Women's Theatre Festival of Memphis Season III 

Season III of the bi-annual Women’s Theatre Festival of Memphis, Inc. will be held July 10-16. Hattiloo Theatre is the venue chosen for this year’s festival which will include an impressive lineup of 34 performances, 6 workshops and daily solo performances in the lobby, featuring artists from New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, North and South Carolina, Arizona, California, Washington, DC, and Tennessee. Since 2012 WTFM has had an impressive array of talent that covered the contiguous USA. The festival gained international status with an Australian company’s entry in 2014.

Also, prior to the opening, on Friday & Saturday, July 8 & 9, there will be two children’s performances in Hattiloo’s Black Box Theatre. These interactive plays are appropriate for ages 4 to 14. 

One of the key events of the festival is the Gyneka Awards which honors women who have made great  contributions the field. This year the Gyneka Awards will be held on Thursday, July 14, at 5pm at the Hattiloo Theatre. Tickets for the event are $60 which includes a Red Carpet arrival from 4-5, a reception and ceremony, followed by the play “Come Thanksgiving” on Hattiloo’s Mainstage.

Since its inception, eight women have been honored for their work. This year WTFM will be honoring three more incomparable women for their contribution and dedication to theatre not only as artists, but as teachers.

Two of three honorees for the Gyneka Awards, Joyce Cobb and Irene Crist, are longtime artists known to Memphis and the Midsouth. Both women are respected artists with very impressive stage credits and both have worked with countless young artists by teaching and advising them along their theatrical paths. The third artist, Dr. Tommie (Tonea) Stewart, has numerous theatre and film credits that include “A Time to Kill,” as Samuel Jackson’s wife, “Mississippi Burning,” and a recurring role as Ms. Etta on the TV series, “In the Heat of the Night,” to name a few. An Emmy Award honoree, in 2015 Dr. Stewart was the recipient of the prestigious “Champion of Change” Award from President Barack Obama. A native of Greenwood, MS, Dr. Stewart currently resides in Montgomery, Alabama and is a tenured Professor and Dean of the College of Visual & Performing Arts at Alabama State University