Bitch Boxer, from British playwright Charlie Josephine (he/they), will make its U.S. premiere at a site-specific gym in March. This highly anticipated performance will be running at a local gym Krank Brooklyn, March 16, 17, 23, 24, 2024, the 4-performance limited engagement will play to just 50 people nightly.
Teresa Langford (she/her) is an actor, athlete, writer, and poet who is elated to blend all these elements in this project. She has worked both Off-Broadway and regionally across the country.
The work follows a female boxer from Leytonstone training for the 2012 Olympics, the first time women were allowed to compete in the women’s boxing event. The play made its world premiere in 2012 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and was the winner of Soho Theatre Young Writers Award 2012. Old Vic New Voices Edinburgh Season 2012. British Council Showcase 2013. Holden Street Theatre’s Award 2013. Clonmel Theatre Award 2014. Adelaide Fringe Award 2014. The upcoming run will mark the projects’ American debut.
“She’s got this real front, she’s quite cocky, but you see glimpses of her vulnerability throughout," says Josephine in a statement with British Council Arts. “My proudest achievement on the tour was having people that don’t usually go to the theater come and see the show because it was about boxing and that’s what they were interested in...and then they really enjoyed it and then became interested in that theater.” Langford and Moler are so excited to share this with a community gym and people who may not otherwise go to see a story like this.
Emily Moler will direct the production, reuniting with Langford after their collaboration on a new retelling (with never-before-seen, unpublished new ending) of Arthur Kopit’s Chamber Music in 2017. Moler holds her M.F.A. from UCSD and made her professional debut earlier this year associate directing POTUS at the Geffen Playhouse. Moler’s creative team includes Production Designer Brian McManimon, Assistant Director and Stage Manager Elise Joyner, Hannah McKechnie as the production’s dialect coach.
“Since first seeing Charlie’s play during my semester abroad London almost ten years ago, their play has stayed dormant inside of me and marinating for the right moment to express itself in community” says Langford in press notes. “Rarely have I ever felt so immediately seen by a piece of writing. The play speaks with refreshing honesty and timeliness to issues of what it means to process and move through grief (especially in the context ‘post-Covid-19’ trauma and global violence we are inundated with on social media), the channeling of female rage in the body of a woman who has a strong voice in the world, and asks the question ‘how do we move forward’ when it seems like the odds are against us.” Krank Brooklyn is an immersive environment and the perfect home for this production, where audience members will get to sit ringside in the space transformed. You will not want to miss this limited run!
Performance Dates & Times:
Krank Brooklyn (8 Prince St. 8FL, Brooklyn, NY) on March 16, 17, 23, 24 at 7PM. Doors will
open at 6:00 PM.
All tickets are $20 and can be purchased via Eventbrite.
Visit @bitchboxerbk on Instagram to keep up with all the latest news.
Photo by Thomas Brunot.
