Volume Control: NATIONAL FESTIVAL OF NEW PLAYS BY FEMALE PLAYWRIGHTS HEADING to Bemidji, MN on the Bemidji State University campus.

Bemidji State University in collaboration with The Mask and Rose Theater is bringing Little Black Dress INK’s nationally sourced Female Playwrights ONSTAGE Festival to Bemidji. This nationwide event will feature local University and community actors giving voice to short plays and monologues written by women playwrights from across the nation. The reading of exciting new work will take place at Bemidji State University’s Blackbox Theatre at 2:00 PM on Sunday, January 21. Free and open to the public. BSU will host a reception following the performance, which will give audience members the opportunity to speak with the actors, directors, and producers.

Every year, Little Black Dress INK — a nationwide female playwright producing organization — invites women playwrights to submit short pieces to suit the ONSTAGE theme. This year’s theme is “Volume Control.” After playwrights submit their plays, they participate in LBDI’s unique peer-review process, which leads to a slate of semi-finalists. As a participating partner in this year’s festival Mask and Rose and BSU have selected six semi-finalists to share with the greater Bemidji and northern Minnesota community.

Belleveau, of Mask and Rose, noted that “we think our actors and audience will have a blast hearing the varied voices of women from across the USA. Mask and Rose has, as one of its missions, to support new plays by women from the organization’s inception.” Ellison, from BSU, noted that her directorial specialty is “new play development” and she is especially looking forward to encouraging “voices not typically heard on stage” to be produced in the Bemidji area. She hopes that BSU can become a “hub” for this type of new theatre work. This co-produced reading takes place in solidarity with the Women’s Voices Theater Festival in its global pursuit of gender parity.

In addition to the six selected “Volume Control” plays, the performance will feature a short excerpt from Cate Belleveau’s “Mary 4 Martha 3 – No Footnotes.” This play speaks about the lives of the Hemingway women, including Bemidji-native daughter Mary Walsh Hemingway. “One of the things I love about our festivals is that you get so much variety in one evening,” said Little Black Dress INK’s Artistic Director, Tiffany Antone. “You can start the evening with 10 minutes of off-the-wall fun before being plunged into something that absolutely squeezes your heart – there’s something for every palate!”

Producers and directors, Belleveau and Ellison will act in Rebecca Zelanin’s (Grove City, Ohio) play, “Recipe for a Play.” Other plays produced include: “The Bees Are Watching” by C.J. Erlich (Chappaqua, NY), “Peggy” by Paula Goldberg (Dallas, TX), “Exceeding the Purchasable Calories” by Rhea MacCallum (Downey, CA), “One Loud Little Chicken” by Nancy Cooper Frank (San Francisco, CA), and “Only One Letter Short” by Karen Loseff Lothan (Chicago, IL).

Feedback from each reading location will be provided to Little Black Dress INK. The national organization will choose ONSTAGE finalists based on producing companies’ feedback.

Audience Advisory: Some plays may contain mature subject matter and/or language.