Theatre News

Line-up announced for Women Centre Stage festival at National Theatre

Sphinx Theatre’s gender equality project will include new work by Timberlake Wertenbaker and special 24 hour plays by Rona Munro and April De Angelis

Editorial Staff
London Off-West End
Speakers including playwright Tanika Gupta, actress Tanya Moodie and Ambassador Theatre Group's Rosemary Squire at the launch of the Women Centre Stage festival last year
Speakers including playwright Tanika Gupta, actress Tanya Moodie and Ambassador Theatre Group's Rosemary Squire at the launch of the Women Centre Stage festival last year

The line-up for Sphinx Theatre's Women Centre Stage festival, which celebrates more and better roles for women in UK theatre, has been announced.

The festival culminates in two days of workshops and performances at the Actors Centre and the National's Temporary Theatre on 27 and 28 March 2015.

The performance day at the National on 28 March will feature six programmes in curated mixed bills of showcase, scratch and work-in-progress, and includes the first stage performance of Timberlake Wertenbaker's The Memory of Gold and Pam Gems's Rosa Luxemburg.

The festival will end with 24 Hour Plays: Heroines, which features new short plays by April De Angelis (Jumpy, After Electra), Rona Munro (The James Plays), Rachel De-lahay (Routes) and Barney Norris (Visitors) written and rehearsed in 24 hours. They will all be based on news stories with central female characters from the previous week.

The workshop day at the Actors Centre on 27 March features practical workshops including Demystifying Disability on Stage with Graeae artistic director Jenny Sealey and seminars including an Arts Council England/Equity panel on monitoring gender equality, and a Future Generations panel looking at best practice in drama training.