Athena Festival's Weekend of Staged Readings by Women, About Women

On December 5-6, Idle Muse Theatre Company will produce new festival celebrating plays written and directed by women entitled Athena Festival to be curated by ensemble member Sara Robinson.
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Athena Festival is a project to provide a greater voice and representation for women in Chicago theatre. Athena is the Greek goddess of reason, intelligent activity, arts and literature. Likewise, Athena Festival will feature staged readings of plays by diverse women playwrights, directed by women, and featuring women in prominent roles. Idle Muse is hoping this will be the beginning of an annual festival that will expand into full productions.�

"I researched into what was being done the most in theatre across the country. Women were in the minority. The lack of women's roles seemed to be directly related to a lack of female directors and playwrights -- there is a clear gender gap in the perspectives being told on our stages. Thus Athena Festival was born," said Athena Festival Curator and Idle Muse ensemble member, Sara Robinson.

"We received almost 100 script submissions in a very short period of time from across North America. Our selected female directors have worked in prominent theatres in Chicago and across the nation. Our playwrights, several of them already award-winning, represent Chicago, the East Coast and Canada. We are so honored to be able to collaborate with this amazing group of women."

Festival lineup includes "Better Angels: A Parable" by Andrea Scott, "Space Girl" by Mora V. Harris, "Missed Connections" by Hallie Palladino and "Girl Found" by Barbara Lhota. A talkback with the creative team will follow each staged reading.

"Better Angels: A Parable" by Andrea Scott, takes the story of the bored housewife/distracted husband and turns it on its head by incorporating a little bit of fairy tale and magic realism into an all too common problem plaguing the modern world. After moving to Canada from Ghana to work for Greg and Leila Tate in a beautiful Toronto enclave Akosua finds herself in an impossible situation: she has become a statistic, joining more than 22 million people trapped in modern day slavery. Does Leila miss her high-powered job and is Greg cheating again? Taking cues from the Anansi tales Akosua knows the answer. Elana Elyce directs "Better Angels: A Parable."

In "Space Girl" by Mora V. Harris, Arugula Suarez just wants to fit in. But it's not easy when you're a 16 year old lesbian alien from the planet Zlagdor. In a world where the only things that make sense are Roller Derby and salad, Arugula and her father, Nancy, must carve out an existence and figure out how to pass as humans in an alien world. "Space Girl" is directed by Emma Couling.

Hallie Palladino's "Missed Connections," directed by Ann Kreitman, centers on Avery, an introverted grammar nerd, who has a crush on Layla, a stylish and self-possessed newspaper editor. When a missed connection ad details their chance encounter Avery is uncharacteristically emboldened to take a chance on love. The problem? The ad was printed before they met. When more ads start predicting the future everyone's lives go into upheaval.

Barbara Lhota's "Girl Found" is the story of a seventeen-year-old girl who mysteriously went missing four years ago and turns up in a youth shelter in Canada with no memory of where she's been. Soon she recalls a name, Sophia Sobin, and a life she wants back. Her aunt, Ellie, and trouble mother, Eva, welcome her home, but subtle changes in Sophia's demeanor make others question. Sophia revives her damaged family, but chaotic past events bubble beneath the surface. Inspired by true life events, "Girl Found" explores how perceptions can be distorted in the desperate pursuit of primal love. Who are you if you cannot remember your past? "Girl Found" is directed by Alison Dornheggen.