FIGHTING WORDS FESTIVAL
September 6th & 7th, 13th & 14th
Performance Running Time: TBA
Ticket Price: Beginning at $10
Location: 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
Written by: Maggie Smith (she/her)
Directed by: BWBTC Ensemble Member Morgan Manasa (she/her)
Fight Direction by: Jessica Pennachio (she/her)
Saturday, September 6th, 2025 – 2:30pm
Saturday, September 13th, 2025 – 7:30pm
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 is the 2025-2026 winner of BWBTC’s Margaret W. Martin Award and the Joining Sword & Pen International Playwriting Competition)
TWO OUT OF THREE FALLS
Written by: Bill Daniel (he/him)
Directed by: BWBTC Artistic Associate Ashley Yates (she/her)
Fight Direction by: Axel Rico
Sunday, September 7th, 2025 – 2:30pm
Saturday, September 13th, 2025 – 2:30pm
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
Written by: SMJ (they/them)
Directed by: BWBTC Artistic Associate Maureen Yasko (she/her)
Fight Direction by: Carly Belle Cason
Saturday, September 6th, 2025 – 7:30pm
Sunday, September 14th, 2025 – 2:30pm
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 & gender exploration, this play is a deeply emotional reimaging and reminder of our queer histories.