The acclaimed play School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play by Tony Award-nominated playwright Jocelyn Bioh is wrapping up its Broadway run this week. Set in a Ghanaian boarding school in 1986, the production examines the fierce competition among teenage girls vying to become Miss Ghana 1986 and advance to the Miss Global Universe pageant.
Plot and universal themes
The story follows Paulina, the school’s reigning queen bee, who regularly bullies her crew over their physical appearance. Paulina’s ambitions are disrupted when a new transfer student named Ericka arrives from Ohio. Ericka exposes Paulina’s toxic behavior and impresses the school with a performance of Whitney Houston’s Greatest Love of All. Because Ericka is lighter-skinned than Paulina, her arrival triggers a sharp disagreement between the headmistress and the pageant recruiter regarding who stands a better chance of winning the global competition.
Although the title nods to the 2004 film Mean Girls written by Tina Fey, Bioh stated she did not actively think about the movie while writing the play. After finishing the script, a friend and actress, Danai Gurira, described the characters as feral teenagers, leading Bioh to realize that the archetype is universally relatable.
A perspective on colorism
Beyond exploring 1980s fashion and teenage girlhood, the production addresses the issue of colorism directly. Bioh stated that she wanted to write about the topic based on her personal journey toward embracing her beauty as a dark-skinned woman, hoping to shorten that process for young, impressionable girls.
While the story is framed around Ghanaian women and girls, Bioh noted that the message connects with audiences from various backgrounds, highlighting colorism as a worldwide problem. The play features an all-Black female cast including Denée Benton as Paulina, alongside Lucia Aremu, Nia Otchere-Sarfo, Jordan Rice, Erin Morton, and Jasmine Amy Rogers.
Bioh expressed that the diverse physical appearances within the cast allow viewers to see fragments of themselves in the characters, regardless of their background. She mentioned receiving a message from actress Jenna Fischer days after seeing the performance, noting that the production’s message continues to resonate with viewers long after they leave the theater.
Final week performances of the production are available through livestream broadcasts on The League of Live Stream Theater website for a fee, though the stream is free for high school students.
