Student Blog: Fefu and Her Friends- Creating Together

Hello Broadway lovers, creators, and theatre students around the world! Welcome back to the blog, and happy beginning of sprinter.

Official Leah Dictionary Translation: Sprinter (noun), the unnamed season in between winter and spring. Leaves you constantly confused about what to wear. May cause frequent checks of the weather app.

Besides wondering how many layers I should wear on any given day, I've also been rehearsing Fefu and Her Friends with University of Maryland's Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies Dept. Maria Irene Fornes's feminist play illustrates the reunion of six college women (and two special guests) seeking answers and connection in a male-dominated world. It's funny, poignant, and illustrates the value of true friendship. Onstage, the rich, metaphorical language speaks of female empowerment and strengthening connections amidst turmoil. Offstage, it's brought me closer to some of the greatest friends I've ever known.

Fefu and Her Friends built a loving community of powerful actresses. Every time I come to rehearsal, I'm overwhelmed with love and support. Working with an all-female identifying cast has created a space of collective healing, listening, and bonding. Through performing and analyzing Fornes's incredible work, I learn daily about my castmates' experiences as young women in modern-day society. Working on this production reminded me that I can be loved and share that love with others within a performance space. It gave me a safe space to be myself on and offstage. But, most importantly, it helped to completely switch my rehearsal mindset from individual to group. Or, as my character (Emma) quotes, "a sense of life universal surges through life individual." Let me explain.

I love rehearsal so much that I constantly worry I'm screwing it up. Whenever we finish running a scene, I immediately start reviewing what I did wrong in the performance. Or what I did right. Or if the acting choice I made was strong. Or if it was weak. Or if castmates liked me. Or if...you get the point. I mentally check out every time, leaving me confused and doubtful. While working on Fefu, I didn't really have a chance to do that. Since this play focuses on our strength as an ensemble, the atmosphere revolved around how to succeed as a friend group. For example, take our fun runs.

Our amazing director (Kelsey Mesa) loves fun runs, where you run through the entire show in 10-15 minutes. The goal was not to say every line, but to touch on all main themes and moments of the show. After every fun run, we would sit (often slightly breathless) to reflect on what we learned as a group. Nobody offered notes about their own performance...that wasn't the intent of the fun run. Instead, our reflections spoke to broad themes and realizations about the play (example: "we all just want to be loved.") and how we could achieve them as a group. Rehearsal became about learning and growing together. I switched from thinking about me to thinking about us.

Rehearsal requires strong individual ability to prepare and make choices. But Fefu reminded me it's not only about individual growth and/or failure. Over time, my thoughts shifted more from mentally berating myself for personal acting choices into how can we succeed as a friend group here? I'm not writing this article to proclaim I'm cured of negative self-talk/overanalyzing myself during a rehearsal process. I'm human and still critique my choices all the time (which can be helpful as an actor- to a certain extent, of course). Growing with Fefu and Her Friends just reminded me to think about my performance in the larger contact of us, an ensemble. In rehearsal, we come together to learn, fail, heal, and grow. I think that's the most important thing I take away from this production. Rehearsals are about becoming stronger together. It's the only way to put on a successful show.

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