Babes With Blades Presents THE DOUBLE, Previews Begin 8/13

Babes With Blades, Chicago's all-female stage combat theater company, will present the world premiere of "The Double" by BWB ensemble member Barbara Lhota .

Set at the Belasco Theatre in the 1940s, the play follows the adventures of Minnie, actor and stage combatant, who is cast in a Broadway production of "Cyrano de Bergerac." Featuring single sword and unarmed combat, the show promises laughter, love and derring-do.

This script, developed through BWB's New Plays Development Program, was one of nine semi-finalists in the Women's Work Play and Screenplay Contest (Sapphics on Stage Division) run by Pride Films and Plays. The Sapphics on Stage Division is "a contest for work with lesbian characters, history, or themes for the theatre, including performance art or other performed pieces." More information can be found at www.pridefilmsandplays.com.

The cast includes Shaun Baer, Dan Foss, Lisa Herceg*, Gillian N. Humiston*, Brendan Hutt, Mark Pracht and Kathrynne Wolf.* In addition, Kimberly Logan returns for her second production with BWB after appearing as Ismene in 2010's "The Last Daughter of Oedipus."

Production staff includes Leigh Barrett* (Director/BWB Technical Coordinator), Libby Beyreis* (Violence Designer), Sarah Burnham (Scenic Designer), Alison Dornheggen* (Dance Choreography), Jesse Gaffney (Props Designer), Amy E. Harmon*(Producer/BWB Managing Director), Barb Lhota* (Playwright) Lindsey Lyddan (Lighting Designer), Kjerstine McHugh* (Assistant Director/Stage Manager), Jennifer L. Mickelson* (Assistant Violence Designer), Adam Smith (Sound Designer), and Heidi Jade Warriner (Costume Designer).
*Denotes BWB Ensemble Member

"The Double" opens on Saturday, August 20, 2011 at 8pm at the Lincoln Square Theatre, 4754 N. Leavitt (inside Berry Memorial UMC, lower level). Previews are Saturday, August 13 and Friday, August 19 at 8pm.

The show runs Thursday-Saturday, August 25 to September 24 at 8pm. There will be matinees at 2pm on Saturday, September 3,10 and 17.

Tickets are $8 for previews, $20 regular performances. Tickets for students and seniors are $12. For tickets call 773-904-0391 or to go https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/179456.

Key Bios:

Leigh Barrett (Director) has been a producer, designer and stage manager active in new play development in Chicago since 1989, and a member of Babes With Blades ensemble since 2007. She has seen "The Double" through its development for the past two years, and is proud to make her Chicago directorial debut with its world premiere production. She served as Assistant Director for BWB's "Macbeth" in 2009, and has directed readings for Babes With Blades, Strangeloop Theatre, and City Lit, as well as the recent reading of Barbara Lhota's new play "Echo" for the Inch Worm Playreading Series this past April. She is an ensemble member emeritus of Stage Left Theatre, and a member of Plasticene.

Barbara Lhota (Playwright), a Detroit native, is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter whose plays have been produced at a variety of theaters in Boston, Chicago, New York, and elsewhere. Lhota received her MFA in Dramatic Writing from Brandeis University, where she was an artist-in-residence and taught playwriting. Her most frequently produced plays, Strangers and Romance, are published in Women Playwrights: The Best Plays of 2001. She lives in Chicago, where she he has worked with a wide variety of companies on productions, readings, and workshops. She is currently working on four new plays, including Echo, a 2011 Semi-Finalist in the Firehouse New American Play Festival, about a family with a non-verbal autistic child using facilitated communication as a means of communication. Lhota is an Artistic Associate at Babes With Blades.

Coming in spring of 2012 is "Trash" by Arthur M. Jolly, winner of the 2011-2012 Joining Sword & Pen Playwriting Competition.

 

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