LAB!'s third main stage show this season, Horse Girls, is currently in rehearsals and will open on February 22nd and run through February 24th. Horse Girls focuses in on the Lady Jean Ladies, an exclusive middle school horse club in South Florida, as they hold one of their regular meetings. However, this meeting is anything but regular, since the Lady Jean Ladies will face an obstacle that will change their lives forever.
We were able to interview the Horse Girls director, Bailey Elrod, about her thoughts on the show and her experience with being a first time director. Q: Why did you want to direct Horse Girls? A: I directed a short section of Horse Girls for my final scene in Aubrey Snowden's directing class last year, and ever since then I've wanted to direct the full play. I was solely a stage manager/producer before I took that class, and Aubrey gave me such a confidence boost and helped me pull out my creative juices that I didn't even know I had, which prepared me to make my directing debut this season with LAB! The reason I wanted to direct Horse Girls specifically is because it's the funniest play I've EVER read. I was sitting in a cafe when I read it for the first time and I was laughing out loud and I know that people probably thought I was bonkers, but it's just so funny. Also, I'm a second generation horse girl myself, having grown up with a mom who worked in the horse-back riding industry and still does, so I feel very represented in this piece. This play is about horse girls but more generally it's about middle school girls and being young and scared and obsessed and jealous and crazy and unable to find a place to land in the world and it's been so thrilling to work through all of that with a script that's also SO funny. Q: What is your favorite part about the play? A: My favorite part of the play is how unexpected it is. There are so many twists and turns, I promise no one will know what is going to happen to the Lady Jean Ladies next. It's also so smartly written and also very short. So much (I mean, SO much) happens in about 50 minutes, and the humor is genius. Q: What is your favorite part about rehearsal? A: My favorite part about rehearsal is when everyone breaks and starts laughing in the middle of a scene. Those are the best moments because usually it means we're on to something. The actors in this play are so good and creative and willing to try different things, so there is never a dull moment. I also really love doing character work. The cast is not afraid to dive deep into their characters and it's been really neat to talk through all of the details of these middle school girls. I think it's easy to think of middle school girls as caricatures or as kind of a joke (which, you know, fair!) but it's been fantastic to work through some of those really serious circumstances and feelings that middle school girls have that manifest into the really cringey and funny things that they do and say. Q: What have you learned so far from directing this play? A: From directing this play I've learned just how important collaboration in the theatre is. As a director, and especially as a first time director, I know that I cannot have all of the ideas and it's been nice to learn that I don't have to, I just have to know how to guide people in the right direction. The designers are brilliant and have come up with ideas that I never could have imagined. The actors are so talented and smart and take what I give them and run with it in ways that I could only dream of! Also this is my first time in a position of creative leadership, so learning about how to be helpful in alignment with other people's creative processes has been really neat. Q: Is there anything else you'd like to say about your experience directing, or about the show? A: I cannot wait for everyone to see how wacky and funny this show is and to relive the roller coaster that was our adolescence! I'll be graduating in May and it seems pretty full circle working on a show that has us reevaluate what it was like to be a kid right as some of us are about to enter adulthood. I am truly so grateful that LAB! took a chance on a first time director like me and has given me the chance to make this wild play about horse-crazy girls a reality!!
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