Fizzy Sherbet is a platform for women writers. We set it up as an initiative to address gender inequality in the theatre industry. What started as a new writing night at Hackney Attic in East London, has developed into an international podcast that can be listened to worldwide.
Our mission is to find exciting writing by women from around the world. We deliberately have no guidelines or themes. We want writers to write about whatever feels most interesting to them, with no expectations or restrictions. When we started out in Hackney, audiences often expressed surprise at how wide-reaching the topics of the pieces were on any given night; how they didn't fit the expectations of what a female-only night of writing would be like. We were proud of that. We don't expect our writers to write about what it feels like to be a woman, unless, of course, that’s what they want to write. We want to provide an open platform for whatever styles, themes and approaches our writers are drawn to.
We also want to get to know the writers we showcase. We want to talk about how their pieces were made and why. As well as new short plays, our podcast series features interviews with the playwrights about their piece, their process and their inspirations. We also interview a special guest of the writer’s choice.
The reason our platform is for women writers is simply to carve out space for these voices that still have to shout louder in order to be heard.
We've always accepted submissions from any country, and our mission is to create a global network of artists. To enable plays and voices to travel across borders and to open up a more accessible way of distributing new writing.
We also want to create new relationships between writers, directors and actors across countries. We hope this is the beginning of an archive of women's voices, making them easier to find and to hear, so that one day the narrative is changed.
We are looking for submissions from all women, including trans women and non-binary people. It's important to us that we welcome submissions from anyone who has been traditionally underrepresented in the theatre industry on gender lines, with the aim of presenting a varied and fascinating series of stories.