Babes With Blades Theatre Company’s (BWBTC) 2025 season begins 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 and continues with the world premiere of The Mark, October 11 - November 22 at The Edge Theater, 5451 N. Broadway.
Babes with Blades is pleased to announce the cast and creative team today for The Mark, written by BWBTC Ensemble Member Jillian Leff, directed by Richard Costes with fight direction by Ensemble Member Hazel Monson. The Mark has previews Saturday, Oct. 11 at 8 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 12 at 3 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 16 and Friday, Oct. 17 at 8 p.m. with the press opening Saturday, Oct. 18 at 8 p.m. The performance schedule is Thursdays – Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. with select performances will be available for streaming. Tickets are $20 for previews, $28 for students and $30 for the regular run and go on sale Thursday, Sept. 11 at 12 p.m. For more information, tickets and performance streaming information, please visit BabesWithBlades.org.
Fall is the time for premiering the best new sci-fi adventures and Babes With Blades Theatre Company is bringing the fan favorite genre back to the stage with award-winning playwright and BWBTC ensemble member Jillian Leff’s The Mark. Having penned 2024’s critically acclaimed The S Paradox, this world premiere is a story for “Hunger Game” fans; set in a dystopian, classist society, a young Laborer named Raina is given an unexpected (but welcomed) chance to join The Army. As she starts to acclimate to her new position and higher standing in society, a resistance is brewing among The Laborers. An assassination attempt upends Raina's life as she becomes caught in the middle of the war between the two classes, as well as her own battle of discovering who and what she believes in.
Richard Costes, who previously directed Babes With Blades Theatre Company’s 2022 production of Shakespeare’s Richard III returns to direct The Mark. “In 2025, I believe it is crucial for the art we create to challenge the status quo—to offer a perspective that challenges the way things are,” states Costes. “I am interested in doing plays that meet the moment - and I think that Jillian Leff’s play presents our protagonist, Raina, with the opportunity to do just that. In a world that has been sharply divided into two classes, those who wear the Mark and those who don’t, Raina has been granted the opportunity to become one of the elite, but at a cost that is at sharp odds with who she believes she is.”
“Bhaghat Singh once said, ‘The people generally get accustomed to the established order of things and begin to tremble at the very idea of a change. It is this lethargical spirit that needs to be replaced by the revolutionary spirit,’ Coarse continued. “Whether Raina can be the linchpin of a new revolution in this oppressive world, while navigating unexpected personal revelations, is at the heart of this work.”
The ensemble cast of 14 artists includes Babes With Blades Theatre Company Ensemble Members Jennifer L. Mickelson* (she/her; ensemble and U/S The Commander); Jennifer Mohr* (she/her; ensemble and U/S Raina); Izis Mollinedo* (they/them; ensemble and U/S Maxwell); Maureen Yasko* (she/her; Cain) with Whit Bates (they/them, Jack); Matt Chester (he/him, ensemble and U/S Peter/Jonas); Fin Coe (he/him, Peters); MJ Handsome (she/they, Raina); Nicky Jasper (she/her, Maxwell); Amy Johnson (she/her, The Commander); Marck Kiselevach (he/him, U/S Jack and ensemble); Madeline Meyer (she/her, U/S ensemble) and Shane Richlen (ensemble and U/S Cain).
First Row: (L to R) Babes With Blades Theatre Company Ensemble Members Jennifer L. Mickelson and Jennifer Mohr
Second Row: (L to R) Babes With Blades Theatre Company Ensemble Member Izis Mollinedo, Maureen Yasko with Whit Bates and Matt Chester
Third Row: (L to R) Fin Coe, MJ Handsome, Nicky Jasper and Amy Johnson
Fourth Row: (L to R) Marck Kiselevach, Madeline Meyer and Shane Richlen
The production team includes Babes With Blades Theatre Company Ensemble Members Line Bower* (they/them, technical director); Jillian Leff* (she/her, playwright); Hazel Monson* (she/her, fight director); Payton Shearn* (she/they, production assistant); Laura J. Wiley* (she/her, lighting designer) as well as Carly Belle Cason (she/they, assistant fight director); Richard Costes (he/him, director); Hannah Foerschler (she/her, sound designer); Amy C. Gilman (she/her, scenic designer); Rose Hamill (she/her, production manager); Jester McKelvey (they/the, assistant stage manager); Grace Elizabeth Mealey (she/her, stage manager); Ab Reive (they/them, props designer); Eileen Tull (she/her, assistant director) and Kasey Wolfgang (she/her, costume designer).
*Denotes Babes With Blades Theatre Company Ensemble Member
ABOUT JILLIAN LEFF, PLAYWRIGHT OF THE MARK
Jillian Leff is a Chicago based playwright, actor and stage combat nerd. Her plays Missed Opportunities, Small World (co-written with Joe Lino), (Non)Fiction and The S Paradox have had productions in Chicago and Los Angeles, with Small World receiving a Jeff Award nomination for new work. Additionally, The S Paradox is a winner of Babes With Blades Theatre Company’s Joining Sword and Pen Competition/Margaret W. Martin Award. She is a BWBTC company member, where she’s super grateful to have worked as all her hyphenates - actor (Richard III, Women of 4G, The Good Fight), playwright (The S Paradox) and fight choreographer (A Midsummer Night’s Dream). She has a BFA in acting from Ball State University and is an advanced actor combatant with The Society of American Fight Directors. Find her on the internet at @jilleleff.
ABOUT RICHARD COSTES, DIRECTOR OF THE MARK
Richard Costes is an actor, director and accessibility consultant and is thrilled to be working with Babes With Blades Theatre Company again. Costes previously directed Richard III for BWBTC and has also directed productions of The Tempest, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, King Stag, Kimberly Akimbo, Footfalls and Other Plays by Samuel Beckett, among others. A graduate of Kent State University (B.A. in theatre), he also serves on the 3Arts Artist Council, in addition to being a member of DisabilityLead and sits on the board of the National Theatre of the Deaf.
ABOUT BABES WITH BLADES THEATRE COMPANY
Babes With Blades Theatre Company, for more than 25 years and moving into the future, strives to develop and present scripts focused on complex, dynamic (often combative) characters who continue to be underrepresented on theatre stages based on gender. BWBTC uses, and will continue to use, stage combat to tell stories that elevate the voices of underrepresented communities and dismantle the patriarchy.
In each element of their programming, they embrace two key concepts:
1) Folks of marginalized genders and underrepresented communities are central to the story, driving the action rather than responding or submitting to it.
2) Everyone is capable of a full emotional and physical range, up to and including violence and its consequences.
The company offers participants and patrons alike an unparalleled opportunity to experience every person as heroes and villains; rescuers and rescues; right, wrong and everywhere in between: exciting, vivid, dynamic PEOPLE. It’s as simple and as subversive as that.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT STATEMENT:
Babes With Blades Theatre Company produces theatre in venues located on the traditional homelands of the Council of the Three Fires: the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi Nations. Many other tribes such as the Miami, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Sac and Fox also called this area home. This region that is now commonly referred to as “The Chicagoland Area”, has long been a center for Indigenous people to gather, trade and maintain kinship ties. Today, one of the largest urban Native American communities in the United States resides in Chicago. Members of this community continue to contribute to the life of this city and to celebrate their heritage, practice traditions and care for the land and waterways.
Babes With Blades Theatre Company’s (BWBTC) 2025 season begins 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 and continues with the world premiere of The Mark, October 11 - November 22 at The Edge Theater, 5451 N. Broadway. Babes with Blades is pleased to announce the cast and creative team today for The Mark, written by BWBTC Ensemble Member Jillian Leff, directed by Richard Costes with fight direction by Ensemble Member Hazel Monson. The Mark has previews Saturday, Oct. 11 at 8 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 12 at 3 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 16 and Friday, Oct. 17 at 8 p.m. with the press opening Saturday, Oct. 18 at 8 p.m. The performance schedule is Thursdays – Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. with select performances will be available for streaming.Tickets are $20 for previews, $28 for students and $30 for the regular run and go on sale Thursday, Sept. 11 at 12 p.m. For more information, tickets and performance streaming information, please visit BabesWithBlades.org.
Ensemble Member and THE MARK Fight Director Hazel Monson
Babes With Blades Theatre Company’s 2025 programming is partially made possible by the kind support of The Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, a grant from The Illinois Arts Council Agency, a CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events (DCASE), and the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation.
UP NEXT FROM BABES WITH BLADES
FIGHTING WORDS
September 6 - 14
Schedule: https://babeswithblades.org/event/2025-fighting-words-festival-4/
Bramble Arts Loft, 5545 N. Clark St.
Ticket prices: Pay-What-You-Can
Tickets go on sale: Friday, Aug. 1
Each weekend the festival will have staged readings of the 2025 selections:
Calvaria: A Play For Feral Girls
By Maggie Smith (she/her)
Directed by Morgan Manasa (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. Calvaria: A Play For Feral Girls is the 2025-2026 winner of BWBTC's Margaret W. Martin Award and the Joining Sword and Pen International Playwriting Competition.
Two Out Of Three Falls
By Bill Daniel (he/him)
Directed by Ashley Yates (she/her)
Johanna Goodish was the child of notorious pro wrestler King Kong Bruiser. 30 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
By SMJ (they/them)
Directed by Maureen Yasko (she/her)
Yo Ho charts the journey of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, two pirates aboard a campy, sexually charged ship facing 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 queer history