BABES WITH BLADES THEATRE COMPANY ANNOUNCES 2025 SEASON:
CHALLENGE IT ALL
Babes With Blades Theatre Company’s 28th Season features:
2025 Fighting Words Festival
September 6th & 7th, 13th & 14th
Festival at the Bramble Arts Loft,
5545 N. Clark St, Chicago
Calvaria: A Play For Feral Girls
Written by Maggie Smith (she/her)
Directed by Morgan Manasa* (she/her)
When her family’s bull is found decapitated in the middle of a farm field, Edie Hruska makes it her mission to find the culprit. While on her search, she comes across a group of young girls claiming to communicate with gods, begging Edie to become their newest acolyte. While acclimating to their lifestyle, Edie finds herself face-to-face with the girls’ true intentions and they are much more sinister than just a dead bull.
Calvaria: A Play For Feral Girls is the 2023-2024 winner of BWBTC’s Margaret W. Martin Award and the Joining Sword & Pen International Playwrighting Competition!
Two Out Of Three Falls
Written by Bill Daniel (he/him)
Directed by Ashley Yates* (she/her)
Johanna Goodish was the child of notorious pro wrestler King Kong Bruiser. 30 years ago, he was murdered in a locker room shower in Puerto Rico and the killer was never tried. The witnesses never talked. Since she began her own wrestling career, she has been trying to escape his shadow. And now, she’s been seeing his ghost. When an opportunity for revenge presents itself, she takes it. But it means she’ll be face to face in the ring with the man who held the knife when it happened.
Yo Ho
Written by SMJ (they/them)
Directed by Maureen Yasko* (she/her) (she/her)
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.
THE MARK – World Premiere
October 11 – November 22, 2025
Written by BWBTC Ensemble Member Jillian Leff* (she/her)
Directed by Richard Costas (he/him)
Developed through BWBTC’s Fighting Words program, The Mark centers in a dystopian, classist, society, where 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.
The Edge Theater, 5451 N. Broadway.
Ticket prices: $35-$20
Tickets go on sale: Friday, August 1st
Select performances will be available for streaming.
*Denotes BWBTC ensemble member
Maggie Smith, Playwright of CALVARIA: A PLAY FOR FERAL GIRLS
Morgan Manasa, FIGHTING WORDS FESTIVAL Director of CALVARIA: A PLAY FOR FERAL GIRLS
Bill Daniel, Playwright of TWO OUT OF THREE FALLS
Ashley Yates, FIGHTING WORDS FESTIVAL Director of TWO OUT OF THREE FALLS
SMJ, Playwright of YO HO
Maureen Yasko, FIGHTING WORDS FESTIVAL Director of YO HO
Jillian Leff, Playwright of THE MARK
Richard Costas, Director of THE MARK
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 (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.
BWBTC’s 2024 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 the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events (DCASE), and the support of the Small Business Alliance Shuttered Venue Operators (SVOG) grant program.
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.