8th Annual Women’s “New Works” Theater Festival | March 20 – 29

3Girls Theatre Company presents The 8th Annual New Works Festival with the 2020 theme, “Hindsight is 2020: Reimagining Women’s History” to celebrate a century of women’s suffrage by flipping the script.

Join the gang of theatre-makers to play in alternative worlds that tweak women’s place in history, for better or for worse.

The festival includes ten days of original theatrical events that explore the need for artists to never let go of hope, despite what political forces surround us featuring music, improv, interviews, readings, performances, and an art exhibit.

The 8th Annual New Works Festival
March 20 – 29, 2020
Z Below, 450 Florida Street, San Francisco
Pay What You Can at door – Or Tickets:$10.00 3GirlsTheatre.org or Z Space 

View 2020 Festival Schedule

Opening Night: Use Your Imagination
The Festival kicks off with an entertaining and provocative evening of theatre, improv and conversation riffing on the theme of “Hindsight is 2020!” It will feature improv from Festival favorites Rachel Hamilton and Kimberly MacLean, and introduce the 2020 Festival Ensemble. Hosted by 3GT Executive Artistic Director & Founding Playwright AJ Baker. Z Below, Friday, 3/20 at 7:30pm

LezWritesBTQ: In Performance
LezWritesBTQ is a unique script development and performance program for emerging lesbian, trans, gender non-conforming, and queer Bay Area theatre-makers. Curated by Program Director Tina D’Elia, this will be an evening of humorous short plays from L Zephyr, Troy Rockett, and Kristy Lin Billuni, along with monologues by Margery Kreitman, Julia Jackson, and Kelly J. Kelly. Z Below, Saturday, 3/21 at 3pm & 7:30pm

Mother Lear
Presented by 3GT in collaboration with We Players. An irascible middle-aged scholar with dementia communicates with her caretaker daughter using only the text of King Lear, as the two struggle with aging, love and their own balance of power. Written and performed by Ava Roy and Courtney Walsh. Thursday 3/19 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, 3/22 at 3pm. Please note: the special pre-festival showing on 3/19 has a higher price point ($40) reservations and includes, reception, wine & cheese.

3GT Innovators: The Dream Thief
A new immersive urban fairytale for small audiences from Erin Gilley & Denmo Ibrahim that invites viewers to join them in an adventure to reclaim stolen dreams and unravel the mystery of a supernatural thief on the run. 3GT Innovators provides financial, dramaturgical, and production support to women-led companies experimenting with new theatrical forms. This special work-in-progress showing is at Z Below on Sunday, 3/22 at 7:30pm

3GT Investigates: Black Missing Murdered Trafficked
3GT Investigates commissions teams of women playwrights to interrogate the critical issues of our time via the use of investigative/documentary theatre techniques. California consistently has the highest number of human-trafficking incidents reported in the U.S. and the FBI refers to the SF Bay Area as one of the world’s major sex trafficking hubs. In Oakland, 98% of trafficking victims are female and 64% are Black. In Partnership with Regina’s Door, and led by 3GT playwright and organizer Cat Brooks, this work-in-progress explores the disappearance and murder of Black women in Oakland.
Z Below, Wednesday, 3/25 at 7:30pm

3GT Innovators: Apocalyptic Cabaret by Queer Cat Productions
Queer Cat Production’s Curious at the End of the World is a consent-forward interactive immersive theatrical experience that imagines a queer cabaret at the end of the world. For these performances, the company chooses a different reason for the apocalypse in question, and March 2020’s is “Patriarchy killed the world.” 3GT Innovators provides financial, dramaturgical, and production support to women-led companies experimenting with new theatrical forms. Z Below, Thursday, 3/26 at 7:30pm

Hindsight is 2020 Theme Night: Flip the Script!
An evening of seven provocative, powerful and delightfully linked staged readings on the Festival theme by a dynamic crew of women playwrights, including the short Bottoms Up, inspired by Top Girls and its creator, Caryl Churchill. The evening is directed by Pamela Hollings and features the 2020 Festival Ensemble! Z Below, Friday, 3/27 at 7:30pm

Salon Series Finalist: Swimming with Puppies by Susan Jackson
In competition for the 2020 festival prize with Meth by Elizabeth Flanagan, this dark comedy explores the cult of hero worship and how grief affects those touched by headline-grabbing tragedy. Rachel’s husband, and Phoebe’s father, Jack, has died in a mass shooting. He appears to have saved the life of a young woman, Sandrea Clemmons, who suddenly shows up at their family home to seek refuge from the press. But Rachel holds a secret about Jack’s past; will she reveal it to her anguished daughter Phoebe? Directed by Louis Parnell.
Z Below, Saturday, 3/28 at 1pm

Salon Series Finalist: Meth by Elizabeth Flanagan
In competition for the 2020 festival prize with Swimming with Puppies by Susan Jackson, Meth follows a woman named Louise who went away to college thinking she’d left her dead-end town and all its baggage behind. But upon returning home after being put on academic probation, finds unfinished business with old boyfriends and best friends right where she left it. Directed by Zach Kopciak.
Z Below, Saturday, 3/28 at 3:30 pm

The 2020 Festival Prize Judges are: Sarah Rose Leonard the Literary Director at Berkeley Rep; Torange Yeghiazarian founder and Executive Director of Golden Thread Productions and Jessica Bird Beza, Executive Director at Playwrights Foundation.

GirlWrights: In Performance
Professional actors perform short plays written by girls age 11-15 living in San Francisco. GirlWrights offers free playwriting workshops to young women in the Bay Area who lack regular access to theatre programming and education. Z Below, Sunday, 3/29 at 3 pm