Through my personal experience as a femme, AFAB (assigned female at birth), nonbinary person, media is so rarely successful at accurate queer coming of age stories. “Girly Girl” has set a new standard in queer story-telling through it’s rawness, intimacy and immersive multi-media aspect while still maintaining a feel-good and lighthearted vibe that charmed the audience. Lily Chrones’ is the co-founder and artistic director of The Euphoria Theatre Project, a new company that aims to highlight the LGBTQIA+ experience. Chrones’ is passionate about putting intersectionality at the forefront of everything they do and is clearly represented in “Girly Girl.”
This one-person production focuses on finding authenticity while growing up in the Golden Era of YouTube and features a multimedia immersion taking you through the life of Lily with real clips of their vlogging journey. This powerful and authentic play gave a first-hand look into the struggles that queer, femme, AFAB, people experience while finding their true self.
Walking in, pink and blue lights softly indulge the stage with the bisexual pride flag colors, as well as representing the internal conflict of the masculine verse feminine. “Girly Girl’s” set design was the perfect visual metaphor for the complicated intersectionalities portrayed in the production. Through manipulation of the minimal set, which consisted of a chair, a couple balloons, a prop laptop, clothing racks and a mannequin, Chrone’s was able to achieve a sense of dimensionality and passage of time, even creating the illusion of a private dressing room.
By physically moving and reshaping the scene, we see how the character’s internal self evolves with the set. Throughout the show, Chrone’s carefully and lovely dressed a mannequin representing the different stages of their life, showing love, care and acceptance of every step in their journey to find their true self.
As the production came to a close, I sat alone in the audience feeling seen and supported in a way I’ve never felt before, leaving only the urge to like, follow and subscribe.
For more information visit OrlandoFringe.org.
