'Real' college girls' problems central to playwright's work
College stereotypes come to life as the real girls go head-to-head with the copy girls in the new stage comedy Real Girls Can't Win!
Ohio University graduate playwright Merri Biechler's Real Girls examines technology, body image and popularity in an unnamed college as the election of a Miss Freshman B Dorm, a position that comes with popularity and power, draws closer. The play is set to contemporary female pop music that complements the all-female cast of OU undergraduate theater students.
In the play, Dakota Evans ' played by sophomore Katie Skelton ' is vying for the position against real girl Katie Rogers, played by sophomore Emily Ryan. Katie doesn't have a clique and is trying to find her place at college, but Dakota is a designer clothes-buying, tanning-crazy copy girl.
Katie discovers that being a copy girl isn't as effortless as it seems as she grows closer to Dakota over the course of the show.
Unfortunately, their friendship does not last.
Biechler wrote the play with the young actresses at Ohio University in mind, interviewing female OU students before writing. Although the play takes place at an unnamed college, the initial idea came from a Rolling Stone article about the alcohol-fueled party culture at Duke University, Biechler said.
I thought to leave here and not write a play for young women would be a waste
she said.
In Real Girls, college students' dependence on technology and risk of cultural seduction also is tackled with a humorous edge, said director Shelley Delaney. Girls in the show use an online networking site called MyFace to post rumors and plan events.
People make promises online that no one keeps in person
