Babes With Blades Theatre Company FIGHTING WORDS FESTIVAL Returns in September
Running September 6 – 14 at the Bramble Arts Loft.
Babes With Blades Theatre Company’s (BWBTC) 2025 season opens with an extended run of its new works festival, the Fighting Words Festival, September 6 – 14 at the Bramble Arts Loft, 5545 N. Clark St, 2nd Floor.
All performances are $5 or pay-what-you-can with a suggested ticket price of $10. Following each reading, audiences may provide feedback and participate in a post-show discussion.Tickets go on sale Friday, Aug. 1 at 12 p.m. at BabesWithBlades.org.
“Audiences underestimate how much they can influence a new play simply by attending a reading,” states Artistic Director Hayley Rice. “While written notes and critiques are invaluable, just hearing how an audience connects with a story in the moment is pivotal for playwrights. Fighting Words is an opportunity to do exactly that.”All three shows bring something very different to the stage. Chicago theater, and Babes With Blades especially, is not afraid to tell new narratives that represent folks from every corner of society and history and this season’s festival does that.”
FIGHTING WORDS FESTIVAL
September 6 - 14
Performance Running Time: TBA
Ticket Price: Beginning at $10
All performances will take place at the Bramble Arts Loft, 5545 N. Clark St, 2nd Floor. Select performances will be available for streaming.
Each weekend the festival will have staged readings of the 2025 selections:
CALVARIA: A PLAY FOR FERAL GIRLS
Winner of the 2025 - 2026 Babes With Blades Theatre Company's Margaret W. Martin Award and the Joining Sword and Pen International Playwriting Competition
Saturday, Sept. 6 at 2:30 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 13 at 7:30 p.m.
By Maggie Smith (she/her)
Directed by BWBTC Ensemble Member Morgan Manasa (she/her)
Fight Direction by Jessica Pennachio (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.
TWO OUT OF THREE FALLS
Sunday, Sept. 7 at 2:30 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 13 at 2:30 p.m.
By Bill Daniel (he/him)
Directed by BWBTC Artistic Associate Ashley Yates (she/her)
Fight Direction by Axel Rico (he/him)
Johanna Goodish was the child of notorious pro wrestler King Kong Bruiser. Thirty 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.
Saturday, Sept. 6 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 14 at 2:30 p.m.
By SMJ (they/them)
Directed by BWBTC Artistic Associate Maureen Yasko (she/her)
Fight Direction by Carly Belle Cason (she/they)
yo ho. charts the journey of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, two pirates aboard a campy, sexually charged ship under 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 our queer histories.
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