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Get to know the Taffety Punk Theatre Company

“The most vital of the city’s small troupes.”

— The Washington Post

Taffety Punk is the resident company at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop. Founded to establish an actively collaborative company of actors, dancers, and musicians, the company has been at the forefront of theatre innovation presenting groundbreaking productions that inspire audiences, from the classical to the very modern. We celebrate opportunities to introduce new playwrights and stories to the stage, new works of choreography, new compositions of original music, and more.

Through our artist-nurturing Generator program, Taffety Punk has a rich history of developing original works that challenge theatre norms. Generator projects that have realized full production include the widely celebrated dance plays suicide.chat.room, Fragments of Sappho, and Enter Ophelia, distracted; as well as the world premieres of Liz Maestri’s Inheritance Canyon. The newest of these, company member Kelsey Mesa’s La Salpêtrière, garnered five Helen Hayes Awards nominations and ultimately won the Helen awards for Best Production and Best Supporting Actor.

The Riot Grrrls

Taffety Punk's Riot Grrrls project began in 2008 to give women more opportunities in classical work. Initially a response to an all-male production of Romeo and Juliet that was being planned locally, we put our all-female ensemble together quickly and opened our Romeo and Juliet on the same night. Afterward we had a keen desire to keep this project going. We know that women get all the training men do and, unfortunately, still, are often relegated to the three roles in a Shakespeare play that do not get to enjoy any sword fights. So, we wanted to do something about that. We've had a wonderful production history under the Riot Grrrls banner, and look forward to many more.