Season 2024-2025

In 2024-2025, LFL shares the stories of our Ancestors, Queer KY history and Eastern KY history!

For over two decades, Looking for Lilith has been at the forefront of innovative and thought-provoking theatre. Renowned for our dedication to producing works that challenge and inspire, we have garnered critical acclaim for our explorations of Kentucky history and the stories of underrepresented groups, including women, the LGBTQ+ community, and people of color. As we embark on our 24th season, we remain committed to this important mission.

This fall, we will conclude our Ancestors Project with a special public event. In late winter/early spring 2025, we will bring to the stage Clarity Hagan's Just Cause: The Story of the Lexington 6. As the season progresses into late spring/early summer 2025, we are excited to present The Book Women at various libraries. Additionally, to kick off its tour, we will reprise Morgan M. Younge's acclaimed one-woman show Lifecycle of a Blackberry at the Russell Theater. Stay tuned for more details!

Our dynamic educational and community outreach initiatives continue to thrive, reaching from the schools in Jefferson County to the communities of Guatemala. Through these projects and programs, we are dedicated to sharing unique stories and experiences, fostering empathy and understanding, and building stronger communities rooted in trust, equity, and justice.

The Ancestors Project has been a series of workshops that we started during the winter of 2023, where we use the past to create in the present. In this evolving community arts project, LFL artists have been leading participants in activities exploring stories of their personal ancestors who have inspired and guided them, and transforming these stories into pieces of visual and performance art that are shared with fellow participants. The creations from last season's and this season's workshops are now leading to the devising of a performance for this season, thanks to support from an NEA Challenge America Grant! We expect this culmination event to be in late Fall 2024.

Just Cause: The Story of the Lexington 6 - Experience the true story of bank robbers, FBI Agents, and six young people who made Queer Kentucky history. In 1974, two queer anti-war, bank-robbing women briefly hid out among the lesbian feminist community in Lexington, Kentucky, not revealing their identities to anyone. In the months after they left, the FBI descended on the queer community in Lexington, asking folks to give up all privacy and bonds of trust and community in the name of catching these two fugitives. Follow the story of six young people -- five lesbians and one gay man -- who made queer Kentucky history when they decided to resist this FBI harassment, even if that meant losing all feelings of safety and security, and even if it meant going before a judge and a grand jury. This new play, written by Clarity Hagan, is based on the book The Lexington Six by Josephine Donovan, as well as primary source documents. Performances will be March 6-9, 2025 at The Kentucky Center for the Arts.

“I am so excited for Looking for Lilith to continue their tradition of lifting up under-heard voices by sharing this fascinating and little-known piece of queer Kentucky History.” 
- Clarity Hagan, Just Cause Playwright and LFL Company Member 

Lifecycle of a Blackberry is a new LFL devised one-woman show, starring Morgan M. Younge, honoring the stories of Black Appalachian women and girls, which will be reprised this Fall at The Russell Theater, as part of kicking off its regional tour. This triumphant show uses as inspiration the books Blackberries, Blackberries; Birds of Opulence; and Perfect Black, written by Kentucky Poet Laureate Crystal E. Wilkinson, founding member of the Affrilachian Poet movement. By lifting up these voices, this play fights stereotypes and reflects some of the most under-heard true stories of the Appalachian region. Audiences from the March 2024 premiere described this show as multi-faceted, enlightening, heart-warming, empowering, moving, emotional, ingenious, eye-opening, extraordinary, inspiring and poignant. One shared - "As a regular consumer of theatre in Louisville KY, I feel like this was the most unique and engaging show I have seen in a long time."

"Lifecycle of a Blackberry is one of the fullest and most complex explorations of the identity of Black women I’ve encountered . . . Watching Morgan M. Younge occupy the stage in this profoundly moving one-woman show, one is keenly aware of stereotypes being turned inside out, upside down, and entirely exploded."
- Keith Waits, Reviewer, Arts-Louisville

The Book Women -  In the midst of the Great Depression, in a community crushed by the collapse of coal, and isolated by the very mountains they call home, a group of determined librarians take to their horses to reach the people of Eastern Kentucky. With a dedication equal to the US Postal Service, these “Book Women'' deliver more than the books and magazines they carry in their saddlebags. They bring hope. They bring dreams. They bring the promise that if we support one another, tomorrow will be better. The first performance based on this play by Rachel Bublitz will be in Spring 2025, with plans to bring performances to libraries throughout the Summer!

Along with our work on stage, and our regular In-School Drama, Before & After-School Drama, and Summer Drama, we are proud to highlight the following outreach programs for this season:

Faith Stories Project empowers women in Guatemala and the U.S. to artistically explore the complexities of how faith affects their lives. After 18 years of this cross-cultural partnership with only a handful of LFL members participating, this past season we had the opportunity for the first time to bring a large group from LFL to be in creative community with our Guatemalan compañeras of Colectivo Teatral Historias de Fe (HDF). In fact, this project is being reinvigorated, as participation is growing in LFL and ALL three partnership organizations - HDF, CEDEPCA, and First Presbyterian Church of Winchester (FPC). FPC introduced 3 new women to Guatemala and HDF invited 7 new women to the training retreat this July. That retreat focused on training that will allow them to more easily perform and lead workshops between our visits. Our next visit is planned for March/April 2025. Fundraising for this project is ongoing.

"Being able to reconnect with our partners in Guatemala with two visits in one year this past season felt like such a gift after not getting to travel during the pandemic. At this time, half of the 20 LFL company members have been to Guatemala with this project!"
-Jennifer Thalman Kepler, Co-Artistic Director and FSP Director

In Schools - LFL's diverse array of in-school residencies are designed to promote social-emotional learning and empathy building. We are thrilled to support schools, teachers, and especially students with these transformative programs. This year, we will be offering a variety of innovative programs, including Monsters Under the Bed and Even Puppets Have Problems.

GirlSpeak/YouthSpeak - This program encourages youth to "speak it their way". Guided by LFL artists, participants devise a play based on their own ideas, issues, and themes. Available as an in-school residency, after-school drama club, or summer intensive, it allows young people the opportunity to articulate who they are and what is important to them, during a critical time in their lives when their voices are often overlooked, in a safe and trusting environment. Planning is underway for the continued participation of Western Middle School for the Arts, Lassiter Middle School and Adelante Young Hispanic Achievers.