The Yale Dramatic Association presents “Girlish,” by Alexa Derman ‘18, as its First Fall Ex.
Fifteen-year-olds Windy and Marti have been best friends for as long as they can remember. Marti knows everything there is to know about being a teenage girl, and Windy is eager to learn it all. One thing Marti doesn’t know, though, is how to be a celebrity of American Girl Instagram, which Windy is excellent at, from posting pictures of her dolls to making YouTube videos of her purchases. Her celebrity is enough to capture the notice of AGBOI97, a cute (and male) older ‘grammer who quickly becomes Windy’s confidante and AG-roleplaying buddy. Loving AG is babyish and dumb and totally embarrassing until it leads you to sexting a college student, and then it’s what, exactly? Based on the real-life world of American Girl Instagram celebs, Girlish (by Alexa Derman ‘18) is an unapologetically feminine take on growing up and growing apart. The play touches on Big Important Themes like burgeoning (queer?) sexuality, constructions of femininity, and conceptions of race, but it avoids being About Any Single Big Theme; it’s lovely and uncertain in its exploration of the complexities that come with entering adulthood.