BSC’s theatre program to stage Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls, Nov. 15-18

For Immediate Release
Nov. 1, 2018

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—What does it mean to be a successful woman? Top Girls, an upcoming production of British playwright Caryl Churchill’s 1982 Obie Award-winning play at Birmingham-Southern College, seeks to answer that question.

Directed by BSC Professor of Theatre Dr. Alan Litsey, the show will run Thursday, Nov. 15 through Sunday, Nov. 18, in the College Theatre/The Underground.

Set in the 1980s in the United Kingdom, the play attempts to answer the question: What does it take to make it as a “top girl” in a male-dominated world? It carries the audience on a journey with Marlene, a career-obsessed manager who has finally landed her dream job in a London employment agency. In an artful blend of fantasy and reality, Marlene’s only friends are dynamic women from the past. She has cut off all other ties in her effort to fly as far away as possible from her working-class roots.

“The play, in two acts, raises big questions about gender roles, how women navigate a patriarchal system, and the challenges that current gender assumptions present to men, women, and children,” Litsey said.

The all-female cast jumps in and out of two centuries; actors play multiple roles. In the play’s famous opening, Marlene invites an eclectic mix of historical and fictional figures to dinner to help her celebrate a promotion at work. The attendees include Patient Griselda from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales; Pope Joan, a Medieval religious leader; Victorian traveler Isabella Bird; and Dull Gret, the heroic warrior from Bruegel’s painting. Come find out what Marlene gains and loses in her journey to prove herself.

Tickets are $15 each for the public; students get in for $10 regardless of the school they attend. Buy tickets online. Attendees are encouraged to arrive early, as there will be no late seating. For the enjoyment of patrons, the college does not allow children six years of age and younger to attend theatre productions.

Litsey will present a Provost’s Forum, “The Cost of Privilege: Treadmill to Triumph in Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls,” on Tuesday, Nov. 13, at 11 a.m. in The Underground. He will be joined by the cast and crew. It is free and open to the public.

The theatre program will host an opening night dinner on Thursday, Nov. 15, at 6 p.m. in the Executive Dining Room of the Norton Campus Center. Rebecca Kornegay Yeager ’06, the play’s voice and movement coach, will speak on “The Diversity of Feminine: Using Vocal and Movement Technique to Explore Womanhood in Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls.” Dinner tickets are $22.