Challenging stereotypes

With spear in her hand and meat on her mind, Mary Morgan Bond, who plays Texas, leads a group of similarly armed women on a search for a pig during a recent rehearsal. Her character is the equivalent of the book’s Jack, the leader of the young hunters who descend into violence.

“I think it’s almost a story about humanity and the fragility of the mind and our psyche,” Bond said. “We’re really trying to bring humanity to the show.”

That goes for all of the characters, especially the “villains” of the story, Hart added. “I think that it’s easy to get to a place where it’s like, ‘Oh, just catty girls being mean girls and bullying, and that’s what girls do.’... I think it’s important to break the mold of what someone would expect from a group of girls stuck on an island— or stuck in a high school or stuck in a classroom or a beauty pageant,” Hart said.

Although the narrative is undeniably brutal and the all-girl concept has been criticized, Bond said excitement among the cast and OCU theater school has been palpable, especially since this is a rare opportunity to create a project with a plethora of meaty roles for women.

“I think that we come into rehearsal and about twice a week we have a pinch me moment, everybody in the cast. We’re never going to have this opportunity again. This is kind of brand new,” Bond said.

“This is ‘You step in, you build the world. What are you feeling? Come on, let’s do something. Let’s play.’ It’s art. And as much as we like to think it, you don’t always make art when you’re hired to do a job, which we’re about to face as seniors. And we’re just kind of like holding on to this sweet, sweet time of being surrounded by a sisterhood and creating art every night in rehearsal.”