Happy New Year! Everyone here at 3Girls Theatre sends best wishes to you and your loved ones for a better, healthier year in 2022. We’re still not 100% back in the theatre (damn you, Omicron!). But 3GT is entering its second decade with more innovative work by women playwrights in development than ever, and with a backlog of “3GT Presents” projects that we know will energize you in the months to come. Our theatre-makers –and our artistic leaders--are unstoppable!
Today I have the privilege of sharing some very exciting news about 3Girls Theatre with you. After over a decade of leading the Company as Executive Artistic Director & Founding Playwright, I’ll be handing the reins to the next generation as of February 1. This long-planned step comes after a year of thoughtful transition work by 3GT’s leadership team, during which we created a strategic plan that (among many other wonderful things) adopts a collaborative approach to management. Other non-profit theatres are also heading in this direction, but 3GT is proudly ahead of the curve.
It’s my great pleasure to announce that 3Girls Theatre will be now led by two outstanding Co-Managing Directors, Zach Kopciak and Tanya Telson. Both Zach and Tanya are long-time 3GT artist/managers, beloved by our artistic community, and it’s a joy to recognize their prodigious talents with these well-deserved promotions. Zach’s portfolio will include programming and development, while Tanya will head up operations and production. Our amazing Program Directors Pamela Hollings, Tina D’Elia and Cat Brooks, along with program associates Zoe Chien and Corissa Dorethy, will continue in their roles as collaborators. I have absolute confidence in this brilliant team’s abilities to lead, inspire and carry the mission forward.
This is a truly celebratory moment for 3GT!
ZACH KOPCIAK TANYA TELSON
Co-Managing Director, Co-Managing Director,
Programming & Development Production & Operations
Looking back, I could not be more proud of 3GT’s artistic journey to date. Eleven years ago, I co-founded 3Girls Theatre for the express purpose of challenging the cultural bias that favors men’s voices over women’s on stage. Back then, very few in our industry were willing to to confront the shameful fact that American theatre largely ignored plays written by women, or to acknowledge that artistic support for emerging women playwrights was virtually nonexistent. 3GT began with a single project, the Salon Reading Series, serving a small cohort of (mostly white) women playwrights over 40. From that modest start, the Company has grown into into the unique artistic home is is today, offering multiple development programs, approaches and resources to our diverse gang of theatre-makers. And as our scope has widened, so has our outreach: our playwriting cohort has blossomed into a beautiful multiracial, multigendered and multigenerational sisterhood. We’ve come such a long way since 2011. I can’t wait to see where 3Girls Theatre goes next!
None of this could have happened without the support of our beloved 3GT community, artists and audience members alike. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your enthusiastic embrace of 3GT’s mission to “put women’s work on stage, where it belongs."
Warmly,
AJ Baker, Executive Artistic Director & Founding Playwright
As 3GT leaves its first decade behind, it's time to name names!
I couldn't have built 3Girls Theatre -- or had so much fun doing it -- without my early co-conspirators.
There would have been no plays to put onstage without the dedication and enthusiasm of our trailblazing, risk-taking legacy playwrights, particularly co-founder LEE BRADY, LezWrites founder MARGERY KREITMAN, ROBIN BRADFORD and SUSAN JACKSON
No Salon Series without the magic touch of our very first company manager, SPIRALEENA MASON
And without the endless generosity and support of actor/director/Bay Area theatre luminary LOUIS PARNELL, 3GT wouldn't even be on the map
Pat McElroy, Bill Bivins, Linda Ayres-Frederick, Sally Dana, Susanna Baker, Deb Harrison, Suze Allen, Mary Powelson, Jeff Wincek, John Flanagan, Lorri Holt . . . and all the other amazing writers, actors and theatre artists--too many to name, but you know who you are! --who cared enough about challenging the status quo to give our small, feisty troupe a chance early on.
It's been an honor and privilege to make theatre, and maybe change the world just a little bit, in your excellent company.