Studio Location
2105 W. Kennedy Blvd.
Tampa, FL 33606
Mailing address
PO Box 18021
Tampa, FL 33679
Member of
After receiving submissions from all over the country, Powerstories Theatre is proud to present the third annual Voices of Women Theatre Festival, showcasing six local and national playwrights to a global audience. The festival is a combination of full-length and shorts plays.
The festival runs from Monday, July 17 through Sunday, July 23, 2022; however, guests can view the six shows at any time during the festival run.
We will have two live Zoom playwright interviews with three playwrights. Date/time TBD.
Although there is a general admission ticket with ticket checkout, please wait for your email from Ticketleap. Save your ticket email from Ticketleap as it contains the video link to watch the show(s) that you purchased.
Chasing Cinderella
By Dana Hall
ILLINOIS
Lucid explores the power of narratives that bind families in patterns that often cascade through generations. We enter this fractured world where each family member struggles with their own disconnectedness. However, there is hope that what ‘runs in the family’ can end here if only someone is able to change the pattern.
RATED: G, coming out, divorce
Dana Hall is a playwright, actor, and mental health therapist.
She was awarded Excellence In Playwriting by the Theater Association of NYS (TANYS) 2022. She took home a Best of Fringe award at the Women’s Theatre Festival (NC) for her examination of social disparities with the play, No Justice. Her self-performed monologue, Sound Mind, was the 2021 Hear Me Out Monologue Competition Finalist Winner (NY).
She is the 2022 Femuscript (FL) Monologue Winner performing her original piece Snowglobe. Her Halloween-themed comedy, Don’t Lose Your Head, was published with HEUER 2022. Sidewalk Psychic took home best play at Muskegon College 10 minute play festival.
New York Journal recognized her on their 50 under 50 most influential creators during the pandemic list 2022.
She dedicates her work to her children who keep her grounded, thankful, and hopeful for a brighter future.
Divine Truth
By Debra A. Cole
KANSAS
Blind faith after a recent death causes a break with reality when grief is not properly dealt with within this Christian Science family. Here, matter is false, disease does not exist, death is not acknowledged, and truth depends on who is telling it.
RATED: PG-13 – religion, minimal human sexuality light references
Debra A. Cole is playwright and theatre/writing/arts educator from Lawrence, Kansas. Her plays have been performed all around the world. Debra’s works can be found on New Play Exchange and with Off The Wall Plays and Heuer Publishing. She is also a recent William Inge Theatre Festival selected artist. Debra is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, a member of Honor Roll!, and an active member of playwriting groups in Kansas City as well as Devon, England.
Duress
By Angela M. Sarabia
FLORIDA
Anna, a mild-mannered accountant, discovers two brothers attempting to break into the safe at her workplace. As she attempts to stay alive throughout the ordeal, she must draw on her own past experiences and make hard choices to get back to family members that depend on her. The play illustrates ways violence is used as a tool of manipulation against women, and that women face unique challenges when they become victims of violent crime.
RATED R: Violence and language. It depicts violence against women including discussion about and the suggestion of sexual violence.
Angela Sarabia has been heavily involved in community theater her entire adult life, including acting, directing, stage managing, and working backstage. In the last few years, she has been writing plays and screenplays. She currently leads a monthly playwriting workshop helping other authors improve their work. She is also an attorney who has spent part of her career prosecuting crimes, especially violent crimes against women. Through the hundreds of cases she has handled, she came to see the pattern that crimes of violence against women often occur because a perpetrator is attempting to gain power and control over his victim. As a result, Angela’s first play is an exploration of the different ways violence is used as a tool of manipulation, and the unique impact violent crimes have on female survivors.
Four Bedrooms
By Marj O’Neill-Butler
FLORIDA
Carol, (60’s), has been left with a second mortgage and no pension by her late gambler of a husband. She and her friend Ellie come up with the idea of a female boarding house for older women who have lost their pensions or who have medical expenses. By sharing the costs, four women can live easily in a large home in a good college town neighborhood and Carol can save her house. The women thrive in the new situation and develop new educational goals and successful late careers. When Carol’s “New York” daughter Laura comes for a sudden visit, she belittles the situation. A year later her daughter has been fired, is bankrupt and in need of a place to stay. Will Carol open her home to her and disrupt the lives of the women and the financial stability they bring to her life? Is this small college town now good enough for the daughter?
RATED: G
Marj O’Neill-Butler, a resident of Miami Beach, Florida, is the Regional Rep for the Dramatists Guild – Florida Region. She is also a member of the New Play Exchange, Honor Roll and the International Center for Women Playwrights. Her work has been seen in 32 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, Great Britain, Scotland, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Seoul, S. Korea. She has had 58 different plays produced in multiple theatre and numerous readings. Published work includes: Baby Fever, The Best Women’s Monologues of 2021, Smith & Kraus, Finding Help, The Best Ten-Minute Plays of 2021, Smith & Kraus, Cleaning House (scene) in Later Chapters, Applause Books 2017, Developing in Smith & Kraus Best Five-Minute plays 2016, Independence Day- 3 short plays by Blue Moon Plays, VA and Missed Connections , The Best Ten-Minute Plays 2012, Smith & Kraus, December 2013 publication. Her essays have been published in Transitions and Miami Off the Page, the Women’s Writers Group of South Beach 2019, One of the Lucky Ones, URGENT MATURITY, Turning Into My Mother, Mother/Daughter Monologues, Volume 4, ICWP. She is the proud mother of two sons and grandmother to five adorable grandkids including a set of triplets.
Searching for Abuelo
By Gretchen Suárez-Peña
FLORIDA
I’m searching for my identity in the remnants of my family and culture. I never met my maternal grandfather – the only other artist I know of in my family. By incorporating Bomba music and monologuing, I’ll be looking at what is to be female, Puerto Rican and an artist today.
RATED: PG-13, talk of death, suicide, sexual content, some adult language
Gretchen Suárez-Peña (she/her) is a Puerto Rican playwright based in Central Florida. She is an MFA candidate in the Dramatic Writing program at Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama (Class of 2024).
She is part of the Conch Shell Productions (NY) Artists Collective of Writers. She frequently works with New Generation Theatrical (FL), Just Write! Lakeland (FL), the Latinx Playwright Circle (NY), and the Latiné Musical Theatre Lab (NY). She is currently the book writer for The Fairy’s Tale (music and lyrics by Michael Mott).
Her piece Across the Atlantic will open the 2023 BIPOC Play Reading Series at the Straz Center in Tampa, Florida. Her short play, The Arithmetic of Memory, has been produced across the country and was published in the Stonecoast Review where it was nominated for a Pushcart Award in Drama (2021). It was a Gary Garrison Ten-Minute Play Regional Finalist for the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) for Region 2. Her one act, Wingman, was also recognized by KCATF as a John Cauble Regional Finalist.
Her musical, Melina: A Steampunk Musical Tragedy was an official selection of the 2020 Atlanta Musical Theatre Festival. Other successes include winning the writer’s grant and best play at the 2019 Be Original Festival for her play, Trafficked. Also, winning best full-length play at the 2018 Tampa Bay Theatre Festival for her show Conversations in the Car, and first prize for her short play, Dry Spell, at the 30 by Ninety Theatre’s 2018 Night of One Acts Competition.
A portion of her work is available to be read on the New Play Exchange and she is a proud member of the Dramatist Guild. gretchensuarezpena.com
She Tunes the Violin
By Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend
ILLINOIS
“She Tunes the Violin” follows Martha Jefferson and those closest to her from her first marriage at age 18 to her death at 33, as she struggles to find her way and her power in a society built by and for white men.
RATED PG. Slavery, miscarriage, loss of children
Virginia-born and Chicago-based, Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend is an award-winning playwright, a member of the Dramatists Guild, and President of the Board of Arts For All, a NYC-based nonprofit bringing accessible artistic opportunities to children who face barriers to exploring the arts. She has a BFA in Film & TV from NYU and two kids who are disappointed that she doesn’t write plays about dinosaurs.
