Joey (Winnifred Bonjean-Alpart, third from left, and far right) becomes the target of rumors after being attacked by three male friends in the back of a taxi. (
)
‘Slut” is a powerful word.
The term has been around as a slur for promiscuous women for ages; at times, it’s also appropriated by women themselves to combat the idea that being sexually active is shameful (to wit, the “Slut Walk” parades in various cities around the country in recent years).
One hard-hitting Fringe Festival entry this fall, “Slut: The Play,” was written with and stars actual teen girls, who use the piece to explore the role this short but sharp four-letter word plays in their lives.
The plot, in which one girl is sexually assaulted by several male friends, bears a striking similarity to the events in last summer’s Steubenville, Ohio, rape case.
But Arts Effect All-Girl Theater Company co-founders Katie Cappiello and Meg McInerney say they actually began work on the play in January 2012, months before that case made front-page headlines.
“We created our piece from real stories from the girls in our company,” says McInerney.
“Scarily, the events in it are really universal.”
In the play, a group of high school girls have dubbed their dance troupe “The Slut Squad,” and at the start we see them playfully bantering with one another about their perceived sexual prowess or lack thereof. But when the main character, Joey (played by 16-year-old Winnifred Bonjean-Alpart, who attends Brooklyn’s Packer Collegiate), is attacked by three guy friends in the back of a New York taxi late one night, she finds the term being used to discredit her story — and how quickly allegiances among friends can fade in the face of peer and parental pressure to maintain the status quo.
“We have a diverse group of girls, who come from all different types of schools through the tri-state area,” McInerney says of the New York-based group, in which girls range from ages 14 to 17. “Their personal experiences are different, depending on their choice to be sexual or not, but they all see this culture — they’re surrounded by it.”
In addition to Bonjean-Alpart, the cast includes local students from Friends Seminary, LaGuardia High School, the Professional Performing Arts School, Hunter College High School and Saint Ann’s School, among others.
The playwriting process involved lengthy, roundtable discussions with the girls; the girls writing down some of their own experiences; improvisational scenes based on the discussions and written material; and finally, the co-founders drawing on all of it to craft the script.
In the “Slut Squad” scenes, McInerney says, the characters are trying to push back against “this injustice and imbalance between what happens with their male counterparts, and them. When boys are sexual, talking about masturbation or hooking up with girls, it’s all very positive — but the girls don’t feel that same way. And so the girls want to, in a sense, choose this for themselves. But to ‘own’ the word slut can be really harmful and counterproductive.”
Instead of gaining confidence, the girls end up absorbing the negative connotations of the slur, says Cappiello. “There has to be a way for our culture to accept that girls are sexual, without having them reclaim a word that at its core is degrading. There has to be another way, and there isn’t. So they fail at that every time.”
Adding weight to the reality of the play is the cast, in which some girls are starring in their first show ever.
“We don’t audition,” says Cappiello.
“We just use the amazing girls who are in our group. They recognize the weight of the material. Our technique is very Method-based — it’s all about the girls finding ways of connecting to the experiences of the characters.”
Many of the girls don’t see acting as their dream career, adds McInerney. “Their goals aren’t necessarily to be famous,” she says.
“These girls want to be journalists or activists or teachers.”
The theater group has some serious star wattage in its supporters, though, who include Amy Poehler, Hillary Clinton and Gloria Steinem, the last of whom called this show “truthful, raw and immediate” when she saw it earlier this year at a fund-raiser in Union Square.
The girls have indeed made sure the events in the play ring true, says McInerney. “They work so hard to put real life onstage. They know everyone might not like it. It might be controversial, and they’re kind of excited by that.
“There’s power when they come together as an ensemble,” she says, “to talk to people about the reality that a lot of people shy away from.”
“Slut: The Play” will be at the New York Fringe Festival from Aug. 19 to 25. More info at sluttheplay.com.