Ludovica Villar-Hauser - 
Founder and Executive/Artistic Director

Ludovica Villar-Hauser (she/her/hers) is the Founder and Artistic Director of Parity Productions. At the age of 23, Ludovica produced and directed Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night, driven by her passion for the play and the understanding that she would only be able to direct it if she also produced it. This was her first time raising money, hiring a creative team, finding and booking a theatre, and handling all the responsibilities that come with putting on a play—in addition to directing. The production transferred to a larger theatre after a two-month run at the Arts Theatre, making her the youngest woman to simultaneously produce and direct in London’s West End. Although she had no idea at the time, this experience encapsulated what would later define much of her life in theatre as well as her ethos—a compelling story about a strong woman juggling both the artistic and producing sides of theatre.

Once working in New York City, Ludovica challenged the continued traditional productions of “the classics” as they, for the most part, excluded women. Determined to advance gender parity in the arts, Ludovica founded the Villar-Hauser Theatre Development Fund (VHTDF), which focused much of its energies on the works of women. Through her work with the League of Professional Theatre Women, Ludovica learned the stark reality of the inequity in hiring practices in theatre and became involved in the 2020 50/50 movement. She also created Works by Women, an advocacy company whose mission was to provide audiences and other creatives with tools and information to be informed about the work they were choosing to see based on fair hiring practices.

When VHTDF and Works by Women merged to become Parity Productions in 2016, both The Parity Database and The Qualifying Productions Programs became part of Parity's programs. Ludovica was awarded the New York Women’s Agenda (NYWA) Galaxy Award in 2012 “in recognition of your inspirational work for the women of New York City.”

At Parity, her directing credits include the world premieres of This Stretch of Montpelier by Kelley Nicole Girod, Charlie's Waiting by Mêlisa Annis, Mirrors by Azure D. Osborne-Lee, Stop-Motion by Liz Kerin, and the award-winning She Calls Me Firefly by Teresa Lotz. Prior to Parity, Ludovica directed many critically acclaimed plays in the U.S. and U.K., including Final Analysis (Signature Theatre); The Countess (Lamb’s Theatre); Leaves of Glass (Peter Jay Sharpe Theater); As It Is in Heaven (The Cherry Lane); The Brightness of Heaven (The Cherry Lane); and This Will All Be Yours(The Barrow Group Theatre).

In the New York theatre industry, Ludovica was one of the few women to own and operate her own theatre, The Greenwich Street Theatre, which she ran for 17 years. Ludovica served on the Board of the League of Professional Theatre Women from 2009-2018, is currently the Producer of the League's Oral History Project at the NYPL for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, and was co-President of the LPTW from July 2022 to July 2023.

 
In accordance with New York State Law, the New York State Office of the Attorney General requires that the website and telephone number for the Attorney General’s Charities Bureau be included on all solicitations. They are as follows: https://www.charitiesnys.com/ Phone: (212) 416-8401. A copy of Parity Productions' (EIN 13-4043424) latest annual report may be obtained, upon request, from the organization or from the New York State Attorney General’s Charities Bureau, 28 Liberty Street, 15th Floor, New York, New York 10005.