Contact Info
Email: Rachelbykowski@gmail.com
Twitter: rachb713
Email: Rachelbykowski@gmail.com
Twitter: rachb713
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
I write for my younger self:
my childhood
my adolescence
all the heightened teenaged anxiety and gross/beautiful puberty driven moments.
I write for my mom:
her dreams
her past
who she was, who she is, who she will become.
I write for my best friends:
their stories
their families
their wisdom and support as we grew together.
I write for new mothers:
single mothers
working mothers
the bravest, the strongest, and most loving among us.
I write for middle-class women:
working-class women
minimum-wage women
working paycheck-to-paycheck, waiting to kick off their shoes and undo their bras at the end of the day only to wake up and do it all over again women.
I write for anyone who is considered “the other” by society. I might not have lived their specific experience but I can write to understand
believe
support
listen.
I write for women because sometimes being a woman can be the loneliest experience of your life.
My plays seek to answer the question, “How do you build a woman?” Prompted by Simone de Beauvoir and her statement, “One is not born, but rather, becomes a woman,” I look inside of my female body and see my heart, guts, and blood. These are my writing tools. I have difficulty separating my writing from my womanhood. With every social injustice against my gender that is smeared across headlines, I feel the anger inside of me explode releasing my heart, guts, and blood to drown the pages of what will become my next play.
My plays explore the many facets of womanhood and raise awareness to social issues. I find myself analyzing male/female power dynamics, male privilege, and gender roles. The question, “What does it mean to be a woman,” haunts my characters. My womanhood, anger, and playwriting are tangled together in these knots of words I call my plays.
I once read somewhere that anger is just sadness wearing a disguise. I agree with this statement and would like to also add loneliness and confusion. My plays often start from moments when I am sad, confused and lonely. I think back to when I was a young girl experiencing a traumatic event. I would think to myself that I am the only person in the world experiencing this moment. No one understands me. No one will hear me.
As a theatre artist, I think about my younger self often in her moments of ultimate loneliness and I wish I could tell her that she was never alone. My plays are a way of screaming into a dark void wanting to hear more than just my echo. As I write, I take my sadness, confusion, and loneliness all wrapped up in this angry pain and shout my truth. I hope that when people hear my plays, even if it is just one person who feels lost, standing in their dark void, they will know they are not alone.
my childhood
my adolescence
all the heightened teenaged anxiety and gross/beautiful puberty driven moments.
I write for my mom:
her dreams
her past
who she was, who she is, who she will become.
I write for my best friends:
their stories
their families
their wisdom and support as we grew together.
I write for new mothers:
single mothers
working mothers
the bravest, the strongest, and most loving among us.
I write for middle-class women:
working-class women
minimum-wage women
working paycheck-to-paycheck, waiting to kick off their shoes and undo their bras at the end of the day only to wake up and do it all over again women.
I write for anyone who is considered “the other” by society. I might not have lived their specific experience but I can write to understand
believe
support
listen.
I write for women because sometimes being a woman can be the loneliest experience of your life.
My plays seek to answer the question, “How do you build a woman?” Prompted by Simone de Beauvoir and her statement, “One is not born, but rather, becomes a woman,” I look inside of my female body and see my heart, guts, and blood. These are my writing tools. I have difficulty separating my writing from my womanhood. With every social injustice against my gender that is smeared across headlines, I feel the anger inside of me explode releasing my heart, guts, and blood to drown the pages of what will become my next play.
My plays explore the many facets of womanhood and raise awareness to social issues. I find myself analyzing male/female power dynamics, male privilege, and gender roles. The question, “What does it mean to be a woman,” haunts my characters. My womanhood, anger, and playwriting are tangled together in these knots of words I call my plays.
I once read somewhere that anger is just sadness wearing a disguise. I agree with this statement and would like to also add loneliness and confusion. My plays often start from moments when I am sad, confused and lonely. I think back to when I was a young girl experiencing a traumatic event. I would think to myself that I am the only person in the world experiencing this moment. No one understands me. No one will hear me.
As a theatre artist, I think about my younger self often in her moments of ultimate loneliness and I wish I could tell her that she was never alone. My plays are a way of screaming into a dark void wanting to hear more than just my echo. As I write, I take my sadness, confusion, and loneliness all wrapped up in this angry pain and shout my truth. I hope that when people hear my plays, even if it is just one person who feels lost, standing in their dark void, they will know they are not alone.
BIO
. I was born and raised in Chicago. I write plays to raise awareness about social issues while exploring the many facets of womanhood . Specifically, much of my writing analyzes gender roles, male/female power dynamics, rape culture, and male privilege. My full-length play Tight End was selected to be workshopped by the National New Play Network (NNPN) for their MFA Playwrights' Festival at the Kennedy Center in July of 2016. Tight End was also a Top 20 Finalist for CulturalDC’s Source Theatre Festival in 2017 and received Honorable Mention for the Jane Chambers 2017 Student Playwriting Award. Tight End received its world premiere production with 20% Theatre Company Chicago and will have its regional premiere with Majestic Repertory Theatre in Las Vegas, NV in 2019. My other full-length plays have been workshopped with Chicago companies like Cock and Bull Theatre, 20% Theatre, Chicago Dramatists, and the Women’s Theatre Alliance. Recently, my full-length play, The Big Fuckin' Giant, was featured in a workshop with Relative Theatrics in Laramie, WY. My full-length, Rev, was the runner-up for the Todd McNerney 2018 Playwriting Award and received staged readings in the Piccolo Spoleto Festival (South Carolina), Players Club of Swarthmore (Pennsylvania), and The Chameleon Theatre Circle (Minnesota). My ten-minute plays have been produced in the Midwest and West Coast including Renaissance Theatreworks Br!nk Festival, Arc Theatre, Fury Theatre, Commedia Beauregard, San Diego Theatre Lab, and Actors’ Theatre of Louisville Apprentice Company. I am a playwriting affiliate with NNPN and member of the Dramatists Guild.
I recently graduated from the MFA Ohio University Playwriting program where I was the recipient of the Trisolini Graduate School Fellowship for my play The Big Fuckin' Giant. I received my BFA in Playwriting from The Theatre School of DePaul University. After graduating from DePaul, I worked with various Theatre Companies around Chicago including 20% Theatre Company as their Literary Manager. In addition, I worked with Piccolo Theatre and The Neo-Futurists in marketing, stage management, and different areas of design. If you would like to see the full extent of my playwriting and theatrical work, please see my resume.
I recently graduated from the MFA Ohio University Playwriting program where I was the recipient of the Trisolini Graduate School Fellowship for my play The Big Fuckin' Giant. I received my BFA in Playwriting from The Theatre School of DePaul University. After graduating from DePaul, I worked with various Theatre Companies around Chicago including 20% Theatre Company as their Literary Manager. In addition, I worked with Piccolo Theatre and The Neo-Futurists in marketing, stage management, and different areas of design. If you would like to see the full extent of my playwriting and theatrical work, please see my resume.
Email: Rachelbykowski@gmail.com
Twitter: @rachb713
Twitter: @rachb713