The League of Professional Theatre Women’s Annual Theatre Women Awards: First Up Rohina Malik

Suzanna Bowling

March 27, 2018

The League of Professional Theatre Women winners and presenters

The League of Professional Theatre Women’s annual Theatre Women Awards were inspiring. Hosted by actor, writer, and performance artist Florencia Lozano,, the awards were presented by Jocelyn Bioh (Phylicia Rashad, Lifetime Achievement Award), Ceila Keenan-Bolger (Adrienne Campbell-Holt, LPTW Lucille Lortel Award), Roma Torre (Linda Winer, LPTW Special Award), Karen Kandel (Emily Joy Weiner, Josephine Abady Award), Marshall Jones III and Wayne Maugans (Rohina Malik, Lee Reynolds Award), and Shelley Butler (Cricket S. Myers, Ruth Morley Award).

The League of Professional Theatre Women winners and presenters

“We are the only award dedicated to honoring the theatrical work of women and their contributions to the field, across all disciplines,” said LPTW co-president Kelli Lynn Harrison.

“The League of Professional Theatre Women may sound like a league of superheroes, a veritable collection of wonder women, and in a way we are!” said Ludovica Villar-Hauser, vice president of programming at LPTW.

Rohina Malik

We found the whole event so well produced and put together that we have created several moments of the inspired speeches. The first award was presented to Rohina Malik is an award-winning and critically acclaimed playwright, actress, speaker, story teller and solo performance artist of South Asian descent. Her play Unveiled: A One Woman Play talks about racism, hate crimes, love, Islam, culture, language and life. Her speech was prolific and we hope you enjoy this. “There were a lot of voices that would say to me, you can’t because your skin is brown, you can’t because you’re a woman, you can’t because you’re Muslim, and you can’t because you cover your hair. I’m excited to tell you that I proved all those people wrong,” stated the writer and performer of The Mecca Tales, and Yasmina’s Necklace.

The League of Professional Theatre Women (a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization) has been championing women and leading the gender parity conversation in the professional theatre for over 35 years. Since its founding, the LPTW’s membership has grown to 500+ members of theatre artists and practitioners of all backgrounds, across multiple disciplines, working in the commercial and non-profit sectors. To promote visibility and increase opportunities for women in the field, the LPTW spearheads events, public programming, advocacy projects, media, and publications that celebrate industry luminaries, preserve the legacy of historic visionaries, raise awareness of the importance of nurturing women’s voices, and shine a spotlight on the imperative of striving for gender parity and fostering a diversity of expression, both in the theatre world and the world at large. To find out more about how you can support its endeavors, please visit www.theatrewomen.org.

Events

March 27, 2018

Suzanna Bowling

Suzanna, co-owns and publishes the newspaper Times Square Chronicles or T2C. At one point a working actress, she has performed in numerous productions in film, TV, cabaret and theatre. She has performed at The New Orleans Jazz festival, The United Nations and Carnegie Hall. Currently she has a screenplay in the works, which she developed with her mentor and friend the late Arthur Herzog. She was the Broadway Informer on the all access cable TV Show “The New Yorkers,” soon to be “The Tourist Channel.” email: suzanna@t2conline.com