Tight End presented by 20% Theatre Company Chicago at Pride Arts Center - The Buena

Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended

"...The very existence of the internet should (but doesn't) automatically take this story into a different realm. Millennials have easy access to information. A lot of information. So while Ash and those around her pretend her situation is eye-poppingly novel, it's actually pretty strange that it never occurs to them to Google "female football players." What they would find is that it may not be common, but it's not unusual either. According to USA Football, in 2015 some 25,000 girls played football at the youth level. Doesn't mean it's easy. Or not a story worth telling over and over again."

Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended

"...20 Percent Theatre retreads the outworn conventions of sports drama with an added, terrible measure of pain and heart."

Windy City Times - Highly Recommended

"...Playwright Rachel Bykowski and director Kallie Noelle Rolison are to be commended for their refusal to traffic in propagandistic caricature, instead striving for the tragic inevitability of noble intentions undone by obsessive hubris. Erich Peltz, Rachel Mock and Patrick Pantelis ( whose rejection of Vince Lombardi-wannabe mannerisms in his portrayal of Coach D is palpably manifest ) deftly circumvent stereotypes to create personalities flawed, but never malicious. At the center of the action, however is Bryce Saxon's Ash, proclaiming her ambitions with heroic defiance while reveling in the pain and the passion that will prove her undoing."

ChicagoCritic - Somewhat Recommended

"...To conclude, Tight End is a drama (with elements of comedy) about social issue: of them, foremost being the tradition of assumptions on woman vis-à-vis men, here shown in the context of small town, high school football. To someone who is indifferent on this issue (and most social issues), I found the portrayal somewhat convincing; nevertheless, I respected playwright Bykowski's story-telling ability and her passion for her subject, especially because, for all its direct-address monologues, the play only seldom comes across as "preachy" (as opposed to some staged, vitriolic sermons I've encountered). Ironically, the inclusion of the particular comedic elements I referenced above makes this play most appealing to feminists and social-conscious theatre-goers-just the audience that probably doesn't need to be "woke" by Bykowski's awareness."