Photo credit: Paul Ruffolo
In a world premiere written especially for First Stage’s Young Company, Girls in the Boat takes audiences on a bracing, 80-minute ride through US women’s rowing history. In 1975, the Yale University women’s rowing team protested to the athletic department for equal funding and conditions under the federal government’s Title IX provisions. This event drew national attention for equality in women’s collegiate sports and also inspired playwright-producer Alice Austen.
As the play points out, the 11 girls in the cast share not only a love of rowing and competition but must also learn the art of girl bonding. This is a key difference from men’s sports, Austen believes. Girls in the Boat opens on a relatively simple set consisting of platforms and wood-topped locker room seating. The greenish walls of the backdrop could represent a gym, or a boat house. The raised wood seating becomes the “boat” in which the girls test their mettle. About a fourth of the play takes place while the cast is “rowing” with imaginary oars.
The nine girls on the rowing crew are dressed in matching white tank tops and red gym shorts. The cast’s other two performers are dressed in men’s clothes, as they switch roles between being coaches, dads, a reporter and various brothers. Director Marcella Kearns takes the girls steadily through this fast-paced script, which mimics the intensity of an actual sporting event. Audiences dare not blink or they might lose track of a gesture or a thread of a conversation.
The girls’ distinct personalities must literally take a back seat to each one’s potential for moving the boat forward. Feelings are momentarily hurt; but, in the end, the team learns that unity is the key factor to its success. For today’s teens, who are too young to comprehend public schools not offering girls sports teams, this play is something of an eye-opener. For the rest of us, it is a reminder of how far we have come, and how far we may yet have to go.
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Through Dec. 16 at Milwaukee Youth Arts Center, 325 W. Walnut St. For tickets, call 414-267-2961 or visit firststage.org.
