SWAN Day/Support Women Artists Now Day is an international holiday that celebrates women artists. It is an annual event taking place on the last Saturday of March (Women’s History Month) and the surrounding weeks.
The official date of the Fifth International SWAN Day is Saturday, March 31, 2012, but it is celebrated throughout the months of March and April.
By focusing attention on the work of women artists, SWAN Day helps people imagine what the world might be like if women’s art and perspectives were fully integrated into all of our lives.
This year, we asked our female participating artists from season 2011-2012 to tell us their March projects so that you, our supporters, could become their supporters too! Trust us, you don’t want to miss these ladies. Their work is outstanding.
This March, and April, Support Women Artists Now
MARCH
Becky Webber
Becky Webber, Director of Two-Headed, is currently playing the lead in Photograph 51. London, 1953. Scientists are on the verge of discovering what they call the secret of life: the DNA double helix. Providing the key is driven young physicist Rosalind Franklin. Tickets are available through March 17.
Looking Out by Heather Lea Reid
Stacey Lane (author of 1-Page Play Winner Pulse and FeverFest play Lucy Dreaming), is participating in SWAN Day Dayton. On March 31st at 3:00 pm, artists and community members will gather at the Auditorium in the Dayton Metro Library Main Branch to celebrate female artists in Ohio’s first SWAN (Support Women Artists Now) Day. This showcase of local talent will include plays, short films, poetry, readings from novels and memoirs, and more. Featured artists include playwright Stacey Lane, claymation filmmaker Djuna Wahlrab, autobiographer Sara Berelsman, painter Heather Lea Reid, and filmmaker Nichol Simmons.
Jen Alison Lewis
Jen Alison Lewis (director of 1-Page Play Winners Pulse and Mortal City and actress in BOOBFest) is directing a reading of Lisa Kenner’s the girls in SWAN Day Boston, March 25 at 2pm at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre. The work of 19 women artists representing a variety of artistic disciplines will be presented including short plays, monologues, poetry, short stories, music and dance. She is also celebrating St. Patrick’s Day and Evacuation day by performing in a reading of John Stenson’s Hurrah for the Revolution, a drama about South Boston High School busing, on March 17 at 3pm by NUTLab.
Emily Bayard Blake (author of 1-Page Play 2.0 Finalist Literary Sonogram) is performing in Satan’s Whore: Victoria Woodhull. She writes “A true women’s day project! The story of the agitator for women’s rights and free love, Victoria Woodhull. I play suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Kate Tenetko is Victoria, Lissa Moira directs the excellent cast.” Satan’s Whore is playing at At Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue, NYC from March 22 to April 8. Res and info: 212-254-1109 or theaterforthenewcity.net.
APRIL
Louise Hamill (Actress in Untitled and Tired at Not A Box New Play Festival) is in rehearsals for Trog and Clay: An Imagined History of the Electric Chair which opens in April. She writes “I am in rehearsals for Fresh Ink’s second show, Trog and Clay, a wildly imaginative retelling of the genesis of the electric chair. Based on the actual trial transcripts of William Kemmler, the first person put to death by electrocution, this skewed comedy obscures the line between fact and invention, while wryly looking into America’s grim history. ”
Melissa Baroni
Melissa Baroni (actress in 1-Page Play Experiment 2.0 Staged Readings and Vocal Coach for Silence) is in rehearsals for Long Day’s Journey Into Night at New Repertory Theatre, running from April 1 – April 22. Thanks for your support!
Gilly Moon (Sound Designer for Silence and Not A Box New Play Festival) is Sounding Off: “Sadly I have left the Boston scene, but it’s to move on to other fun things! I am currently a sound technician for Carnival Cruise Lines. I am sailing in the eastern and western Caribbean, meeting awesome people, and getting paid for it! Bigger news: I have been accepted into the CalArts Graduate Program! In the fall, I will move to the west coast to pursue my MFA in Sound Design. Many thanks to GAN-e-meed and SerahRose for being awesome to work with.”