These plays with all-female casts shatter stereotypes and showcase the immense talent of female performers, while serving as a testament to the enduring power of women’s narratives in the arts. Join us as we celebrate the strength, complexity, and diversity of female characters on stage.
anthropology by Lauren Gunderson
Merril has been spending more time with her sister Angie lately, but she’s not ready for anyone to know about it. At least, not until she’s ready to explain that Angie is an AI creation she developed to cope with her sister’s disappearance and death. When virtual Angie offers the possibility that real Angie might be still alive, Merril does everything she can to work with her creation to find her sister. But as the search continues, it becomes less clear whether an AI creation that Merril programmed to help her might have developed motives of its own.
The Apiary by Kate Douglas
It’s twenty-two years in the future, and honeybees are nearly extinct except for those kept alive inside of labs. Zora is overqualified for her new job at one of these labs, but she’s there because she loves bees—or what is left of them. Her stressed supervisor, Gwen, has learned to keep her head and budget down so her research doesn’t get discontinued. Zora, however, doesn’t mind spending her own time and money to try to rehabilitate the bee population. When an unfortunate incident leads to a boost in the bees’ numbers, Zora and her coworker Pilar have to decide just how far they’re willing to go to keep the population growing. An unsettling and sharp-witted cautionary tale, The Apiary warns that the key to protecting each other and the planet is right in front of us, if only we would listen.
Flex by Candrice Jones
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.
Men on Boats by Jaclyn Backhaus
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.
School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play by Jocelyn Bioh
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.
Steel Magnolias by Robert Harling
The action is set in Truvy’s beauty salon in Chinquapin, Louisiana, where all the ladies who are “anybody” come to have their hair done. Helped by her eager new assistant, Annelle (who is not sure whether or not she is still married), the outspoken, wise-cracking Truvy dispenses shampoos and free advice to the town’s rich curmudgeon, Ouiser, (“I’m not crazy, I’ve just been in a bad mood for forty years”); an eccentric millionaire, Miss Clairee, who has a raging sweet tooth; and the local social leader, M’Lynn, whose daughter, Shelby (the prettiest girl in town), is about to marry a “good ole boy.” Filled with hilarious repartee and not a few acerbic but humorously revealing verbal collisions, the play moves toward tragedy when, in the second act, the spunky Shelby (who is a diabetic) risks pregnancy and forfeits her life. The sudden realization of their mortality affects the others, but also draws on the underlying strength—and love—which give the play, and its characters, the special quality to make them truly touching, funny and marvelously amiable company in good times and bad.
Morning Sun by Simon Stephens
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.
Mary Gets Hers by Emma Horwitz
It’s 950 AD (give or take a few years) and eight-year-old Mary has just lost her parents to a plague which has been turning everyone into foam. She’s kidnapped by a hermit, Abraham, who takes her to a monastery and vows to shield her from the world, with the help of his pious friend Ephraim. After years locked away in a cell-inside-a-cell, Mary escapes her heavily restricted life and runs away to an inn and a life of indulgence. But the innkeeper has plans for Mary’s future, and soon, she again finds herself trapped. Good thing Abraham vowed to do whatever it took to rescue her… A quirky, earthy, hilarious play about how everyone makes their own way to love and self-knowledge.
LUCY by Erica Schmidt
On paper, Ashling is the perfect person to take care of Mary’s young children: a confident, highly qualified childcare professional with a sunny disposition and lots of experience. But from the moment Mary hires her, something starts to feel just a little off. Is Ashling as wonderful as she seems? Is the misunderstanding all in Mary’s overworked, stressed-out, sleep-deprived mind? Surely she hasn’t welcomed someone unstable into her home, has she? LUCY is a comedic thriller about what happens when you don’t trust the person who holds the key to your front door.
Marys Seacole by Jackie Sibblies Drury
Born in 1805 Jamaica, Mary Seacole is determined to live an extraordinary life. As she travels across oceans and centuries, through a Jamaican hospital, a Crimean battlefront, a contemporary nursing home, and everywhere in between, Mary moves through life with Herculean fortitude. But as her brazen spirit meets historical reality, Mary’s world explodes, splitting, multiplying, and redefining her narrative. Based on the life of the famous nurse and entrepreneur, Marys Seacole is an examination of what it means to be a woman paid to care.
