Babes With Blades Closes with All Female 'Macbeth'

Babes With Blades Closes 11th Anniversary Season

With All-Female "Macbeth"

To Include Cast from the Viola Project/Workshop for Girls and Shakespeare-

Babes With Blades closes its 2008-2009, 11th anniversary season with an all-female production of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth," directed by Next Theatre's Kevin Heckman. Enter a Scotland wracked by treachery and possessed by supernatural forces - a kingdom where loyalty is fatal, ambition is madness, and no motivation is pure. This production features mask work and broadsword-driven stage combat. Following auditions in the near future, BWB will also announce guest artists joining the cast from The Viola Project, a Chicago organization offering Shakespeare performance workshops for girls 8-18 (violaproject.com). The show runs about two hours with one intermission.

WHERE: Dream Theatre, 556 W. 18th St., Chicago, IL 60616. Street parking; Cermak-Chinatown Red Line El stop #8 Halsted and #18, 16th/18th Street CTA buses.

WHEN: Opens on Monday, April 27, 2009, 8 p.m. (reception following)Closes on Saturday, May 30, 2009 Runs Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 3 p.m.

Previews on April 19 and 26 at 3 p.m., and April 24 and 25 at 8 p.m.

Pay-What-You-Can Shows on Thursdays (except closing weekend May 28)

Is This a Kegger I See Before Me Shows on Fridays(except closing weekend May 29) - details forthcoming on BabesWithBlades.org

Post-show talkbacks on Sundays (except Memorial Day weekend May 24) Collection for The Viola Project from May 14-17

TICKETS: Phone 773-880-0016, Babes With Blades Box Office; HotTix $20 for general admission • $13 for students and seniors with ID • $7 for previews

Group rates available

Pay-What-You-Can Thursdays (except closing weekend May 28)

Play Money accepted (good at multiple theatres throughout Chicagoland - available through the League of Chicago Theatres, chicagoplays.com)

STAFF: Babes With Blades ensemble members Leigh Barrett (Assistant Director, Lighting Design), Libby Beyreis (Fight Choreography), and Kjerstine McHugh (Stage Manager). Guest artists include Kevin Heckman (Director), Julie Lutgen (Set Design), Lori Mages (Props Design), Kimberly Morris (Costume Design), and Robert Young (Sound Design).

CAST: Babes With Blades ensemble members Managing Director Amy E. Harmon (Macduff), Gillian N. Humiston (Witch, Young Siward), Jennifer L. Mickelson (Malcolm), Artistic Director Stephanie Repin (Banquo), and Kathrynne Wolf (Macbeth). Guest artists include Nika Ericson (Lady Macbeth), Delia Ford (Duncan), Kim Fukawa (Ross), Melanie Kibbler (Witch), and Rachel Stubbs (Witch, Lady Macduff). Viola Project youth actresses TBA.

Babes With Blades' 2009-10 season opens with the fall 2009 world premiere of "The Last Daughter of Oedipus" by ensemble member Jennifer L. Mickelson. The season concludes with the spring 2010 world premiere of the winner of Babes With Blades' international playwriting competition, Joining Sword & Pen, sponsored by S.A.F.D. Fight Master David Woolley.

FUNDERS: The Donnelley Foundation, The Illinois Arts Council, The City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, and The Saints.