Idle Muse Theatre Company's ATHENA FESTIVAL!

I am so happy and proud to be an artistic associate with Chicago's Idle Muse Theatre Company. Even though I am miles and miles away from them, I am still excited about everything my artistic home is doing! I still have a job as an artistic associate of a Chicago theatre company living in Los Angeles: tell everyone about what we're doing and get audience in the seats to communicate and share our human experiences through the art of theatre that is transporting, timely and true!

This year IMTC is doing something very cool. They have started an annual festival called The Athena Festival which will provide a greater voice and representation for women in Chicago theatre because it will feature works by diverse women playwrights, directed by women and featuring women in prominent roles. AND preference will be given to women whose scripts pass the Bechdel test! It is very exciting to be a woman apart of IMTC right now and in the future as this festival grows in the years to come!

I wanted to share what Sara Robinson, our resident stage manager at Idle Muse and the now curator of The Athena Festival, had to say regarding the birth of the festival because I think it's great that she noticed a problem in the world of Chicago theatre and is now doing the most badass thing with Idle Muse to fix it!

"A few years ago, I decided to start looking into auditioning again. I had been working in the technical end for so long, that the acting bug had bit me once again. As I searched through audition notices, I was astounded by the lack of opportunities for women. Not just in large roles but in roles that women were not objects for the men to act around. The lack of opportunities for women in their 30's and 40's was especially disheartening.

Why weren't more companies giving women a chance? Then I started thinking about the lack of women directors in storefront theatre. What about the playwrights? I researched into what was done the most in theatres across the country. Women were in the minority. The lack of women's roles seemed to be directly connected to the lack of women in the positions of power; the playwrights and the directors.

Thus Athena Festival was born.

We received almost 100 script submissions from across North America and a wonderful selection of female directors wanting to be part of the festival. We were overjoyed with the enormous response! Our directors have worked with prominent theatres in Chicago and across the nation. Our playwrights, several of them already established and award-winning in their own right, represent, Chicago, the East Coast, and Canada.

We are so honored to be able to collaborate with this amazing group of women!

In the years to come, our hope is that Athena Festival will grow to include more and more exceptional talent. We would love to see these plays become fully realized productions; not just by Idle Muse, but by any theatre, to show the world that Chicago is ready to celebrate women in theatre.

We know that the theatre community is growing in awareness of the gender gap and is making an effort to change. Let's open the door to the next generation of talented women to make their own mark on Chicago theatre. Join us in celebrating their talents!

-Sara Robinson, Idle Muse Artistic ensemble member and Curator of Athena Festival"

Isn't this awesome!! She's like a super hero! My entire company of IMTC are super heroes!!

I am so sad to miss this festival, but I greatly, greatly hope to contribute to it in the future. I'd like to write something that gets produced by the festival, and I hope to someday act in it as well! Hell, maybe I'll even direct one day! The possibilities are endless!

And check out who's involved this year! What a great, exciting group of ladies! Special love and shout out go to Allison Dornheggen, who I got to meet and act with in my first IMTC production, Rites and Sacrifices, and she nicknamed me Tiny Ears, which has stuck ever since!

Check out the full post regarding The Athena Festival HERE and visit Idle Muse's website to stay up to date and informed with everything my wonderful artistic family is doing!