Misogyny, motherhood, and the march of time: KWLT play highlights women’s experiences in the corporate world

What do you do when speaking up about workplace harassment could cost you your career? Why can a woman who has worked her way into a senior position still be questioned about not becoming a mother? These are some of the questions explored in Waterloo, a play by local playwright Zivy Hardy that follows two women navigating corporate America over two decades.

The play was developed through KWLT’s New Works Collective and initially received a staged reading during the theatre’s 2024 New Works Festival, before the full production returned to Kitchener-Waterloo Little Theatre (KWLT) for a three-show run from Oct. 16 to Oct. 18, 2026. The play examined how workplace sexism shapes women’s careers, relationships, and personal choices.

Directed by UW alum Jasmine Rajaballey, Waterloo follows Izzy Jiménez, an urban designer, and Sarah Novak, a colleague she meets during an internship at a development company in New York in 2002. As their careers progress, the women encounter inappropriate behaviour, unequal expectations and difficult decisions about their futures. The play unfolds through short scenes spanning from 2002 to 2025, using conversations, letters, phone calls, texts and emails to show how the friendship develops alongside their changing circumstances.

Rajaballey said she was drawn to the project for its focus on women’s experiences and its willingness to explore enduring issues. “I want to tell women’s stories and marginalized stories. The topic of sexism in the workplace is not a dead topic at all. I think it’s still important because it happens,” Rajaballey shared.

One of the play’s central conflicts emerges when Izzy and Sarah encounter inappropriate behaviour from male colleagues. In one scene, a character faces the aftermath of sexual assault at work. Rather than depicting the assault itself, the play focuses on its consequences and the difficult decisions women may face when considering whether to report misconduct. Rajaballey clarified that the characters fear speaking out could damage their professional reputations, threaten their financial security or make it difficult to find another job. Their concerns are compounded by a lack of confidence in the company’s human resources departments. The resulting disagreement between Izzy and Sarah reflects their different approaches to confronting harassment. Sarah considers taking action against the behaviour, while Izzy questions whether doing so will make a difference.

In one exchange, Izzy says, “What should I do? Quit? Protest? All it would do is that I’d never get another job and one less woman would be working there. One less woman like me.” The final phrase also points to the additional barriers faced by racialized women. Rajaballey explained that Izzy’s reference to a woman “like me” speaks to her identity as a woman of colour, adding another dimension to the risks she considers when deciding whether to challenge workplace misconduct.

For Rajaballey, the scene was particularly compelling because the disagreement grows out of the characters’ experiences rather than a simple difference of opinion. Izzy’s resistance to reporting the incident comes from having witnessed or experienced the consequences of challenging workplace behaviour, while Sarah wants to pursue a response. Waterloo also examines how sexism can influence where women work. After her experience in the construction industry, Sarah moves into publishing, an industry portrayed in the play as more heavily populated by women but associated with lower pay and less professional recognition. Rajaballey said this transition highlights how leaving one workplace does not necessarily mean escaping gender-based inequalities. The play’s timeline also allows the audience to see how the characters’ circumstances change without suggesting that workplace sexism disappears as they advance in their careers. The story moves from the early 2000s to the 2010s before reaching 2024 and 2025.

By the later scenes, Sarah has progressed into a senior position at her company. However, her professional success does not shield her from scrutiny over her decision not to have children. In a conversation with her college-aged intern, Sarah reflects on the questions she continues to face about motherhood. “Why didn’t I have kids? Watch out. If you don’t become a mother, you’ll be answering that question for the rest of your life,” she says. The exchange illustrates how expectations around motherhood can follow women into professional spaces, even when they have established successful careers. Sarah’s experience also contrasts with Izzy’s, who becomes a mother and later leaves her job to work freelance so she can spend more time caring for her child.

Rajaballey said the play explores the difficulty of balancing professional ambitions with family responsibilities. Although the script does not explicitly establish that Izzy takes on more parental responsibility than her partner, Rajaballey said the situation reflects an experience many women encounter. The two friends also respond differently to each other’s life choices. Izzy eventually moves to Waterloo, Canada, after her partner receives a job offer there. While the move may be what Izzy wants, Sarah struggles with the decision and what it means for her friend’s career and independence. These changing circumstances form part of the play’s broader examination of friendship. Izzy and Sarah remain connected as their priorities evolve, but their experiences and perspectives do not always align.

Although the subject matter includes harassment, discrimination and unequal expectations, Rajaballey said the production was also intended to be funny. “It can be political while also being an enjoyable experience,” Rajaballey said. “I think it can be silly, goofy, and tell an important message.”The production’s staging offered another way to draw audiences into the story. Rather than arranging the audience on one side of the stage, Rajaballey opted for a configuration that placed spectators around the performance space. She said the arrangement was intended to bring audiences closer to the characters while making the balcony, which includes accessible seating, feel as engaging as other areas of the theatre. “I wanted the audience, even in the balcony, to feel engaged and included,” Rajaballey said.

The production also presented a challenge because of its episodic structure. With short scenes and significant jumps in time, Rajaballey had to find a way to make the transitions between different stages of the characters’ lives feel coherent. The first section covers 2002 to 2006, followed by scenes from 2010 to 2012. After intermission, the story moves to 2024 and concludes in 2025. Rajaballey said she wanted audiences to see the passage of time rather than rely on completely blacked-out transitions between scenes. Changes in costumes, props and the actors’ movements helped communicate the shifts while keeping the audience connected to the characters.

The production also brought together a creative team with connections to the local theatre community and the University of Waterloo. Rajaballey worked with assistant director Sarah Thompson, stage manager Lenore Brooks and a team of designers to bring the play to the stage. Reflecting on the experience, Rajaballey said collaboration was one of her favourite parts of theatre. “It’s being in a group of people that are so passionate and dedicated and hardworking,” she said. “They’re doing all of this for fun and for the sake of making art and telling a story.”

She also hopes the production encourages conversations among audience members, whether they recognize their own experiences in the characters or are encountering these situations from a different perspective. “I hope that audience members who have been through the situations that these characters have felt seen,” Rajaballey said. “For those who can’t relate to it, I hope that they’re now more aware [which] could also promote discussion.”

For Rajaballey, the production’s central questions extend beyond the corporate workplaces depicted on stage. She said gender-based assumptions can also appear in other professional environments, including the arts, where women may be underestimated, overlooked for leadership or assumed to lack certain skills. As the characters’ experiences demonstrate, the form these barriers take may change over time, but the consequences continue to shape women’s working lives.