{"id":2444001,"date":"2019-05-09T17:36:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T23:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/raising-their-voices\/"},"modified":"2019-05-09T17:36:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-09T23:36:00","slug":"raising-their-voices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/raising-their-voices\/","title":{"rendered":"Raising their voices"},"content":{"rendered":"
Ensemble members Trary Maddalone LaMee, Julie Pickrell, Cassidy Willey, and Gabriela Alvarez Espinoza walk through a scene for the Women\u2019s Voices Project earlier this week at TRTC in Carbondale.<\/strong>
Kyle Mills \/ Post Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last year, VOICES board member Kristin Carlson came to Renee Prince, VOICES executive\/artistic director, with a copy of a Dramatists Guild study.<\/p>\n

According to Prince, the study said only 22% of American theater produced in the past three years had been written by female playwrights.<\/p>\n

Carlson, a writer and teaching artist from Old Snowmass, said she was shocked when she read that number.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwenty percent is too few, especially when women buy over 60% of the tickets,\u201d Carlson said. \u201cI was spurred by a feeling of inequality and how varied those number were. It made us think, what would happen if we put a whole bunch of women together?\u201d<\/p>\n

To address the lack of parity, Prince brought the idea of an all-female theater piece to Barbara Reese, founder of VOICES.<\/p>\n

\u201cI founded VOICES in the first place because I didn\u2019t have a voice and never had one,\u201d Reese said. \u201cSo I know how important that is, to be able to say something that is very important to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Together they assembled a diverse and powerful cast of actors, writers, dancers, directors and producers.<\/p>\n

\u201cRenee was talking about doing a women\u2019s project, and I said yes,\u201d said Glenwood Springs local and veteran theater performer Trary Maddalone LaMee.<\/p>\n

\u201cI jumped on board immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team, made up of Trary Maddalone LaMee, Julie Pickrell, Iliana Renter\u00eda Bernal, Alya Howe, Cassidy Willey, Gabriela Alvarez Espinoza, Barbara Reese, Kristin Carlson, Renee Prince, Suzie Brady and Shelby Lathrop, first came together in April to begin work on the new Women\u2019s Voices Project.<\/p>\n

Tasked with collaborating to create an original theater piece showcasing female theater-makers, contributors were challenged to bring their visions and voices to the stage as authors, directors and ensemble members, with each woman creating a 10- to 15-minute segment of the show.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of us realized our ideas would take so much work. This was a crash course in theater advisement, which Renee does with the high school students,\u201d Carlson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe figured adults could do it, but it\u2019s hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

The diverse cast and crew includes veterans and a few rookies to the stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to have poetry, storytelling, dance, and it\u2019s been a really empowering creative process for all of us,\u201d first-time performer Iliana Renter\u00eda Bernal said.<\/p>\n

Bernal, a resident of New Castle, said Prince has been supportive.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us came up with our own ideas, complete freedom, creating whatever we want to create.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Reese, this is her first time on stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m leaning heavily on everyone. It\u2019s exhilarating,\u201d Reese said.\u201cThe whole production crew is amazing, I\u2019m learning so much, and you don\u2019t realize the depth of what goes into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carbondale resident Alya Howe, a dance and performance artist, has performed in the valley for several years, but never in a project of this magnitude. She said it\u2019s been like heaven working with this group of women.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely inspiring. For me it has been collaborative on so many different levels and in a way that it being a totally female-voiced program,\u201d Howe said. \u201cThe connections and layers have been deeply moving and inspiring. The support has been uncanny for exploring our voices, and really bringing it forth and yet there is such a wide perspective of female voices here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cast will take the stage at 7:30 tonight at Thunder River Theatre in Carbondale for a three-show run.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe experience has been incredible, to be working with a group of amazing goddesses, it\u2019s so inspiring and I feel so grateful for the experience of having a safe space to create,\u201d said Cassidy Willey, a resident from Carbondale.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really excited about what we have to share with people this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information, contact Prince at renee@amplifyingvoices.org<\/a>. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased online at http:\/\/www.amplifyingvoices.org<\/a> or at the door.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ensemble members Trary Maddalone LaMee, Julie Pickrell, Cassidy Willey, and Gabriela Alvarez Espinoza walk through a scene for the Women\u2019s Voices Project earlier this week at TRTC in Carbondale.Kyle Mills \/ Post Independent Last year, VOICES board member Kristin Carlson came to Renee Prince, VOICES executive\/artistic director, with a copy of a Dramatists Guild study. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2444001","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 00:00:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2444001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2444001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2444001\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2444001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2444001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2444001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}