Babes With Blades Theatre Company’s “Fighting Words Festival”

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. atBabesWithBlades.org. Select performances will be available for streaming.

“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.”

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

reimagining and reminder of our queer histories.