Various monster hands are depicted, spelling out the words Battleaxe betty in the American Sign Language Alphabet
project-proposal
BATTLEAXE BETTY AT HANOVER THEATER CONSERVATORY
About Battleaxe Betty
Battleaxe Betty is an ongoing collaborative education and performance project that defies expectations by putting “impossible” ideas onstage. The project sets up artist-driven learning and devising rooms that integrate assistive devices, ASL, audio describe, and captioning into the tapestry of a play. Battleaxe Betty pioneers storytelling techniques that provide a radically inclusive experience for artists and audience.
Hanover Theater Conservatory Program Outline
Each class is 2 hours long, one day a week, time to be determined. If there is robust interest, 2 sessions can be offered. Classes will extend 2 semesters, beginning in September. In May, there will be a showcase of scenes and songs created by the ensemble.
Throughout the 2 semesters, students will participate weekly in improvisation and acting exercises and games, work with a variety of onstage storytelling techniques, and devise scenes and songs around the fictional mythology about Battleaxe Betty. A showcase of “Battleaxe Betty” to be presented at the end of the second semester. Disability access tools will be used throughout the process and integrated in to the showcase presentation.
Why Battleaxe Betty?
Battleaxe Betty was a play conceived, written and directed by Molly Brennan and first produced at the Factory Theater in Chicago in 1997. She revisited the concept in 2016 with an ensemble of actors, singers, musicians, directors, disability access workers, and community members at American Theater Company in Chicago. The care taken in that room among the ensemble, in order that every person be heard/seen/understood was one of the most profound processes in her 30 year professional theater career, and built relationships she enjoys to this day.
Molly offers Battleaxe Betty as a shared mythology, an imagined collective memory. It is a mythology we can build together, and imagine we grew up with it. There are boundless variations, unlimited ways to tell the story, infinite fables featuring Betty’s adventures. Battleaxe Betty excludes no one from the myth, everyone is represented. Everyone is a character in the story, and Betty is everyone. The original tale of Battleaxe Betty traveling across time to recruit a rock star to fight an evil queen is the jumping off point for the project, but participants can go in every direction from there that they choose. With swords and guitars.
Skills learned
Acting, singing
Writing, improvising
Choreography, song writing
Ensemble devising, storytelling techniques
Captioning, audio description for live performance
Access
Classrooms, restrooms and common spaces ADA accessible
ASL and captioning provided
Audio description provided
Far UVC, HEPA filtration and masks provided
Plain language and visual guides for the building, the classes, and the showcase
Material designed around participants’ needs
Not yet disabled students welcome
Budget:
Teacher ($50/hour, $25/hour admin OR flat rate tbd)
ASL interpreters ($30-60/ an hour)
Composer/music director (flat rate for 3 songwriting sessions, rehearsal &showcase $500)
Audio description coach (2 hours in class coaching, rehearsal & showcase $200)
Mobility disability advisor (flat rate, evaluate space & share adjustments $300)
Apprenticeship Opportunities (stage manager, assistant stage manager stipend?)
Support staff (?)
Hanover Theater Conservatory Course and Showcase Schedule 2026-2027
September-October
Ensemble building exercises and games
November-December
Improvisation and scripting
January-February
Storytelling techniques and songwriting
March-April
Showcase shaping and rehearsals
May
Tech, Dress and Showcase
Alt text: an image of a red and black electric guitar on a cracked grey marble background. In white paint stroke font the words Battleaxe Betty A Heavy Metal Musical by Molly Brennan coming soon.
Made on mmm