Mission Statement

The Women’s Theatre Project
Mission Statement

Through compelling theatre, The Women’s Theatre Project creates an environment that explores the female voice. Spanning the generations, we are forging community partnerships to develop a legacy - By Women, About Women and For Everyone

The following is a good example of why we are who we are.....

Text of Theresa Rebeck's Laura Pels Keynote Address:

I never had an agenda. I just wanted to write plays that told the truth. Some of those plays told the truth about what it is like to live on this planet, as a woman. Why would that be off the table? Why would that story be something that they only do in fiction, or on cable tv? Why can't we do that in the theater? I just don't think that we want to align ourselves with the backward-looking institutions of culture. We want to see ourselves, I think, as a relevant and intellectually rigorous and culturally progressive community. It's past time to acknowledge the fact that that means welcoming the voices of women into the cultural discussion. There are a lot of ways to do this. Primarily, I think, we need to encourage theaters and producers and foundations and boards of directors, to extend to women playwrights the kind of excellent programs which have been put in place to encourage the work of minority playwrights. All across America, and here in New York, there has been strong and necessary support for these voices, and wonderful writers have emerged because of that support. I have been told so many times over the years that theaters and foundations are interested in "diversity" but that doesn't mean women. That needs to change. We need to stop discussing why the numbers are so bad, and stop asking where are the women playwrights, and we need to start recognizing them where they are-which is right in front of us-and hold them up and celebrate their voices, and produce their plays.

There is a Native American saying, "It takes a thousand voices to tell a single story." And Walter Cronkite told us, "In seeking truth, you have to get both sides of the story."

It's time to hear both sides, to hear all voices, to build a culture where stories are told by both men and women. That is the way the planet is going to survive, and it's the way we are going to survive.

Thank you very much.

Theresa Rebeck March 15, 2010

http://womenandhollywood.com/2010/03/16/text-of-theresa-rebeck-laura-pels-keynote-address