‘Horse Girls’ is nostalgic revival of 2014 fashion, middle school awkwardness

Ashleigh Whitford, played by Meridian Harrap (left) has a middle school meltdown over her horse rumored to be sold for horse meat with fellow actors Mae Montgomery (middle) and Bella Caspersen (right). 

Jeggings, camisoles and awkwardness ruled the middle school halls in 2014. 

"Horse Girls," directed by senior theater major Fiona Burrows, takes this very specific aesthetic and uses it as a backdrop to tell a story of horse-obsessed middle schoolers. The one-act play, presented by Chapman’s department of theater, will commence its second weekend of performances tonight in the O.L. Halsell Foundation Studio Theatre.

“With the one act, it's so condensed, and something I really love about this show is it just kind of feels like a very fast roller coaster for 45 minutes,” Burrows told The Panther. “It's just all very, very quick; and I think that's something that is so similar to what being a teenage girl feels like — like, everything's happening all at once.” 

The dark comedy follows a group of middle school, horse-riding girls who are infuriated by a rumor about their stables being sold to people who plan on killing their horses for meat. 

Trish Lowenstein, played by Mae Montgomery (right) rocks a 2014 retro flannel around her waist on stage with Bella Caspersen (left). 

Burrows said she read a few different plays as she prepared for her senior project, which will be one of her last times directing a play at Chapman before graduating. She had not connected to many plays until she came across “Horse Girl."

“What really spoke to me about the play at first is the brutality of being a teenager and the violence of growing up,” Burrows said. 

In addition to resonating with the play’s focus on adolescence, Burrows said she liked the idea of having adult, Chapman students play children. 

“Something that really speaks to me about having adult actors play children is getting in touch with your inner child,” Burrows said. “Children are so free in their imaginations and so emotionally open and vulnerable.”

Isabel Stallings, a senior theater performance major, was able to relate to her middle school self while preparing for her role as 13-year-old Tiffany Gesuvia.

“I've never played a 13-year-old in my life,” Stallings said. “I just thought it was so playful and fun and chaotic. I was in middle school in 2014, and so I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, so many of these references are so true.’” 

To get her actors prepared for their roles as children, Burrows led a series of exercises to transport them back to their middle school headspace. 

“I just love being able to revert back to being a child — especially in rehearsal — and pushing my actors in a way that they're not super comfortable with,'' Burrows said. “It's hard to slough off all of this societal training that we've gone through to be these perfectly groomed people and go back to this messy, fidgety, awkward nature that these middle school girls have.” 

Nothing screams middle school circa 2014 more than Tiffany Gesuvia, played by Isabel Stalling (left), awkwardly scurrying across the stage in a camisole with Meridian Harrap (right). 

Senior theater major Zoe Tanton is cast as Robin, Tiffany’s younger sister. In preparation for the role, Tanton told The Panther that Burrows would lead various improv exercises. 

“We did an improv exercise where we would improv what happened before (our characters) start (their) horse club meetings, so we would improv what happened before the show starts," said Tanton, who is also a member of Improv Inc. — one of Chapman’s improv clubs. “(During improv) I've talked about Hannah Montana which is very fun.”

The actors were also able to get into character by getting into proper 2014 era attire, which reminded them of their middle school facades. 

“My character is wearing a rainbow paint splatter shirt with a cami under it and jeggings,” Tanton said. “So it's very in line with how I dress in middle school, aside from the horse part, and it really, really helps me get into character for sure.”

With all the middle school awkwardness that comes with camisoles and being horse obsessed, Tanton hopes that people come to love their middle school, imaginative selves like she did while preparing for her role. 

“(The show) has made us love our middle school selves; and in middle school, it's very hard to love yourself,” Tanton said. “I hope that when audience members see the show, they can bond (with) and forgive their middle school selves.”

Stallings added that she hopes the audience will see the beautiful bond between the female friends and really listen to the young female perspective.  

“I hope audiences take away (not only) the power of female friendship, but also the evolution of a young female perspective that people overlook at first,” Stallings said. “I think the main character actually has this great perspective —  she cares a lot about what she has to say, and no one really pays attention to (her) first, and then that's what causes things to bubble over.” 

Burrows loves the ambiguity of the play’s ending and encourages audiences to really analyze why they do what they do through an adolescent perspective. 

“The ending is very ambiguous," Burrows said. "I would love audiences to sit and wonder what choice the protagonist makes in the end and reflect on the reasons that she's like that."

There are three more “Horse Girls” shows this weekend: April 15 at 7:30 p.m. and April 16 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m  Buy tickets on Chapman’s website.