American Girl

A STAGED play Reading

@ The Great Room, A.R.T./New York

written by jadene meyer | Co-Directed with Lola Arenas

We come to this place for magic…

American Girl is a plunge into our collective dream— one of hope and faith in the face of despair. A jazz pianist plays coming of age music as three Asian-American girls take their American Girl Dolls on a journey to a farm upstate. But beneath the surface of their seemingly innocuous fate, lies a deeper confrontation with their innermost fears— distraction, drowning…… parental control. The promise of a blissful farm looms ahead, but time is slipping, and the water is rising. The girls march through the contradictions of youth— holding tight to their memories and innocence as the water laps at their ankles.

Will they emerge accepted and loved, or be swept away by the flood of their own creation? American Girl is an emotional meditation on identity, love and the pursuit of connection in a culture of excess.

Photos by Joe Caster

Photos by Jadene Meyer