32nd Annual Los Angeles Women's Theatre Festival Opens in March

The Los Angeles Women's Theatre Festival will take place March 27- March 30. The overall theme of the Festival this year is STRONGER TOGETHER. The Los Angeles Women's Theatre Festival marks 32 years of producing over 700 extraordinary multicultural and multidisciplinary solo performers from around the globe.

The longest running Annual Solo Festival for women in Los Angeles, LAWTF will kick off this year's celebration with its catered Annual Champagne GALA on March 27 at 6:00 p.m. at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre, 4800 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, CA 90027. Other programs will continue over the week-end March 28 through March 30 at Theatre 68 Arts Complex- The Rosalie, located at 5112 Lankershim Boulevard, North Hollywood, CA 91601.

The Opening Night GALA will be hosted by Ted Lange (The Love Boat) and Margaret Avery (The original The Color Purple). The event will honor six deserving women of exceptional achievement and contribution to the world of theatre. This festive evening is entitled A Toast To. The awardees include:

Mitzi Gaynor- Infinity Award

NANCY CHERYLL DAVIS BELLAMY- Infinity Award

Presented to an artist who has passed on and leaves behind a legacy that will always be remembered.

Dawn Didawick- Eternity Award

Presented to an artist or individual whose lifetime achievements have made a lasting contribution to the world of theatre

Juanita Jennings-Integrity Award

Presented to an artist or individual who has brought credibility and dignity to her work.

Elisa Bocanegra- Maverick Award

Presented to an artist or individual whose work has set a high standard of individuality and self-styled creativity.

JULI KIM- Rainbow Award

Bestowed on an artist or individual for her diverse contributions in fostering non-traditional and multicultural theatre works.

There will be live performances. Performers include:

VANNIA IBARGUEN in Path to Home. This dance defines home as where we feel confident and safe within ourselves.

KAREN A. CLARK in Karen A. Clark Sings. This vocalist will share two of her vibrant musical selections.

Friday, March 29 at 8 p.m. Theme: A Woman's Choice.

Hosted by JAHNA COLE HOUSTON (Actor/Producer/Host) and JESSICA

Lynn Johnson (Producer/Director/Coach).

MAGGIE CEE in Ladies at a Gay Girls' Bar: 1938-1969. This dance/theatre piece

explores the strength and determination of women who paved the way for the Queer Rights

Movement by creating space to be themselves out of sheer necessity.

JANICE CRENETI in My Year of Saying No. During Covid-19, a woman's journey rejects patriarchy, perfection, and guilt to find her way back to herself.

FAY HAUSER-PRICE will perform poetry.

SMITA RUSSELL in Odds Are. This autobiographical story navigates the tumultuous

Terrain of multiple miscarriages as told through the lenses of honesty, humor, and curiosity.

Saturday, March 29 at 3 p.m. Theme: A Look Back in Time.

Hosted by Lula Washington ( Co-Founder of Lula Washington Dance Theatre) and ROSIE LEE HOOKS (Sweet Honey in the Rock).

VANESSA ADAMS HARRIS in Rosa Parks.

TASHARA GAVIN-MOOREHEAD in The Spirit of Jazz.

HOPE LEVY in The Connie Converse Universe. In August of 1974 after turning 50, Connie Converse, the first female modern folk singer-songwriter wrote a cryptic letter to loved ones and mysteriously was never to be seen again.

MELISSA LUGO in For You. A story that weaves through grief, addiction, and the bond between mothers and daughters.

Saturday, March 29 at 8 p.m. Theme: Unsilenced.

Hosted by Kat Kramer (Actor/Producer) and YVONNE FARROW (Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles),

MAYURI BHANDARI in The Anti-Yogi. This blended show of yoga, dance, live percussion, and poetry peels back the yoga mat to reveal the recolonization and commercialization of yoga in the West and nationalization in the East.

LAURA Elaine Ellis in A Black Woman's Truth. This poetic dance piece explores the many dimensions of the Black Woman.

CAROLINE HAWTHORNE in The iPhone Arias. The mezzo-soprano singer recounts her chaotic relationship through a cell phone.

Sigute Miller in Tragic Magic. The story of someone who most of her life tries to balance the good girl versus the party animal in her wild ride from addiction to recovery, and ultimately finds redemption and triumph.

Sunday, March 30 at 3 p.m. Theme: Encore.

Hosted by LYNNE CONNER (Filmmaker/Producer)) and TERRIE SILVERMAN (Creative Rites).

LIZA DEALEY-THOMASON in Supernova. A fanciful musical excerpt that explores the need to be the hero who tries to take care of everyone else and ultimately arrives at the celebration of the joy of taking care of self.

SONA LEWIS in Goddess Song and Tarama. The dancer presents two traditional Kathak Indian dances which pay homage to 14th Century compositions.

SHARON NYREE WILLIAMS in Legacy. A poet's explanation of her life's journey honoring family legacy, standing firmly in the present and envisioning the future.

Sunday, March 30 at 7 p.m. Theme: Family Portraits.

Hosted by CHRISTINA LINHARDT (Opera singer) and KATHRYN TAYLOR SMITH (A Mile in My Shoes).

KATIE CHIN in Holy Shitake! A Wok Star Is Born. Raised by a seamstress mother turned successful and well-known chef, Katie follows in her mother's footsteps to also become a Wok Star in the culinary world.

JLIETTE JEFFERS in Tio Pablo. The audience will get to know Juliette's Tio Pablo.

VICTORIA KELLEHER in Daddy James. This Gen-X-er who was raised on hose water and neglect, finds her life is changed after a "23 and Me" DNA identity test.

Alice Manning in Manning's Madhouse. Alice weaves both hilarious and traumatic memories of her family with two parents and nine children living in three bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms on Allison Road in Cleveland, Ohio.

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