“Real Girls Can’t Win” by Merri Biechler will be presented by the WVU School of Theatre and Dance Friday, April 10 & Saturday, April 11 at 7:30 p.m. in the Vivian Davis Michael Theatre at the Creative Arts Center. There will also be a matinee performance at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 12 and an evening performance at 8 p.m. on Monday, April 13. Subsequent performances will be announced through social media.

The premise of the play centers around college freshman Katie, who considers herself a “real girl,” but when beauty queen and member of the “Slut Movement” Dakota announces she’s running for “Miss Freshman B Dorm,” Katie joins the race in the name of “real girls” everywhere.

As war rages, the battle between the “real girls” and “copy girls” quickly becomes ruthless. Everything from sex for power, body image, drug use and humiliation are at play—that is, until the reality of a shamed student’s suicide after a night of binge drinking makes everyone reevaluate what really matters in life.

“Real Girls Can’t Win” director Bryce Britton is the new director of Musical Theatre at WVU. Britton and his cast of Theatre students are promoting the show on social media. They have developed a flexible schedule for the play that will have maximum outreach potential for the entire university and the surrounding community.

“We are creating ‘Real Girls Can’t Win’ to be a completely mobile production that can be performed nearly anywhere,” Britton said. “All we will need is electrical power and approximately 80 minutes. The purpose of this show is to reach as many students as possible. We will come into dorm rooms, classrooms—nearly anywhere—to reach as many students as possible. This is Theatre for Change.”

Theatre students performing in the play include Lindsey Wayne, Josephine Wangerin, Allison Chester, Alexis McNabb and Brianna Bowers.

Playwright Merri Biechler, an adjunct instructor of Playwriting and Text Analysis in the Theater Division at Ohio University, visited campus a few weeks ago to work with WVU students on the play. Her other works include “Bombs, Babes and Bingo,” a Clubbed Thumb Biennial Commission finalist, and “Confessions of a Reluctant Caregiver,” a Princess Grace Award finalist.

“Real Girls Can’t Win” was the winner of the Centenary Stage Company’s Women Playwrights Series in 2009.

-WVU-

sf/04/06/15

CONTACT: Charlene Lattea, College of Creative Arts
304-293-4359, Charlene.Lattea@mail.wvu.edu

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