly aggravating Mr. Darcy keeps popping up at every turn?! Literature’s greatest tale of latent love has never felt so theatrical, or so full of life than it does in this effervescent adaptation. Because what turns us into greater fools…than the high-stakes game of love?
Little Women by
Adapted from the novel by Louisa May Alcott
Jo March isn’t your typical Victorian lady. She’s indecorous and headstrong, and one day she’s going to be a great American novelist. As she and her sisters grow up in the middle of the Civil War, they strive to be brave, intelligent, and imaginative young women. But as adulthood approaches, each sister must negotiate her private ambitions with society’s expectations. In a war-torn world defined by gender, class, and personal tragedy, Jo March gives us her greatest story: that of the March sisters, four dreamers destined to be imperfect little women.
Our Lady of Kibeho by
In 1981, a village girl in Rwanda claims to see the Virgin Mary. She is denounced by her superiors and ostracized by her schoolmates—until impossible happenings begin to appear to all. Skepticism gives way to fear, causing upheaval in the school community and beyond. Based on real events, Our Lady of Kibeho is an exploration of faith, doubt, and the power and consequences of both.
Empanada Loca by
Inspired by the legend of Sweeney Todd
Now living deep under Manhattan in an abandoned subway tunnel with the Mole People, a very hungry Dolores recounts her years selling weed with her boyfriend, her return to Washington Heights after thirteen years in prison, her fortuitous reunion with an old stoner friend who lets her give massages for cash in the basement under his empanada shop, and the bloodbath that sent her fleeing underground. Loosely inspired by the legend of Sweeney Todd, Empanada Loca is contemporary Grand Guignol horror in the style of Spalding Gray and the basis for The Horror of Dolores Roach, the hit Spotify podcast and Amazon Prime Video series.
Flex by
The pressure is on for the 1998 Lady Train High School basketball team—on top of a battle to bring home the championship trophy, it is also college scouting season. But the team’s performance on the court is tested as it ruptures under the weight of its own infighting, and the once-tight players begin to focus on their individual futures: What does it mean to be a Black girl on the brink of freedom and womanhood in a small town in the South? Does honoring your own wants mean sacrificing your friends, family, and team? This funny and frank play about getting a full-court press from life will have audiences cheering.
Jaja’s African Hair Braiding by
Jaja’s African Hair Braiding in Harlem is a salon full of funny, whip-smart, talented women ready to make you look and feel nice nice. On this particularly muggy summer day, Jaja’s rule-following daughter Marie is running the shop while her mother prepares for her courthouse, green card wedding—to a man no one seems to particularly like. Just like her mother, DREAMer Marie is trying to secure her future; high school graduation is around the corner and all she wants to do is go to college. While Marie deals with the customers’ and stylists’ laugh-out-loud drama, news pierces the hearts of the women of the salon, galvanizing their connections and strengthening the community they have longed to make in the United States.
Playscripts
Rue by Mandy Conner
Deep in a Louisiana swamp, sixteen-year-old Josephine struggles with intense anxiety following the mysterious disappearance of her parents. She refuses to leave the safety of her home and face the outside world, even as it becomes increasingly dangerous for her to stay in the marshland. Against the wishes of her brother and best friend, Jo turns to the dark inhabitants of the swamp for answers. But is she brave enough to face the truth about her family—and herself?
Dark Road by Laura Lundgren Smith
When Greta, a young girl living in Nazi Germany, reads that the nearby women’s concentration camp is hiring guards, she sees it as a chance to find her place in the world and provide for her sister Lise. But soon she learns the reality of her duties, and so too does she learn how to justify her crimes, heading further and further down the dark road laid by the Third Reich. Kind-hearted Lise is shocked at what her sister becomes, and though the two drift apart, their fates remain inextricably and dangerously linked. A powerful drama about the choices that allow evil to become ordinary.
Alice in Wonderland adapted by Jason Pizzarello
After Alice tumbles down a mysterious rabbit hole, she finds herself in a strange land where everyone is raving mad. With the help of a Cheshire Cat, an astute Caterpillar, and a righteous Humpty Dumpty, Alice must find her way home and discover who she really is. A darker, more faithful version of Lewis Carroll’s classic tale that reimagines the experience of Wonderland, and ends with an unexpected new twist.
Junie B. Jones Is Not a Crook by Allison Gregory
Something terrible happened to Junie B. Jones at school today! Someone stole her new furry mittens! So when Junie B. finds a wonderful pen of many colors, she should be allowed to keep it, right? Because finders keepers, losers weepers. And guess what? There’s a new boy in kindergarten and he is the handsomest. The only thing is both Grace and Lucille want him to be their boyfriend. Maybe he will love Junie B. when he sees her wonderful pen! It is okay to keep it, right? Junie B. Jones is not a crook . . . or is she? A hilarious and heartfelt tale based on the best-selling book series by Barbara Park.
Junie B. in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells! by Allison Gregory
Junie B. Jones, First-Grader, is super-excited about the upcoming Holiday Sing-Along and Secret Santa gift exchange at her school. Too bad tattletale May keeps ruining all of Junie B.’s fun. So when Junie B. draws May’s name for Secret Santa, she comes up with the perfect plan to teach her nemesis a lesson! But will the Christmas spirit of peace and goodwill interfere before she can give you-know-who what she deserves? A hilarious and endearing tale based on the best-selling book series by Barbara Park.
We Are The Sea by Laura Lundgren Smith
Norah, Una, and Iseult set sail from Ireland to escape the ravages of hunger, only to find a new set of dangers on their ocean voyage. The so-called “coffin ships” are full of illness, squalor, and grief, and the passengers can rely only on one another and their memories for comfort. When a cruel, angry sailor refuses to show them mercy, it seems like even their stories might be lost. But they don’t know that the sea that swirls around the ship is listening. The sea remembers everything. And the sea demands justice. A poetic and striking historical drama with a hypnotic ocean chorus.
The Tin Woman by Sean Grennan
Instead of relishing life after her heart transplant, Joy enters a downward spiral, unsure whether she truly deserves a second chance. Meanwhile, Alice and Hank mourn the loss of their son, Jack, whose heart was used to save Joy. At a friend’s urging, Joy tracks down Jack’s family to find closure. But are Alice, Hank, and their daughter Sammy ready to accept Jack’s death? Based on a true story, The Tin Woman uses humor and pathos to explore loss, family, and what it means to be given new life.
