School Girls Cast and Creators Discuss Broadway Opening
The cast and creative team of Jocelyn Bioh’s School Girls; or the African Mean Girls Play spoke about the Broadway production on opening night. Denée Benton, Jasmine Amy Rogers and Patina Miller star in the play, directed by Whitney White. Set in a 1986 Ghanaian boarding school, the work uses sharp humor to explore colorism, classism and teenage rivalry.
Jocelyn Bioh’s comedy first appeared off-Broadway in 2017, marking her arrival as a playwright. Its Broadway staging is directed by Whitney White and features Denée Benton as Paulina, Jasmine Amy Rogers as Ericka, Patina Miller, Heather Alicia-Simms, Erin Morton, Nia Otchere-Sarfo and Jordan Rice. The story unfolds in an elite Ghanaian girls’ boarding school in 1986.
Bioh has said seeing her first produced play reach Broadway felt surreal. Revisiting it a decade later, she noticed lines that now strike her differently. White aimed to evoke Ghana in 1986, when cultural and social boundaries were shifting, and has been struck by how actively audiences respond.
The Broadway platform may bring greater visibility to stories about colorism, classism and adolescent social pressure within Black diasporic communities. Audiences who rarely see such experiences centered could feel recognized, while theatergoers unfamiliar with these dynamics may gain a more nuanced perspective. Its humor could make difficult conversations more approachable, though the production’s influence will depend on who attends and how the themes are discussed beyond the stage.