Before the panel…
I’m a bit delayed in sending a shout out about a pretty cool panel (We Are Theatre) that Guerilla Girls on Tour’s Aphra Behn cooked up for this year’s Associated Writers & Writing Programs Conference. Being a non-member-type, I wasn’t even aware the AWP or its high-profile conference existed, but Aphra – who was the gal behind the mask behind the 2012 “We Are Theatre” evening at NYC’s Cherry Lane Theatre – reached out to a few of us who’d been involved in the 2012 event (me, indirectly through the LA FPI), an evening of monologues billed as a “Speakout Against Sexism.”
So this was last year sometime. Aphra said she wanted to propose a panel to talk about gender parity issues in theatre for the conference. Despite my fear of panels and conferences, I said yes I’d love to be involved. (Honestly, I figured we had a slim chance of being included because she said the AWP was not at all theatre/playwright-centric!)
But lo and behold, the panel was meant to be, and I ended up having a terrific time chatting with a room full of writers/would-be activists alongside LA FPI Co-Founder Laura Shamas, Thelma DeCastro of San Diego Playwrights, LA FPI’s Laurel Wetzork (who just formed the new collective Athena Cats) and the infamous Aphra Behn. (No, it’s not that Aphra Behn; the Guerilla Girls take the name of women from history and wear masks for “official” appearances. Can’t wait to read her memoir, due out this October, UN/MASKED.)
Thanks Aphra for including me in this group of terrific women. (Uh, yes, beverages were consumed afterwards. Need you even ask?)
Laurel, me, Aphra, Laura & Thelma at a downtown watering hole post conference.