The 30TH Annual Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival (LAWTF) has a roster of distinguished artists who will co-host six evenings of programs virtually. This year’s overall theme is CELEBRATION! Empowering Voices of Solo Female Performers for 30 Years
The four days of performances and celebration will take place at Barnsdall Gallery Theatre, 4800 Hollywood Boulevard,, Hollywood, CA 90027.
Thursday, March 23, 2023 at 8:00 p.m.
The Champagne GALA and Awards Ceremony honors distinguished women for their contributions to theatre (who will be named in a separate press release) and presents theatre and vocal performances.
Theme of the GALA: BRAVA!
Hosts are Hattie Winston and Ted Lange.
Hattie Winston has starred on Broadway (The Tap Dance Kid, The Me Nobody Knows, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Hair, Scapino!, I Love My Wife, Does the Tiger Wear a Necktie?), on television (Becker, The Electric Company, Homefront) and feature films (The Battle of Shaker Heights, Beverly Hills Cop III, and Jackie Brown). Hattie Winston is a Founding Member of the Negro Ensemble Company, where she performed in Day of Absence, Song of the Lusitanian Bogey, Daddy Goodness, Kongi’s Harvest, among others.
Ted Lange is known internationally for his portrayal of Isaac Washington on the long-running TV series The Love Boat for 10 years. Lange received the Renaissance Man Theatre Award from the NAACP for his stage accomplishments as actor both on Broadway and in Los Angeles, playwright (23 plays), and director. His one-man show in which he portrays Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Behind the Mask, tours worldwide. He more recently appeared in the play Willie and Esther with BerNadette Stanis.
Friday, March 24 at 8:00 p.m.
Theme: Of Self
Hosts are Eloise Laws and Ben Guillory.
Eloise Laws is an award-winning member of the legendary and celebrated Laws jazz family (Ronnie, Hubert and Debra Laws). Best known for her work as a jazz vocalist, her credits also include musical theatre (including South Pacific, House of Flowers and Candide) and opera (The Metropolitan Opera’s The Return) She starred in and co-wrote the Tony® nominated musical It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues. She is also the recipient of the Cherry Blossom Award from the Tokyo Music Festival.
Ben Guillory is the Producing Artistic Director and Co-Founder (with Danny Glover) of The Robey Theatre Company, one of Los Angeles’ longest-operating and most award-winning African American-led theatre companies. His producing and directing credits include the notable productions of The Magnificent Dunbar Hotel, Dr. DuBois and Miss Ovington, Anna Lucasta, Yohen, Bronzeville, The Haitian Trilogy, For the Love of Freedom, and many more. He is also an actor.
Saturday, March 25 at 3:00 p.m.
Theme: Culturally Speaking.
Hosts are Margaret Avery and Akuyoe Graham.
Margaret Avery was the recipient of an Academy Award® nomination for The Color Purple, Other prominent movies include Cool Breeze, Which Way Is Up?, Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, and more. She appeared regularly on the BET TV series Being Mary Jane. She starred in the acclaimed Robey Theatre Company production of The River Niger, and won the L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award for her performance in Does the Tiger Wear a Necktie? Her other stage credits include The Sistuhs and Revolution.
Akuyoe Graham’s personal path with her transcendent inner beauty was the culmination of a long journey, which she re-enacts in her acclaimed one-woman play, Spirit Awakening. Animating the pivotal characters who influenced her along the way, Akuyoe takes audiences on her odyssey of self-discovery. Whether in a prison classroom with a dozen inmates – or on stage before hundreds of students or regular playgoers – Akuyoe’s journey electrifies audiences and inspires them to look beneath their own social masks to their unchanging inner essence.
Saturday, March 25 at 8:00 p.m.
Theme: It’s All Relative.
Hosts are James Reynolds and Lissa Reynolds.
James Reynolds is known and loved by millions for his four decades as Mayor Abe Carver on the daytime drama Days of Our Lives, for which he is the longest-running Black actor on a daytime series. He received an Emmy® Award. He has also been a series regular on the TV shows Generations and Time Express. The Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Fremont Centre Theatre in South Pasadena, he was previously managing artistic director of Los Angeles Repertory Theatre in Old Town Pasadena. He starred in an acclaimed Black History presentation, I, Too, Am America.
Lissa Reynolds is Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of the Fremont Centre Theatre, where she has produced numerous plays. She received Woman of the Year honors from Rep. Adam Schiff of the 29th Congressional District in recognition of her engagement in community affairs and charities. Also, an actor, her screen credits include the lead in a rom-com, Say Yes, and a memorable turn in the sci-fi classic Night of the Comet. On stage, Lissa received acclaim for her starring role in A Woman of Independent Means.
Sunday, March 26 at 3:00 p.m.
Theme: We, The People
Hosts are Dawn Didawick and Rose Portillo
Dawn Didawick is a Founding Member of Antaeus Theatre Company. Her long, varied career has taken her from New York to Europe in the classics and new works. At Antaeus, her credits include: The Man Who Had All the Luck, The Bear,, Autumn Garden, The Seagull, The Crucible, and multiple roles in ClassicsFest including Amanda in The Glass Menagerie and Big Mama in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (Stage Raw Award). Her many TV and film appearances include Hart of Dixie, Pretty Little Liars, Christmas with the Kranks and Erin Brockovich.
Ms. Portillo is an accomplished actor/writer/director/educator and visual artist whose stage and film career began with a lead role in Luis Valdez’s Zoot Suit, (original LA production, Broadway, film), and the role of the Mother in the 2017 revival. She was Associate Director of About Productions, now celebrating 35 years of creating original theater works. As an actor, Rose has extensive credits in regional theatre, film and television. Rose has been honored with the Lee Melville Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Los Angeles Theatre Community.
Sunday, March 26 at 7:00 p.m
Theme: Songbirds and Dancing Feet
Hosts are Jude Narita and Angela Robinson Witherspoon.
For over three decades Jude Narita’s award-winning one-woman plays have portrayed Asian and Asian American women with humor, courage, and fearless celebration. Jude first created the women in her plays to challenge the Asian stereotypes that existed when she first began acting, and to show the human cost of wars that have raged in Asia for over a hundred years. Thirty years ago, he began bringing to the stage specific accents and culturally correct portrayals of different Asians, some of whom had never been portrayed on the American stage before.
Angela Robinson-Witherspoon has appeared on stage in Sirens, Happy Ending, The Last Straw, A Song for You). She has also been visible in film (The Moment After, 48 Hours, Crossroads, The Meteor Man, Hold On, Lilin’s Brood) and on TV (Ugly Betty, Joan of Arcadia, The Wayans Bros. and 3rd Rock from the Sun, Criminal Minds, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend). She is also a director and producer (Bettye Saar: Ready to Be a Warrior, Wish Me Luck, Last Call and more).
Founded by Executive Producer Adilah Barnes and Miriam Reed, the Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival is an Annual Event unique among Los Angeles cultural institutions, not to be missed.
The Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival is a non-profit arts organization supported in part by Lendistry, California Arts Council, Los Angeles County Arts and Culture, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Culver City, City National Bank, The California Wellness Foundation.
Women in Media KPFK, Anonymous Foundation, and Adilah Barnes Productions.
Tickets to the March 23 GALA are $60 each or $100 a pair (includes reception). Tickets to each of the weekend’s other five shows are $25 for early birds (through March 10) and $30 thereafter. A VIP all access pass for the entire weekend is $150 and includes a Day Pass to INTERSECTION: A Day of Workshops and Pane on March 22nd at Theatre 68 in North Hollywood. Reservations will be available at (818) 760-0408 or go to http://www.lawtf.org.
To join and follow LAWTF on Facebook and Twitter, click on their links at http://www.lawtf.org
Festival performers and honorees are the subjects of separate releases. For more information about Festival programming and tickets, please go to www.lawtf.org or call (818) 760-0408.