The Ivy Theatre Company was a non-profit organization whose mission was to provide the opportunity for lesbian playwrights to share their visions and voices; while also fostering the understanding and acceptance of diverse persons through education, activism, and performing arts. The Ivy Theatre was founded in 1998 in honor of veteran lesbian feminist activist and performer Ivy Bottini, as the first and only lesbian-focused theatre company in Los Angeles, California.

The Ivy Theatre was co-founded by Artistic Director, Marian Jones and Literary Director, Mary Casey. Casey served as Artist in Residence at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center where she taught lesbian playwriting workshops and founded the Lesbian Playwriting Festival in 1995. Los Angeles' premier gay theatre, The Gay and Lesbian Celebration Theatre in Hollywood, California, produced some of the plays that came out of these workshops.

Shortly after Jones produced the 2nd Annual Lesbian Playwrights Festival in July of 1996 at Celebration Theatre, Robert Shrock, the Artistic Director of Celebration, invited Jones to serve as Artistic Director of the Lesbian Theatre Initiative. After agreeing, Jones teamed up with Casey to create a separate physical space for lesbian playwrights, actors, and technicians under the umbrella of Celebration. That space became the Ivy Theatre Company, where productions such as Alicia Madrid's Shame on the Moon, and Dee Jae Cox's The Rape of Djuna Barnes would garner much critical acclaim. In addition to ongoing theatrical productions, the Ivy hosted the Lesbian Playwrights Staged Readings Festival, directing and acting classes, and radio theatre broadcasted on KPFK 90.7FM. The Ivy's impressive undertaking of lesbian outreach was largely thanks to a plethora of donations, including several grants from The City of West Hollywood, The California Community Foundation's Gay and Lesbian Fund, and the Arch and Bruce Foundation. The Ivy Theatre has been inactive since 2006.

Source:

[Box/folder #, or item name] Ivy Theatre Records, Coll2013-059, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California.