Genesius Guild's “Women's Festival,” July 25 through August 2

Saturday, July 25, through Sunday, August 2

Lincoln Park, 1120 40th Street, Rock Island IL

Wrapping up Genesius Guild's 2026 summer season with a freewheeling, cheekily updated Greek farce, Women's Festival (a.k.a. Thesmophoriazusae) enjoys a run in Rock Island's Lincoln Park July 25 through August 2, this Aristophanes comedy sure to deliver laughs, commentary, and, as per usual, a madcap, Mack Sennett chase around the Don Wooten Stage.

Thesmophoriazusae is one of Aristophanes' 11 surviving comedies, and believed to be first produced in 411 BC. The play's focuses include the subversive role of women in a male-dominated society; the vanity of contemporary poets, such as the tragic playwrights Euripides and Agathon; and the shameless, enterprising vulgarity of an ordinary Athenian, as represented in this play by the protagonist, Mnesilochus. The work is also notable for Aristophanes' free adaptation of key structural elements of Old Comedy and for the absence of the anti-populist and anti-war comments that pepper his earlier work. It was produced in the same year as Lysistrata, another play with sexual themes. Although it isn't known how Thesmophoriazusae fared in the City Dionysia drama competition, Aristophanes' work has been considered one of the playwright's most brilliant parodies of Athenian society.

Directing and adapting Women's Festival is Michael Callahan, a longtime Genesius Guild veteran who previously helmed Antigone, Oedipus Rex, and Medea, in Lincoln Park, and also appeared in productions of Hippolytus and Measure for Measure. Reached for further comment on the show, his cast, and the process, Callahan was kind enough to reply. Here is his e-mail in full:

Women’s Festival

By Arisophanes (That’s my story and I am sticking to it)

As told to Michael Callahan by various people lurking in Lincoln Park

Performance Dates:  July 25, 26 and Aug 1, 2

Time:  7pm

Where:  Don Wooten Stage, Lincoln Park, Rock Island, Illinois, USA, Planet Earth, Sol System, Milky Way Low Rent District, Quanta Multiverse B279 etc

Director, Overlord, Writer, Fool who got talked into this:   Michael Callahan:

Asst. Director and I am holding her to that:    Alaina Pascarella

Stage Goddess:      Elizabeth Sager

Miracle Worker:       Josef Bodenbender

Clothing Miracle Worker:  Shannon Ryan

Peasants who agreed to paint many thing in blazing heat:  Miranda and Matthew Callahan

Cast:

Euripedes:  Joe Sager

Eumendedes: Jacob Lund

Servant 1: Kady Derbyshire

Servant 2:  Rodrigo Guevara

Weaver Moderately Paced:  Karen Riffy

Another Singer:  Stella Rider

Various and Sundry:  Joseph Bodenbender

Random People:  Jamie Bodenbender

More Random People:  John Donald O’Shea

Summary:

Ummmm.  Yeah.  We are still working on it.  We need $2 million to fix the stage and we try to get it from women who are holding a festival on the Don Wooten Stage.  Don’t try to read too much into that.  Still writing.  Something about oil.  Space ships, maybe.  Who knows.  Do you have any ideas?

Director’s Note:

Total chaos.  I am about to hand what script we have to the squirrels.  The cast is here because I feed them and lie.  A lot.  I mean whoppers.  Not little white ones.  

There will be puppets, I am sorry to say.  Even mimes.  Or at least A mime.  

The special effects budget is $20.  I am heading to a thrift store now to see what I can get for that.  I am hoping to have an IPO next week.  I understand that is something you do when you see that you won’t make a profit for another 10 years.  We are thinking of putting out a Meme coin with Creon on it.  

Again, do you have any ideas?  I am open.  Come out and see the disaster.  It will be like watching the Titanic, except we can’t have water.  So…imagine that for a moment.  No, really.  You can have fun, maybe pet a goat, or a squirrel.  We will have goats.  

Goats, Puppets, Mimes my goodness, what else do you need!!!!

Am I having a breakdown?

Genesius Guild's Women's Festival will be performed in Lincoln Park on Saturdays at Sundays at 7 p.m., and admission to the July 25 through August 2 run is free, though donations are encouraged. For more information, visit Genesius.org.