Voices Of Women Theatre Festival Offers Live, Digital Programs

TAMPA, FL — For the first time since launching in 2021, the Voices of Women Theatre Festival presented by Powerstories Theatre will stage productions for live audiences during this year’s event.

This year’s festival, which runs March 21-30 and offers both live in-theater shows at the University of South Florida’s TAR Theatre Center at the Tampa campus and digital programs, got its start during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Those first festivals offered only virtual and digital productions, eventually streaming live shows that were recorded without an audience in 2022 and 2023.

“We started it during COVID because we wanted to connect to our community when we weren’t allowed to have live theater,” Deb Kelley, marketing director for Powerstories, told Patch. “It became such a popular event that we just continued … This year is celebratory. This is the first time we’ll have a full in-person audience.”

She noted that the four-day live festival is complemented by a digital festival the following week.

This year’s festival kicks off Thursday night with four 10-minute shows at USF:

• “I’m (Not) Okay” by Kimberley Schwartz
• “High Occupancy Detour” by Karen Campion
• “Rose” by Janet Scaglione
• “Color Theory” by Aurora Peugh

The next several evenings will feature 60-minute plays at USF:

• “Too Woke Too Book” by Krystle Dellihue, Friday, 7:30 p.m.
• “The Wives; A Post-Roe American Abortion Odyssey” by Alli Hartley-Kong, Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
• “The First Step” by Kathleen Maule Holen, Sunday, 7:30 p.m.

After Sunday, recordings of these productions will be available to view on demand through the end of the festival. Other view-on-demand productions accessible during the digital portion of the festival include:

• “The Memories We Keep” by Ada Cheng (10 minutes)
• “Purdah” by J. Lois Diamond (60 minutes)
• “Diary of a Bastard Child” by Nikki Luellen (60 minutes)
• “Diversifications” by Natalie Ekberg (60 minutes)
• “Beholden” by Susan Lily Jackson (60 minutes)

The theme for this year’s festival is “critical social issues take center stage,” Kelley said. “So, all the plays submitted focus on critical social issues.

Powerstories received submissions from playwrights across the United States.

“We have women of a vast variety of different ethnicities and so many different backgrounds represented and stories about things like mental health, domestic abuse, the ‘woke’ era that (Gov. Ron) DeSantis claims we’re in, abortion,” she said. “And there’s lighter stuff, like a play about older women challenging themselves to better themselves to be able to walk up a hill.”

It’s important to host a festival that solely showcases women’s voices and stories, Kelley added, nodding to Broadway’s ongoing gender gap. “Seventy-five percent of Tony awards are going to men.”

She said, “Now, more than ever, we need to have our voices being heard. We’re being silenced. Whether it’s about bodily autonomy or women’s rights, we need women playwrights out there. It’s about time women have their voices heard."

Tickets to the Voices of Women Theatre Festival are available to purchase here. Patch readers can enjoy $5 off tickets for live shows scheduled Thursday through Sunday with the code PATCH5.

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