As an actor and director, Alicia Haymer looks for smart scripts and memorable characters. Jocelyn Bioh’s play School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play certainly fits that description. But with Nashville Repertory Theatre’s production — which opens Feb. 10 — Haymer is also looking to make a bit of history.
“I’m so excited to be making my directorial debut with the Rep,” says Haymer, who is the second Black woman to direct for the company. (Jackie Welch was the first, directing Marsha Norman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama ’Night, Mother back in 1989.) This is the first Rep production featuring a cast and design team that is exclusively made up of people who are Black, Indigenous or people of color.
“I was thrilled when [executive director] Drew Ogle first approached me,” says Haymer. “It’s an amazing script. But even more important to me is the fact that this is really a history-making production because it’s the first time the Rep has had an all-BIPOC cast and design team. So I absolutely jumped at the chance to be part of that. Any time I get the opportunity to be part of history in my hometown, I’m in.”
Bioh’s play centers on a group of young women at a boarding school in Ghana as they prepare for the 1986 Miss Ghana pageant. And while the subtitle offers a cheeky nod to Tina Fey’s hit comedy Mean Girls, Bioh’s script takes familiar teen archetypes — such as the “Queen Bee” and the “New Girl” — in a totally fresh direction.
“I think Bioh realized that the story would inevitably be compared to Mean Girls, so she gets that out of the way right up front with the title,” Haymer says. “And yes, you do have all of the typical cattiness and fun that you would expect from a play about teenage girls. But there’s so much more to it than that. You have all these powerful storylines coming together as she takes on serious issues of classism, pretty privilege and colorism.
“She’s really looking at how Black women are treated, based on how rich their complexion is or how much melanin they have in their skin,” she adds. “I mean, how do we define beauty? What is considered palatable? As a Black woman, I’m definitely familiar with those questions.”
But while School Girls explores specific issues and biases, Haymer says there’s an element of universality to the story and humor that audiences are sure to recognize.
“What Bioh does so brilliantly is she draws you in with humor,” she says, noting that much of the play’s comedy comes from its setting in the 1980s. “It’s often easier to set a play in a simpler time and place — before all of the current technology was invented. That allows the characters to exist more fully in time and space, without Google and email and smartphones. So in School Girls, we have one character in particular who tells all these outlandish lies and stories. And the other girls just believe her. They have no way of checking her facts, no other frame of reference. Then the new girl arrives and enlightens them — it’s like she is the internet for them. And it totally changes the group’s dynamics.
“I really appreciate plays that are not all neat and tidy,” she adds. “And School Girls is definitely that way. It’s not all tied up in a bow at the end, but it’s so powerful. It sort of leaves a lump in the throat, and I can’t wait for audiences to experience that. I hope everyone will enjoy the comedy, but also pay attention to the truth behind it. Because a lot of what fuels that comedy is pain.”
Other upcoming performances:
The Nashville Shakespeare Festival’s Abbreviated Shakespeare,
Jan. 20-21 at Williamson County Performing Arts Center at Academy Park
Marcus Hummon’s Favorite Son, Jan. 21-23 at Nashville Opera’s Noah Liff Opera Center
Ernie Nolan/David Weinstein’s Peter Pan: Wendy’s Adventure to Neverland, Feb. 17-March 27 at Nashville Children’s Theatre
Broadway’s Mean Girls, Feb. 8-13 at TPAC’s Jackson Hall
The Prom
The Prom, Feb. 22-27 at TPAC’s Jackson Hall
Ronald K. Brown’s EVIDENCE: Grace, Mercy, and The Equality of Night and Day, Feb. 10-12 at OZ Arts
Vadis Turner’s Portals: A Performance Party, March 4-5 at OZ Arts
Nashville Ballet’s Lucy Negro Redux, March 18-26 at TPAC’s James K. Polk Theater
Gob Squad’s Kitchen: You’ve Never Had It So Good, March 24-27 at OZ Arts
What the Constitution Means to Me, March 29-April 3 at TPAC’s James K. Polk Theater
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