BWBTC Events

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, online workshop is one night only, Monday, May 24th at 7:30pm CST

Reserve your slot now at [email protected]

Bios:

Samantha Kaufman (she/her/hers) is an actor and movement director, specializing in fight direction and intimacy direction.. A Jeff Nominated Fight Choreographer. A Babes with Blades Theatre Ensemble Member. Samantha is an Advanced Actor Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors and an Intermediate Actor Combatant with Fight Directors Canada. Samantha has also trained and taught with Deutschland Stage Combat. Samantha is a certified Intimacy Director with both Intimacy Directors and Coordinators, as well as Intimacy Directors International. Regionally, Samantha has worked with theatres such as Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, and Cleveland Play House. In Chicago, she has worked with theatres such as Lookingglass Theatre, Steep Theatre, Babes with Blades Theatre Company, and Idle Muse. Samantha has an MFA from Florida Atlantic University. SamanthaJKaufman.com

Jillian Leff 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 – 2020 Jeff Award Nominee for New Work) 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), The Edge Theater at Fight Night (The Mother Load) and Clock Productions (Real Talk). Real Talk was a finalist for the 2015 City Theatre National Award for Short Playwriting, is published in the City Theatre Anthology 2015, and has been produced in Indiana, Florida, and Illinois. She has a BFA in Acting from Ball State University, is an Advanced Actor Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors, and an Ensemble Member with Babes With Blades Theatre Company.

Jennifer L. Mickelson is the BWBTC 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.

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.