2025 VOICES OF WOMEN THEATRE FESTIVAL

Celebrating local and national women’s voices.

After receiving submissions from all over the country, Powerstories Theatre proudly presents the fifth annual Voices of Women Theatre Festival, showcasing local and national playwrights. The festival combines two full-length staged readings and seven or more short plays.

USF’s portion of the festival is funded entirely through the Lily Dishman Playwriting Program. No state funds from USF are supporting this project.

Full-Length Selections

– Erin K. Considine: “Growth” (Women Playwrights Over 40 category)
– Lori Felipe-Barkin: “Ama. Egg. Oyá.” (General category)

Short Play Selections

– Dawn Truax: “Dancing Egrets”
– Vette Berrian: “Please Don’t Touch My Hair”
– Karen Campion: “Post It”
– Jenna Jane: “Villain”
– Megan Phillips: “In the Grid”
– Jennifer A. Kokai: “Cassie Had a Livejournal”
– Allison Fradkin: “Checkerboard Chicks”
– Kandace James: “Little Black Kids Don’t Go Outside”
– Whitney Jarrett: “Trouble on Georgia Ave”

Festival Photo Gallery

In no particular order. Multiple photographers.

Click to open photo gallery and Flickr to download any photos.

VOW 2025 THURSDAY - SUNDAY

MEET THE PLAYWRIGHTS!

Full-length staged readings, followed by talkback

Erin K. Considine

GEORGIA

Growth

PLAYWRIGHTS OVER 40 CATEGORY

Growth is a fairytale, an exploration of disability and caregiving as viewed through the lens of one enchanted event. Kazi is the steadfast, fully-employed caregiver to Amaris, a former dancer who is slowly losing pieces of herself to a degenerative muscle disease. Together, they struggle to navigate their relationship while they navigate the American Healthcare System. Magic, dance, and poetry intertwine as the two women fight to maintain a hold on humanity and love.

Erin K. Considine is an emerging Playwright from the Atlanta Area. Erin was named a Finalist for the 2019 and 2021 Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, a Semi-Finalist for the 2020 BAPF and the 2020 PlayPenn Conferences, and she was the Winner of the 2020 Tennessee Williams Festival One Act Play Competition and the 2021 Essential Theatre Play Festival. In the fall of 2020, she was the first Carey Perloff Fellow as part of the Eugene O’Neill Foundation, and she is a proud member of Working Title Playwrights, the Playwrights Center, and the Dramatists Guild. After treading the boards for over twenty years, Erin is overwhelmed and grateful for the opportunity to create stories that other artists bring to life.

Lori Felipe-Barkin

NEW YORK

Ama. Egg. Oyá.

GENERAL CATEGORY

A papaya falls from in between Ama’s legs and breaks into pieces…shit. She’s miscarrying again. Ama. Egg Oyá. is about Ama, a woman from Hialeah, Florida hellbent on having a child. No wonder she feels an affinity to Oyá, a barren African Orisha. Blending Santería fables, modern-day Miami, and Cuban beats, this play examines infertility, motherhood, and maternal ambivalence.

Lori Felipe-Barkin is an English-Spanish playwright, performer and voice over artist based out of Miami and NYC. Most recently, her short play, The Peepholeman, premiered at BAM as part of the 2024 Weasel Festival. Her three-act play, Flor Underwater, was selected for the 2020 Play Penn New Play Conference, received an Honorable Mention for the 2021 Terrence McNally Award, and was a finalist for the 2023 Risk Theatre Award, the 2023 Austin Film Festival Playwriting Competition, and the 2024 Royer Award. She has had play readings at Playwrights Horizons for Out There in the West, and at INTAR Theatre and at Iati Theater for Ama. Egg. Oyá. She holds an MFA in playwriting from Brooklyn College.

MEET THE PLAYWRIGHTS!

Short Plays

Vette Berrian

FLORIDA

Please Don’t Touch My Hair

When a black girl moves to the town of Steel, her hair becomes the subject of conversation amongst three classmates at school. These conversations become action and pandemonium ensues.

VeBer is a veteran of the US Army and a retired AF spouse. At the age of five, she started writing poems. By 10, she was writing songs and short stories. She wrote her first play in college. In college, she wrote the relationship column Say, It Again Girlfriend. In 2003, she became a published author. Today, the goal is to complete her mainstage play Walk A Mile In Her Stilettos.

Karen Campion

FLORIDA

Post It

A doctor questions the relationship between women of similar age in a family-only hospital waiting room and is taught the true definition of family.

Karen Campion uses drama along with a splash of humor to examine dynamics in relationships, families, trauma, tragedy, triumph, and all things everyday life in hopes of creating a more compassionate, connected, and caring world. She has written two fiction novels, four award-winning TV Drama Pilot scripts, and five festival finalist stage plays, three of which have been produced, and is a member of the Dramatist Guild. Karen started her career in radio before moving into media promotions, conceptualizing and executing promotions for Cirque du Soleil North American Touring Shows. Karen currently spends her time writing and with her family in South Florida.

Allison Fradkin

ILLINOIS

Checkerboard Chicks

It’s the 1960s, when one’s complexion could be cause for rejection, and the object of one’s affection could be cause for objection. Best friends Dina and Patrina, who make up one-half of America’s first interracial girl group, aren’t exactly thrilled about the tepid topics they’ll be trilling about: men, men, and men. But their true feelings are, well, unmentionable. Will they decide to hide like a 45 in a record sleeve, or will they refuse to let their love wither on the vinyl?

Scriptly speaking, Allison Fradkin (she/her) creates satirically scintillating stories that (sur)pass the Bechdel Test and enlist their characters in a caricature of the idiocies and intricacies of insidious isms. Allison previously participated in the Voices of Women Theatre Festival in 2021. Elsewhere in Florida, her work has been presented by Delray Beach Playhouse, Theatre Arts Productions, Pineapple Playhouse, White Mouse Productions, and New City Players.

Jenna Jane

FLORIDA

Villian

The Evil Queen tells her side of the story for the first time. Good guys and bad guys are all guys; for women, it’s never that simple.

Jenna Jane is a Floridian playwright and performer. Her comedies and sci-fi dramas have been produced across the country. Jenna’s writing puts authenticity front and center, blows up gender expectations, and explores the relationship between the body and the self. Jenna graduated summa cum laude from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. She’s a national award-winning investigative journalist. Jenna is a member of the Dramatists Guild.

Kandace James

PENNSYLVANIA

Little Black Kids Don’t Go Outside

A dark, thematic drama about a curious boy who has lived inside his house for most of his life decides to go against his mother’s demands and break her only rule: Little Black kids don’t go outside.

Kandace James is a playwright who uses a poetic lens as a tool for telling magical, realistic stories centering Black, queer, and masculine-presenting women. At times, her plays feel like a eulogy. Other times, they feel like a baptism, a family reunion – but they always feel like coming home. Currently, she thinks a lot about her ancestry. Her plays are an altar for them. She was a national finalist for the John Cauble Award for Outstanding Short Play at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Nationals (KCACTF). Her screenplay Stellar Collision received the $25,000 first-place award in the 2022 Alfred P. Sloan Script Competition at Carnegie Mellon University. She was recently a Core Apprentice Fellow at the Playwright’s Center and a writer in residence at the MacDowell residency.

Whitney Jarrett

MARYLAND

Trouble on Georgia Ave

Two women prepare to arm themselves against gentrifying invaders.

Whitney Jarrett is a first-gen, African American writer born in Maryland and raised by immigrant parents. She began her writing journey as a child, keeping meticulous journals and writing short stories in the margins of her class notebooks. She then went on to attend the University of Maryland, where she became a member of Kreativity Diversity Troupe. There, she fostered her love of writing and performing, specializing in stand-up comedy. Upon graduation, she began her blogging journey and now runs “WhatWhitney’sWatching” on substack, where she pens film reviews and personal essays.

Jennifer A. Kokai

FLORIDA

Cassie Had a Livejournal

Cassie and Natalie reunite for a meal after a long, painful estrangement. It’s been like 20 years since they were bffs documenting college drama, deep thoughts, and their dreams of the future on Livejournal.  There’s a lot to catch up on about their lives and the collapse of society. If they had known then what they knew now, would there have been any way to avoid this terrible dinner?

Jennifer A. Kokai is a playwright who currently lives in Tampa, FL where she serves as the Director of the School of Theatre and Dance at the University of South Florida. Her plays have been produced, workshopped, or read by Riverside: The National Theatre of Parramatta, Plan-B, Montana Rep, THML Theatre, The Gallery Players, TheatreSynesthesia, Wasatch Theatre Company, Building Better People Productions, Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, Off-Key Anthem Collective, and a variety of educational institutions. She was included in the Lark Play Development Center’s 2014 Playwrights Week, and has been a semi-finalist with the O’Neill for both a play and a musical, Bay Area Playwrights’ Festival, B-Street Theatre New American Comedy Festival, and Seven Devils. Two of her plays are forthcoming in a volume from Vanderbilt University Press. She is a member of the Plan-B Theatre Company Playwrights Lab and the Dramatist’s Guild.

Megan Phillips

FLORIDA

In the Grid

“In the Grid” is an exploration of purpose and isolation within a fruitful conversation. In this poetic exploration, the audience hears from Plain and Simple, two characters with completely different takes on the world. Plain believes the world contains no purpose, while Simple argues that everything has to have purpose to even exist.

Megan is thrilled to make her playwright debut in the Power Stories festival. Megan has been writing poetry since she was in high school and has recently taken a chance on playwriting. In her writing, you can find inspiration from her poems and the poetic writers she looks up to. She is very excited for audiences to witness her piece. This is a great way for her to end her last semester at USF.

Dawn Truax

FLORIDA

Dancing Egrets

A young man is poise to commit suicide, but an annoying bird watcher won’t leave him alone. Sometimes it just takes one person to notice, to care and that makes all the difference.

Dawn Truax has written and performed Strange Girls for the Tampa International Fringe Festival and is currently working on a one-woman show about the sister of John Wilkes Booth.

MEET THE VOW MARKETING TEAM

Six USF Marketing students helping to promote the festival

Powerstories is proud to work with the next generation of marketing leaders through two USF class projects.

Meet Haley, Matthew, Alexis, Hannah, Jasmine, and Triniti.

Performances Made Possible by Our Generous Sponsors:

 

Locations

Here’s where we will be bringing theatre to you next!

  • JULY 2025 – WITCH HUNT OR, A DISCOURSE ON THE WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD
    Stageworks Theatre,
    1120 E Kennedy Blvd., Tampa
  • SEPTEMBER 2025 – ADA AND THE  ENGINE
    Stageworks Theatre,
    1120 E Kennedy Blvd., Tampa
  • NOVEMBER 2025 – CADILLAC CREW
    The Studio @620,
    620 1st Ave S, Saint Petersburg

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4237 W El Prado Blvd
Tampa, FL 33629
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PO Box 18021
Tampa, FL 33679

813-205-3451

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