Women in Theatre and Screen’s Festival Fatale launches inaugural program.
On 22 August 2016, Women in Theatre and Screen (WITS) revealed the inaugural program for Festival Fatale. The program includes six staged productions, four play readings and 11 cabaret acts.
Coming as a response to the wider movement within Sydney’s theatre community to celebrate and enhance the ways ‘Her Story’ is told in theatre, Festival Fatale celebrates female driven theatre works during the two-day event.
Festival Fatal Artistic Director and Co-Founder of WITS Lizzie Schebesta said the program “includes diverse, relevant and ground-breaking work that champions women artists and women’s stories.”
She highlighted that the lack of equal opportunity within the historically male-heavy theatre season programming has left Sydney audiences “missing out”.
Schebesta and WITS hope that showcasing women in theatre at Festival Fatal will inspire more companies to “give greater volume and quality voices to women on stage.”
Co-Founder of WITS and Festival Fatale Artistic Director Lizzie Schebesta said, “Festival Fatale’s program includes diverse, relevant and ground-breaking work that champions women artists and women’s stories.
Director Kate Gaul – representing the selection panel—will announce the women-led independent theatre companies and their female-majority creative teams that will make up Festival Fatale.
Gaul highlights that under 30% of the plays produced on Australian stages are written or directed by women with many being at smaller and independent theatres.
“In 2016 we are still educating theatre producers that women are capable and eager to contribute in all areas of theatre, including writing, directing, designing and producing.” Gaul said also noting that Festival Fatale will encourage theatre goers to see performance work by women and “reminds producers that equity matters to their audiences.”
More Information
What: Festival Fatale
When: 29 October – 30 October 2016
Where: Eternity Playhouse, 39 Burton St., Darlinghurst NSW