Culture Project’s Women Center Stage is committed to supporting and vigorously promoting the work of women artists, and celebrating the unique contribution of women to social justice and human rights.
What’s Happening?
About
Launched before the formal incorporation of Culture Project, Women Center Stage is our longest-running programmatic initiative. From the first collection of works presented under the festival mantle in 1996, Women Center Stage has grown into a multi-pronged initiative, an echo chamber for women artists to build community and share their stories, and a launch pad for provocative and relevant new work.
The cornerstone of WCS is the annual Women Center Stage Festival, a dynamic and diverse laboratory for works in progress by women artists at all stages of their careers. The month-long Festival provides a much needed home for exploring new ideas and inspiration, testing out early stages of new work, and putting women artists in conversation with new audiences, potential collaborators, future mentors and a vibrant community of peers.
In addition to the Festival, Women Center Stage also includes full productions in Culture Project’s Off- Broadway theatrical season. Culture Project has an outstanding record of producing work by women—at last count, nearly 70% of our productions have been written or co-written by women. These productions come to us through a variety of channels, including works developed during the WCS Festival, and have had tremendous critical success.
Highlight from the past
Over the years, WCS has been an important launching pad for the projects of numerous artists, including early iterations of Heather Raffo’s Nine Parts of Desire (2003); Sarah Jones’ bridge and tunnel (2004), which went on to a sold-out Broadway run and special Tony Award; Staceyann Chin’s Border/Clash (2005); Geraldine Hughes’ Belfast Blues (2005); Lynn Redgrave’s Nightingale (2005); and Lenelle Moïse’s critically-acclaimed Expatriate, which became part of Culture Project’s 2008 season.
Culture project x WCS
Culture Project is committed to building Women Center Stage into the preeminent presenter of new work by women artists, providing new artistic forums for dialogue on wider social justice and women’s issues, and galvanizing both the theater community and its audience around supporting the voices and vision of women.