MISSION STATEMENT: Powerstories is a nonprofit professional theatre whose mission is to stage true stories of women and girls to open minds and hearts
and inspire action worldwide.
6th Annual Voices of Women Theatre FestivalFull-Length Play Selections10-Minute Play SelectionsSeek and Speak Your Powerstory Mini WorkshopPlaywriting WorkshopsRestaurant Partnership
Showcasing the Works of Women Playwrights on March 5-8, 2026
Powerstories’ Voices of Women Festival encourages submissions from women-identifying playwrights, playwrights of color, and other underrepresented groups. We are committed to promoting intersectional equity and enabling various submissions related to the theater of historically marginalized populations, including Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities.
The 2026 Voices of Women Theatre Festival will present four unforgettable nights of storytelling on stage. Audiences will experience three evenings of full‑length staged readings in two categories, General and Women Playwrights Over 40, spotlighting powerful new works by women playwrights. A dedicated night of bold and surprising ten‑minute plays will round out the performance lineup.
The festival will also feature performances by Seek and Speak Your Powerstory 2025 participants, a mini Seek and Speak Your Powerstory, and workshops designed to inspire both new and veteran playwrights as they develop their craft and share their voices.
Full-Length Selections
– Shelli Pentimall Bookler: “All My Mothers” (Women Playwrights Over 40 Category), Pennsylvania
– Kira Rockwell: “The Tragic Ecstasy of Girlhood” (General Category), Georgia
– Sam Hernandez: “How To Rob the Art Institute of Chicago” (General Category), Texas
Short Play Selections
Local selections – Coming soon!
March 5-8, 2026
HCC Black Box Studio, 1411 E. 11th Ave., Tampa 33605
Full-Length Staged Reading Play Selections
Shelli Pentimall Bookler
PENNSYLVANIA
All My Mothers
WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS OVER 40 CATEGORY
Sophie works at a non-commercial aquarium dedicated to the rehabilitation of injured and abandoned sea mammals. However, beneath this outward focus lies a profound personal journey. As Sophie searches for her birth father for a sense of connection, she navigates complex relationships with her birth mother, an emotionally distant former competitive swimmer; her adoptive mother, who faces the potential loss of her cherished neighborhood restaurant; and her restless mother-in-law. Ultimately, Sophie’s quest to heal her sense of abandonment leads her to discover renewed strength within the community surrounding her.
Shelli Pentimall Bookler holds an M.F.A. in Playwriting from Temple University and an M.A. in Theatre Arts from Eastern Michigan University. Productions of her full-length plays include the musical Snyder v Phelps, Addicted, All the Dead Biddles, and Bird in the Window. Short plays featured in play festivals include Committed (Montgomery Theatre, the Brick Playhouse), Decision (Village Players of Hatboro), Jugs (Colonial Playhouse), Global (Heartlande Theatre Company), and Vanity, featured in Seeds of Spring, A Night of Feminist Performance Art. She was the New American Voices Playwriting Series finalist, Midwest Dramatist Center’s Playwriting Conference finalist, American Association of Community Theatre semi-finalist, Dayton Playhouse PlayFest finalist, and winner of audience favorite, and completed a residency with Out of the Box Theatrics in New York City. She is a member of The Dramatist Guild, Philadelphia Dramatist Center, and the Witherspoon Circle, as well as an actor, director, dramaturg, and choreographer in Philadelphia.
Kira
Rockwell
GEORGIA
The Tragic Ecstasy of Girlhood
GENERAL CATEGORY
After the sudden death of a housemate, four teenage girls living in a group home try to combat their grief. A poetic, heartfelt drama that explores the chrysalis of female adolescence and demands our attention be on the youth of America who are living in the shadows of a broken system.
Kira Rockwell (she/her) is a playwright and Atlanta-based educator, originally from the heart of Texas. Rockwell is a Fellow with the Mass Cultural Council, a recipient of the Judith Royer Excellence in Playwriting Award, Gene Gabriel Moore Playwriting Award, Second Place recipient of the Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, Three-time Finalist for the O’Neill, Runner-Up for the Princess Grace, and more.
Her plays include Oh To Be Pure Again (world premiere: Actor’s Express); Wicked Bitter Beast(s) (development: Alabama Shakespeare Festival); Holy Chicken Sandwich (workshop premiere: Boston New Works Festival); The Tragic Ecstacy of Girlhood (workshop premiere: Boston Playwrights’ Theatre); Nomad Americana (world premiere: Fresh Ink Theatre); With My Eyes Shut (Now available here through Original Works Publishing).
Rockwell’s work has also been developed with The Kennedy Center, National New Play Network, Great Plains Theatre Commons, and Last Frontier Theatre Conference, among others. Commissions with Ensemble Studio Theatre, Actor’s Express, and Moonbox Productions. She holds a BFA in Theatre Performance from Baylor University and an MFA in Playwriting from Boston University.
Before graduate school, Rockwell worked at the intersection of mental health, youth advocacy, and arts education. Through a trauma-informed, healing-centered lens, she aims to nurture communal spaces that disrupt passivity and empower agency.
Sam Hernandez
TEXAS
How to Rob the Art Institute of Chicago
GENERAL CATEGORY
On a cold Chicago night, four friends debate a serious question: Is stealing Indigenous art of Latin America a radical act of decolonization or a stupid way to get arrested? In How to Rob the Art Institute of Chicago, a comedy about friendship, identity, and colonialism, four college seniors plan the most important heist of their lives.
Sam Hernandez is a costume designer, artist, and playwright who recently graduated from Northwestern University with a major in Theatre and a minor in Art, Theory, and Practice. She was a finalist for the Agnes Nixon Playwriting Award at Northwestern University in 2024 and won the award in 2025.
Short Play Selections
Details coming soon! Please check back.
Seek and Speak Your Powerstory
Mini Workshop
Details coming soon! Please check back.
Playwriting Workshops
Details coming soon! Please check back.
Restaurant Partnerships
Details coming soon! Please check back.
