School Girls or, the African Mean Girls Play by Jocelyn Bioh
The African American Theatre Arts Troupe, in collaboration with the UC Santa Cruz Theater Arts, will host its annual winter production online this March 4th-9th. RSVP for access and event updates.
Jocelyn Bioh’s award-winning comedy follows a group of schoolgirls vying for the title of Miss Ghana 1986. Pretty, popular Paulina is the queen bee of the Aburi Girls Boarding School, but her reign is threatened when the pageant recruiter is more interested in Ericka, the new transfer student from Ohio with a “more universal and commercial look.” Inspired in part by the real-world controversy surrounding the 2011 Miss Universe Ghana pageant—where a fair-skinned, American-born woman went on to win the title--School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play is an exploration of colorism and teenage ambition that’s “funny and fast-paced...[with] bouncy, juicy dialogue” (Vulture).
