Written by Voula and Chloe, Year 10
Last week, we, the Year 10 company, were finally able to perform our long-rehearsed play, Girls Like That by Evan Placey.
‘Girls Like That’ is a phenomenal play depicting the social pressures, digital impact, and gender double standards. The audience watched a group of girls grow up from a young age into adulthood. The play began with five-year-old St Helen’s girls on their first day of the reception. Twenty girls from different parts of the city, different backgrounds who might otherwise have ever crossed paths are specially chosen for their academic ability. They will be friends for life. Or at least, that’s what they say. Their closeness and blooming friendship are displayed in younger scenes – showing their unconditional loyalty and support to each other As they grow older, their innocent carefree nature is shed and forgotten. Friendship is no longer a priority and boys, popularity, and body image are.
I am very proud to have taken part in this play as it teaches a very important lesson – the reality of gender inequality, even in today’s society. It also shares with the audience the cruelty that young girls are capable of, especially during their teenage years, towards one of their own, Scarlett, the play’s main character. The play smoothly transitions between youth, adolescence, and adulthood, portraying Scarlett’s experiences with school life, and focusing on one very important event, the sharing of a naked photo of Scarlett among the entire school.
Between thrill-packed scenes where all characters interact with each other, four monologues, one for each actor, are woven, each, as we later find out, detailing the experiences of all of Scarlett’s female ancestors. Scarlett’s monologue, the last of the four, is in the form of a presentation to her classmates. This presentation, as we discover earlier in the play, was an assignment, previously set by the class’ History teacher, where the girls had to research their family’s female history. During the presentation, Scarlett presents her ancestors, the women in the four previous monologues, and gets the chance to scorn the girls who bullied her throughout her school years.
Rehearsing for this play was a very rewarding experience. It granted me the opportunity to develop my acting skills and strengthen my bond with my classmates. As a cast, we rehearsed once a week, on Tuesdays from 5-6 pm, which certainly didn’t feel like very long. There was, of course, the added stress of learning lines (and monologues), though that is one form of stress which I don’t particularly mind! One of our final rehearsals, a whole day rehearsal, took place on Saturday before the performances from 10-4 pm. This was a tech rehearsal, which meant that we got to interact with the tech crew as well, who were wonderful and really helped me picture how our performance would look with all the lighting and sound effects. The backstage and media crew worked really hard during those rehearsals as they were in charge of noting down what lighting/sound to use and a few of them helped us out of tight situations whenever we had a mind blank on certain lines!
Every rehearsal was very prompt and efficient. We always try to make the best of the time we have together. Although we have quite a lot of time before the rehearsal, we supported each other prior to them, going through lines with each other and helping each other with memorization.
As for the real performance, I think it went brilliantly. Regardless of the limited rehearsal time and difficulty remembering certain lines and cues, we got through it and helped each other out, getting through any obstacles with ease. We all supported each other through post-performance nerves and always gave each other supportive comments. One of my favorite moments was the absolute relief, pride, and joy we all collectively felt as we walked out the doors after our first performance. Overall, I think this was an amazing experience as I learned a lot more about the process of theatre and in addition got to know people better!