Stage Left Theater’s ‘Empower’ highlights all facets of what it means to be a woman

As the phrase goes, “If you want something done right, do it yourself.” But Jaz Vega, festival director of Stage Left Theater’s legacy production “Empower,” found that when it came to putting together the reader’s theater-style production celebrating the joys of womanhood, “If you want something done, ask women” was more accurate.

“Empower” was added to the theater’s virtual season during the pandemic in 2020. Then a boudoir-inspired monologue series that explored the diverse experiences of womanhood, “Empower,” which runs Friday through March 29, is now a reader’s theater-style production of more than a dozen pieces.

“Joy” had already been selected as the theme of this year’s production before Vega joined the team, but they were excited about it, using that word to explain the show when soliciting actors and writers to be part of the production.

“I expanded on what it was for me, not only highlighting stories about womanhood, but the joy in it,” they said. “It’s Women’s History Month, we talk about all the struggles that women went through, and while that is not something I want to mitigate in the slightest, there is so much joy in our experience. There’s so much joy in our day-to-day lives. There’s so much joy that spans the earliest steps of womanhood.”

Pieces in the show cover a wide variety of what it means to be a woman, including attending a first co-ed party, singing in the car, mother-daughter relationships, sexuality and more.

“As diverse and as expansive as all of these pieces are – and you really are going to go for a ride – there are some very alluring titles that have some of the most amazing pieces of work that I’ve been able to run at Stage Left,” Vega said. “Ultimately, it does come back to the self, to the woman, to womanhood and joy in that and joy in oneself, joy in relationships, joy in things that we love, whether that’s a person, our career, our children, time here on Earth.”

“Empower” features pieces by Hazel Bean, Arianna Rose, Romney Humphrey, Carol M. Rice, Jess Loomer, Rachel Zake, Sheila Duane, Sara Ilyse Jacobson, Audrey Lang, Susan Hansell, Sandra Hosking, Nina Kaye, Loretta Bolger Wish, Germaine Shames, Katie Preston and Allison Fradkin.

Some pieces were written specifically for “Empower” while others were already written but fit the theme well.

The cast features Deborah Brooks, Rebecca Craven, Emma Dennis, Michele Duven, Cavvy Garegnani, Meg Barlow-Jones, Kayla Lohman, Jenna Majesky, Adrienne Dellwo Neal, Sarah Plumb, Egara Aragoneses Ruiz, Jaime Smith, Megan Wiltshire, Sheri Wohl, Ladonna Wojtowicz and Missy Varavin.

Some performers will be off-book while others will have scripts in hand. Though a reader’s theater production, “Empower” will use lighting, costumes and props to tell the stories of womanhood and femininity.

The pieces are directed by Dennis, Patty DeWitt-Garegnani, Elizabeth Lewis and Victoria Scribner.

Vega especially wanted to make sure “Empower” featured a diversity of ages.

“I really wanted to have that expansive time, because girlhood is so small, but womanhood, that starts and lasts for quite some time,” they said.

There’s a stigma against getting older, with society seemingly deeming any woman over 30 as past their prime. Vega, almost 28, remembers thinking of their late 20s with a bit of disdain as a child, but now, they feel like they’re on “level one of adulthood.”

“There’s so much, if I’m lucky, to experience,” they said. “Womanhood is not promised. All of these stories are things I hope to achieve at some point, because it’s really not promised to us.”

Celebrating womanhood and making a show like “Empower” a legacy event aligns with what Stage Left Artistic Director Dahveed Bullis told the audience at the end of the run of “Be More Chill,” which the theater produced in February.

“We aren’t a community theater,” he said. “We’re the community’s theater.”

That dedication to the community was reciprocated through the community’s effort to produce “Empower.” When Vega asked for writers and actors and crew members, people showed up. Vega believes this is because Stage Left has committed itself to being a safe space for everyone in the community.

“It really is such a safe haven, and I am so eternally grateful for the community for trusting me, for trusting us with their work, with their time, with their stories, because honestly, that’s the most important thing is telling these stories as authentically and as truthfully as possible,” Vega said. “I think that’s our legacy. I hope that that’s my legacy with Stage Left is we tell stories as truthfully and as authentically as possible because we are the community’s theater.”