What would it mean to become Miss Ghana 1986? Fame, fortune, perhaps rubbing elbows with '80s superstar Bobby Brown? For a group of six teenage girls at the Aburi Girls Boarding School, the answer is: everything.
The battle for the crown is at the heart of School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play, written by Tony Award-nominated playwright Jocelyn Bioh. The play is ending a Broadway run this week and celebrating with livestream broadcasts on The League of Live Stream Theater's website for a fee (but is free for high schoolers).
School Girls is set at a boarding school in Ghana in 1986. It follows Paulina, the school's queen bee and her crew, whom she frequently belittles and bullies over their looks.
"So, do you want to be fat-fat? Or fit? And popular." Paulina asks Nana, harassing her over eating porridge instead of an apple at lunch.
Ahead of a visit from a pageant recruiter to the school, Paulina's plans to win Miss Ghana go awry after a new transfer student arrives: Ericka from … Ohio!
Ericka exposes Paulina's toxic behavior and shows her up during a performance of Whitney Houston's Greatest Love of All. Ericka, being lighter-skinned than Paulina, sparks a clash between the school's headmistress and the pageant director over beauty and who would have the best chance of winning the Miss Global Universe pageant.
Paulina becomes the victim of circumstances that she cannot control.
School Girls explores the themes of girlhood and impossible societal beauty standards with humor and humanity.
Although its title references the Tina Fey-penned 2004 film, Mean Girls, famous for its pink-hued portrayal of the toxic side of high school girls, Bioh says she wasn't actively thinking about the movie when writing School Girls.
After completing the play and needing to settle on a subtitle, Bioh found herself reflecting on the themes: "I'm like we're dealing with things and ideas and feelings and emotions." She said that her friend, actress Danai Gurira, described it as feral teenage girls. "I'm like, that archetype is incredibly universal."
A perspective on colorism
Beyond the talk about tiaras, '80s fashion and praise for Judy Bloom, School Girls tackles the issue of colorism head-on.
Bioh says she knew it was a topic she always wanted to write about after her own long journey to own her beauty as a dark-skinned woman. "I just wanted to write something that felt like it could maybe shorten the journey for somebody else who maybe felt the same way I did. Especially as a young, impressionable girl."
While School Girls approaches the topic from the perspective of Ghanaian women and girls, Bioh says the play's message has resonated with people from different backgrounds, underscoring that colorism is a global issue.
"'Cause who has decided that this one standard of beauty is the standard of beauty for everybody? I think that's a problem," Bioh explains. "I don't have a solution other than to, you know, create a play that people can feel entertained by or perhaps be impacted by, and hopefully shift their implicit bias as they move through the world."
The cast of School Girls displays a vast array of talent: Denée Benton (Paulina), Lucia Aremu (Ama), Nia Otchere-Sarfo (Gifty), Jordan Rice (Mercy), Erin Morton (Nana) and Jasmine Amy Rogers (Ericka), just to name a few. While it is an all-Black female cast, the diversity of physical appearance is clear.
"The audience, even if they are not young Black girls who went to school in Ghana, they still see facets of themselves in these girls. I think that's where the heart and beauty of it lies." Bioh says.
Audience reaction
School Girls is now on Broadway nearly 10 years after its Off-Broadway premiere. She says it's been a moving experience to see how the show's message continues to stay with audiences long after they leave the theater.
"I had a DM from Jenna Fischer of all people, who went to see the play a few days ago, and literally messaged me again today to say she's still thinking about the play," she says. "You know, how cool that someone who I just absolutely adore and also think is, like, a comedic genius, but who likely has never had any sort of experience with colorism, is still thinking about what the play is saying and how much it moved her.
For those who get to experience School Girls, Bioh hopes you have a good time and walk away with a deep sense of empathy not only for the young girls but for the adult women too.
"I ask people to shift their ideas about things," Bioh says. "If you can just move it just a little teeny bit, then I guess, you know, I've done my job."
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