Mildred's Umbrella Theater Company

For the past nine years, Mildred's Umbrella (MU) has presented a festival of short original plays by writers from all over the country. While the initial years of the festival were produced in collaboration with Wordsmyth Theater, it is now completely run by MU. Submissions are requested through media announcements and press release, read blind (without authorial information) by a team of local directors, writers, and artists, scored and then the top twenty plays are selected for production. In 2017 and 2018, half of the final spots were reserved for high school and college playwrights who were then paired with experienced theatre educators as directors of their short plays. This offered students the opportunity to learn more about the production process and receive feedback on their plays from experienced directors and actors.

Beginning in late 2018, Mildred's Umbrella began pursuing curated reading series of new plays by women centered on a theme, as well as staged readings of lesser known or forgotten plays by women of the past. The first play performed was Cicely Hamilton's DIANA OF DOBSON'S, a 1908 drama about a shopgirl who comes into a sudden inheritance and takes a trip to see how "the other half" lives. The play was largely ignored in it's time not only because the playwright was female, but also because it addressed issues of class, wealth, and labor issues, as well as gender roles. The second series was CONSENTING BODIES, a series of three readings addressing topics of consent and bodily autonomy in relationships. These readings were accompanied by guided discussions with the actors and director to tease out the nuances of this difficult topic, and interactive lobby displays in which participants could anonymously share their experiences with the topic.

In 2018, Mildred’s began developing an outreach program that both fit with our mission to promote women and their stories and our belief that theatre can be a catalyst for social change. Partners for A.R.T supports women in the greater Houston community with "Awareness & Rebuilding through Theater.” The program combines MU Artists with Houston-area service organizations to bring awareness to their causes. Tickets for each event will be Pay-What-You-Can and all proceeds raised from these performances will go directly to our partner organizations. As MU’s Partners for A.R.T. grows, we look to infuse acting, improv, and writing workshops into the already established support services offered by local non-profit service organizations. Through these efforts, MU hopes to help bring further awareness to the issues affecting Houston women as well as strengthen our own mission to “promote the empowerment of women through the performing arts.”

The inaugural season for this program showcased staged readings that indirectly addressed social issues. For World AIDS Day on December 1, 2018, we held a reading of Terrence McNally's MOTHERS AND SONS directed by Ron Jones and with proceeds benefiting Omega House. This was followed in January 2019 with three readings of Sam Hall's MY MIND IS FREE directed by Miranda Morris and benefitting United Against Human Trafficking for Human Trafficking Awareness Month. Each reading was followed by a brief question and answer session with community leaders and the artists for audiences to learn more about the issues addressed and find out how to get more involved.