Directors Note
I must admit that when I first sat down to write this director’s note, it read more like a literary criticism essay than a note about my directorial vision. I wrote for a while about the parallels between the play and Lord of the Flies, about our society’s evolution of understanding gender, about the ways women are still oppressed in many facets of our society… and then I stopped. Not because these things aren’t true, but because they are not the most important factors that influenced me during the production process. The single most influential component of this show for me was the voices of the student company of Baalzebub. Their voices, their experiences, and their strength inspired my vision for this production, and will continue to inspire me as a teacher for years to come.
One day, we set off to analyze the show’s themes and ended up in a discussion about what it feels like to be a girl today. The way these young people spoke about their experiences made me simultaneously sad and proud. Sad to hear the words that had been used against them, the way they had been made to feel about their bodies, the ways others had tried to silence them; but proud of the ways they articulated their experiences, spoke up against injustices, and above all, supported one another. I left that virtual rehearsal with tears in my eyes, and renewed hope for the future.
The story we tell today is an adaptation of a novel most of us read in high school, with themes about human nature and the power of choice in determining our destiny. But it is also the story of a group of young people who have been abandoned, hurt, disregarded, and disrespected because of their gender, who have to make difficult choices, and who ultimately decide “let all of us live here as equals, no matter what our choices are”.
Music Choices
Selecting transition music was a big part of the creative process, and of course we wanted the students to be involved. We knew we wanted to choose empowering anthems, as this play focuses so much on stereotypes and how women are treated in society. These songs break the mold and unite women whilst giving us a new view on our show. How things may be different if these girls were “the man”, how they learn and grow to become more “confident”, and to keep going through obstacles and spread their “wings”. At the end, we juxtapose what these young women have experienced with society’s expectations of women with “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”. The students put it best when they explained how it was nice to take a step back from the world of the play, where these women seem to be initially divided, and to have a reminder to be sure of oneself, proud of it, and to celebrate it.
