What Is Joining Sword & Pen?
When the Joining Sword & Pen competition opens, the Babes publish an image which becomes part of the submitted scripts.
These blind submissions are pitches for new plays which are read by and voted on by the company.
The winner will participate in the development process in Fighting Words and then go to full production by the Babes. The winning script’s playwright will also receive the Margaret W. Martin Award which includes a $1000 cash prize.
Joining Sword & Pen submissions are CLOSED for 2026-27.
Take a look at the full list of plays that came from Joining Sword & Pen.
If you are a playwright and want to know more about Joining Sword & Pen, email swordandpen@babeswithblades.org.
Info on the most recent 2026-2027 Joining Sword & Pen Competition:
The winner: “C.O.V.E.N.”, by Rachel Leighson
Synopsis of C.O.V.E.N.
After the unexpected and inexplicable death of one of their leaders, the members of the Community for Online Visions, Enchantments, and Neopaganism (C.O.V.E.N.) decide to finally meet in person for a memorial. What starts as a heartfelt gathering quickly spirals out of control as the group fights to survive the night, protect their community, and defeat a demonic darkness.
About the playwright
Rachel Leighson is a writer and performer with a deep love of twisted stories and adorable animals. As an SAFD-certified Actor Combatant and staunch horror lover, she is especially excited to be working with Babes with Blades on this piece! Writing credits include Blood on My Mother’s Apron (Off Broadway), Little Egg, Big World (Jane Chambers Award Honoree), Clean Slate (The Larking House/The Flea), La Morte Finale (The Bechdel Project), and The Bender Girls (Winner SoCal Screenplay Comp). She has written commissions for Cultivate Theatre Project and Feminist Fairytales: A Radio Play Podcast. Multiple pieces from her short play set, The Play’s the Minyan, have been performed by colleges and Jewish congregations around the country. In all of her creative work, Rachel strives to highlight gray morality, difficult conversations, and female-centric stories. She believes in finding the humor in the horror and the lessons in the frivolity. Proud graduate of Oberlin College and Vancouver Film School and as always, all the love to her husband and cats for their undying love and support. www.rachelleighson.com
Info on the 2023-2024 Joining Sword & Pen Competition:
The winner: “CALVARIA”, by Maggie Smith
Synopsis of Calvaria
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.
About the playwright
Maggie Smith (she/her) is a playwright, performer, and comedian based in Chicago, Illinois. Originally from Omaha, Nebraska, Maggie moved to Chicago to attend Loyola University Chicago, where she received a BA in Theatre, while minoring in English and Shakespeare Studies. At Loyola, Maggie led two projects, Rats and Saint Louise, Pray for Us, the first being a devised parody musical and the second a staged reading of her two-act play. Upon graduating Loyola, she was accepted into the Second City’s Conservatory Training Program, where she completed her training in September, 2023. As a writer, Maggie challenges herself and her audiences to process difficult topics through comedic lenses. She takes from her own life experiences to create a casual representation of the queer experience. In order to depict an experience that she is familiar with, she prefers to write characters in stories where their identities are not the driving force of the piece. Because of this, she finds herself called to place queer characters at the forefront of comedies. After all, that’s what her life is.