Babes With Blades Theatre Company’s (BWBTC’s) 2019-21 season concludes with the Fighting Words Festival, held on Saturday, Nov. 13 and Sunday, Nov. 14, 2021 at The Factory Theater, 1623 W. Howard Street in the Rogers Park neighborhood, as well as streaming online. The Festival, which is free and open to the public is available online and in person, features readings of three scripts in the development process. After each reading the audience has an opportunity to provide feedback for the playwright.
“I am overjoyed to once again share everything that makes Babes With Blades Theatre Company unique and necessary to the Chicago theatre community. Script development has been an integral part of BWBTC as a company since we first started producing regular seasons back in 2005,” states Artistic Director Hayley Rice. “Along with storytelling, safety has always been at the core of BWBTC's ethos. While the context is not ideal, we are excited to share that priority with our audiences through traditional live performance, as well as launching our new streaming options with this year’s Fighting Words Festival.”
BWBTC moved its new plays development program to a 2-day festival format in 2018 and the company has maintained free access to all readings (an approach that has been a staple to the program since its inception.)
FIGHTING WORDS FESTIVAL
- November 13 - 14
- The Factory Theater, 1623 W. Howard St
Saturday, November 13:
3:30 p.m.
Phantom Queens
- by Jessica Johnson
Iris is dragged on a camping trip by her friends in an effort to cheer her up after the loss of her father, but the whole group ends up face-to-face with death when a storm sends them to a nearby lodge and into the hands of a suspicious group of locals.
7:30 p.m.
Child’s Play
- by Frank Garland
A young mother named Alice breaks into the deadly playful kingdom of the fairies to get her child back. But fairy land is only as dangerous as what you bring with you. Dreams come alive there, and Alice has been having some bad dreams. (WARNING: This script contains descriptions of physical abuse, including abuse of a child.)
Sunday, November 14:
3:30 p.m.
The Mark
- by BWBTC Ensemble Member Jillian Leff
In a dystopian, classist society, a young Laborer named Raina is given an unexpected chance to join The Army. As she starts to acclimate to her new position and higher standing in society, a resistance is brewing among The Laborers. An assassination attempt upends Raina's life as she becomes caught in the middle of the war between the two classes, as well as her own battle of discovering who and what she believes in.
Tickets: FREE ADMISSION! Refreshments and a talkback follow each reading.
For more information, tickets and live performance streaming information, please visit BabesWithBlades.org.
ABOUT JESSICA JOHNSON, PLAYWRIGHT OF Phantom Queens
Jessica Johnson (she/her/hers) is a writer, dog mom and nerd living in the great city of Chicago. Johnson has written articles, stories, poems, plays, sketches, TV scripts and screenplays. She has written about film, television and the web for Time Out Chicago, Time Out New York and RogerEbert.com, as well as appearing on “The Rotten Tomatoes Show.” She also created and co-starred in the web series “2 Redheads.” When not writing and paying the bills, Johnson enjoys walking her dog Bodhi, reading comics, watching lots of TV and movies and volunteering at the dog rescue One Tail at at Time.
ABOUT FRANK GARLAND, PLAYWRIGHT OF Child’s Play
Frank Garland (he/his/his) is overjoyed to be working with the Babes. His plays have been produced in Seattle, Cambridge, Los Angeles and New York. He is a Young Playwrights Inc. award winner and a two time winner of the Blank Theater Young Playwrights Festival. He lives in Seattle with his hands and his feet.
ABOUT JILLIAN LEFF, PLAYWRIGHT OF The Mark
Jillian Leff (she/her/hers) is a Chicago based playwright and actor. In the city, her plays have been produced by The New Colony (Small World - co-written with Joe Lino), The Cuckoo's Theater Project (Missed Opportunities) and The Right Brain Project ((Non)Fiction), while her short plays have been produced by Broken Nose Theatre (All I Really Want), Random Acts Chicago (Ms. Chapman), Ghostlight Ensemble (Forgetting), Edge Theatre at Fight Night (The Mother Load) and Clock Productions (Real Talk). She has a BFA in Acting from Ball State University, and is an ensemble member with Babes With Blades Theatre Company.
ABOUT THE FIGHTING WORDS FESTIVAL
Fighting Words emerged from the very clear need to increase the canon of fighting roles for folks of marginalized genders. By establishing a development series for new works, BWBTC not only supports the creation of scripts that meet our mission and that we can produce, but scripts that can go beyond Chicago to increase the visibility of a wide variety of fierce folks on stage.
Each year since 2005, BWBTC selects three scripts for development that have the potential to grow into the kinds of plays that fit its mission. Several of the Fighting Words selections have been seen as full productions with BWBTC, as well as other theatre companies: most recently Women of 4G, 180 Degree Rule, Patchwork Drifter, L’Imbecile, Promise of a Rose Garden (Jeff Recommended,) Bo Thomas and the Case of the Sky Pirates and The Lady Demands Satisfaction (Jeff Recommended)..
Each 2020-21 script has undergone two reading-and-feedback sessions with the ensemble and invited guests. BWBTC is presenting the final reading of each script in a festival format: The Fighting Words Festival.
ABOUT BABES WITH BLADES THEATRE COMPANY
Babes With Blades Theatre Company – for over the past 20 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 (and will continue to use) stage combat to tell stories that elevate the voices of underrepresented communities and dismantle the patriarchy.
In each element of their programming, they embrace two key concepts:
Folks of marginalized genders and underrepresented communities are central to the story, driving the action rather than responding or submitting to it.
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.
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BWBTC’s 2019-21 programming is partially made possible by the kind support of The Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, The Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, The Illinois Arts Council Agency and a CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events.
(L to R): Jessica Johnson, playwright PHANTOM QUEENS (Nov. 13 at 3:30 p.m.); Frank Garland, playwright CHILD'S PLAY (Nov. 13 at 7:30 p.m.) and Jillian Leff, playwright THE MARK (Nov. 14 at 3:30 p.m.)