La Femme Theatre Productions to Bring Back and Expand WOMEN IN AGENCY FESTIVAL

La Femme Theatre Productions is bringing back and expanding its Women in Agency Festival, which first launched in summer 2025 to spotlight bold young voices and spirited new work.

The 2026 Festival will introduce a new slate of development initiatives, reinforcing La Femme’s mission to build a sustainable pipeline for women artists—both onstage and behind the scenes. These include expanded programming, fresh support for emerging playwrights and directors, and the inaugural Pendleton Directing Fellowship, named in honor of beloved La Femme board member and theatre legend Austin Pendleton.

“Last year’s Women in Agency Festival exceeded every hope we had for it,” said Jean Lichty, Executive Director of La Femme Theatre Productions. “The artistry, the authorship, and the sheer fearlessness of those young playwrights and directors stayed with me long after the festival ended. I was so proud of what we were able to explore that it felt impossible not to expand — to raise the bar, deepen our investment in Abigail Duclos’s VENGEANCE, and create the Pendleton Directing Fellowship to champion rising directors like Mikayla Gold Benson. Our commitment is simple: when emerging artists bring us bold, urgent stories, we meet their ambition with resources, mentorship, and opportunity. I’m thrilled for the upcoming festival and eager to continue exploring the unique voices these young female theatre-makers have to offer. Their vision is powerful, their talent undeniable, and supporting them is essential to building the imaginative, equitable future our field deserves.”

At the center of the upcoming Festival is a new Equity workshop of VENGEANCE, a WIAF standout piece by Abigail Duclos, the playwright-performer-puppeteer known for her irreverent explorations of bodily autonomy, Southern folklore, and queer identity. The project marks her most ambitious development process to date and signals La Femme’s commitment to incubating work that is formally daring and socially resonant.

The company will also support additional new works—soon to be announced—through 29-Hour Readings, offering essential resources to early-career theatre-makers navigating the professional landscape with limited budgets but unlimited vision.

As part of its expanded programming, La Femme is proud to introduce the Pendleton Directing Fellowship, named for longtime board member Austin Pendleton, whose contributions to American theatre—as an actor, director, and mentor—are legendary. The 2026 inaugural fellow is Mikayla Gold Benson, a rising director whose work aligns with Pendleton’s legacy of deeply human, character-driven storytelling. Mikayla recently received Barnard College’s Dasha Amsterdam Epstein Directing Award 2025 and directed Tess Inderbitzin’s DEJA DEJA VU, one of the plays featured in the Women in Agency Festival 2025. As part of the fellowship, Ms. Benson will direct a piece that will be selected for the Women in Agency Festival and will assist in an upcoming project that will be announced soon. 

La Femme has also launched a newly redesigned website, offering an elegant and more accessible platform that reflects the company’s evolution from staging classics to supporting year-round development of new work. The redesign enhances visibility and clarity—an essential step as the organization broadens its reach and deepens its programming.