Dina Chavez and Christina Martinez in 'Renaissance Latina Woman,' part of the Hispanic Playwrights' Festival.   The Hispanic Playwrights' Festival runs Jul 22-Aug 7 at Rose Marine Theater, 1440 N Main St, FW. Tickets are $7-15. Call 817-624-8333.

This weekend marks the opening of the sixth Hispanic Playwrights' Festival, an event that began at the old Orchestra Hall and now has a more congenial home at the Rose Marine Theater. This year's festival is all about women as playwrights and performers; 24 of the 31 roles here are for women.

On Thursdays and Saturdays, a trio of one-act plays will be featured, including two written by Marisa Trevino. Renaissance Latina Woman is a contemplation on modernity and the pressures on women to follow traditional ways. The Passing is an ostensibly lighter piece, even though it's set at a funeral. It's about two prostitutes who drop in to pay respects to a friend. The other play on these days is Sylvia D. Riojas Vaughn's La Tamalada, which centers on the ritual of tamale-making as a festive occasion that serves to bring family together, though it doesn't solve every problem.

The lineup is different on Fridays and Sundays. Rob Bosquez' Benny and the Bones of Bandit concerns an outlaw executed in a small town, whose ghost wanders the forest searching for both forgiveness and the ghost of his best friend. Steve Rodriguez' Sangre III is the obligatory nod to la familia, about two sisters who confront their past. Katrina Elias' The Red Colombian Sky is a more political piece about the relationship between a young guerrilla and the woman he's guarding, a paramilitary commander's former lover.

The festival's final weekend will showcase its only full-length play. Linda Escalera Baggs' Silent Heroes details the emotions of six wives of Marine fighter pilots as they wait to find out which of their husbands have died in a plane crash. It should close the festival on a serious note.