The Sporting Life

As a girl, I was told I could be anything I wanted. Girl power! Reach for the stars! Messages that made me believe the world was fair and there would be a space for me in every room I chose.

I was sensitive. A crybaby. But so happy. So safe.

Which was why entering the real world was desperately painful. I was shown the inequities of life as a woman, some profound and others as simple as walking down the street.

Inequities I would now face since I was no longer a girl.

At first, it was confusing. Confusion turned to discomfort. Discomfort turned to distress, which only broke when I realized the truth: I had been sold a lie. Sent Edible Arrangement of rotting fruit.

Then the anger arrived. Rage. It terrified me. My anger was untamed, arriving all at once. I wanted to get rid of it, be the happy little girl I once was, blessed with naivete and sheltered from the truth that this world was not made for me.

This anger scared other people too. They tried to modulate it, worried I might self-immolate in the flames of feminist rage. But I was too clear-eyed to ignore the truth. I realized I would have to make friends with my anger. I found peace with her. I wrote about her.

I wrote The Sporting Life.

Dot learns the lessons of rage earlier than me. Stokes her anger more violently than me. But in writing The Sporting Life, writing her grotesque journey from girl to “woman”, Dot taught me something important.

Anger is not a weakness.

No, anger takes guts.

After directing the staged reading of The Sporting Life at The Understudy in 2023, I went out for a drink with my partner where we brainstormed and dreamed up ideas on how to make this play happen. The fights, the special effects, the sharp and otherworldly performances. I had such a clear and visceral vision of how this play could work, but I really just wanted someone in Chicago storefront to be brave enough to produce it.

Flash forward two years and here we are! One of my goals for this production was to put together a kick ass group of designers and production team members who all had a personal connection to feminine rage. They all brought their love of horror, intense concepts, unique skills, and joy or creation to the room. Casting is always a complicated puzzle, and we found people who wanted to bring these characters to life and had the exceptional skills to do so. Everyone involved brought 110% every day and dove all in with this production.

What you will see tonight (or today if it is Sunday), is the culmination of months of hard work from the entire team. They brought this story to life in a relentless, action packed, gasp inducing, hilarious, and vulnerable show. Dot’s tragic story feels out of this world and yet so familiar at the same time. The characters could be anyone you see on any given day.

There is such an undercurrent of violence in our current world, especially against women. What would it be like if that was flipped? If men carried pepper spray on their keys and made the choice to take an uber home late instead of risking waiting alone at a bus station? The Sporting Life examines a world where women have been pushed to the limit and become monsters themselves. There is no fear of bloodshed when you bleed every month. What happens when the people who are supposed to protect you are the ones who betray you? A best friend? A teacher? A parent? Who is there to protect you from yourself and the decisions you will make?