Welcome to Girlish by Alexa Derman
Whether this is your first-ever new play, or you’ve attended every Fresh Ink show across our eight seasons, we’re thrilled to have you join us for the world premiere of Girlish.
Adolescence provides a rich backdrop for drama of all kinds — that middle ground between girlhood and adulthood is often fraught and always more complicated than much of pop culture would have us believe. The joys and adversities of these years are all the more challenging when you add social media to the mix, where identity and self-presentation take on all kinds of permutations and there are always new, super-niche rabbit holes to explore.
This play brings us inside the tender, funny, and often awkward world of female friendship to explore the ways relationships change as we grow up. As you watch Windy and Marti navigate their teenage years, we hope their story gives you a pang of nostalgia. Maybe you’ll think of an old friend who fell out-of-touch long ago, or remember your daughter’s favorite doll. Perhaps you'll share a groan of recognition recalling the small tragedies and personal triumphs of your own young adulthood. Whatever your experience, thank you for sharing it with us!
Please Note:
This show runs approximately 65 minutes with no intermission.
Stick around for one of our special post-show events!
Post Show Social following the opening performance on Saturday 2/2. Toast opening night with the cast and creative team!
StageSource Gender Parity Party on Thursday 2/7 - Join us for a conversation with actor Atlee Jensen (Windy) following the performance!
Playwright's Night on Thursday 2/14 - Join us for a conversation with the playwright following the performance!
American Girl dolls Nellie and Samantha
Cast and Production Team
Windy - Atlee Jensen
Marti - Willa Eigo
AGBOI97 - Dylan C. Wack
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Playwright - Alexa Derman
Director - Melanie Garber
Dramaturgs - Corianna Moffatt and Ramona Ostrowski
Stage Manager - Cristina Dones
Assistant Director - Hannah Pryfogle
Assistant Stage Manager - Victoria Hermann
Scenic Design - Michelle Sparks
Lighting Design - Harrison Pearse Burke
Costume Design - Liz Fenstermaker
Prop Design - Moira Beale
Sound Design - Benjamin Finn
Special Thanks to…
Amanda Hurley, Kim Klasner, Shana Gozansky, Katie Grindeland, Ginger Lazarus, Lisa Nguyen, Nick Perron, Tyler Prendergast, Anneke Reich, Boston Center for the Arts, Lyric Stage Company, Dana Hall School, and Amy Boratko, Clare Barron, and the Yale Playwrights Festival
Girlish received a university production with the Yale University Dramatic Association in the Iseman Theater in October 2017 and additional development with Fresh Ink Theatre during the 2018/2019 season. Learn more about Fresh Ink and our mission to support new plays by local artists!
Atlee Jensen (Windy) is currently a junior Contemporary Theatre major at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Originally from Minneapolis, Atlee's previous credits include Gay Hot American Summer (2018 Minnesota Fringe), Broad Sex in the Twin Cities (2017 Minnesota Fringe), And Speak I Will (Boston Center for the Arts), Good Kids (Boston Conservatory Zack Box), and The Bald Soprano (2019 Orlando Mini Fringe). Atlee is also on staff at Company One Theatre as their College Coordinator. She'd like to thank her friends, family, and everyone who supports her.
Willa Eigo (Marti) grew up in Phoenix, AZ and earned her BFA in Acting from Boston University in May. Favorite roles include Kattrin in Mother Courage, Caroline in I And You, and Eurydice in Polaroid Stories. Willa is currently a member of New Rep’s 2018-2019 Classic Repertory Company. She plays Hermia/Snug/Moth in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Mollie in Animal Farm. Follow her insta @willa.eigo or her website, willaeigo.com.
Dylan C. Wack (AGBOI97) makes his Fresh Ink Theatre debut with Girlish. Selected area credits include Baltimore and Fiddler on the Roof (New Repertory Theatre), Antigone and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Theater in the Open), In the Forest She Grew Fangs (Also Known As Theatre), Seminar, Parade, and Cloud 9 (Boston University School of Theatre). He holds a BFA in Theatre Arts with a Minor in Spanish from the Boston University College of Fine Arts, and a Certificate in Classical Acting from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Dylan speaks Spanish fluently, having lived and studied in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is a member of the education department at the Huntington Theatre Company, and is on the administrative staff at Theater in the Open. Originally from Newburyport, Massachusetts, he currently resides in Dorchester. www.dylancwack.com
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Alexa Derman (Playwright) writes about young women. Development of ages past includes includes Cutting Ball Theatre, Fresh Ink, the Yale Playwrights Festival (2018, 2017), Runaways Lab Theatre, The Blank Theatre (3-time national winner), Young Playwrights Inc. (2-time national winner), Yale Dramatic Association, Yale Drama Coalition. Relentless Award Honorable Mention; Marina Keegan Award for Excellence; O'Neill NPC Semifinalist 2017, 2015; Jane Chambers Student Award for Feminist Playwriting Honorable Mention; Stage Left Downstage Left Residency Semifinalist; Echo Young Playwrights In Residence Finalist; Bay Area Playwrights Festival Semifinalist; Sanguine Project Playwrights Finalist; Kitchen Dog New Works Festival Finalist. BA in Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies from Yale. Much love and thanks to Michaela, Helen, and of course her ever-supportive family.
Melanie Garber (Director) is thrilled to be partnering once again with Fresh Ink Theatre after directing their inaugural production, Priscilla Dreams the Answer by Mr. Walt McGough. Ms. Garber is a Boston-based director, actor and playwright. Some select past credits include: Crave by Sarah Kane (Heart & Dagger Productions), The American Plan by Richard Greenberg (Happy Medium Theatre). Melanie's collection of short plays, Two People, received a stage reading at The Provincetown Theatre. Emerson College 2009.
Corianna Moffatt (Dramaturg) is a theatre artist and community builder. She is currently an MFA candidate in Theatre Education at Boston University focusing on Dramaturgy and Voice & Speech. As the Artist in Residence with Arts|Lab at Boston Medical Center (BMC), Corianna facilitates a creative group for women affected by violence. She is the Connectivity Associate at Company One Theatre in Boston and has worked as a dramaturg, actor, director, puppeteer, and oral historian up and down the East Coast. Past dramaturgy credits include: The Brothers Size & Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet by Tarell Alvin McCraney, Of Blood & Dirt by Jeremy Ohringer, and Femina Shakes’ Hamlet. Girlish is Corianna's first full production with Fresh Ink. #FreshInkRules.
Ramona Ostrowski (Dramaturg) has dramaturged four Fresh Ink productions including Girlish, having previously worked on La Llorona by Cecelia Raker, Clytemnestriad by A. Nora Long, and 1 2 3: a play about abandonment and ballroom dancing by Lila Rose Kaplan, in addition to multiple readings. Ramona is the Producer of HowlRound Theatre Commons, and previously worked as the Literary Manager at Company One Theatre, the Executive and Development Assistant at ArtsBoston, and the Literary Associate at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. An advocate for new plays, Ramona is a freelance dramaturg, reads scripts for multiple companies, and was a founding editor of the New England New Play Alliance's weekly newsletter. Ramona is a member of LMDA, and has a BA in English and Theatre from Boston University and a Masters Certificate in Gender, Leadership, and Public Policy from UMass Boston.
Cristina Dones (Stage Manager) is excited to make her collaborative debut with Fresh Ink Theatre. Her most recent stage-managing credits include Speech and Debate and O Happy Port! (Bad Habit Productions). Select performance credits include Curtain Up! (Bad Habit Productions), Roxbury Strong (Raw Fruit Arts), River See (The Theater Offensive), and Love of the Nightingale (Open Theatre Project). Cristina is the Manager of Community Engagement at The Network/La Red and received her BA in Women’s and Gender Studies (Brandeis University ’14).
Hannah Pryfogle (Assistant Director) is a locally based director and producer with credits at Boston Theatre Marathon, Emerson College, Brown Box Theatre Project, and Milky Way Coffee Roasters. Next up is “She Said...” Festival of Women’s Voices at the BCA in March. She proudly serves as the Patron Relations Coordinator at Fresh Ink Theatre. For Porter.
Victoria Hermann (Assistant Stage Manager) is a graduate from Ithaca College with a degree in Theater Studies, concentrating in Theater Education and Directing. This is her first production with Fresh Ink and she is excited to work with this company! She has worked in a wide variety of roles on productions, though favorites include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Director, Rebel Shakespeare Company), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Stage Manager, IC Macabre Theater), and Shrek JR (Stage Manager, Marblehead Little Theater).
Michelle Sparks (Scenic Design) is a BFA Scene Design Candidate at Boston University. She works as both a Scenic Designer and Scenic Artist. Previous design credits include The Underlings Theatre Co's production of What Rough Beast, Boston Playwright Theatre's/Boston University's co-production of The Tragic Ecstasy of Girlhood, Boston University's Particularly in the Heartland, Richard III, War Reporter (Opera Institute) and Punk Rock.
Harrison Pearse Burke (Lighting Design) is a Boston-based Lighting Designer and Production Manager. Harrison is the Resident Lighting Designer and Production Manager for The Yard, on Martha's Vineyard, where he has designed for Rosie Herrera, LMN03, Ragamala, Ruth Childs, Raphael Xavier, Caleb Teicher, and their own company, Dance The Yard. Locally, Harrison is the Assistant Lighting Director of the Boston Ballet and the Dance Production Manager of the Celebrity Series of Boston. Other credits include collaborations with The Davis Sisters, Danza Organica, The Wondertwins, Reciprocity Collaborative, Fresh Ink Theater, Heather Stewart Dance, Abby Bender, LanDforms Dance, Bonnie Duncan & The Gottabees, and Patchtax. Harrison is a graduate of the Boston University School of Design & Production, BFA in Lighting Design, Magna Cum Laude.
Liz Fenstermaker (Costume Design) is excited to be back at Fresh Ink after directing Distant Neighbors! She was Artistic Associate at Bad Habit Productions, directing Six Degrees of Separation, Top Girls, and Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde (IRNE, Best Director, Ensemble, Play), costuming Rooms: A Rock Romance and Orlando. Other directing: Hair, Sweetest Swing In Baseball (AFD); Falsettos (Hovey); 365 Days/365 Plays (Cape Cod Theatre Project), The Children's Hour, Doubt, [title of show] (Curtain Call). Other design: Pippin at Footlight. Upcoming costume design: The Revolutionists at Hovey. Liz is Performing Arts Head at Dana Hall School, where she teaches acting, directing, playwriting, and costume design to young women who will one day rule the world. XO family, cast, company.
Benjamin Finn (Sound Design) is a Boston-based sound designer and actor making his collaborative debut with Fresh Ink Theatre. His most recent design credits include Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Praxis Stage), Innocent Kind of Love (Double Take Fringe Festival), The Glass Menagerie and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (UMass Dept. of Theatre). Recent performance credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Apollinaire Theatre), Othello & To Kill A Mockingbird (Classic Repertory Company w/ New Rep Theatre), and In the Next Room, or, the Vibrator Play (Footlight Club). Ben also self-produces and performs original music through his recording project The Bonds and writes poetry and short stories; his poetry collection Orbituary (Winner of 2015 "jubilat makes a chapbook" Contest) received a limited publishing through literary journal jubilat. BA in Theater and English, concentration in Creative Writing (UMass Amherst ’16).
Thank you to our Season Eight Advisory Board and 2018/2019 Supporters!
Organizational Partner
Season Sponsors
The Fulton Trust
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