in his NY Times review called the Collective's productions, "witty and original.". Mel Gussow said that the Collective's productions work both as "a course in consciousness raising and a call to arms." Debbie Wasserman in her Show Business review of The Wicked Women Revue noted, “It is certainly a pleasure to see a crusading group which doesn’t use its crusade as an excuse for bad theatre, but rather uses good theatre to assist its crusade.” Job opportunities Because it was specifically a women's playwrights’ and producing group, the Collective hired professional actors, and group members did not perform. While the Collective used both male and female actors - unusual for feminist stage productions in the 1970s – the company offered serious employment opportunities for women stage managers, directors, producers, and lighting designers. Many women currently working in theatre credit the Collective for giving them their first real job experience in theater. All productions featured original songs composed and performed by women musicians. The playwrights strongly believed in collective creation among women and operated a separate theater workshop to explore new works. Other work Not limited to theater productions, the playwrights group branched out to produce poetry readings, and film screenings. As a preamble to the opening of JUMPIN’ SALTY - a show about historic women in Greenwich Village – they organized a march through downtown Manhattan complete with speakers at numerous historic sites. These included the site of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, Margaret Sanger’s office, and Henrietta Rodman's Feminist Alliance office at McDougal St., the former Café Society location at Sheridan Square where Lena Horne sang, Bessie Hillman's Women's Trade Union League, and a location of Harriet Tubman's Underground Railroad. In 1974-75, the Collective sponsored a nationwide playwriting contest for women playwrights. The prize was a theatrical production in New York City. As the work of the group grew, so did its administrative needs. At any one time, the Advisory Board of the Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective was filled with women dedicated to good writing who were concerned with women's issues. These included Margaret Croyden, author; Alice Denham, author; Elizabeth Fisher, author and founder of Aphra Feminist Literary Journal; Ellen Frankfort, author and journalist; Carol Greitzer, New York City Councilwoman; Florynce Kennedy, women’s rights activist and civil rights lawyer; Eleanor Perry, screenwriter; Muriel Rukeyser, poet; Alix Kates Shulman, author; Anita Steckel, artist; Tania, artist; and Gloria Steinem, author and