1. Origin of the Species
By Bryony Lavery
Directed by Erin Riley
Cast:
Janet Constable Preston
Nicole Mullins-Teasley
November 3-19, 2017
Molly is an old lady who digs up her ancestor: a four-million-year-old woman, miraculously alive. Molly names her Victoria and smuggles her home with her to Yorkshire. Clocks – biological and other – tick away in this engaging two-hander that digs deep beneath the sands of time to discover that we are all brothers and sisters under the skin.
2. Women’s Performance Workshop
Conceived and Directed by Strand’s Founding Artistic Director, Jayme Killburn
January 19-21, 2018
The Women's Performance Workshop (WPW) is a weekend-long workshop for women-identified members of the Baltimore community. Using community-engaged and feminist devising techniques, the WPW creates a space for women to connect with one another through theater. The workshop involves collaborative theater games, story-circles, and writing exercises. Each participant will create a 5-8 minute personal narrative that will be interwoven with other participant stories culminating in a performance. The workshop will be led by Strand’s Founding Artistic Director, Jayme Kilburn, along with previous WPW participants from the Ithaca, NY community.
3. Count Down
By Dominique Cieri
Directed by Bari Hochwald
February 15 - March 4, 2018
“I want to be a different girl born on a different day-” so say the seven young girls who have been abused and neglected, and lost in the welfare system. When Carmela, a teaching artist, enters their lives, she offers the girls a chance to express themselves and reclaim their voices. That is when the real challenge begins. Count Down exposes the inherent dissonance between the child welfare system and the reality of the girls who have no choice but to spend their childhood and adolescence in its care. Count Down was the recipient of the 2009 Mid Atlantic Individual Playwriting Fellowship and Finalist for Playwrights First Award, the National Arts Club, NYC.
Women on Top Series - Festival
She Rises: Strength, Soul, Survival
By Full Circle Dance Company
April 8, 9, 29, 30
Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 2:30pm
She Rises is an evening of intimate works by choreographers from the region and beyond that together shine a light on women’s creativity, individuality, and resilience. Touching on such issues as race, motherhood, history and memory, and perseverance, these works invite the audience on a journey that is both physical and emotional.
Artistic Director: Donna L. Jacobs
Sally McCoy by Alice Stanley
Directed by Deidre McAllister
April 21-23
Friday-Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 2:00pm
In the midst of the first gruesomely violent event of the legendary Hatfield and McCoy feud, one woman does what she must to save her family. Sally McCoy tells a harrowing and deeply personal story, while also taking a hard look at women’s role in history.
The A Word by Rosemary Frisino Toohey
Directed by Miriam Bazensky
May 17-21
Wednesday-Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 2:00pm
THE A WORD looks at the pressures exerted by love, family, career, religion and society on four young women. A high school senior in a single parent household, the wife of a wealthy businessman in India, a young black woman struggling to make her name in an all-white office, and a happily-married mom who’s told her unborn baby has big problems …four women, four takes on a controversial subject.
She Speaks - Second Series
Ongoing
Women take the stage in our year-long series of short engagements that include play readings, workshops, concerts, poetry nights, and musical events. The purpose of the series is to provide opportunities for women artists and to showcase a wide variety of women’s diverse voices and perspectives.