The 16th annual 24 Hour Plays on Broadway took place on November 14. This year’s event honored theater director Leigh Silverman and her inspiring thank you speech is available to read now.
The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway is an annual event that brings together 24 actors, six writers, six directors, and a musical guest to create six new plays in the span of a single day. Their rotating cast has included Naomi Watts, Elizabeth Banks, Rosario Dawson, America Ferrera, and many more.
Silverman was granted the Artistic Inspiration award for her important theater work. She’s directed both Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, and was nominated for a 2014 Tony Award for directing the musical “Violet,” and a 2008 Drama Desk Award for directing “From Up Here.” She won two Obie Awards in 2011, one for directing “In the Wake” and the other for directing “Go Back to Where You Are.”
An inspiring excerpt from Silverman’s speech is available to read below. In it she addresses misogyny, art, and the future of women. A celebratory video featuring Sutton Foster (“Younger”) is also below.
“I don’t need to tell you what a thick skin, what determination we must have right now. I really struggled with the concept of receiving an artistic inspiration award before, but now after this week it feels terribly hard — hypocritical even — to stand here in front of you and try to appear inspiring.
Honestly, the only thought that has been helpful to me in the last week is knowing how badly they want women and queers and people of color to feel silenced and defeated and humiliated, and I find that excellent motivation to get out of bed and get very, very loud.
Right now we must recommit to doing our work. Not just because art helps us escape, which it does. People staggered into “Sweet Charity” all weekend desperate for community, catharsis, and to be lifted away form this reality. But art has and will always be a tool for education. And revolution. And resistance. We must use our art to make our community impenetrable from what seems like inevitable attacks to come. We must lift the voices of the under-represented. We must leverage whatever influence we have onstage, backstage, and in our neighborhoods, to raise people up of all races. We must double down on our efforts to diversify the stages all around this country and tell stories about people of all races, religions, and sexual orientations. We must demand gender parity, equal pay, and equal opportunity for women. To the women here tonight I beg you, help me and let me help you stand up to this new government sanctioned misogyny. We must not let this shred us. Our mothers and grandmothers worked hard to ensure a world where women had rights, dignity, and equality, and… someday, god dammit. Someday everyone in this country will look to women who lead with the respect and admiration we deserve.
Tonight is about raising money for young theater artists and I thank The 24 Hour Plays for giving these young artists a community, an outlet for their rage and terror, and a way to channel their feelings and find a way to use their voices. And to all the young theater artists here… use your voice. Please use your voice.
Refuse to be silenced. Make the work.
Turn your rage into action.
Find your inspiration.
Find your resistance and resilience.
Hold it close. Get loud.” — Leigh Silverman
