Keegan's Boiler Room Series Launches its WOMXN on Fire Festival

This March, the Boiler Room Series will turn up the heat for six local womXn playwrights, six local womXn directors, and a host of actors with the return of Keegan Theatre's newly named WOMXN on Fire Festival. Building on the success and audience feedback of last year's festival, this year the festival will feature six staged 10-minute plays and a weekend of three one-womXn plays during WomXn's History Month.

Josh Sticklin produces the Boiler Room Series for Keegan Theatre, and was struck with the response to last year's festival. "We were amazed by both the size of the audience and their enthusiastic participation in the post-reading discussions," Sticklin says. "The reaction to the works presented last year was electric, and Keegan recognized how much appetite and excitement there is for this kind of event -- I am delighted that Keegan is bringing back the festival in an extended format this season."

"Our hope is to fill the halls of Keegan Theatre with the most diverse group of participants the Boiler Room Series has yet seen. We are looking for work that alludes to the title of the festival in varied and creative ways, and features depictions of womXn at a slow simmer as well as an explosive force," explains festival curator, Cara Gabriel.

Playwrights must be local to the DMV and identify as womXn. Ten-minute plays should be new, never before produced works that celebrate, explore, dissect, or illuminate what it means to be womXn today, tomorrow, or historically. Full 10-minute plays will be collected HERE until 6pm on February 5, 2018. Plays should be 10 minutes in length, should feature no more than 5 actors, and should relate to Keegan Theatre's mission, "to take audiences to the vital heart of the theater experience: extraordinary artists in an intimate setting exploring the human condition."

Directors must be local to the DMV and identify as womXn. Directors should submit their resumes and availability HERE by 6pm on February 5, 2018. Actors must be local to the DMV. Actors should submit their headshots, resumes, and availability HERE by 6pm on February 5, 2018.

"Keegan's Boiler Room Series couldn't support the development of new works without the generous support of our festival sponsor, Marcie Cohen," says Boiler Room Producer Josh Sticklin. "Her commitment to supporting fresh voices in American theatre is inspiring. Thanks to the support of the DC Commision on the Arts and Humanities and our heroic patrons like Marcie, all artists involved in the festival will receive a stipend." If you are interested in supporting the artists that will make this festival happen, please donate on our Generosity Page here: https://igg.me/at/9j-DEpx211k

WOMXN on Fire Festival Production Schedule
February 5, 2018: Play, Director, and Actor Submission Deadline
February 20 - March 9, 2018: Rehearsal Window (each piece will rehearse between 15-20 hours)
March 10, 2018: TECH (one hour time slots for each piece)
March 11, 2018 @ 9:00am: TECH Transitions
March 11, 2018 @ 11:00am: Performance #1
March 12, 2018 @ 7:30pm: Performance #2