For almost a third of a century, the Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival (LAWTF) has annually thrust about 700 multi-culti women—who have often been overlooked by a Caucasian, patriarchal, male-dominated entertainment industry—into the forefront to be honored for their work and to perform one-woman shows on the live stage. This year, the 32nd LAWTF’s champagne gala and awards ceremony took place on March 27 at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre, while the Solo Festival Performances returned to the Theatre 68 Arts Complex -The Rosalie Theatre, in North Hollywood, from March 28-30.
LAWTF’s opening night gala served a buffet meal with bubbly or apple cider and a gluten-free cake outdoors at Barnsdall Art Park, in between the Gallery Theatre and the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Hollyhock House, a UNESCO World Heritage site. In addition to inspiring California Modernist-style architecture, perched above Hollywood Blvd., the setting also offered glorious views of the Hollywood sign, Griffith Observatory, and more.
L.A.’s longest-running yearly solo fete for femmes, helmed by multi-talented Festival director Fay Hauser-Price, kicked off with an extravaganza of song and dance co-presented onstage by many, if not all, of this year’s performers, emphasizing 2025’s LAWTF theme, “Stronger Together.” Some may find that motif of togetherness to be ironic, given that this is a fest of one-person shows, but be that as it may, the razzle-dazzle was artfully rendered and enjoyable to behold.
As were, for the most part, the three solo acts performed during the course of the evening’s awards ceremony. In separate renditions, Ashley Gayle and Vannia Ibarguen cut dashing figures illumined by lovely choreography that was skillfully executed. The barefoot, sensuous Gayle seemed to float through a dreamlike piece with a bouquet of flowers. The award-winning Ibarguen performed an ethereal, water-themed dance with an ecological edge. In contrast to the hoofers, Karen A. Clark’s solo appearance emphasized song and acting.
Interspersed with sizzle reels and trailers projected on a screen mounted on the back of the stage, these performances and the awards ceremony were co-hosted from a decorated podium by Margaret Avery, who was Oscar-nominated for playing Shug in Steven Spielberg’s 1985 The Color Purple; co-starred opposite Fred Williamson in the 1973 Blaxploitation pic Hell Up in Harlem; and more recently depicted MLK’s mother Mama King in the National Geographic TV series Genius.
Co-presenter Ted Lange, who is best known for portraying Isaac on TV’s popular Love Boat series, also has a strong theater background as a thespian and bard and won the NAACP’s “Renaissance Man Theatre Award.” Avery and Lange, who have had a longtime professional relationship, jovially kibbitzed throughout the somewhat disorganized ceremony and were too fun to watch, especially when they missed their cues, such as inviting an awardee onstage before she was actually introduced and her video clips were screened.
L.A. resident Juli Kim, an avatar of Korean classical/fusion work, was honored with the Rainbow Award. Last year, Kim was scheduled to dance at LAWTF, but she injured her ankle and was replaced onstage by Jiyoung Choi, who flew in from Seoul to perform Korean dances, wearing a traditional, colorful costume. Puerto Rican actress/director/ producer/activist and Founder/Producing Artistic Director of L.A.’s HERO Theatre, Elisa Bocanegra, received the Maverick Award.
Juanita Jennings’ acceptance speech for LAWTF’s Integrity Award included some stage and screen history as she movingly paid tribute to her motion picture predecessor, Junita Moore, whose Oscar-nommed role in 1959’s Imitation of Life inspired young Jennings to pursue acting—and audiences are the better for it.
Jennings joined the fabled Negro Ensemble Company, was the first Black contract player on the soap opera As the World Turns, won a CableACE Award for HBO’s Laurel Avenue, and a NAACP Theatre Award for her role in a production of August Wilson’s King Headley II.
Dawn Didawick scored the Eternity Award for an acting career that has spanned decades on Broadway, off-Broadway, and the big and little screens, including opposite Julia Roberts in 2000’s Erin Brockovich, which LAWTF’s Co-Founder/President, Adilah Barnes, also appeared in.
This year’s “Infinity Award,” which is awarded posthumously to a female talent who has gone on to that big screen in the sky, was somewhat eyebrow-raising. It is usually awarded to one artist, but in 2025, the Infinity Award became even more “infinite,” as it was awarded to two performers.
In addition to actress/director Nancy Cheryll Davis Bellamy, who appeared in the 1980s movies Hollywood Shuffle, I’m Gonna Git You Sucka and 1993’s Menace II Society, a Hollywood star—who may seem not in keeping with LAWTF’s tradition that, according to its mission statement, “celebrates artistic diversity”—was also awarded the Infinity honor.
Blonde, perky Mitzi Gaynor, who is best known for big screen movie musicals and TV specials, appears to be an unlikely choice to receive an award from LAWTF, which has generally focused on uplifting multi-cultural women who perform one-woman acts, usually on the boards. Audiences had to sit through two posthumous acceptance speeches accepting on the late Mitzi’s behalf, the second delivered by somebody ballyhooed as a very special guest—who, but of course, was someone whom this film historian had never heard of and had worked with Gaynor over the years.
Having said that, I had good fun watching the clips of Mitzi belting out that she was going to “Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair” and “Some Enchanted Evening” she’d meet a stranger from 1958’s South Pacific. This was the first movie I ever saw, and it had a profound effect on me. I also encountered the singer/dancer/actress at the 2013’s TCM Classic Film Festival, where she and co-star France Nuyen made personal appearances at a Roosevelt Hotel poolside screening of that Rodgers and Hammerstein classic musical. And let’s just say that this diva knew she was Mitzi Gaynor, if you get my drift.
Although I enjoyed watching the Gaynor clips, it seemed so out of character with the rest of the LAWTF vibe, and I couldn’t help but wonder what might have transpired behind the scenes to induce the festival to include the vivacious Mitzi by awarding her an unusual second Infinity accolade. Some may be wondering: WTF LAWTF?
The LAWTF gala was a very fitting and entertaining way to celebrate World Theatre Day. For info about this year’s performers and the Festival, see here.
Aloha Oe (Farewell to Thee), Richard Chamberlain.
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