On August 26, Playbill celebrates the women, non-binary, and gender-non-conforming artists and their milestone contributions to the theatre over the past 100 years—as well as works to come by up-and-coming voices—in the special event Women in Theatre: A Centennial Celebration. Tune in at 8PM ET at Playbill.com/WomenInTheatre.
The concert will feature performances by Ari Afsar, Jacqueline B. Arnold, Sara Bareilles, Shoshana Bean, Mackenzie Bell, Andréa Burns, Heather Christian, Kaleigh Cronin, Kaitlyn Davidson, Treshelle Edmond, Judith Franklin, Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer, Ari Groover, Ann Harada, Afra Hines, Kendyl Ito, Nikki M. James, Brittney Johnson, L Morgan Lee, Beth Malone, J. Elaine Marcos, Erin McKeown, Jessie Mueller, Solea Pfeiffer, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Jessica Rush, Christina Acosta Robinson, Sharone Sayegh, Saycon Sengbloh, Shayna Steele, Kuhoo Verma, and additional talent to be announced.
And, expect special appearances by Lynn Ahrens, Roxanne Barrios, Jocelyn Bioh, Jhanaë Bonnick, Maybe Burke, Linda Cho, Sue Frost, Natalie Gershtein, Quiara Alegría Hudes, Natasha Katz, Jenny Koons, Lorin Latarro, Mimi Lien, Rebecca Martinez, Anaïs Mitchell, Dominique Morisseau, Mayte Natalio, Lynn Nottage, Ming Pfeiffer, Lauren Ridloff, Nicolette Robinson, Sarah Ruhl, Madeline Sayet, Leigh Silverman, Susan Stroman, Madeline Smith, Shaina Taub, Paula Vogel, and additional speakers to be announced.
The event will feature songs by artists of the past 100 years, performed by members of the community. The event will also pay homage to playwrights, writers, creatives, designers through a selection of speaker videos offering personal reflections and expressing connection to the women who came before.
Women in Theatre will tell the story of history-making women, milestone moments for women, and push forward for an intersectional and inclusive future for all women and female-identifying artists in theatre. The show airs as a benefit special, raising money for a brand-new initiative of Broadway Advocacy Coalition called the BAC Artivism Fellowship, focused on empowering artist-activists. The inaugural class of fellows will specifically support Black women, cisgender and transgender, who are artist activists focused on issues related to systemic racism and criminal justice reform and using narrative or stories in their work. Applications will be open to all women artists, both cisgender and transgender, based in the United States and will be open to all artists that center their work in stories and narrative.
The digital presentation is made possible in part by the Library of Congress.
