International Women Playwrights Conferences

The 1st International Women Playwrights Conference (IWPC) was held October 14-23, 1988 in Buffalo, New York under the sponsorship of the University at Buffalo. Directed by Anna Kay France and an internationally represented planning committee, the goal of the conference was to bring together major international women playwrights, directors, and scholars to share and discuss their work and field. The conference brought together more than 200 women playwrights from over 30 countries around the world. Conference organizers reached local and national communities by arranging the production of plays by participating women playwrights at several Buffalo theatres, creating a video production for public broadcast, and through various publications.

Soon after the completion of the 1st IWPC, the International Center for Women Playwrights (ICWP) was established in Buffalo, New York. Considered the logical sequence to the 1st IWPC, its mission was to support and advance the work of women playwrights by encouraging the international production and distribution of their work. The ICWP also assumed partial responsibility for planning future conferences. Before closing its offices in 1997, the ICWP organized the 2nd IWPC (Toronto, Canada, 1991). They also supported the International Advisory Committee (IAC), a committee organized in 1991 to plan subsequent conferences including the 3rd IWPC (Adelaide, Australia, 1994), and the 4th IWPC (Galway, Ireland, 1997). In 1998 the IAC drafted a charter for a new international women playwrights organization, Women Playwrights International (WPI). WPI assumed complete responsibility for planning and convening future IWPCs and is active to date.

Anna Kay France

Anna Kay France, a former faculty member of the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University at Buffalo, was Director of the First International Women Playwrights Conference (Buffalo, New York, 1988). She later served as liaison and advisor for the International Center for Women Playwrights, and as Secretary of the International Advisory Committee for the 3rd IWPC (Adelaide, Australia, 1994). Her publications include International Women Playwrights: Voices of Identity and Transformation (Proceedings of the First IWPC), Scarecrow Press, 1993. Also a published playwright, France's Penumbra received the Artie award for outstanding new play, Buffalo, 2002.