Women Centre Stage festival to return at Hampstead Theatre

A theatre festival that celebrates and promotes stage roles for women is to return for a second year.

Held for the first time in 2015 at both the National Theatre and the Actors Centre, Women Centre Stage involves performances of completed writing as well as work in progress, plus workshops and seminars on female theatre roles.

The festival, backed by figures including Janet Suzman, April De Angelis and Lucy Kirkwood, will return this year at London’s Hampstead Theatre on November 20.

The venue’s artistic director Edward Hall said he was “delighted” to provide a platform “to keep this urgent and important festival going from strength to strength”.

De Angelis added: “The festival encourages writers to think women into the centre of their stories, to ascribe them agency and to create significant relationships between female characters.”

Last year, research by arts data experts Purple Seven found that only four in 10 performers on the UK stage are women, while they make up just 36% of directors and 28% of writers.

Playwrights for this year’s festival have not yet been confirmed, though last year’s line-up included Timberlake Wertenbaker, Barney Norris, Rona Munro and Roy Williams.

At last year’s festival, industry leaders including Watford Palace artistic director Brigid Larmour called on the sector to take more responsibility for gender equality.