Jake Mace
Pitched as a triptych exploration of the pain, joy and big feelings that make up adolescent girlhood, We Used to be Girl Scouts is Hey Thanks! Theatre Collective’s offering for EdFringe 2024. The play follows three teenagers coming to terms with big changes in their lives and handling their feelings both within themselves and for one another.
We caught up with the show’s director Kate Stamoulis for a pixelated pint to talk all things girl scouting, the transition from girlhood to womanhood, Queerness, and modern-day folklore.
You can catch We Used to be Girl Scouts at theSpace on the Mile – Space 3 until August 24th (alternating dates from the 4th) at 16:40. Tickets are available through the EdFringe Box Office.
Jake: Tell us about your show’s journey from creation to ending up at the EdFringe stage.
Kate: I am the co-artistic director of Hey Thanks! Theatre Collective. We are a queer and women-led theatre company based in Edinburgh and London, and this is our company’s second year at EdFringe! We Used to be Girl Scouts is a new play by the brilliant Emery Schaffer, that tackles girlhood in all its strange and wonderful forms. Our show follows three 14-year-olds, Drew, Sasha, and Mary. Drew thinks she’s pregnant. Sasha loves her female best friend. And Mary’s home life is a dark pit of despair. Finding themselves crushed under the unbearable weight that is teenagerdom, they take to the woods to start anew. A triptych of the pain, joy, and big feelings that make up adolescent girlhood, this is the show we wish we had all those years ago.
The show emerged from a series of questions about growing up. What made up our own girlhood? And when did we finally reach that point when you go from ‘girl’ to ‘woman’? From there, we began to explore these ideas in the rehearsal room through improvisation to form a structure, and Emery took it from there. It has been so exciting to see this story take shape over the course of the past few months, and I feel really lucky to have been able to work with such creative artists in the process. From our three amazing actors (Hannah-Mae Engstrom, Samuela Noumtchuet & Trystan Youngjohn) to our wonderful behind the scenes team (Maria Goikhberg & Rebecca Donley) and of course our writer Emery, everyone has put their heart and soul into this show.
Jake: Tell us about the inspiration behind your show and why you think its themes are relevant to an audience in 2024. Think – why am I telling this story now? Who will it connect with?
Kate: I have always felt there’s almost a folklore to girlhood, we all have somewhat similar experiences in growing up that have all formed how we view the world and the people around us. Emery and I wanted to explore how these memories are made and what the pivotal moments that make us who we are. This show focuses on moments for all three of the girls where they are facing their own struggles, but, it is ultimately their unity through friendship that allows them to face what’s outside.
I believe women’s stories are always relevant, especially when the world right now seeks to silence them. I believe our show is not only empowering to anyone who comes to see it, but is also a celebration of all of our past selves. So much of our work as a company has been born out of ‘what was a story I wish I had earlier on in my life”. Our previous show “Kitchen Underwear” (Edinburgh fringe 2023) touched on this, as we explored queer women’s relationships in their early twenties. And now with “Girl Scouts”, we wanted to celebrate that magic of growing up and the people that shaped us along the way.
Jake: What are you hoping the audience will walk away thinking/feeling, and how do you aim to achieve this on stage?
Kate: Emery and I both discussed how we wanted this show to speak to something important but tell it in a way that is true to us. While so much of growing up can be scary, it can also be funny, weird, awkward, stupid, and freeing. Emery’s script encapsulates this amalgamation of emotions in a really beautiful way, so there really is something for everyone. In our staging we wanted to emulate this youthfulness, so the show is a high energy ride through most of its runtime.
So, If you want a show that’ll make you laugh, cry, is a lil gay AND just feels like a bug hug, this is the show for you.
Jake: Now that we’re gearing up for Fringe season, what are you most excited for?
Kate: I am most excited to be apart such a creative hub for the month. While I am obviously excited to share our work with everyone, I am always so inspired by watching everything on at the festival. It is such an amazing experience to see incredible work and then be able to talk to the artists that made it afterwards. I have been lucky to have met wonderful people through previous experiences at Fringe, so I can’t wait for another summer of that.
Jake: Fitting with the themes of our magazine, if your show was an alcoholic beverage (think cocktails, shots, beers, be creative!) what would it be?
Kate: Well technically all of our characters in the show are underage (they’re 14!), but to make an exception I would say a dirty Shirley temple because it’s sweet, reminds you of growing up, but has a kick when you least expect it.
Phoebe Bakker
