A playwright, often referred to as a dramatist, is someone who writes stories and scripts intended to be read and performed on stage. The First International Women Playwrights Conference was held in Buffalo, New York in 1988, and brought together upwards of 200 women playwrights representing over 30 countries. The following year in 1989, the International Centre for Women Playwrights (ICWP) was formed to “connect, inspire, and empower women playwrights to achieve equality on the world stages.” In 2017, the Dramatists Guild released a report that showed the number of plays that were written by women and produced on American stages increased by 8.5% from their 2015 report. However, as of 2020, ICWP reports that 70% of plays produced worldwide were written by men, and only 25-37% of plays performed at Equity theaters were written by women.

Lesley Ferris worked as a director, scholar, and professor at the Ohio State University until her retirement in 2019, where her research focused on carnival, gender and performance, and the use of masks in theater performances and festivals.