La Femme Theatre Productions is dedicated to exploring the female experience through classic and contemporary plays. Our mission is to bring women’s voices center stage — where they belong.
New York, NY — Following the inaugural Women in Agency Festival in 2025, La Femme Theatre Productions (Jean Lichty, Executive Director) will deepen its investment in emerging artists with development programs of two works introduced at last year’s festival. Taking place November 9–20, 2026, at CAM Studios, the workshops advance the company’s commitment to giving promising playwrights and directors the resources, mentorship, and creative space to develop their work.
The first week, November 8–12, will focus on Abigail Duclos’s VENGEANCE, directed by Britt Berke (La Femme’s 2025 Woman on the Verge). The second week, November 16–21, will develop Tess Inderbitzin’s DÉJÀ DÉJÀ VU, directed by Mikayla Gold Benson (La Femme’s inaugural 2026 Austin Pendleton Directing Fellow). Each week will conclude with an invitation-only presentation.
La Femme launched the Women in Agency Festival in 2025 with Equity 29-hour readings of five works by female playwrights. By bringing two of those plays into more sustained development, the company is expanding the festival’s role as a pathway from an initial reading to deeper artistic exploration.
“Last year’s Women in Agency Festival introduced us to artists whose imagination, authorship, and fearlessness demanded our continued attention,” said Jean Lichty, Executive Director of La Femme Theatre Productions. “With these workshops, we can give Abigail, Tess, Britt, and Mikayla the time and support to ask new questions, take creative risks, and discover what comes next for these plays. That is the heart of the WIAF: meeting emerging artists’ ambition with meaningful opportunity and investing in the voices that will shape theatre’s future.”
VENGEANCE by Abigail Duclos; directed by Britt Berke (November 9–13)
Following a random, unprovoked assault on the streets of New York City, a group of women gather together to learn self-defense. The class, led by a spellbinding and seductive visionary, asks, “What’s the worst thing somebody’s ever done to you? What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done to somebody else?” VENGEANCE is a psycho-comedy about the seductive power of revenge.
DÉJÀ DÉJÀ VU by Tess Inderbitzin; directed by Mikayla Gold Benson (November 16–21)
5 nights. 7 people. Mid-20s. You’re gay, in the city, and loneliness threatens to consume you whole. Working is hard, growing is hard, and the constellation of your social life is made up of stars 10,000,000 light-years away from each other. But if you squint from a distance, you can just make out a familiar shape…DÉJÀ DÉJÀ VU is a one-act that ponders the solitude and uncertainty of adulthood. With no clear path forward, how do we create our own future lest we be sucked into the abyss of mundanity?
Named in honor of longtime La Femme board member Austin Pendleton, the Austin Pendleton Directing Fellowship recognizes his extraordinary contributions to American theatre as an actor, director, and mentor. Inaugural fellow Mikayla Gold Benson received Barnard College’s 2025 Dasha Amsterdam Epstein Directing Award and brings a commitment to collaborative, deeply attentive storytelling.
“Austin Pendleton is not only one of the most beloved figures in American theatre, but also one of its most accomplished,” said Robert Dohmen, Board Chair of La Femme Theatre Productions. “This fellowship is a natural extension of his legacy—nurturing the next generation with the same generosity, insight, and passion he has given our community for decades.”
General submissions for the 2027 Women in Agency Festival will open in 2027. Further details will be announced.
For more information about La Femme Theatre Productions and its programming, visit LaFemmeTheatreProductions.org.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
ABIGAIL DUCLOS (VENGEANCE, Playwright) is a NYC-based playwright, actor, and puppeteer. Recent credits include “Greenhouse” (Simão Bacamarte / Co-Playwright, The Elif Collective), “Half World” (Izzy, Ghost Light Theatre Company at The Chain), “Noc Čarodějnice” (Marina, SheNYC at Classic Stage Company), “Blood Orange” (Playwright, Et Alia Theater at A.R.T./New York Theatres), and “Hand to God” (Jessica, Gallery Players). Upcoming: the premiere of her new play “Alpha,” a sci-fi nightmare about incels. For more information, follow @abigailduclos or visit abigailduclos.com.
BRITT BERKE (VENGEANCE, Director) is a director of theatre and film whose work interrogates love, power, intimacy, and taboo through delight and spectacle. She made her Off-Broadway directorial debut with Becomes a Woman at Mint Theater Company, receiving an Outer Critics Circle nomination. Her credits include projects at SoHo Playhouse, The Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Chautauqua Theater Company, and Berkeley Rep. A member of the WP Lab and the Drama League Directors Project, she is an alum of programs with Roundabout, La MaMa, and Manhattan Theatre Club, among others. She received A.R.T./New York’s Funds for Anti-Oppression Work and a City Corps Artist Grant and is an Associate Member of SDC. Her first short film, SHIPS, premiered at the SOHO International Film Festival; she is currently in post-production on The Skin of the Water. Berke graduated magna cum laude from Barnard College.
TESS INDERBITZIN (DÉJÀ DÉJÀ VU, Playwright) is a playwright, performer, clown, songwriter, director, and designer who loves to create theater from the ground up. Recently, they workshopped a co-written piece, Camp Cattywampus, with NYU’s New Works for Young Audiences festival. They performed in their comedy duo, Gourmet Meatz, at The Brick’s New Works Festival and as an opener for Dan Hasse’s Where Were You. And had their thesis play “Snoopy Stands on Her Head Until She Sees the Stars” read at the Minor Latham Playhouse. They’re a proud LA native and Barnard College grad (class of 2025)! Follow them on Instagram for all future projects: @tessinderbitzin
MIKAYLA GOLD BENSON (DÉJÀ DÉJÀ VU, Pendleton Directing Fellow) is a director based in Brooklyn. A graduate of Barnard College, she received its Dasha Amsterdam Epstein Award for directing and is currently the Austin Pendleton Directing Fellow at La Femme Theatre Productions. Recently, Mikayla assisted on La Femme’s An American Daughter by Wendy Wasserstein at The Signature Center, directed by Sarna Lapine, debuted original work with GOURMET MEATS, directed Eleanor Babwin’s This Is Where You Live, and produced STARCADIA at Masquerade. Her selected credits include: La Femme at The Signature Center, The Brick, The Tank, CPR, A.R.T./New York, JACK, Carnegie Hall, BergenPAC, Long Beach Shakespeare, and NJPAC. Mikayla’s directing practice centers stories for, by, and about women, with a commitment to developing new work alongside adapting classical texts.
LA FEMME THEATRE PRODUCTIONS is an all-inclusive theatre company dedicated to the exploration and celebration of the universal female experience. Through works by women and men, including but not limited to the classic American canon, the company examines women’s experiences and the perspectives through which they are understood.
La Femme develops and produces projects for stage, film, television, and digital media that feature significant roles for women and explore female identity in yesterday’s, today’s, and tomorrow’s worlds. By sharing these stories and supporting emerging artists through mentorship, professional internships, and development opportunities, La Femme encourages girls and women of all ages and backgrounds to follow their dreams and break ceilings.
Over the past decade, La Femme has curated seasons that not only align with our mission but also resonate with the zeitgeist of the American canon. Through collaborations with The Peccadillo Theater Company and The Cherry Lane Theatre, as well as independent productions at The Theatre at St. Clement’s, La Femme has expanded its reach, serving as a platform for female artists to thrive.
As we enter a new chapter, we at La Femme are excited to maintain this momentum with programs such as A Woman’s Storyland and Women on the Verge: The Gladys and Mary Dohmen Reading Series. With La Femme’s legacy continuing to grow, we are honored to have collaborated with award-winning artists on the 2023–2024 Off-Broadway production of Tennessee Williams’s The Night of the Iguana at the Pershing Square Signature Center’s Diamond Stage.
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