Due to overwhelming demand, we added a performance on Wednesday, February 7 at 7:30pm. All other performances are SOLD OUT! You can join our waitlist by calling the Constellation box office at (812) 336-9300 (M-F, 12-5pm).

Overview

A play about words and the people who define them

When their Editor-in-Chief gets caught using some unexpected profanity, the employees of Webster’s Dictionary find themselves at the center of an internet uprising over gender and obscenity in the age of social media. As office politics collide with ambition, morality, and lexicography, the future of the English language hangs in the balance. A play about the power of words and the people who define them.

“A spectacular, witty, fast-moving, and incisive play about language, gender, the wage gap, and the big-little battles of everyday office life.” – New Play Exchange

2023/24 Woodward/Newman Award-Winner

Note: For detailed content warnings, click here.

Tickets on sale now

You can purchase single tickets OR become a Flex Pass Holder to save big, receive fees exchanges, and avoid all fees. Click here to learn more about the benefits of becoming a Season Ticket Holder!

Tickets are going fast! If a performance you want to attend is sold out, you can join our waitlist by calling the Constellation box office at (812) 336-9300 (M-F, 12-5pm).

Pay What You Will Thursdays: To keep live performance affordable and accessible to our community, we’re offering Pay What You Will Thursdays for all Mainstage shows at the Waldron and Ted Jones Playhouse! Book tickets for one of our Thursday performances of Webster’s B**** and you’ll get to choose your own ticket price (from $5-$75). Just select your seats, then you’ll be prompted to choose your ticket price.

Pay What You Will Thursdays and our Community Access Ticket Program are generously sponsored by Jessika and Bryan Hane.

Trailer

Gallery

Jacqueline Bircher (she/her)
Playwright

Jacqueline Bircher is a playwright born and raised in New York City. Full-length plays include Another Revolution, Webster’s Bitch, Enduring Atlas, The Once and Future Casey Colman, and The Rule of Thirds. Her work has been produced and/or developed with Gulfshore Playhouse, Primary Stages, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Playhouse on Park, Centenary Stage Company, City Theatre, Market Garden Theatre, Phoenix Theatre Company, and the Sam French Off Off Broadway Festival, as well as seen at universities across the country, including CalTech, LSU, and the University of Oklahoma. She has been a finalist for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, The Lark Playwrights’ Week, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, the NNPN National Showcase of New Plays, and was the first-place winner of City Theatre’s National Award for Short Playwriting.

Daniella Wheelock (she/her)
Director

Daniella is a theatremaker and community builder coming to Bloomington from Chicago. She graduated magna cum laude from Webster University’s Sargent Conservatory of Theatre Arts with a degree in Directing and was an Emerging Professional Resident at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre. She has three years of development experience writing grants and supporting arts organizations of all sizes in Chicago both as an individual and as a member of the Artistic Fundraising Group team. In her directing work, she has assistant directed at regional theatres across the Midwest, including Steppenwolf Theatre Company, St. Louis Repertory Theatre, and Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, in addition to directing around the country. Her most recent work in Bloomington was The Roommate in February 2020 at Cardinal Stage. Other recent directing credits include: The Rise and Fall of Holly Fudge (Phoenix Theatre | Indianapolis, IN); Hot Asian Doctor Husband (Alley Repertory Theatre | Boise, ID); Let Me Tell You: Stories of Asian American Authenticity (produced by mia park and Chicago Public Library | Chicago, IL); and Working (CATCO | Columbus, OH). daniellawheelock.com

Cast

Diane Kondrat (she/her)
Joyce

Diane Kondrat is more than delighted to return to the newly christened Constellation Stage & Screen. 2023 in Portland, Oregon was theatrically wonderful for her: a reprise of her Cardinal Stage role of Sister Aloysius in DOUBT, Tenkei and Ruthie in Amy Herzog’s Mary Jane, and Winnie in Beckett’s HAPPY DAYS. Kondrat’s most recent performance in Bloomington was the solo show at McCormick’s Creek Amphitheatre of EVERY BRILLIANT THING. Other forays back to the Midwest have included THE CHILDREN and SWEAT at The Phoenix in Indianapolis, and ANN with Cardinal. She is working on developing a solo show with teacher Paul Stein and has hopes that if Artificial Intelligence clones her, it will be based on performances recorded while in her 30s.

Henry Woronicz (he/him)
Frank

Regional work as an actor and a director include: American Player’s Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Arden Theatre Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Ensemble Theatre Company (Santa Barbara), Delaware Theatre Company, The Shakespeare Theatre, Center Stage, Meadow Brook Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Boston Shakespeare Company, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Hong Kong Repertory Company, and the New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Utah, Illinois, and Alabama Shakespeare Festivals; Eleven seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival as a resident actor and director, and served as the Festival’s Artistic Director from 1991-95; Executive Producer of the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival in 2008-09; 2009-12 head of the MFA Acting Program at Illinois State University; 2014-17, a visiting professor in the Department of Theatre and Drama at Indiana University. Broadway: Julius Caesar. Film: Primary Colors, Living Out Loud, The Good Catholic. Television includes: Seinfeld, Ally McBeal, Cheers, Fraiser, Star Trek, and Law & Order.

Jenni Putney (she/her)
Gwen

Jay Hemphill (he/him)
Nick

Jay is happy to be returning to Bloomington, where he was previously seen in the Cardinal Stage productions of Robin Hood (Prince John), Rounding Third (Michael), and The Great Gatsby (Nick). A midwest-based actor, theatre educator, and sketch-comedy writer, Jay has worked throughout the Midwest and Southeast for almost three decades. Regionally, he has been seen on stage at Phoenix Theatre, Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre, IndyFringe Festival, District Theatre (formerly TOTS), IU Summer Theatre, and BardFest, among others. In May 2020, Jay received a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre and Drama from Indiana University, where you may have seen him in The Goat, or Who is Silvia (Martin), Vinegar Tom (Jack), Machinal (George), and Water by the Spoonful (Fountainhead). Offstage, Jay is the Marketing and Development Manager for Dance Kaleidoscope in Indianapolis, where he lives with his partner of 17 years and their miniature schnauzer puppies, George and Otto.

AJ Huq (she/they)
Ellie

AJ Huq is a fourth year pursuing her B.F.A. in musical theatre at Indiana University. She is excited to be making her Constellation debut as Ellie in Webster’s B!+@#. Her previous credits include Veronica in Heathers the Musical, Medium Alison in Fun Home, Mary/Ensemble in Natasha…of 1812, and various others for IU Theatre and Dance. She’d like to thank her friends and family for their endless support in all of her artistic endeavors.