Our Roots and Principles

IN THE TRENCHES PRODUCTIONS (ITTP) was born out of the nonprofit activist organization ACTRESSES @ WORK (A@W). The 4 producing partners of IN THE TRENCHES were very active board members, including the President and Vice President, of ACTRESSES @ WORK (1996-2001). A@W was a group of successful professional working actresses committed to changing the way the entertainment industry views and utilizes women over 40. As women and members of the Baby Boomer generation and beyond they felt women over 40 needed to be presented in a stronger, more positive way. Actresses are in a profession obsessed with looks and youth so they are especially sensitive to what a profound effect the media has in shaping the views of society as a whole. As actresses they knew the power of the media and how important it was for them to focus their efforts there.

The ACTRESSES @ WORK mission was to promote more realism and variety in the portrayals of women in front of the camera, to provide support for the advancement of women behind the camera, and to furnish information to policy makers within the studios, networks, advertising agencies, and sponsors to implement positive changes.

A@W put into place a number of programs.

The monthly meetings gave the membership a chance to share experiences and network as well as a chance to hear and have a dialogue with important industry guest speakers such as: Donald Petrie Jr., Assad Kelada, Lee Rose, Elodie Keene, Dorothea Petrie, Bob Colleary, Gerald Molen, Danny Goldman, Joanne Koehler, Francine Selkirk, Shelley Fabares, Stephanie Edwards, Paula Prentiss, Richard Masur and many more.

The A@W web site was an interactive and educational site. It compiled data from the A@W survey on women and the media. It contained a Bravo List of advertisers and productions whose realistic portrayal of women they wanted to support. It had an ongoing grass roots letter-writing campaign as well as an excellent newspaper. They compiled a large number of statistics to support the contention that women over 40 hold America's purse strings. Further research and data gathering continued to be done through the survey to substantiate their position with advertisers and the media.

A@W also believed that developing creative works that utilize and reflect women over 40 in a realistic way was the most powerful tool in effecting change. Their creative film projects included: 1) the documentary short pilot presentation"Invisible Women", highlighting interviews with clips of recognizable though not necessarily famous actresses over 40 and the effect "gray-listing" has on their lives and work, 2) Three PSA'S and one short film, "Dress Up", to be used as educational tools to reach a nationwide market in regard to gender age discrimination issues and 3) "Magpies Tea Room", the stage production of a comic play about actresses working in a Hollywood tea room and confronting their dwindling career opportunities. This theory and these efforts led to the formation of IN THE TRENCHES PRODUCTIONS. All of these efforts caught the attention of major organizations ( AARP, Institute for Mental Health Initiatives, Women in Film, etc.) as well as publications and radio programs ( The Sunday London Times, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, KABC Talk Radio, etc.), which led to productive relationships with A@W being used as resource on the issue of ageism and creating ageism symposiums across the country.

A@W wanted to set a positive example for the media, society and all women over 40. "We are not invisible. We are not going to fade away because we reach certain milestones in our life cycle. Women over 40 are a dynamic force full of dreams, wisdom and inspiration and deserve to be recognized as such. We want to hold the entertainment industry accountable for the distorted view of life they create because they gear the majority of their product to the youth market. We believe a balance must be established."

Though ACTRESSES @ WORK sadly closed its door because of a lack of funding, IN THE TRENCHES PRODUCTIONS opened its doors as a development and production company and committed itself to continuing the mission and journey of ACTRESSES @ WORK through producing as many movies as possible with women over 40 as central and strong characters. It is not an easy task to change the minds of movie studio moguls and network executives but IN THE TRENCHES PRODUCTIONS remains passionate and committed to the principles of ACTRESSES @ WORK and effecting change for women in the entertainment industry and society.