*****IMPORTANT ANOUNCEMENT*****

The Fifth International Women Playwright's Conference has been rescheduled to OCTO B E R 1 - 7, 2000. The date change was precipitated by the unfortunate announcement by the International Theatre Institute (ITI), a UNESCO agency, that it would hold it's ITI World Congress on the same dates in May for which the Fifth International Women Playwright's Conference was originally scheduled. Although ITI had been notified of our conference dates since June 1998 and again through their bulletin in January 1999, they have declined Women Playwright International's appeals to select alternate dates. Therefore, in the spirit of international cooperation and recognizing we have many overlapping members, Women Playwright's International had no other choice but to move our conference to OCTOBER 1 - 7, 2000. Summer dates were not considered for the rescheduling because of the intense heat in Athens.

Thank-you for your understanding of this change and for your support of women in theatre world-wide. The following is a list of the addresses for the French ITI, as well as their headquarters at UNESCO, for anyone wishing to write them to urge greater sensitivity to women's issues and to allied theater movements.

ITI UNESCO1 rue Miollis 75732 Paris Cedex 15 France (International) Tel: +33 1 45 68 26 50; Fax; +33 1 45 66 50 40 Email: iti@unesco.org http://iti-worldwide.org

French ITI centre: Centre Francais de l'ITI 10 rue de la Chaussee d'Antin 75009 Paris FRANCE Pres.: Pierre SANTINI Sec.Gen:Rodolphe FOUANO Tel:33/1/4770 3984

 

Women Playwrights International (WPI) is dedicated to planning and convening the International Women Playwrights Conference, gatherings which have brought women playwrights and allied theatre artists, culture workers, and scholars together every three years in different parts of the world since 1986. WPI is dedicated to maintaining ongoing International Women Playwrights Conferences every three years at different locations in the world, and to facilitating communications, meetings, interchanges, and activities among the international community of women in theater.

WPI was founded to:

• maintain the continuity of triennial conferences for women playwrights and allied theatre artists
• give communications and planning support to conference host countries
• promote triennial conference and reach out to women in reagions underrespresented at the conference
• develop and inclusive communcations network for the conference through the internet, fax, phone, and mail for women playwrights
• through the conference newsletter and website, promote opportunities for women in theater to enter competitions, submit their work internationally, and attend conferences.
• expand membership and participation to the widest possible network of women in theatre, including women who have internet access, but also those who do not

Through the triennial conference activities, WPI works to:

• encourage and promote translation and publication of women's writing for the stage across language barriers
• encourage the development of women playwrights and their craft
• defend the right of women playwrights to engender their own artistic forms and critical standards
• promote the study and informed critique of women writers
• support women playwrights against censorship and political persecution for the expression of their ideas