Rachel Bykowski

Rachel Bykowski

Rachel Bykowski, a Chicago playwright, writes to explore the many facets of her identity. Her full-length, 28 Light Years From Now, is the winner of 2020 Getchell New Play Award. Her full-length play, Tight End, has been featured with The National New Play Network (NNPN) in a workshop at the Kennedy Center for the MFA Playwrights’ Festival in 2016, was a top 20 finalist for CulturalDC’s Source Theatre Festival...
Rachel Bykowski, a Chicago playwright, writes to explore the many facets of her identity. Her full-length, 28 Light Years From Now, is the winner of 2020 Getchell New Play Award. Her full-length play, Tight End, has been featured with The National New Play Network (NNPN) in a workshop at the Kennedy Center for the MFA Playwrights’ Festival in 2016, was a top 20 finalist for CulturalDC’s Source Theatre Festival in 2017, and received Honorable Mention for the Jane Chambers 2017 Student Playwriting Award. Her full-length play, Rev, was the runner-up for the 2018 Todd McNerney Playwriting Award, the winner of the 2019 SETC/Stage Rights Ready to Publish Award, and is now available for purchase on Amazon. Rachel's other plays have been produced and featured in festivals across the United States. Rachel is a playwriting alumna with NNPN and a member of the Dramatists Guild. She received her BFA in playwriting from the Theatre School at DePaul University and her MFA from Ohio University. www.rachelbykowskiplays.com  

Plays

  • How to Kill a Caribou
    Rose comes from a long line of wilderness guides. She and her brother, Clover, have led hundreds of fortune seekers as they make their way up North into the frozen tundra to strike it rich in the precious coltan mines. But now, the coltan mines are slowly starting to dry up, along with the all the natural wildlife and for that matter, that means food. But Rose is a survivor. She will do whatever it takes to...
    Rose comes from a long line of wilderness guides. She and her brother, Clover, have led hundreds of fortune seekers as they make their way up North into the frozen tundra to strike it rich in the precious coltan mines. But now, the coltan mines are slowly starting to dry up, along with the all the natural wildlife and for that matter, that means food. But Rose is a survivor. She will do whatever it takes to live. So, when two travelers come with a peculiar mission to explore the lands beyond the mines, Rose is ready to sacrifice it all to live another day.
  • Murder, We Spoke - A Podcast Series: Episode 1 - It Started With A Fire
    Murder, We Spoke unites my love of true crime podcasts and my passion for theatre. The play itself follows three women as they attempt to become podcasting legends with their true crime podcast, “Murder, We Spoke.” In the podcast, the women cover everything from unsolved murders to iconic serial killers. As the three women chase their dreams of becoming the number 1 podcast in the nation, they slowly start to...
    Murder, We Spoke unites my love of true crime podcasts and my passion for theatre. The play itself follows three women as they attempt to become podcasting legends with their true crime podcast, “Murder, We Spoke.” In the podcast, the women cover everything from unsolved murders to iconic serial killers. As the three women chase their dreams of becoming the number 1 podcast in the nation, they slowly start to embrace their sociopathic subjects’ lifestyles.

    Currently, we live in a time that is reminiscent of the Yellow Journalism age of the early 20th century. To make sales and achieve success, the more sensational your story must become at any cost. Murder, We Spoke explores the question, “How far would you go for fame?”
  • The Forgotten Language of the Handshake or The Torso Play
    Welcome to the United Levels, a distant future that is closer than we think. Formally known as the United States of America with parts of Canada and Mexico. Citizens are defined by the amount of debt plaguing their finances and divided by their financial status into Levels. Level 1 being the wealthiest, Level 10 being the poorest. Sachs, a Level 9, uses her position as a Personal Journalist to help bring a...
    Welcome to the United Levels, a distant future that is closer than we think. Formally known as the United States of America with parts of Canada and Mexico. Citizens are defined by the amount of debt plaguing their finances and divided by their financial status into Levels. Level 1 being the wealthiest, Level 10 being the poorest. Sachs, a Level 9, uses her position as a Personal Journalist to help bring a sense of checks and balances to this capitalist driven future. She will always report the facts objectively, no matter how damning. Sachs finds herself working with an up and coming tech company that promises to bring equality through its questionable medical advances. She is forced to analyze her own moral code when asked how much she would sacrifice to raise her level and what would she charge for a literal piece of herself.
  • 28 Light Years From Now
    Full-Length Play | Winner of the 2020 SETC Getchell New Play Award | Time travel is possible when there are stars and regrets. In 1942, Josie and Fran meet at their secret rendezvous point to talk of the stars, love, and their future together. However, their love is tested when Fran reveals that she is leaving to help the War effort with the WAAC (Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps). Josie, unable to move past her...
    Full-Length Play | Winner of the 2020 SETC Getchell New Play Award | Time travel is possible when there are stars and regrets. In 1942, Josie and Fran meet at their secret rendezvous point to talk of the stars, love, and their future together. However, their love is tested when Fran reveals that she is leaving to help the War effort with the WAAC (Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps). Josie, unable to move past her family’s painful history with war, deserts Fran and they never speak again until Josie hears of Fran’s death in the War. 28 years later, Josie, now a mother, receives a letter from a woman in London who found an old photo of her recently deceased mother and Josie together. The woman is Fran’s grown daughter, Annabelle. Josie sets off on a journey, leaving her daughter, life, and the present behind to revisit the past one more time as she attempts to fix her broken heart from 28 years ago.
  • Rev
    Full-Length Play | Winner of the 2019 SETC/Stage Rights Ready To Publish Award | Camaro Gibson loves only three things in this life: strawberry glazed donuts, her daddy, and Route 66. Born and raised on the Southside of Chicago, Camaro keeps her daddy’s heart in their family’s repair shop: a 1967 Chevy Camaro engine. For the last five years, since her daddy passed away, she has been trying to get that baby to...
    Full-Length Play | Winner of the 2019 SETC/Stage Rights Ready To Publish Award | Camaro Gibson loves only three things in this life: strawberry glazed donuts, her daddy, and Route 66. Born and raised on the Southside of Chicago, Camaro keeps her daddy’s heart in their family’s repair shop: a 1967 Chevy Camaro engine. For the last five years, since her daddy passed away, she has been trying to get that baby to rev and hear its heartbeat one last time before she lets him go.
  • Tight End
    Ash (believe me, you do not want to call her “Ashley”) Miller’s dream is to catch the winning touchdown pass for the Westmont High Titans’ Homecoming game. Football is in her blood. In order to make the team, Ash will have to prove she is one of the guys even if that means sacrificing her body for the love of the game.
  • Always
    ALWAYS explores the relationship between a single father and his daughter. The character of Daughter has locked herself in the bathroom after a mortifying experience with her first period. It is now up to the character of Father to help support his daughter and help her realize her own strength and courage as she enters this new phase in her life.
  • Bodies
    Sergeant W. is one of the few, the proud...a mother fucking Marine. She's trained, she's disciplined, but now she is home and the fighting still continues. She has witnessed first hand the power of an automatic assault rile and decided the best way to respect the weapon, is to leave it in the combat zone. However, the assault rifle has found her way back into Sergeant W.'s life and longs for W....
    Sergeant W. is one of the few, the proud...a mother fucking Marine. She's trained, she's disciplined, but now she is home and the fighting still continues. She has witnessed first hand the power of an automatic assault rile and decided the best way to respect the weapon, is to leave it in the combat zone. However, the assault rifle has found her way back into Sergeant W.'s life and longs for W. to hold her again. Its got a new body and name, a semi-automatic AR-15, but for Sergeant W. the violence is still the same.
  • The Big Fuckin' Giant
    Darren is the Big Fuckin’ Giant. He is ranked 3rd in the nation for collegiate wrestling and the leading athlete at the Alpha Psi fraternity. The day before the NCAA conference, Darren announces to his teammates, Chris and Bill, he is leaving wrestling. However, a promise he made to Chris, the runt of the team, keeps Darren on the mat for one more night. Darren must help Chris become an official “Alpha” by...
    Darren is the Big Fuckin’ Giant. He is ranked 3rd in the nation for collegiate wrestling and the leading athlete at the Alpha Psi fraternity. The day before the NCAA conference, Darren announces to his teammates, Chris and Bill, he is leaving wrestling. However, a promise he made to Chris, the runt of the team, keeps Darren on the mat for one more night. Darren must help Chris become an official “Alpha” by using a Judy blow-up doll. The more Darren starts to embrace the fraternity ritual, the harder it becomes for him to leave the mat.

    The Big Fuckin' Giant specifically analyzes white, male privilege and how it contributes to violence against women.
  • Final Exam
    On "Not Earth," students are preparing for their final exams to gain clearance to attend Cerebral Intelligence Universe and become a Creator. If they do not pass, they are destined to live as a mute Sanitation Pawn unable to pass on their genetic code. Student 1 sits eager, ready to present their final exam. However, in their hands they hold a world that is on the brink of collapse due to its species...
    On "Not Earth," students are preparing for their final exams to gain clearance to attend Cerebral Intelligence Universe and become a Creator. If they do not pass, they are destined to live as a mute Sanitation Pawn unable to pass on their genetic code. Student 1 sits eager, ready to present their final exam. However, in their hands they hold a world that is on the brink of collapse due to its species violent nature, greed, and apathy towards their planet's rising temperatures. Student 1 should terminate the failed project and move onto a more advanced species, but something keeps them holding onto this strange place called Earth.
  • How to Chop Down an Infected Ash Tree
    A radio, horror play about Mama and her daughter Biddy. You see, this is Mama's house, Mama's land, and Mama's forest. Been that way since Gran-nana laid claim on this plot of earth. But now, trespassers have come: first it was the wild boars, then the hunters, finally it's borer beetle gnawing and chewing its way into the roots of all of Gran-nana's ash trees. Only one way to get rid...
    A radio, horror play about Mama and her daughter Biddy. You see, this is Mama's house, Mama's land, and Mama's forest. Been that way since Gran-nana laid claim on this plot of earth. But now, trespassers have come: first it was the wild boars, then the hunters, finally it's borer beetle gnawing and chewing its way into the roots of all of Gran-nana's ash trees. Only one way to get rid of an infection. Mama teaches Biddy, when a tree has gone bad, gotta chop it down.
  • Fuck Your Motivation, Fuck Your Productivity, But Most Of All, Fuck Your Quarantine Play
    Person: "dID yOu KnOw ShAKeSpEaRe wRoTe kING LeAr WHiLe in QuArAnTine fRoM tHe PLaGggguuuEeeee?"

    Me: ::Blinks:: "Fuck you."
  • Shop @Bunny4URFooFoo on ETSY
    It is day "who knows" of isolation. The color of the grass, the cold breeze, and the calendar on the wall estimates early March; year unknown. On a crisp dawn, in a midwest suburb, Big B surveys her kingdom. She is queen of this cul-de-sac. The lengthy days in quarantine have now put her family at risk and she must go back into business to save the women of this nation. Her traps are set, knife in her...
    It is day "who knows" of isolation. The color of the grass, the cold breeze, and the calendar on the wall estimates early March; year unknown. On a crisp dawn, in a midwest suburb, Big B surveys her kingdom. She is queen of this cul-de-sac. The lengthy days in quarantine have now put her family at risk and she must go back into business to save the women of this nation. Her traps are set, knife in her right hand, and a chardonnay in her left, she waits and teaches her daughter, Lil' B, the ways of womanhood.
  • Flesh, Blood, & Glass
    Introducing “The Strongest Man in the World!” His hands are registered weapons. He can bend steel or punch a hole through a foot of concrete. Anything he grasps doesn’t stand a chance! He was born with this privilege, but now he faces his greatest fear yet: holding a delicate, glass figurine. He won’t leave from his seclusion until he can hold the glass figure. However, if he doesn’t learn soon, he’s going to...
    Introducing “The Strongest Man in the World!” His hands are registered weapons. He can bend steel or punch a hole through a foot of concrete. Anything he grasps doesn’t stand a chance! He was born with this privilege, but now he faces his greatest fear yet: holding a delicate, glass figurine. He won’t leave from his seclusion until he can hold the glass figure. However, if he doesn’t learn soon, he’s going to miss the birth of his daughter.
  • The House the Grants Built
    Lisa and her daughter Rebecca are busy cleaning out the basement of their Great, Great, Great Grandmother, Rebecca May Grant's house. This house has been in the Grant family since 1850. History was made here. This house saw three generations of women fight for women's rights in the Suffrage Movement. Now, the Great, Great, Great Granddaughter, Rebecca, is ready to carry her namesake into Congress as...
    Lisa and her daughter Rebecca are busy cleaning out the basement of their Great, Great, Great Grandmother, Rebecca May Grant's house. This house has been in the Grant family since 1850. History was made here. This house saw three generations of women fight for women's rights in the Suffrage Movement. Now, the Great, Great, Great Granddaughter, Rebecca, is ready to carry her namesake into Congress as she prepares to run for Senator of Maryland. Rebecca would make her foremothers proud being liberal, pro-choice, and for all women's rights. However, the deeper Lisa and Rebecca dig into the clutter of the basement, the more family secrets they discover that they would have preferred left hidden.
  • Blueberry Pie
    A short, one woman play about Lizzie who stands in front of a potential lover and decides if he deserves her grandmother's secret blueberry pie recipe.
  • For California...With Love, Norma Jeane
    California “Callie” Clarke is an undergraduate film student attending the university of her dreams. Only 50 students are accepted into Knox University’s Film program; 25 will be cut by the end of the first year. If that were not enough, the University’s tuition is far from cheap. In order to pay the high tuition, Callie gets in front of the camera as Norma Jeane, her internet porn persona. She juggles her life...
    California “Callie” Clarke is an undergraduate film student attending the university of her dreams. Only 50 students are accepted into Knox University’s Film program; 25 will be cut by the end of the first year. If that were not enough, the University’s tuition is far from cheap. In order to pay the high tuition, Callie gets in front of the camera as Norma Jeane, her internet porn persona. She juggles her life as Norma Jeane and as Callie trying to prove she belongs in the elite film program. When her identity as Norma Jeane is discovered, Callie decides to fight against the rampant slut shaming and prove the value of her art and body.
  • Making Charlie or A Girl Named Charlie
    Charlie is finally the starting pitcher for the St. Joseph’s Wolves high school baseball team. Pitching is all Charlie wants to do. Pitching a no-hitter means control and all Charlie wants is control of that mound. But Charlie has a secret that makes her different from the rest of the boys on the field. Charlie is actually a girl who has been pretending to be a boy since childhood. When St. Joe’s welcomes Amy,...
    Charlie is finally the starting pitcher for the St. Joseph’s Wolves high school baseball team. Pitching is all Charlie wants to do. Pitching a no-hitter means control and all Charlie wants is control of that mound. But Charlie has a secret that makes her different from the rest of the boys on the field. Charlie is actually a girl who has been pretending to be a boy since childhood. When St. Joe’s welcomes Amy, an ace softball pitcher with the fastest pitch in their division as the first and only girl on the team, Charlie must now defend her place on the mound.