The Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in Burlington, Vermont, will present the world premiere of “Women+ on the Edge of Democracy” on Saturday, Oct. 24. Performances begin at 11 a.m. on the Flynn’s Main Stage and run all day. Admission is free, and tickets can be reserved on the Flynn’s website.
The project is a collection of more than 30 monologues and short plays commissioned from women+ playwrights. The Flynn developed it with the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Each piece responds to two questions: what is the current state of democracy in America, and what can history, global context or futurism offer at this moment? The commission welcomes work from across the political spectrum.
More than 20 actors will perform the plays for the first time. Among them are Tony Award winner Adriane Lenox, Tony nominee Geneva Carr, Leslie Ayvazian, Vanessa Kai, Florencia Lozano, Ellen McLaughlin, Tedra Millan, Rad Pereira and Babak Tafti. Zeina Salame, Hana S. Sharif, Leslie Swackhamer, Sharifa Yazmeen and Blanka Zizka will direct. The Flynn lobby will stay open throughout the day for connection and reflection.
The Flynn is one of 102 theaters and organizations in 41 states, Washington, D.C., and other places around the world, including Scotland and Tasmania, that will present the plays for free from Oct. 23 to Nov. 3. Participants can present one play, several or all 34, in formats ranging from a fully staged production to a reading among friends. Theatre Communications Group will publish the plays as an anthology Nov. 4.
The commissioned playwrights include Lynn Nottage, Sarah Ruhl, Heidi Schreck and Lauren M. Gunderson. The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize is described as the largest and oldest international award recognizing women+ playwrights writing for English-speaking theater. The Flynn has been a performance center in Burlington since 1930. It has a 1,439-seat Main Stage and says it reaches one in four Vermonters each year.
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