An artistic platform empowering, encouraging, and enabling diverse voices to inspire audiences worldwide through the gift of sharing strong voices and important stories. Providing opportunities for artists and women playwrights of all genres to share their original plays and musicals.

Two weekends of highlighting eye-opening, conversation-starting, humorous, heartbreaking, true, and fictionalized plays and musicals.

 Produced by Powerstories Theatre in collaboration with The Thrü-Line Theatre Production Company.

VOICES OF WOMEN THEATRE FESTIVAL

AT POWERSTORIES THEATRE IN TAMPA, FL

ABOUT POWERSTORIES THEATRE

The mission of Powerstories Theatre is to stage true stories to open minds and hearts and inspire action worldwide. The purpose is to create, present, and celebrate true stories to inspire courage and deepen understanding of ourselves and others.

Powerstories Theatre is a professional non-equity non-profit theatre that produces true or historic themed plays of social importance. For 20 years, we have helped others know the value of true stories through published and original theatre, workshops, festivals, online true story platforms, and programs for youth.  Each year we produce four main stage productions in our 40-seat black box theatre, in addition to several Festivals and the Girlstories Leadership Theatre Program.

We are a member of Theatre Tampa Bay, a local organization that promotes and supports professional theatre in the Tampa Bay Area.   In 2010, Powerstories won The Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, which was presented to Powerstories at the White House by First Lady Michelle Obama. Powerstories has also won the Spirit of Humanity Award from the DeBartolo Foundation, the Community Hero Award from The Tampa Bay Lightning Foundation, and The WEDU Arts and Culture Award.

The Voices of Women Theatre Festival

The Powerstories Theatre of Tampa philosophy is that every person, organization, corporation, and community has a powerstory to discover and share with others. The discovery and the telling of these stories create new success, invests our lives with more meaning, and connects us more vitally with others.

Currently, in our country’s history, we feel compelled to bring about this Festival to increase awareness and bring to light issues, challenges, concerns, and difficulties significant to women throughout the world. To support courage and confidence, deepen appreciation for diversity, and strengthen the bonds between people.

Powerstories will produce the Voices of Women Theatre Festival in collaboration with The Thrü-Line Theatre Production Company October 6 – 17, 2021. The Festival will be a combination of in-house theatre and digital productions, all live-streamed to empower, encourage, and enable diverse voices the opportunity to inspire audiences worldwide through the gift of sharing a vibrant theatrical production.  We will be highlighting eye-opening, conversation-starting, real-life, humorous, heartbreaking plays and musicals for two weeks.

For Artists: A Call for Submissions by July 15, 2021

Powerstories Theatre is seeking plays written by women for the Inaugural Voices of Women Theatre Festival scheduled for October 6 – 17, 2021.  Each artist will be responsible for casting, directing, and mounting the show. All productions ideally will be presented at Powerstories Theatre with an audience and live-streamed. Due to Covid-19, artists will be asked on their application to choose one of the following methods to produce their work:

• In Theatre Performance – With a socially distanced audience
• Prerecorded Performance – Prerecording on Zoom (or other platform) and live streaming using Powerstories’ platform. Director and cast must be available for post-show Q and A after the production.

Submissions are due by July 15, 2021. Registration is $20.00 per submission. (Fee will be waived for Dramatists Guild members who send a copy of their membership with their submission.)  Plays will be time-stamped.  An artistic committee will review all plays and proposals, and selections will be announced by August 1, 2021. Submissions will be reviewed in consideration of the following criteria:

• The submission is congruent with the mission of the Powerstories and the Voices of Women Theatre Festival.
• The submission supports diversity and inclusion aligned with the festival mission.
• The submission meets Powerstories’ requirements for overall quality and development.

Your main goal is to produce a quality production!  We understand some of you will be having a staged reading, some a fuller production.  Your play can be a full production with a minimal set or a staged reading.  The ideal length is 45 to 90 minutes to allow for one whole evening or matinee. Other lengths will be considered. All authors must be willing to have plays live streamed.

Each artist will be responsible for all costs related to casting, directing, and mounting the show to achieve the festival goals.  Powerstories Theatre can help to find and match a director for your production if you wish; however, you are still responsible for costs and fees. All the selected plays will be considered for possible mainstage production at Powerstories Theatre for the next or upcoming seasons.

If selected, your production cannot have had a professional production in the Tampa Bay area one month before submission or, if accepted, have a professional production scheduled within a month of debut with the Voices of Youth Theatre Festival.

Powerstories Theatre will provide our stage for final performances, rehearsal time as per the preapproved schedule, technical assistance, marketing assistance, box office assistance, high-quality live-streaming, and a copy of the live stream video.  All ticket sales and proceeds will go to Powerstories Theatre and Thrü-Line.

The theatre is a black box theatre with a 26 x 13 acting stage.  We will provide artists with stage lighting, sound, projection options, and a list of available stock set pieces in our theatre. If you are bringing set pieces and props, they must fit in a small van for ease of moving in and out of the theatre. If selected, artists will receive more detailed technical information.

On behalf of the Board of Directors and leadership of Powerstories Theatre, we look forward to receiving your submissions and presenting to the world your amazing stories.