Women's Voices: A Celebration
A Female-Led Festival curated by Naomi Sorkin, co-produced by Myriam Cyr, Nicole Ansari-Cox and Kamini Banga,
Presented by The Playground Theatre
​
Women's Voices: A Celebration (WVAC) is a pioneering & inspiring festival to coincide with International Women's Day. The event brings together a diverse & exceptional group of female artists from multiple art forms- theatre, music, dance & literature, exhibitions, talks, performances & workshops with communities.
Each lineup features a host of remarkable women from various creative disciplines, each distinguished by their unique voices and powerful storytelling.
Where it began
The Women’s Voices: A Celebration was exactly that - a time to reflect on and embrace the incredible women artists working across a range of creative disciplines, and to hear what they have to say. From emerging playwrights and filmmakers to highly recognised artists, this year we presented a rich tapestry of work spanning music, theatre, dance, film, literature, and visual art. These were stories by women in a world where gender equality is still far from reality - even in the so-called evolved Western societies. With women’s rights under attack and headlines too often dominated by violence, abuse, or attempts to silence women (such as the cases of Jess Phillips and Gisèle Pelicot), the festival highlighted how essential it is to amplify women’s voices. Shockingly, women continue to represent a small proportion of work produced across the arts, with only a few exceptions such as literature and painting.
​
Centered around International Women’s Day, WVAC was a first-of-its-kind event, showcasing the brilliance, diversity, and multitalent of women past and present. The festival explored stories across time and place from 10th century Japan and 12th century Germany, to 18th century France, 19th century America, and the early and later 20th century - through to today’s pressing conversations about race and gender politics. The program culminated in a play celebrating one of the world’s most prominent feminists, Gloria Steinem, leaving audiences inspired and challenged in equal measure.
​
— NAOMI SORKIN, Curator and Creative Producer, The Playground Theatre
A sneak Peak of 2026's Lineup
WVAC is returning with even more opportunities for women creators to share their work and stories. With a top secret line-up in the works, we're offering a sneak peak of some of the acts you can expect to see in 2026. Whether you are a writer, director, performer, musician, creative or just interested in the festival, we encourage you to discover a show for yourself.
​
Join us in shaping the next edition of this groundbreaking festival, and help us continue to amplify women’s voices across the arts.​
The Elizabeths
(Theatre)
Directed by: Anthony Biggs & Janet Dulin Jones ​​
Elizabeth the First - Caroline Goodall
Elizabeth the Second - Rachel Pickup
" From women's eyes this doctrine I derive. They sparked still the right promethean fire; They are the books, the arts, the academes, that show, contain and nourish, all the world, else none at all aught proves excellent." - William Shakespeare, Loves labour's Lost (1598).
​
A rip in time in the Chapel at The Tower of London brings the two greatest monarchs in history face to face. They must share their past sorrows and joys and free themselves from their “ghosts” in order to embrace life again.
Jane Corbin: Looking for trouble
(Talk)
Three times winner of the Royal Television Society award, BAFTA winner, Emmy nominee, Amnesty International and other awards. Internationally known and respected as one of the journalistic faces of the BBC, Jane Corbin has covered the world’s major conflicts in over a hundred documentaries. As senior correspondent for Panorama, BBC1’s flagship current affairs programme, she has investigated the key global issues of our times and won many awards. She has written and presented major documentaries on BBC2 on China and Russia as well as her extensive coverage of the Middle East and Central Asia. ​
Madame Mozart
(Theatre)
Director: Myriam Cyr
Starring: Nicole Ansari Cox
A new dark comedy. She’s composing. He’s decomposing.
​
Madame Mozart, the Lacrimosa at the Playground Theatre with Nicole Ansari Cox
​
Faced with the sudden death of her genius husband, Constanze Mozart’s secretly connives to complete and deliver his final commission, Requiem in D minor, by bamboozling the patriarchy at its own game. In the end, she’s the only one standing, cleverer and braver than everyone else in her story
7 Seconds of Eternity
(Theatre)
“If anyone is going to invent my life, it’s me.”
By: Peter Turrini
Director: Stephanie Mohr
Starring: Nicole Ansari Cox
Neither biopic nor tribute, acclaimed Austrian playwright Peter Turrini’s bold solo play casts Hedy Lamarr as her own witness, accuser, and defense. Haunted by a seven-second nude scene that defined her public memory and moving from Hollywood scandal to scientific erasure, the play explores the fractured inner life of the icon and overlooked inventor: Nicole Ansari Cox is lending her voice to Lamarr as she speaks back to history with rage, wit, and dark humour, reclaiming a legacy long reduced to image over intellect
HoneyTrap
(Theatre)
Director: Ruby Isaacs
Written by: Ruby Isaacs
A play about sweet revenge...
​
When 20-something Honey hears that a boy who attacked her in school is running for Mayor of London, she takes matters into her own hands. Set almost a decade after the incident, Honeytrap is a play about how the past never stops haunting us and how revenge is a dish best served sweet.
​
Ruby Isaacs is a Cultural Studies major in her last year of McGill University. She grew up in London and lives in Canada. Honeytrap is her first play, it was originally mounted in Montreal and she is thrilled to be working with ‘Women's Voices’ for this reading. Her speciality of study is horror film and she hopes to be a full time writer and director of plays and movies after she graduates.
She's Got Balls
(Theatre)
Writer and Director: Emily Corcoran
Starring: Emily Corcoran
In this modern, western world, is gender inequality really an issue any more? Are women treated differently to their male counterparts?
In this fun series of sketches we will explore this question via a play combining true stories in domestic, work and family life with a surprise twist.
Emily Corcoran is an established actress, writer and producer of feature films and television. This will be her first foray into writing and producing for theatre.
Vagabond Shoes
(A short Film)
Written and Directed by: Jackie Oudney
Starring: Iain Glen
Iain Glen stars in this Scottish BAFTA nominated short, Vagabond Shoes, directed by Jackie Oudney
A chance occurrence gives an enigmatic homeless man the opportunity to enter a high society gathering, where the layers of his personality and his past are revealed to an unsuspecting audience.
Award winning director Jackie Oudney honed her skills as a highly successful commercials director. Her micro-budget feature 'French Film' starring Hugh Bonneville and Anne-Marie Duff was recognised for its witty direction and ambition. It picked up two major awards at the Monte-Carlo Film Festival for Best Actor and Best Screenplay. In addition, her two short films, 'Station' and 'Vagabond Shoes' with its powerful performance by Iain Glen have won a clutch of awards including the Kodak/BAFTA Short Film Showcase and a Scottish BAFTA nomination. She is currently on the festival circuit with her third short, 'What I Am', a film about class and female agency.
Little Rock
(Theatre)
Writer: Alice Charles
Directed by: Anni Domingo​
In 1957, Little Rock, Arkansas, became the focus of the Civil Rights movement in the US when a group of African American students, who became known as the Little Rock Nine, attempted to desegregate a white high school.
In one of the most recognised photographs of the 20th century, Elizabeth Eckford is seen, dressed immaculately, trying to enter Central High School, while an angry white girl, Hazel Bryan, shouts racist abuse at her, her face twisted in hate.
Fifteen-year-old Elizabeth became the most famous schoolgirl in the US -- and the impact of that day would have far-reaching consequences for both Elizabeth and her abuser.
LITTLE ROCK follows these two women as, decades later, they form a tentative relationship, which pushes them both back into the spotlight
She:Her
(Multimedia performance)
Directed by: Nicole Ansari-Cox
“What if we let women tell their own stories?"
​
SHE/ HER is a multimedia performance that excavates the individual and collective female experience.
through music, story and movement, a diverse group of women hold space for the personal and Universal. The show is dedicated to the brave women in Iran, who sparked the Woman, Life, Freedom movement.
​
The show was critically acclaimed but most importantly, it moved audience members to look at their own relationship to self, their Mothers, daughters and Women in general. The show will morph into new Iterations with new stories and music and new performers wherever it will go in the hope of giving voice to 50% of
humanity that has been ignored, pillaged, raped and silenced.
