FEMME COLLECTIVE THEATRE to Present 18 Women-Focused Events
Fifty female and female-identified artists from four theater companies will perform works ranging from multidisciplinary productions to solo shows and clown performances.
The Femme Collective, a theater collaboration in New York City, is launching 18 women-focused events with seven different productions or readings this fall.
An exciting program of theater brings the voices of leading and emerging women artists to a single venue at the Theater of the 14th St. Y (344 E. 14th Street) in dates through September and early October.
The seven different events include a full production of ReproEco: Tomorrow Is Now, co-produced by MultiStages Theater and ReproFreedomArts.org, running throughout the month and which features six diverse women writers. The Femme Collective events also include one-night presentations of a solo show about Shirley Chisholm by Ingrid Griffith and a solo show about Madam C.J. Walker by Joyce Griffen.
The Femme Collective program also includes a staged reading of LET.HER.RIP by Maggie Lou Rader, presented by Occasional Drawl theater company, and three presentations by Neo-Political Cowgirls of dance-theater and clown-focused work.
Femme Collective theater was established in 2024 by three women-run theatre companies to share resources, performance venue, staffing, and to run their shows in repertory. This year, including design teams and on-stage participants, 50 female and female-identified artists are involved from four companies and two independent performers.
'Femme Collective offers theatre women a supportive platform to bring their work to NYC audiences. Presenting multiple women-focused works builds a powerful dialogue and community that is vital for our current cultural moment,' said Lorca Peress, Artistic Director of MultiStages Theatre, one of the Femme Collective initiators who is heading the programming this year.
Included in the Femme Collective 2026 series:
ReproEco: Tomorrow Is Now is a multidisciplinary production with stories about reproductive freedom and environmental justice, directed by Lorca Peress. The production blends together six short plays by diverse women writers along with four interweaving dances. The writers, from New York, California and Wisconsin, are Diane Breeser, Cindy Cooper, Alinca Hamilton, Mildred Inez Lewis, Cassandra Medley and Laura Shamas. The dance is choreographed by Jennifer Chin to original music by Sun Hee Kil with film projections by Jan Hartley. Eighteen roles are performed by eight actors - James Alton, Gena Bardwell, Jean Brookner, Darlenis Duran, Joyce Griffen, Pernell Walker, Brielle Webb and Becca Worthington.
ReproEco: Tomorrow Is Now, which opens on September 16 at a matinee performance, has six evening performances (9/17; 9/23; 9/25; 9/26; 10/1; 10/3) and four matinees (9/16; 9/19; 9/27; 10/4) in this series. MultiStages Theatre and ReproFreedomArts.org are co-producing.
Three evenings are presented by NeoPolitical Cowgirls, a Long Island-based performance group headed by Kate Mueth, Artistic Director.
Ripening: Sisters of the Moon, a Neo-Political Cowgirls offering, is an improvisational open rehearsal workshop of experimental work choreographed by Vanessa Walters and Omar Subair. The Ripening material is inspired by the surrealist paintings, sculptures and writings of the artist Leonora Carrington. Featured performers are Alicia Dellimore, Mary Garrett Turner, Lucy York Struever, Joey Kipp, Trevor Vaughn, Violet Mapp, Colleen Edwards, Rosy Gentle. It will be performed on September 15 at 7 pm.
Neo-Political Cowgirls will also present two clown-themed performances. A**-Backwards is a circus-themed variety show hosted by Emory Kemph and Madison Meyer. Performers include Nikki Denton, Cvnty Freud, Phoebe Marr and Eddie Tarr. The presentation will be on September 18 at 7 pm.
Emory Kemph and Madison Mayer are the creators of a workshop performance of another Neo-Political Cowgirls event, P*SSYB*TCH: A Two-Headed Clown Show. In this workshop performance, the duo tells the story of a circus cat and a dog who become stuck together and form a new circus act, raising the question 'how much of you is made of me?' The presentation will be on September 24 at 7 pm.
Ingrid Griffith brings her acclaimed one-person show, Shirley Chisholm: Unbossed & Unbowed, to the series. In it, Griffith, writer and performer, shares on stage the remarkable and often overlooked story of Shirley Chisholm, the Brooklyn-born daughter of immigrant parents who became the first African American woman elected to the United States Congress. Chisholm went on to become the first African American to seek a major party's presidential nomination. In this solo show, Griffith portrays Shirley Chisholm and 15 other characters. Shirley Chisholm: Unbossed * Unbowed will be performed on Saturday, September 26 in a 2 pm matinee.
A staged reading of LET. HER. RIP. by Maggie Lou Rader with Kelly McAndrew, Sarah Street, Nimene Sierra Wureh and Kim Yancy will be presented by Occasional Drawl theater and Brian Letchworth. Christa Scott-Reed directs this darkly comic thriller set in London in the late 19th century. In it, three matchwomen are striving to change London's East End for the better when Jack the Ripper starts killing people in the streets, putting the patriarchy is stark relief. The staged reading of LET. HER. RIP. will be on September 29 at 7 pm.
Formerly Known as Sarah is a solo play written and performed by veteran actor Joyce Griffen about Madam C.J. Walker (1867-1919). Madam Walker was the creator of specialized Black hair care products for African American women. She became the first female self-made millionaire in the United States. 'My object is life is not simply to make money for myself, but to use part of what I make trying to help others,' Walker declared. Formerly Known as Sarah will be performed on September 30 at 7 pm.
All of the Femme Collective Shows are performed at the Theatre of the 14St Y, 344 E. 14 St, near First Avenue.
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