Bailey Swilley Brings Acclaimed Solo Shows to SoHo Playhouse

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Bailey Swilley's award-winning storytelling shows will run at SoHo Playhouse in lower Manhattan.

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Bailey Swilley , a New York based writer, comedian and storyteller, is bringing two of her shows to SoHo Playhouse in lower Manhattan this week: Gimme A Sign! on September 17 and 20, and A Baby For Me? No Thank You, Please! on September 18 and 19.

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In 2024 and 2025, Swilley took Gimme a Sign! to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, receiving critical acclaim in both runs. Gimme a Sign! was an official selection in the United Solo Festival, The Gotham Storytelling Festival, The Days of the Dead Festival and The Unicycle Festival, where it won the Audience Choice Award. A Baby For Me? No Thank You, Please! is fresh off a 2026 New York Fringe run, and finds comedy meeting body horror as Swilley explores the lifelong pressure from friends, family, and strangers to be a mother and how an IUD-related medical emergency made her reflect on the complexities of the choice to be (or not be) a mother.

Gimme A Sign! - September 17 & 20, 2026 @ 7 PM

A Baby For Me? No Thank You, Please! - September 18 & 19, 2026 @ 7 PM

SoHo Playhouse: 15 Vandam St, New York, NY 10013

Tickets for Gimme A Sign! are available at sohoplayhouse.com .

Tickets for A Baby For Me? No Thank You, Please! are available at sohoplayhouse.com .

According to Bailey Swilley , nothing is too 'woo-woo' when it comes to dealing with death. On Gimme A Sign!, Bailey talks about mourning, empathy, her relationship with her father, and her search for validation. The show flows between raw, lighthearted, gross, and fun, while guiding the audience through the kind of grief that cracks you open, and the winding road of piecing yourself back together. With the use of a slideshow, Bailey Swilley presents her childhood and early adulthood as a love letter and a contemporary ghost story packed with signs from the great beyond and millennial references. Gimme A Sign! is about the tools used and the things chosen to believe in to survive grief.

Director Timothy Dakin-Dunn is a multidisciplinary theatre artist, director, choreographer, writer, and performer with nearly three decades of experience spanning regional, Chicago, and New York City stages. He currently serves as Assistant Artistic Director at Bridge Street Theatre in Catskill, NY, where he develops new works, directs mainstage productions, and oversees marketing and public relations.

Timothy spent over a decade as a performer, writer, director, and producer in UCB's comedy scene, where he also served as Senior Producer for UCB Comedy's digital branch. There, he oversaw the creation and promotion of weekly original content, managing teams of writers, directors, and editors.

In addition to his stage work, Timothy has worked extensively in unscripted television, serving as a live host and writer for HQ Trivia, HQ Words, and One2Win Trivia, and appearing on FuseTV and Animal Planet.

With a projector, lots of jokes and some special effects, A Baby For Me? No Thank You, Please! is a theatrical and comedic story of one child-free woman's journey to self-discovery and acceptance.

A Baby For Me? No Thank You, Please! was born from the pressure storyteller and comedian Bailey Swilley felt to have a child right after getting married. After a childhood of being told she'd grow up to be a great mother, the pressure only grew after her wedding even though she was well into adulthood and had always insisted she didn't want that. To the most important people in her life, getting married meant that she'd come to her senses and would change her mind.

When her grandmother unleashes a motherhood campaign onto her, Bailey feels hopeless and like she's going to let people—and maybe even herself—down if she can't figure this out.

Knowing she can't be the only person who feels this onslaught of pressure, Bailey starts soul-searching by scrolling on TikTok, reading parenthood and childfree self-help books, pouring over think pieces and Reddit threads, listening to countless advice podcasts and talking with the women she respects the most. However, it's a very unusual gynecological situation that provides enlightenment, with a side of body horror.

'This show is deeply honest and vulnerable, and sometimes I worry that my audiences will judge me or think I'm a jerk because of this stance, but ultimately, it's my truth,' says Swilley. 'Also, the show is funny, so if people think badly of me, at least they'll be laughing!'

Along with a projector, lots of jokes and some special effects, A Baby For Me? takes audiences on one woman's journey to self-discovery, acceptance, and a little humiliation.

Director Desmond Thorne founded the independent sketch comedy group Nerds on Fire in 2013, where he got his start writing, directing, and acting in sketch comedy. In 2014, he joined one of first BoogieManja sketch teams, Allison Janney , as an actor. He later directed four BoogieManja teams, was a member of the Directing Fellowship at the Magnet Theater and taught an Acting for Sketch class at the Magnet as well. He is also a Film Programmer at Nitehawk Cinema and a filmmaker.

Bailey Swilley is a writer, comedian and storyteller from Memphis, Tennessee. A Moth StorySLAM winner and a (twice) New York Times Recommended Pick, Bailey's stories have been featured on Kevin Allison's storytelling show RISK! , Story Collider , Love Hurts and more. In 2024 and 2025, she brought both Don't Tell Our Bosses and Gimme A Sign! to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to rave reviews. She is also a screenwriter, and her spec script for Better Things was a semifinalist in the Austin Film Festival competition. Since 2021, she's hosted the monthly storytelling show We ❤️ a Theme at Pete's Candy Store in Brooklyn, NY.

More on Bailey Swilley is available at baileyswilley.com and on Instagram and Substack .

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/cabaret/article/Gimme-A-SIGN-and-A-BABY-FOR-ME-NO-THANK-YOU-PLEASE-to-Play-SoHo-Playhouse-20260915)._