WCS CALENDAR 2008:

EXPATRIATE :: benefiting WCS and The Third Wave Foundation

April 8 @ 8pm

A new musical drama by Lenelle Moïse, exploring race, friendship, addiction, art and infamy. Claudie and Alphine are African-American performing artists and long-time sister-friends. Disillusioned by grief, homophobia and "the black glass ceiling," the two flee to Europe to realize their starved American dreams. In Paris, they quickly rise to infamy and fortune. But as Claudie and Alphine soon discover, for some Black artists living abroad, stardom comes at the sticky price of racial exotification. Will their friendship survive the pressures of their newfound success? Directed by Tamilla Woodard. Starring Karla Mosley and Lenelle Moïse. Presented at Culture Project.

SEVEN :: April 13 at 8pm

Paula Cizmar, Catherine Filloux, Gail Kriegel, Carol K. Mack, Ruth Margraff, Anna Deavere Smith, Susan Yankowitz - seven award-winning playwrights - have created a collaborative work for the theatre based upon personal interviews and oral histories of seven extraordinary women whose work benefits the citizens of their diverse cultures: Marina Pisklakova-Parker (Russia), Mukhtar Mai (Pakistan), Hafsat Abiola (Nigeria), Inez McCormack (Northern Ireland), Farida Azizi (Afghanistan), Annabella De Leon (Guatemala), and Sochua Mu (Cambodia). The play is a testament to their extraordinary acts and common humanity in the face of injustice and violence. Directed by Evan Yionoulis. Presented at Culture Project.

I HAVE BEEN TO HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR :: April 15 & 16 at 8pm

Presented in collaboration with Voice and Vision, Chiori Miyagawa’s play I HAVE BEEN TO HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR concerns a woman who dies instantly at the moment of the atomic bomb detonation in Hiroshima. This anonymous figure time-travels to the 1950s to be in the Alain Resnais film Hiroshima Mon Amour, and later, to the present to watch the rented DVD of the movie. Miyagawa uses this ghostly character to create a compellingly mystical world to explore the ghastly effects of atomic destruction. Directed by Jean Wagner. Original music by Du Yun and design by Jennifer Tipton. Presented at Culture Project.

GOD’S TROUBLEMAKERS: How Women of Faith are Changing the World :: April 16 @ 7pm

Despite the common (and sometime deserved) perception that religion is a force that does more harm than good in the world, women of faith have a long and distinguished history as catalysts for social change. More and more young women are having an especially positive impact on re-defining the face of religious activism today. Join us for a conversation with young, unconventional and provocative leaders from a variety of faith traditions as they reflect on how their faith inspires their work for justice and challenges us all to rethink the role religion can play in the public square. Moderated by the Rev. Dr. Katharine Henderson, Executive Vice-President of Auburn Theological Seminary and author of God’s Troublemakers: How Women of Faith are Changing the World. Presented at the Puffin Room.

Julie Goldman’s PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE ::

April 16, 17 & 18 @ 9pm and April 26 at 10pm

Julie Goldman lives in NY with her illegal wife, obese cat and pug son Russell. Julie co-stars on THE BIG GAY SKETCH SHOW on LOGO where she is an ensemble memeber of the first ever gay sketch comedy show. Julie also appears on COMEDY CENTRAL with her featured Stand-up LIVE AT GOTHAM. Presented at the Puffin Room (April 16, 17 & 18) and Culture Project (April 26).

SHORT PLAYS FEST :: April 19 @ 2pm and 5pm

This year Women Center Stage pilots a SHORT PLAYS FEST, featuring emerging women directors presenting short works with a focus on social change, defined broadly, and explored through both new and old works. The SHORT PLAYS FEST will feature 4 young directors: Cristina Alicea, Suzana Berger, Alicia Dhyana House, and Colette Robert, presenting work that addresses a wide range of topics. Presented at the Puffin Room.

viBe Theater Experience :: April 20 @ 7pm

viBe Theater Experience is a performing-arts education organization that provides a safe, creative space for under-served young women to share their stories and use their voices to build and transform themselves and their community. The program empowers teenage girls by engaging and inspiring them to create, rehearse, design, publish and perform personal and truthful collaborative theater pieces. This spring viBe presents viBeSolos - an evening of solo performances, created by young women. Presented at the Puffin Room.

AFTER THE EXONERATED :: April 21 @ 7:30pm

Sonia "Sunny" Jacobs is joined by actresses who have played Sunny in The Exonerated, including Lynn Redgrave, Ally Sheedy, and director Bob Balaban, reading from her new memoir, and speaking about women and the broken criminal justice system. Presented at The Great Hall at Cooper Union.

THE LAST DAYS OF DESMOND NANI REESE :: April 22 @ 8pm

Heather Woodbury’s new piece is a series of encounters between a one hundred and eight year old stripper, holed up in a bramble-covered shack in Los Angeles and a young feminist academic, in the year 2014. Heather Woodbury is an award-winning performance artist who has forged a unique form that combines the immediacy of performance art with the narrative structure and characterization of a novel. Presented at Culture Project.

WOMEN AT WORK: Maid in Lebanon :: April 23 @ 7pm

Women at Work is a creative forum developed by artist and educator Kayhan Irani, bringing women together across class and race to discuss their singular struggle for respect and equality. MAID IN LEBANON is a documentary film tracing women’s journeys from Sri Lanka to Lebanon, and exposing the little known world of the domestic migrant worker. It will be presented in concert with WORK AND RESPECT, a short documentary from Domestic Workers United and Third World Newsreel, and SWEPT UNDER THE RUG, an audio slideshow created by Human Rights Watch, based on the research they have done since 2001 on abuses against domestic workers. Presented at the Puffin Room.

THE MAGIC SHOW :: April 24 @ 7:30pm

Abigail Nessen’s THE MAGIC SHOW: The Story of the Barefoot Angels is the story of two American communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast and a volcano eruption in Santa Ana, El Salvador. Abigail Nessen channels the voices of six characters who dance, tell dirty jokes, weep, laugh, share their stories, and sing music as diverse as Salvadoran hip-hop, zydeco, and old-time 12-bar blues, all in a whirlwind one-act solo performance with live music by "one man band" Shaun Bengson. Presented at the Puffin Room.