LA Female Playwrights Initiative Presents Play Readings in SWAN Day Action Fest

LA Female Playwrights Initiative (LA FPI) and Free Association Theatre present a day of play readings and connections to celebrate Support Women Artists Now Day, hosted by City Garage Theatre. SWAN Day Action Fest takes place on Saturday, March 28 from 12 - 6 p.m. at City Garage Theatre in Santa Monica's Bergamot Station Arts Center. Admission is free.

The day's events include readings of short plays written and directed by women, as well as two sessions of "Micro-Reads" (open to all women writers in attendance) and opportunities for theatermakers (of all genders) to network and find future collaborators: women artists working in Los Angeles.

SWAN Day Action Fest plays are Box by Robin Byrd, directed by Julianne Homokay; The Proposal by Carolina Rojas Moretti, directed by Laura Steinroeder; The Mixing Bowl by Leslie Hardy, directed by Gloria Iseli; Mankind by Beverly Andrews, directed by Alexandra Meda; The Missing Staircase by Morna Murphy Martell, directed by Lane Allison; and lIl Informed by Raegan Payne, directed by Courtney Anne Buchan.

In addition to the playreadings, the day will feature impromptu Micro-Reads, one page of writing performed on-the-spot, directed by Mary Sampson. To have work included as a Micro-Read, women writers should visit guidelines at lafpi.com/events.

March 28, 2015 marks the 8th International SWAN Day, a holiday designed to showcase the power and diversity of women's creativity. Sponsored by the Bay Area organization WomenArts, SWAN Day has been celebrated with over 1,200 events in 24 countries. This is the 2nd SWAN Day Action Fest, building upon the success of last year's event at Samuel French Theatre & Film Bookshop in Hollywood.

City Garage Theatre has been producing innovative, award-winning theater in Santa Monica for the past 28 years. It was founded by artistic director Frederíque Michel and producing director Charles Duncombe to create and present original works that explore contemporary ideas and issues in a distinctive, strongly physical, highly visual, multi-disciplinary style.

"LA FPI is playing a vital role in helping women's voices to be heard," says Michel. "We are happy to be hosting this event and look forward to an exciting day of new work."

Actors for playreadings and Micro-Reads will include City Garage company members and actors from Green Light Productions. Plays to be read in SWAN Day Action Fest were selected through a blind, open submission process curated by Free Association Theatre.

Producer of SWAN Day Action Fest, Free Association Theatre was formed in San Francisco in 1977 by actors Katherine James and Alan Blumenfeld. The company now presents original theatrical works and readings in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative is an L.A.-based movement working to ensure that women playwrights are fairly represented on local stages and beyond. Over the last five years, LA FPI has established itself in the L.A. theater community through its support and promotion of female playwrights and their projects. The LA FPI and its co-founders, Laura Shamas and Jennie Webb, work with other organizations across the country and internationally to advance gender parity awareness and positive change for women artists.

For more information on the LA Female Playwrights Initiative, visit lafpi.com. The site is set up as a hub for theater artists as well as theatergoers, with a popular "Persons of Interest" blog, highlights of Women at Work Onstage in Los Angeles, resources and information including the LA FPI Study of female playwrights and plays by women n L.A. theaters, the "What She Said" podcast and more.

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