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10 Years of Philly Women's Theatre Festival
2024 Season Festival
August 10 - 18

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Theatre Exile

1340 S 13th St, Philadelphia, PA 19147

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Season Lineup

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Staged Readings of:

Eden 2.0

by Kimberly Shimer

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Goldie and the Green Mountains

by Reva Stover

 

One person shows:

To Mz Sabriaya: Mothering Community

by Sabriaya Shipley

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Fitting In: Tales of The Fat Ingenue

by Lexi Schreiber and Katherine Perry

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Miss Darby is Missing

by Darby Burghard

 

And a full production of

Pancake Queen by Brie Knight

 

Pancake Queen was originally presented as a staged reading during our very first season, and we are honored to bring it back to the stage in a big way! 

This year more than ever we CELEBRATE the amazing voices and stories of women and nonbinary artists in Philadelphia. We are thrilled to present our biggest season yet!

Our 10th season runs August 10th-18th at Theatre Exile, with special events at the Sawubona Creativity Project! 

Eden 2.0

by Kimberly Shimer

According to the biblical story in Genesis, Eve cursed both herself and Adam when she insisted he try the fruit from the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden. But what if, in fact, Adam was to blame? What if a lie and a supposed video glitch wrongly convicted Eve, leading to millennia of gender inequality? Can a present-day intern at the Command Center in "Almost Heaven, West Virginia" make things right? 

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Kimberly Shimer

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Kimberly Shimer is a returning playwright to PWTF, with her play Talking Over Tea being featured in our 2022 season on mental health. Her first play, “A Ghost of a Chance,” received a Zoom production as a finalist in FutureFest 2020 at Dayton Playhouse. In 2021, it was selected for Cincinnati LAB Theatre’s New Works Festival. Kimberly’s new full-length plays are “Eden 2.0” and “Dear Elsie: Kafka’s Letters from a Lost Doll,” which was part of Ragged Edge Theatre’s New Works Festival. “Talking Over Tea,” her first 10-minute play, won Arts After Hours’ 10-Minute Play Contest and was produced by A Light in Dark Places (Los Angeles) and Breaking Waves Theatre (Guam) in 2021. Kimberly earned a graduate certificate in Practical Theatre at Villanova University, where she discovered playwriting.

Goldie and the Green Mountains

by Reva Stover

When Goldie, a young Black woman, leaves D.C to pursue a teaching career in the small town of Bumfort, Vermont, she discovers that not everything is as it seems. As Goldie fights to survive in the haunting woods of Vermont, she uncovers a conspiracy that spans farther than one could possibly imagine. Will she decide to settle in or find a way out of her new home? Goldie and the Green Mountains is a comedic social horror all its own.

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Reva Stover​

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Reva is a director, playwright, actor, producer, and dramaturg with a BFA acting degree from the University of Central Florida. They are the co-Artistic Director and head of New Play Development at Azuka Theatre. They have written works such as Running (Wings of Paper Theatre), a series of revisited Shakespearean sonnets (Revolution Shakespeare), and Moments (Philly Women’s Theatre Festival). They’ve directed pieces such as Overwinter, A Hit Dog Will Holler, and Tuck Everlasting. Across disciplines, Reva enjoys telling stories that examine how systems of oppression impact marginalized communities while exploring the ways those communities fight back.

To Mz Sabriaya: Mothering Community

by Sabriaya Shipley

This choreopoem captures the journey of a Queer Black woman/nonbinary Femme body from a student to a teacher and back again. To Mz. Sabriaya is filled with movement, sound, and poetry that echo the burnout of being a caregiver matched with a celebration and dedication to nurturing life and future generations.

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Sabriaya Shipley

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Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, Sabriaya is a Philadelphia-based poet, educator, and community ethnographer determined to cultivate performance art and archival spaces centered around the expressive freedom of Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities. A recipient of the Philadelphia Foundation and Forman Art's Art Works and the Rosine 2.0 Past Visions/ Future Archives Micro-Grant, Sabriaya currently serves as Executive Director of Theatre Philadelphia and community organizer in Philly.

Fitting In: Tales of The Fat Ingenue

by Lexi Schreiber and Katherine Perry

Lexi Schreiber brings charisma, humor, heart, and show stopping numbers in The Fat Ingenue, which will bring you on a journey of love, acceptance, and money notes while sharing stories of her FAT life, being a FAT woman in musical theatre, and what it means for her FAT body to be enough.

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Lexi Schreiber

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Lexi Schreiber (she/her) has a Master of Art in Theatre from Villanova University (2017). She completed her undergrad at University of the Arts to receive a Bachelor of Music with a Minor in Musical Theatre (2014). In 2020, Lexi created “@thefatingenue” on Instagram and Tiktok. She uses her talent and skill as a professional theatre artist to advocate for fat representation in theatre. She justifies why fat people belong in leading roles using dramaturgical analysis. Lexi has acquired over 40 thousand followers across instagram and tiktok, multiple videos reach over 100k views, one that reached 1.6 million views! “Fitting In” has been featured in Broadway World, The Broad St Review and Philadelphia Weekly. It premiered in NYC at Don’t Tell Mama NYC in January 2023. 

Miss Darby is Missing

by Darby Burghard

A comedic one woman show that explores what it means to be from a place like Mississippi and how that experience shapes one's perception of New York City. Meeting a cast of amusing characters along the way, this show is ultimately about growing up and reckoning with identity and a sense of home. 

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Darby Burghard

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PWTF is excited and honored to welcome Darby Burghard as she marks her first year with the festival! Darby is an actor, writer, and comedian originally from the Deep South. She has been known to wear shoes on occasion. You can catch her doing sketch and standup comedy around NYC.

Pancake Queen

by Brie Knight

In 1893 St. Joseph, Missouri, Nancy Green strives to make peace with her painful past so she may live her future as a free woman. When she finds herself employed by a local miller, Randolph T. Davis, to portray his new, revolutionary merchandising symbol, Aunt Jemima at the Chicago’s World Fair, her past experiences and future dreams collide. As Nancy fights to make a life of her own design, she risks being consumed by Aunt Jemima and the past she wants to leave behind.

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Brie Knight

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Brie Knight (she/her) is an award winning playwright whose works have been featured at InterAct Theatre, Eagle Theatre, PlayPenn, The Philadelphia Women’s Theatre Festival, and Universities and festivals around the country. She is a graduate of the Philadelphia Playwright’s Incubator – The Foundry.  Her play PANCAKE QUEEN won the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre’s 2018 Playwriting Competition and the Sue Winge Playwriting Award from Villanova University. Her play THE BABY was selected to be a part of NYC’s 2022 United Solo Festival.  For Juneteenth, 2021, Brie Co-Produced the virtual theatrical revolution BLACKBESTFRIEND. 

Want to see them all? Festival Passes include tickets to all of this season's shows at a discounted rate!

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Join comedian and craft cocktail queen Katie Hewko-Dykes as she guides you through creating a specialty PWTF cocktail, tickling your funny bone along the way! She will be joined by fellow local women comedians for an evening of laughs you won't forget. This event is a masterclass in craft cocktails and a comedy show wrapped in one. Your ticket purchase includes the specialty cocktail you will learn how to make! 
Stay Tuned for more announcements about this season's special event!

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Celebrate the next generation of Philadelphia theatre makers as we partner with Philly Young Playwrights for an outdoor production made by and for young people! Come see rising freshman Allison Marker’s play “Ends with the Ocean Tides”, directed and performed by professional local theater makers! The day will also include a workshop for young storytellers, crafts, and snacks. This is a pay what you decide event open to audiences of all ages!

Casts and Crew

Meet the incredible talent behind this season's performances!

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