Rep Stage Honored with ICWP's 50/50 Applause Award

The International Centre for Women Playwrights has honored Rep Stage with its 50/50 Applause Award, which is given to theaters that produce fifty percent or more plays by women playwrights in their 2015-2016 season.

Rep Stage, the regional theatre in residence at Howard Community College (HCC), only produced work by women playwrights during the 2015-2016 season, including participating in the DC Women's Voices Theatre Festival. Rep Stage is among 107 theatres around the world to receive the 50/50 Applause Award.

"We are honored to be recognized with this award," said Joseph Ritsch, co-producing artistic director, who leads Rep Stage with Co-Producing Artistic Director Suzanne Beal. "There are many stories to be told in the theatre, and many voices from which these stories come. We are proud to have been able to produce an entire season of female voices and bring their complex, diverse and important work to our audiences."

Rep Stage's 2015-2016 season included "The Baltimore Waltz" by Paula Vogel, directed by Suzanne Beal; "Technicolor Life" by Jami Brandli, directed by Joseph Ritsch; "Antigone Project: a Play in Five Parts" by Karen Hartman, Tanya Barfield, Caridad Svitch, Lynn Nottage and Chiori Miyagawa, directed by Joseph Ritsch; and "Hunting and Gathering" by Brooke Berman, directed by Kasi Campbell.

The mission of the International Centre for Women Playwrights is to promote and support women dramatists around the world. ICWP began in 1988 in Buffalo, New York, and created the 50/50 Applause Award in 2012 to increase awareness and congratulate theatres that produce plays by female playwrights.

Rep Stage, a professional regional theatre in residence at Howard Community College, is celebrating its 24th season. The company is a member of the League of Washington Theatres, the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, and Theatre Communications Group. Rep Stage is recognized by Theatre Washington as a professional DC metro area theatre company and is eligible to be nominated for the Helen Hayes Awards. Performances are made possible by Howard Arts Council, Howard County government, and the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency funded by the Stage of Maryland and National Endowment of the Arts, as well as through generous individual contributions. Rep Stage is proud to be a partner of Howard County Tourism and promotion. Rep Stage's artistic leadership is helmed by co-producing artistic directors Suzanne Beal and Joseph Ritsch.

Pictured: A scene from Jami Brandli's "Technicolor Life," a world premiere production from Rep Stage's 2015-2016 season.