The origin story

AUDIENCE AND ARTISTS ALIKE had already heaped praise on Jocelyn Bioh as an actor through the years by the time she debuted her first professional play as a playwright, School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play, at MCC in New York in 2017. She originated roles in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time on Broadway and in An Octoroon and Men on Boats, among other works, off Broadway. Berkeley Rep was excited that an actor we so admired had written a play that made us laugh out loud. We were thrilled when our new artistic director, Johanna Pfaelzer, revealed that she, too, was a big Jocelyn Bioh fan, having developed Jocelyn’s Nollywood Dreams at New York Stage and Film in 2016.

Between our first encounter with Jocelyn’s work and today, School Girls has received a robust production life—the dream for any play! School Girls will collectively receive at least 11 productions across the U.S. during the 2019-20 season. It is unusual and awesome for a new play to be produced so widely in this country. This season, School Girls appears at The Goodman in Chicago, Portland Center Stage in Oregon, Pittsburgh Public Theater, the Jungle Theater in Minneapolis, Kansas City Rep in Missouri, and True Colors Theatre in Atlanta, to name a few.

School Girls was one Johanna’s first picks for her inaugural season, and the stars aligned for Berkeley Rep to produce the play. Director Awoye Timpo and Jocelyn had long wanted to find a project to work on together, so we were overjoyed to make the collaboration a reality.