In 2020, we’re going beyond the Bechdel Test…
FESTIVAL POSTPONED
Along with all our friends in the theatre, we are currently in wait-and-see mode but we look forward to rescheduling our readings and bringing this wonderful new work to you! Stay safe, everyone.
WHILE WE’RE AT HOME… We’re redirecting our Beyond Bechdel funding towards a virtual play reading series we’re calling SAI. Check it out!!
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Susan Cinamon 
Diana Burbano 
The Bridge Initiative: Women+ in Theatre brings back our popular Bechdel Test Fest – with a twist. Join us for work that offers not only womxn who speak to each other about something other than a man… rather, we’re holding a mirror up to the rich and intricate world we all share. Instead of relying on the Bechdel Test as our selection criteria, we created the Bridge Test which emphasizes complexity of womxn characters who have agency, with an explicit focus on representation. Join us!
Tickets on sale now!
$12/show general admission – $9 student/senior with ID or… Buy 2 shows for $20 plus fees or all 3 shows for $25 plus fees
**fees $1 in person/phone sales or $3 online**
@Tempe Center for the Arts
Three new plays
Producing Artistic Director: Brenda Jean Foley
Production Manager: Kim Huenecke
11:00 AM
FABULOUS MONSTERS
by Diana Burbano, music by Moises Vazquez
Directed/Musical Directed by Michelle Chin
Stage Manager: Marissa Beckett
Featuring: Bethany Baca, Alaina Beauloye,
Megan Holcomb, Alejandra Luna, Alan Khoutakoun, Sonia Rodriguez Wood
When punk rock exploded in L.A., Sally and Lou were there: feminists, queens of noise. One went pop, one stayed punk, but sparks from their tumultuous friendship remain. Decades later, can they overcome old wounds, forgive each other, and rock as hard as they ever did?
NOTE: MATURE CONTENT
email info@bridgeinit.org for any questions/concerns
Diana Burbano (book, lyrics) is a Colombian immigrant, is a playwright, an Equity actor, and a teaching artist at South Coast Repertory and Breath of Fire Latina Theatre Ensemble. Diana’s plays focus on female protagonists and have been seen all over the world. She was a writer on “Senor Plummer’s Final Fiesta” which is currently wowing audiences in West Hollywood. She was in the Center Theatre Group’s 2018-19 Writers Workshop cohort and is under commission by Alter Theatre in San Rafael. Contributing writer to The Bridge Initiative’s ROAR! A Celebration in September 2019.
1:30 PM
GLORY!
by N.N.Ewing
Directed by Chanel Bragg
Stage Manager: Taylor Moschetti
Featuring: Larissa Brewington and DeAngelus Grisby
with TA Burrows
A dramedy that takes us through a harrowing, hilarious night with two elderly but spry African American sisters. Jesstell Beaumont-Handsome is convinced she has accidentally killed her under-cover spy husband and is now on the lam. She rushes to her youngest sister’s home, distraught. She is received by an annoyed sibling, Bitty Beaumont. Resenting this intrusion, on her 65th birthday, but intrigued by all things Forensics Files and Unsolved Mysteries, Bitty lends an ear and does her own brand of sleuthing.
N.N. Ewing (aka Nan-Lynn Nelson) has been writer/actor for 40 years. Broadway: Tony nominated musical, Runaways; Open Admissions. Replaced Angela Bassett in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. Principal in a myriad of TV commercials, episodic television. As a playwright, Nan-Lynn Nelson has been a finalist in the Susan Smith Blackburn International playwriting contest for: Leaving Watermaine. N.N. Ewing was an artist-in-residence at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center developing Enemy of the B.R.E.A.D. Other titles include: The Unfamiliar, A Swanka’s Revolution, Glory!, The Remembering. New Works of Merit. Honorable Mention for: A Town Called Witness. Contributing writer to The Bridge Initiative’s ROAR! A Celebration in September 2019.
4:00 PM
GUENEVERE
by Susan Cinoman
Directed by Tracy Liz Miller
Stage Manager: Christopher Johnson
Dramaturge: Taylor Jane Cooper
Design Consultant: Brunella Provvidente
Featuring: Amie Bjorklund, Dayna Donovan, Gustavo Flores, Chris Mascarelli, Eric Schoen
What happens when we look at the Camelot legend… from Guenevere’s point of view? A new complex exploration of sacrifices, challenges, and triumphs.
NOTE: MATURE CONTENT
email info@bridgeinit.org for any questions/concerns
Susan Cinoman is a playwright and screenwriter whose work is published and produced internationally. For television, she is the creator of the recurring character, Miss Cinoman on ABC’s, The Goldbergs, and a frequent writer and contributor. Her one- act play, Fitting Rooms in Applause Books, “Best Short Plays” is produced internationally. Other productions are Cinoman and Rebeck and Gin and Bitters, Off-Broadway. Her play Sweet Sand, produced by Ensemble Studio Theatre has been recently published. Two plays were made into award winning independent films. Love and Class in Connecticut and All Me, All the Time have screened at film festivals throughout New England and New York. Cinoman is the recipient of the Maxwell Anderson Playwrights Prize, The Aristos Award, Theatre Ariel Award, Best Connecticut Filmmaker of 2007, Ivoryton Playhouse Writing Award and the Guilford Prize in Drama for her new play, Guenevere.
Tracy Liz Miller is co-Founding Producing Artistic Director of The Bridge Initiative: Women in Theatre, previously Associate Producer Vermont Shakespeare Company. Current part-time theatre faculty at Western Connecticut State University. Former Director of Theatre Arts at Chandler-Gilbert Community College. Freelance directing includes: The Moors, Bridge Street Theatre; Gidion’s Knot, Stray Cat Theatre; Much Ado About Nothing, Southwest Shakespeare Company; Titus Andronicus, Improbable Fiction Theatre Co., NYC. Selected acting credits: Alonsa in The Tempest (Saratoga Shakespeare), Titania/Hippolyta in Midsummer Night’s Dream (Southwest Shakespeare Company), Julius Caesar, Julius Caesar (Tennessee Shakespeare Co.), Tekla, The Creditors (Miscreant Theatre Co, NYC), Hanna Jelkes, The Night of the Iguana (Penobscot Theatre). Academic Directing: Men on Boats ASU, Good Night Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet, Fiddler On the Roof, Eurydice, A Christmas Carol CGCC, Mother Hicks CGCC. Recipient Innovative Teaching Award KCACTF/ATHE. MFA Acting Alabama Shakespeare Festival/University of Alabama. BFA Music Theatre, Western Michigan University. Member AEA/SAG/AFTRA/Associate Member SDC, ATHE New Play Development Workshop, Statera Arts Conference Committee.
This festival would not be possible without our donors and grant funding from the City of Tempe and Arizona Commission on the Arts.
