Cast and Creative Team Announced for PLAID AS HELL World Premiere at Babes With Blades Theatre Company

Babes With BladesTheatre Company, currently presenting Richard III through October 15 at The Edge Theatre, will continue its season with Plaid as Hell, written by Cat McKay and directed by Christina Casano, October 29 - November 19 at The Factory Theater, 1623 W. Howard St. Previews are Saturday, Oct. 29 at 8 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 30 at 3 p.m. and Wednesday, Nov. 2 at 8 p.m. The press opening is Friday, Nov. 4 at 8 p.m. The performance schedule is Wednesdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m with select performances streamed. Tickets are $20 - $35 and go on sale Saturday, Oct. 1 at BabeswithBlades.org.

Plaid as Hell is an honest, slightly raunchy, queer comedy which introduces us to Cass, who is hoping her annual camping trip will go well this year. But with her best friend Emilie sniping at Cass's new girlfriend Jessica, not to mention the serial killer on the loose, the weekend is off to a rocky start. "These characters are not perfect - they're not examples of perfect femininity, they're not perfect friends, they're not perfect lovers. This play gives the space for these characters to just exist as women in the world, for better or for worse," states Director Christina Casano (she/her/hers). "What drew me to this play especially was that this is an example of queer storytelling in which being queer is a given circumstance, not the conflict."

The tight four-person cast features Reagan James (she/her/hers,Cass); Cayla Jones (she/her/hers, Emilie); Ashley Yates (she/her/hers, Jessica) and Alice Wu (she/her/hers, Kelly) with Alexandra Alontaga (they/them/theirs//she/her/hers, US Kelly), Kate Lass (she/her/hers, US Cass); Aleta Soron (she/her/hers, US Jessica) and Liv Wilson (she/her/hers, US Emilie).

The production team includes Cat McKay (she/her/hers, playwright); Christina Casano (she/her/hers, director); Line Bower (they/them/theirs, technical director); Hannah Foerschler (she/her/hers, sound design); Erin Gautille (she/her/hers, scenic design); Roxie Kooi (she/her/hers, stage manager); Kate Lass (she/her/hers, asst. fight director/asst. intimacy director); Tab Mocherman (they/them/theirs, COVID compliance officer); Jennifer Mohr (she/her/hers, costume design) and Faith Roush (she/her/hers), production manager). BWBTC Ensemble Member Maureen Yasko (she/her/hers) completes the team as fight and intimacy director.

ABOUT CAT MCKAY, PLAYWRIGHT OF PLAID AS HELL

Cat McKay has played more aliens than queer female characters, but if you've got a gay alien role, feel free to hit her up! She's recently dipped her toes into the writing world, and it's going well so far. Favorite roles include Bella in Valkyries, Badasses on Bikes (based on the NYC Sirens motorcycle gang; dir. Maggie Spanuello), Lil in Interventions (Paragon Festival at Otherworld Theater), and various characters in About Face's Scary Stories to Save Your Life, for which she wrote multiple scenes. Cat is a proud alum of Case Western Reserve and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

ABOUT CHRISTINA CASANO, DIRECTOR OF PLAID AS HELL

Christina Casano is a theatre director based in Chicago. Her training includes a BA in Theatre from Miami University, Victory Gardens Theater's Director's Inclusion Initiative, and the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey's Summer Professional Training Program. Selected directing credits: I Build Giants and Poison (The Plagiarists), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Stone Soup Shakespeare), Blood of My Mother's (workshop reading, Wayward Sisters), Deep Shadows (audio drama, Eclectic Full Contact Theatre), Fame Heaux (staged reading, Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival), Festival of Unfinished Works (Bramble Theatre), The Living Newspaper Festival (Jackalope Theatre), Fighting Words Festival (Babes With Blades Theatre Company). Other favorite projects: Some Like It Red and The Epic of Gilgamesh, etc. (The Plagiarists), How To Defend Yourself (Victory Gardens), Bury Me (Dandelion Theatre), The Light Fantastic (Jackalope Theatre). She is the Artistic Director of The Plagiarists and the Creative Producer at Remy Bumppo.

ABOUT JOINING SWORD & PEN INTERNATIONAL PLAYWRIGHTING COMPETITION AND THE MARGARET W. MARTIN AWARD

The Joining Sword & Pen international playwriting competition launched in 2005 to generate more scripts that featured women in roles involving stage combat. Created in collaboration with Artistic Advisor and Fight Master in the Society of American Fight Directors David Woolley who sponsors the competition, scripts inspired by a specific image are submitted and go through a blind judging process. The winning script goes through BWBTC's new play development program, but also receives a full production, cash prize and the Margaret W. Martin Award.

Margaret W. Martin was ahead of her time. In the 1960s and 70s, she maintained her full time job, taught piano, and raised a family of 6 children (four girls, two boys) all while she traveled the globe from the States to Saudi Arabia, across Europe and Vientiane Laos during the height of the Vietnam war. She founded the American International School - Riyadh (K-12) in Saudi Arabia in 1963, and it has flourished as an institution since then. The Margaret W. Martin Award is in honor of Artistic Advisor and SAFD Fight Master David Woolley's mother.

ABOUT BABES WIfweTH BLADES THEATRE COMPANY

Babes With Blades Theatre Company - for over the past 20 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. Babes With Blades Theatre Company 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.

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