ABOVE: (L-R) Aguel Lual, Phineas Slaton, Phyllis Yvonne Stickney, Massiel Evans, Jada Austin and Ivy Sunflower in “School Girls.” Photo by Chaz D Photography.
When Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj joined American Stage as producing artistic director last year, he promised to bring innovative work with transformative artists to Tampa Bay’s longest-running professional theatre company. It’s a promise he’s kept.
Those efforts are currently underway with Jocelyn Bioh’s “School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play,” first published in 2018 and directed by Maharaj himself. Drawing inspiration from the movie and musical “Mean Girls,” it takes place in an all-girls school in Ghana where “there’s a new girl in town, an American, who challenges the reigning queen bee.”
“Picture it. 1986. An all girls school in Ghana and there’s a new girl in town, an American, who challenges the reigning queen bee,” American Stage officially describes the piece. “There’s a prestigious pageant on the line, which could provide the opportunity to move up in the world to the lucky winner. This is a funny and touching story about the universal teenage struggle, and the need to feel like you belong.”
“In Africa and in the African American community today, people still wrestle with what is beautiful,” Maharaj – who directs the feature – also explained last year. “There is a misnomer in the world that if you have lighter skin, straighter hair and a thinner nose, that is true beauty … I think it’s really going to speak to young Black girls and young Black boys.”
“School Girls” addresses colorism among its themes, prejudice or discrimination against those with a dark skin tone, usually among those of the same ethnic or racial group. Its ensemble includes Phineas Slaton, a Black, LGBTQ artist making their professional debut.
Slaton, who is nonbinary, is a Tampa Bay resident who currently attends Eckerd College. Ahead of the show’s final week, they discussed playing the humorous Gifty, a character they describe as “a little bit of a wild card,” their own experiences with colorism and more.
WATERMARK: What drew you to the theater?
PHINEAS SLATON: I’ve always been interested in performing, ever since I was a little child. There’s a photo of me and I was three years old. I’m wearing like this purple dress and I have this wig on my head, and I’m holding a toilet paper tube singing into it as if it’s a microphone. I’ve always been so interested in performing and theater.
As I get older, and as I experienced different forms of art, I find that theatre is basically play. It’s one of the most basic forms of storytelling and pretending. We all do it and I just find that it’s such a pure experience, getting to play and getting to do theater, because it’s like sharing someone’s story that they may not see. Like, for example, with “School Girls,” there’s a lot of people in the audience who may not have faced colorism – and with the show they get to see that firsthand. They get to witness it by us showing them and telling that story. I find that theater is one of the most accessible ways to receive stories like that, because you’re watching the characters live. It’s one of the most powerful things about theater; it helps people understand others’ stories.
How do you explain colorism to those who aren’t familiar?
Well, within the Black community, when we’re born, we come out different shades. And as your skin starts to develop, sometimes it may be lighter, sometimes it may be darker due to your parents. Sometimes if you’re lighter, you’re favored. You’re light-skinned and you’re highly favored and everybody loves you – but then if you’re darker skinned, you’re ugly. You’re too dark. People don’t want to look at you. That’s absolutely insane to me, because I love people of all different shades.
The ways that light hits really, really dark skin is absolutely gorgeous … the way that light hits our skin, no matter if it’s really, really dark or light, it’s beautiful. And it’s the same thing with people with brown eyes. You can find the beauty in your own self in the small things. Everyone thinks blonde hair is beautiful and they don’t think about darker hair or curly hair, and it’s the same thing with colorism.
It’s difficult because we’re not seen as conventionally beautiful, so we have to find the beauty of the small things. So I think that’s the fun part. Finding the kind of light that complements your skin, finding colors that you can wear that complement your skin. Knowing that I have gold undertones in my skin makes me feel proud.
How do you think the show’s story can impact LGBTQ audiences, and how has it impacted you as a performer?
I’m an LGBTQ person of color and I think what LGBTQ audiences can glean from the show in being confident in who you are. And knowing that if you if you stick with believing “Hey, this is who I am,” and you keep believing in yourself, it doesn’t matter what anybody else tells you. It doesn’t matter if this thing was very important to you is overlooked by somebody else, because you believe in yourself so strongly.
There’s a moment in the show where Paulina is passed over because of something she can’t control, and even though it’s the color of her skin, I’m sure that an LGBTQ person of any shade would be able to look at that and feel something. Like, “I’ve felt that before, because they knew that I was gay, they knew that I was trans, they knew that I was a lesbian, and they passed me over for that.” Seeing that, and being like, “even though that still happened to me, I can still find solace with the people who love me, and I love myself.”
That’s something that I had to learn, especially with colorism because I’ve been dealing with that ever since I was a little kid. I’m still learning every day to feel beautiful in my own skin. It’s a process, but when I look in a mirror I’m like, my Black is beautiful. When I was little child, I didn’t see that, so I’m doing the show for her.
Why are you excited that “School Girls” is your first professional production?
It means that my dream has finally come true. I’ve done community theater and things like that, but getting recognized on this high of a scale is just amazing to me.
What’s it been like working with the cast and crew?
Oh, the cast and crew is so lovely. This is the first time it’s ever felt like a family to me. When I’ve done community theater and high school theater, sometimes I was the only Black person in the cast, or around at all, and I’ve had fun and gotten to know and befriended a lot of folks in past casts, but due to the subject nature of school girls, and due to the fact that we’re all Black, there’s a level of respect and understanding that is not present in other casts.
How do you describe “School Girls” to those who aren’t familiar?
It reminds you a little bit of Tina Fey’s “Mean Girls” in the beginning. But as it goes on, it takes on an identity of its own, which is the thesis of the show: identity and whether or not you want to be who you are. Whether that is culturally in Miss Eloise, or even living within your own skin, being happy with the way you look with Paulina.
How does your character factor into the story and how did you approach the role?
So Gifty is a little bit of a wild card, and I feel like I’m I am a bit of a wildcard in real life as well. Gifty, as I’ve discovered, kind of is the glue. She’s the heart of the group, where she uses her comedy, whether it be physical or telling jokes, to basically keep everyone happy and keep everyone together.
think the folks who are the happiest notice the most pain, and in my portrayal of Gifty throughout the past couple of weeks, I’ve noticed moments where I’ve connected with everyone; I’ve felt everyone’s pain and I’ve tried to help them. But in some ways, I can’t help everyone, and that’s how I feel in real life.
I am a very joyful person in my actual life. During the student matinee, the first question that was asked was, “Do you act like that in real life?” and I had to say, “yes, a little bit toned down,” but I am an autistic person of color. I really enjoy using big hand movements, I stim, dance, I sing, because sometimes I just feel so much emotion that I just can’t help but do those things. And in a way, Gifty and I are one in the same and she’s been a character that I feel has been the closest to my actual real life self that I’ve ever played in my entire theater history.
Why do you think “School Girls” is an important story to tell right now?
Colorism is still alive and well, and so is bullying. I think that it will take a long time for both of those things to go away; human nature of human nature, unfortunately, and it will be around for a long time. But if we can get the youth to see something that maybe they deal with, or something that they’ve done to someone else, and seen how it hurts other people, I think that little by little, the next generation will start to make that change.
I remember when students came in for the matinees, and they’re like booing and eyeing and watching Paulina. And they did not even like, give her any kind of positive reaction whenever like she said something. They did not like her because she was a bully. I think that played very well to how my castmate played her. She plays her amazingly, to the point where people did not like her because she was that much of a bully.
But then, when Eloise was telling Paulina that she doesn’t care about her, the audience just sank because even though Paulina was so much of a burden, she didn’t deserve that because that’s something she can’t control. So they were forced to watch that happen to her and think about how they may be thinking as well. That you can’t treat people like that.
People may be going through other things that you don’t know about, and that’s the fundamental basis of anti-bullying teaching practices. You don’t know what someone else is going through, so you can’t turn around and bully the bully, because the bully may be going home and have to take care of their siblings at night. They may be sleep deprived to the point where they’re just angry at everyone. You don’t know what people are going through, and I think “School Girls” is an excellent way to show people that’s so true.
What else should readers know about the show?
This is a very important show. A lot of people come in and they think “oh, it’s going to be ‘Mean Girls’ but it’s in Africa.’ No. Where ‘Mean Girls’ talked about a certain aspect of American life, ‘School Girls’ can have people relate to it from anywhere.
I’m not a person in Ghana in the 1980s, but I feel the show so hard. I’ve cried several times in the rehearsal process because my childhood is coming up, I’m feeling something that I’ve tried to push down for so long. I think this is one of those stories that needs to be told and that people have to witness of any shade, any age, any gender. It’s s a work of art. We can laugh, we can cry and we can understand things about other people who may or may not look like us.
“School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play” runs through Feb. 27 at American Stage, located at 163 3rd St. N. in St. Petersburg. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit AmericanStage.org.
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