Babes With Blades Theatre Company (BWBTC) is proud to announce its 2026 season. A world premiere, yo ho., by playwright SMJ and directed by JD Caudill, kicks off the season, July 25 - August 22, at The Edge Theater Off Broadway,1133 W. Catalpa Ave and the 9th BWBTC Shakespeare production, King Lear, October 15 – November 21, directed by ensemble member Alison Dornheggen at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave. Tickets for yo ho. go on sale Tuesday, March 3 at 12 p.m., with King Lear tickets going on sale at the Theater Wit box office later in 2026. For more information on the 2026 season go to BabesWithBlades.org.
“We are thrilled to be the home for the world premiere of yo ho. In some ways, it is exactly the kind of show you would expect from BWBTC: swashbuckling swordfights between moments of illuminating the lost stories of marginalized identities. This script is also fresh, funny, exciting and perhaps a little steamier than Babes offerings of the past.” states Artistic Director Hayley Rice. “I am also happy to announce that this season contains the next entry of our always popular BWBTC Shakespeare series with King Lear. With long-time ensemble member Alison Dornheggen at the helm of this production, audiences know they are going to see one of the most dynamic, insightful and heartbreaking Lears of recent memory.”
Rice continues, “I am proud to present this 2026 season with a blazingly original, world premiere and our unique take on a Shakespeare classic. These productions will provide our audiences with the thrilling, high quality productions they’ve come to expect from Babes With Blades Theater Company for almost three decades.”
WORLD PREMIERE
yo ho.
July 19 - August 29
Written by SMJ (they/them)
Directed by JD Caudill (they/them)
Previews: Sunday, July 19 at 3 p.m., Thursday, July 23 at 8 p.m. and Friday, July 24 at 8 p.m.
Press Opening: Saturday, July 25 at 8 p.m.
Performance schedule: Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m.
Ticket prices: $20 - $35 with select performances available for streaming.
Tickets go on sale: March 3 at 12 p.m.
The Edge Theater Off Broadway
1133 W. Catalpa Ave.
yo ho. charts the journey of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, two pirates aboard a campy, sexually charged ship facing immediate threat from the crown. Equal parts historical fantasy and introspective sexual and gender exploration, this play is a deeply emotional reimaging and reminder of queer history.
BWBTC Shakespeare:
King Lear
October 15 – November 21
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by BWBTC Ensemble Member Alison Dornheggen (she/her)
Previews: Thursday, Oct. 15 and Friday, Oct. 16 at 8 p.m.
Press Opening: Saturday, Oct. 17 at 8 p.m.
Performance schedule: Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m.
(No Performances on October 31)
Ticket prices: $25 - $38 with select performances available for streaming.
Tickets go on sale: TBA
Theater Wit
1229 W. Belmont Ave.
King Lear, in order to “unburdened, crawl toward death,” chooses to divide the ruling of the kingdom between his three daughters via a verbal joust of who loves him the most. When his youngest daughter Cordelia does not meet the standards he expected her, chaos, greed and betrayal creep in to take over the story. Parallel to Lear’s suffering, his friend the Earl of Gloucester is manipulated by one son to turn on his other son.
(L to R) SMJ, playwright yo ho., JD Caudill, director yo ho. and BWBTC Ensemble Member Alison Dornheggen, director King Lear
ABOUT SMJ, PLAYWRIGHT yo ho.
SMJ (they/them) is a mixed-Latiné, non-binary, and NYC-based playwright, theatermaker, and educator originally from Mount Vernon, OH. They are proud to be the Executive Director of Andy’s Summer Playhouse, a professional children’s theater in Wilton, New Hampshire, that specializes in creating world premiere work with local children and emerging professional artists. They were a 2022-2023 Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow. As a writer, their work has been seen in various forms with Ars Nova, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, New York Stage and Film, Latinx Playwrights Circle, The Orchard Project, Latiné Musical Theatre Lab, Carnegie Mellon University, New York University, Otterbein University, and Manhattanville University. SMJ has been a finalist for the Princess Grace Award in Playwriting at New Dramatists and a semifinalist for the 2024 Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival as well as the O’Neill’s National Playwrights Conference (multiple times). They are a member of the Dramatists Guild and Ring of Keys.
ABOUT JD CAUDILL, DIRECTOR yo ho.
JD Caudill (they/them) is a queer director, literary manager and music director. Their recent direction includes The SpongeBob Musical (Kokandy Productions; Bowling Green State University), Sofa King Queer (Nothing Without A Company), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Haven Theatre), I Promised Myself to Live Faster (Hell in a Handbag), After the Blast (Broken Nose Theatre) and Southern Comfort (Pride Films and Plays). They’ve also directed for Bechdel Fests 4 - 6 + 8 (Broken Nose Theatre), Book of Shadows (Broken Nose Theatre) and other plays at The New Colony, Haven Theatre, The Runaways Lab Theatre, New American Folk Theatre, Hobo Junction, 20% Theatre, Paragon Theatre, Otherworld Theatre, Arc Theatre, 16th Street Theatre, Stage Left, The Syndicates and Red Theatre. They have been a proud ensemble member of Hell in a Handbag for ten years, and served as an ensemble member and literary manager of Broken Nose Theatre for seven years. They are driven to make theatre because of the unique sense of community it creates by bringing people together in person to experience imaginative stories of hope and catharsis. As a director, their mission is to create queer art for everyone; they want queer audiences to experience new stories of authentic representation while helping non-queer audiences cultivate empathy for the LGBTQIA+ community.
ABOUT ALISON DORNHEGGEN, DIRECTOR KING LEAR
Alison Dornheggen (she/her) has been working in the Chicagoland area as a director, actor, fight choreographer and administrator for over 20 years. She received her degree in directing and acting from Columbia College Chicago and has been lucky to work with companies such as Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Idle Muse Theater, Mercury Theater, A Red Orchid Theatre, Remy Bumppo Theatre Company, Oak Park Festival Theatre and The Factory Theater among others. She earned her MA in arts management, serving as the Theatre Graduate Fellow at American University in Washington, D.C. and was privileged to work with the Washington Stage Guild, Ford's Theater and award winning composer Peter Lerman. As a proud ensemble of BWBTC since 2003, audiences have seen her work in various capacities for, but some of her favorite productions include Choose Your Adventure, Trash and The Good Fight.
ABOUT BABES WITH BLADES THEATRE COMPANY
Babes With Blades Theatre Company, for more than 25 years and moving into the future, strives to develop and present scripts focused on complex, dynamic (often combative) characters who continue to be underrepresented on theatre stages based on gender. Babes With Blades Theatre Company uses stage combat to tell stories that elevate the voices of underrepresented communities and dismantle the patriarchy.
In each element of its programming, BWBTC embraces two key concepts:
1) Folks of marginalized genders and underrepresented communities are central to the story, driving the action rather than responding or submitting to it and
2) Everyone is capable of a full emotional and physical range, up to and including violence and its consequences.
The company offers participants and patrons alike an unparalleled opportunity to experience every person as heroes and villains; rescuers and rescues; right, wrong and everywhere in between: exciting, vivid, dynamic PEOPLE. It’s as simple and as subversive as that.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT STATEMENT:
Babes With Blades Theatre Company produces theatre in venues located on the traditional homelands of the Council of the Three Fires: the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi Nations. Many other tribes such as the Miami, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Sac, and Fox also called this area home. This region that we now commonly refer to as “The Chicagoland Area”, has long been a center for Indigenous people to gather, trade, and maintain kinship ties. Today, one of the largest urban Native American communities in the United States resides in Chicago. Members of this community continue to contribute to the life of this city and to celebrate their heritage, practice traditions and care for the land and waterways.
Babes With Blades Theatre Company’s 2026 programming is partially made possible by the kind support of The Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, a grant from The Illinois Arts Council Agency, a CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events (DCASE), and the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation.