BWBTC Events

In conjunction with our 2023 Fighting Word Festival, we are thrilled to once again offer this unique online workshop.

Join writers and designers from Babes With Blades Theatre Company’s ensemble to learn how to best write violence and intimacy for the stage. Lead by playwrights Jillian Leff and Jennifer L. Mickelson, and Violence & Intimacy designers Samantha Kaufman & Maureen Yasko, this 1 night workshop will provide tips on how to create compelling action for the stage that is satisfying to the artists performing your play, as well as the audience watching it.

This FREE workshop is one night only, Friday, June 23rd at 7:30pm CST.

Reserve your slot now at [email protected]

Bios:

Jillian Leff is a Chicago based actor and playwright. With BWBTC, she’s appeared in The Good Fight (Cicely), Women of 4G (Pierce), and Richard III (Buckingham), and has also developed her plays The Mark and The Gatekeepers (Winner of 2021 Joining Sword and Pen/Margaret M. Martin Award) through the Fighting Words program. In the city, she’s also worked with companies such as The New Coordinates (2020 Jeff Award Nominee for New Work – Small World, co-written with Joe Lino), The Factory Theater, and Midsommer Flight. She has a BFA in Acting from Ball State University and is an Advanced Actor Combatant with The Society of American Fight Directors.  You can check out more of her work at http://jeleff11.wixsite.com/jillianwebsite 

Jennifer L. Mickelson is the BWBTC Co-Literary Manager and has worked in various capacities including (but not limited to) actor, intimacy designer, and playwright. She has been a company member since 2009 and in that time has participated in a LOT of script development. Jen has designed intimacy for Idle Muse (Girl Found, Equivocation), Promethean Theatre Ensemble (BLISS (or Emily Post is Dead!), Arcadia), and Otherworld (Medusa Undone). Her plays are The Last Daughter of Oedipus (produced by BWBTC in 2010), Rites and Sacrifices (Idle Muse, 2014), and Patchwork Drifter (BWBTC, 2015). She was last seen onstage with Promethean in Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde and as a last-minute understudy in BWBTC’s Othello. She is an SAFD Actor-Combatant and an alum of Illinois State University.

Samantha Kaufman (she/her) is an intimacy director, fight director, actor, and teaching artist. She is based in the Midwest region and travels to perform in and fight/intimacy/movement direct productions internationally. Samantha is a Certified Intimacy Director with Intimacy Directors and Coordinators. A Certified Teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors. A Jeff award nominated fight choreographer. An award winning actor. A certified Michael Chekhov teacher with the Great Lakes Michael Chekhov Consortium. Regionally, Samantha has worked with theatres such as Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Prague Shakespeare Company (Czech Republic), Asolo Repertory Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Lookingglass Theatre Company, Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, Cleveland Play House, among others. She has her MFA from Florida Atlantic University. SamanthaJKaufman.com

Maureen Yasko is an ensemble member of BWBTC where she has appeared in Julius Caesar, Bo Thomas…, L’Imbecile, Titus Andronicus, and The Promise of a Rose Garden. She Fight Directed Women of 4G, Witch Slap! and assisted with the fights in Titus. Maureen is Resident Intimacy Director/Associate Fight Director of Midsommer Flight, a Company Member with A Crew of Patches, and a Conspirator. She also holds the title of Advanced Actor Combatant with the SAFD, continues to seek intimacy training with IDI, and holds a BA in Theatre, Music Minor from AASU in Savannah, GA. When not in a theatre, you’ll find her in the studio as a Certified Yoga Instructor.