Venus Theatre is among the longest running women's theaters in the world.
“Legitimate Off-Off Broadway”
FUR by Migdalia Cruz
March 17 - April 10 Fur is the story of Citrona, a hirsute young woman who is purchased by Michael at a sideshow to be his bride. Michael has a fetish for animals and runs a pet shop in post-apocalyptic Los Angeles which has become a giant sand pit. He hires Nena, an animal trapper to catch and bring food to the caged Citrona. But Citrona falls in love with Nena who’s in love with Michael. A tragi-comic triangular retelling of the Beauty & the Beast where the beast wins.
GARBAGE KIDS BY JAYME KILBURN
April 18 - May 18 Belly and Scuzzy are friends; friends who have been abandoned by their parents, live in and out of foster care, and have a hard time feeling normal. Act one is a memory play experienced through the lens of its main characters. The play begins in a waiting room. Belly and Scuzzy sit anxiously waiting for their arms or legs to be cut off, they’re not sure which. Belly returns from the doctor’s office with a gaping hole in his arm, Scuzzy with a piece of candy. As Belly and Scuzzy grow into adulthood, Scuzzy befriends a lonely woman who pesters her to take the place of her daughter. While Belly struggles with perfecting his street singing, ultimately giving up his aspirations for a job at KFC. Act two focuses on adulthood, in real-time. Belly and Scuzzy’s relationship is put under duress, the two ultimately finding that they are a harsh reminders of the other’s inadequacy and loneliness.
rock the line BY kathleen warnock
August 8 - September 14 On a raw winter day in the parking lot of a Rust Belt rock club, the faithful gather to celebrate their heroine, Patti Roxx, leader of The Wanderers. From near and far they travel, and they wait all day to be the first on line, stand closest to the stage, to commune with a rock goddess whose words and music shape, and sometimes save, their lives. As the day wears on, secrets are told, alliances made and tested, and ultimately, one has to decide whether to walk away alone.
soft revolution: Shafana and aunt sarrinah BY alan valentine
October 17 - November 16 What do you do when you profoundly disagree with someone you love?
At the heart of Soft Revolution: Shafana and Aunt Sarrinah is the story of a young Australian-born Muslim woman and an intergenerational clash with her own Aunt. Based on interviews with Afghani/ Australian Muslim women and produced with the support of a large number of Muslim women from a diversity of Muslim cultures in Australia, this play will compel audiences with its portrait of women who are articulate, highly educated and deeply spiritual. University student Shafana turns to the religion of her heritage for answers after a terrorist attack, resulting in a deep experience of faith and a controversial decision to wear the hijab. But for her Aunt Sarrinah, also a devout Muslim but old enough to regret the changes in her Afghan homeland, the hijab represents both a world from which she has escaped and her fears about the new world she has embraced. Above all, this play is a startling meditation on the clash between individual freedom and cultural context, experienced through two tender and fiercely drawn female characters.
PLAY SUBMISSION GUIDELINES!
Play submissions OPEN for the 2016 Season. Please submit plays in .pdf format to submissionsofvenus@gmail.com or by mail to 21 C Street, Laurel, MD 20707
aBOUT US
It is the mission of Venus Theatre to set flight to the voices of women and children with theatre for a lifetime.