New York, NY (May 13, 2025) La Femme Theatre Productions (Jean Lichty, Executive Director) returns this August with two developmental programs for women artists, A Woman’s Storyland and Women on the Verge: The Gladys and Mary Dohmen Reading Series. Both run through the first two weeks of August and culminate in the inaugural Women in Agency Festival, August 3–17, 2025, at The Linney Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center.
The Women in Agency Festival is a two-week showcase and forum for new work, critical conversation, and women’s voices across every area of production. This season’s theme, Agency, explores power and autonomy across institutions, relationships, identities, and systems.
Jean Lichty says this season’s theme came from “a flu, a phone call, and the unrelenting voice of my mother,” and that the festival’s writers explore both the structures that govern us and the personal forces that drive us.
A Woman’s Storyland
Emerging playwrights spend several months developing new plays in response to the season’s theme under the guidance of an established mentor. This year’s mentor playwright is Jenny Lyn Bader (Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library, None of the Above, Equally Divine, Manhattan Casanova), a Harvard alumna and recipient of the O’Neill Center’s Edith Oliver Award. Her mentees are:
ABIGAIL DUCLOS, a playwright, performer, and puppeteer whose plays include Honeysuckle, Greenhouse, and Blood Orange.
ZOË GELTMAN, a Brooklyn College MFA candidate and Rona Jaffe Foundation Fellow whose play A(U)NTS! plays at The Brick.
JANVI SAI, recipient of Barnard College’s Brandt Playwriting Award and creator of N.Y.C. SEWER MADE IN INDIA and Add Value or Time (The Tank).
Women on the Verge: The Gladys and Mary Dohmen Reading Series
This series honors early-career professionals who are redefining the work behind the scenes. This year’s honorees are:
KATIE CHERVEN (Production Stage Manager), a Barnard graduate in stage management and history who served as Assistant Stage Manager on AMERIKIN (Primary Stages) and as a Stage Management Fellow at Manhattan Theatre Club.
BRITT BERKE (Director), who made her Off-Broadway directing debut with Becomes a Woman at Mint Theater Company, earning an Outer Critics Circle nomination. Her credits include SoHo Playhouse, The Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Chautauqua Theater Company, and Berkeley Rep.
Corner Nest Lab
New this year, the Corner Nest Lab gives current and recent college graduates the chance to create new work under professional mentorship. The inaugural lab features playwright Tess Inderbitzin (Camp Cattywampus; Snoopy Stands on Her Head Until She Sees the Stars) and director Mikayla Gold Benson (Antigone), whose work will be presented as part of the Women in Agency Festival.
Read the full announcement on BroadwayWorld.
