{"id":381544,"date":"2025-10-18T19:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T23:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/?p=381544"},"modified":"2025-10-20T10:20:48","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T14:20:48","slug":"in-disarming-girls-at-american-university-an-act-of-exemplary-resistance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/2025\/10\/18\/in-disarming-girls-at-american-university-an-act-of-exemplary-resistance\/","title":{"rendered":"In \u2018Disarming Girls\u2019 at American University, an act of exemplary resistance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cThe past is never as distant as we imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cResistance is not only about weapons or battlefields. It is about imagination \u2014 the belief that a different world is possible and worth risking everything to create.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>These words from dramaturg <strong>Lindsey R. Barr<\/strong>\u2019s program notes for the American University production of <em>Disarming <\/em>Girls frame the subject matter that will be explored during the play\u2019s 90 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>How do we resist efforts to take over and manipulate our lives and welfare? Can knowing what was done in the past inform and inspire our present efforts around this issue?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are good reasons that students and faculty at American University have been excited about this production for weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" src=\"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Disarming-Girls-1600x1200-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-381557\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Disarming-Girls-1600x1200-1.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Disarming-Girls-1600x1200-1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Disarming-Girls-1600x1200-1-460x345.jpg 460w, https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Disarming-Girls-1600x1200-1-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Disarming-Girls-1600x1200-1-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Disarming-Girls-1600x1200-1-696x522.jpg 696w, https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Disarming-Girls-1600x1200-1-265x198.jpg 265w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Lucille Rieke as Truus Oversteegen, Maddy Cooper as Hannie Schaft, and Gabriela Cohen as Captain B\u00f6hm in \u2018Disarming Girls.\u2019 Photo by Jeff Watts.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Of course, having <strong>Aaron Posner<\/strong> \u2014 a DC theater treasure \u2014 as a member of your creative and production team is grounds enough for excitement. But in addition, this production also acknowledges the support of Imagination Stage, Olney Theatre, and The George Washington University. So, it looks like the success of this production is the result of collaborations across skills, disciplines, and communities. The ideas of \u201ccommunity\u201d and \u201cempathy\u201d these days have been the target of a resurrection of a Margaret Thatcher-type disdain. We are currently living under a government that is gleefully terrorizing its people, taking note of all of the intersectionality of the nation\u2019s people \u2014 shared experiences that could be used as ways to unite them \u2014 and choosing instead to manipulate those commonalities as ways to divide them. I have heard many people on many podcasts ask, \u201cWhat can we do?\u201d In the context of the current times, acts of collaboration such as the one explored in the process that gave us this performance can be seen as examples of resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Disarming Girls<\/em> tells us the true story about a group of young women who, exploiting the roles that girls and women have been assigned in Western culture, figured out something they could do. Within those pre-determined roles, these girls figured out ways to collaborate in their resistance against the Nazis even though as a citizenry and as women they seemed powerless. This need to find a useful and effective method of resistance must have seemed an especially relevant plot point as Washington, DC, anticipated people pouring into the city for a second No Kings march.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the audience entered the theater, we saw a painter\u2019s dropcloth casually draped against the upstage wall. But instead of the splotches of paint that we usually expect to see on a dropcloth, there is a painting of the Canals of Haarlem, the city where the play takes place. So, it was as if we were looking through the proscenium out into the city. The artificiality of the painting\u2019s presence amplified any leaning toward nostalgia the audience might have had. In a way, the audience is enticed to co-create the reality of this space.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1200\" src=\"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Disarming-Girls-1200x1200-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-381565\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Disarming-Girls-1200x1200-1.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Disarming-Girls-1200x1200-1-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Disarming-Girls-1200x1200-1-460x460.jpg 460w, https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Disarming-Girls-1200x1200-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Disarming-Girls-1200x1200-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Disarming-Girls-1200x1200-1-696x696.jpg 696w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">TOP LEFT: Lucille Rieke as Truus Oversteegen, Maddy Cooper as Hannie Schaft, and Mira Gross-Keck as Freddie Oversteegen; TOP RIGHT AND ABOVE: The Cast, in \u2018Disarming Girls.\u2019 Photos by Jeff Watts.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Hannie is the central character in this story. She has stalked and eventually approached Franz, the leader of the resistance in the Netherlands. She forces Franz to consider her as a participant. At first, there is skepticism. But it turns out that she\u2019s a crack shot and speaks several languages, including German. Eventually, the resistance group stumbles upon a strategy of disarming German soldiers that proves to be extremely effective, and three of the girls (Hannie, Truus, and Freddie) are enlisted to carry it out regularly. It is a dangerous strategy that makes the girls highly vulnerable, but because it is so effective, it\u2019s a strategy that they pursue almost until the end of the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The script by <strong>Sarah Caroline Billings<\/strong> and <strong>Kallen Prosterman<\/strong> is stylized, utilizing a chorus to play various incidental characters and to portray crowds and to concretize or embody feelings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The scenes move from place to place and time to time rapidly. This creates a puzzle for how to move the scenes while at the same time maintaining some kind of believability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But it is energizing to watch as this company solves this puzzle playfully and resourcefully. Director <strong>Jenna Place<\/strong> has drilled these performers. They move from scene to scene and from moment to moment with a military-like precision, focus, suppleness, and speed. The bodies of the actors \u2014 aided greatly by the costuming \u2014 hold the intent and feeling of the characters that the playwrights have evoked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sydney Moore<\/strong>\u2019s costuming is almost photographic in its evocation of the era. The costuming is supported every step of the way by makeup and hair styling, and further amplified by <strong>Jesse Belsky<\/strong>\u2019s sepia-tinged lighting touches. All of it encourages a willing suspension of belief on the part of the audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Scenic designer <strong>Samina Vieth<\/strong> uses rolling scaffolding, boxes, and platforms that morph the performing space into various locations and objects as needed on a moment\u2019s notice. I especially enjoyed the illusion of automobiles traversing under and around each other. Deaths and killings happen in this play. They were represented by slips of cloth dropping, floating away from or being snatched out go a previously living character\u2019s hand. There is no re-traumatizing or glamorizing of violence or death in this story of human rapaciousness. Instead, emphasis is placed in the storytelling on noticing the suffering, loneliness, cruelty, and courage of the war participants and victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We won that war, you know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Running time is approximately 90 minutes without intermission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Disarming Girls<\/em><\/strong><em> <\/em>plays to 26, 2025, presented by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.american.edu\/arts\/index.cfm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">American University Department of Performing Arts,<\/a> performing at the Harold and Sylvia Greenberg Theatre \u2013 4200 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC. For information about future events, call 202-885-ARTS (885-2787) or visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.american.edu\/arts\/index.cfm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">website.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/auartstix.universitytickets.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Tickets<\/a> are free for AU students; $10 for children (under 18), seniors (over 55), AU alumni, staff, and faculty; and $15 for the general public.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The program for&nbsp;<em>Disarming Girls<\/em> is online <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.american.edu\/arts\/upload\/disarminggirls_e-program.pdf\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Disarming Girls<\/em><\/strong><br>By Sarah Caroline Billings and Kallen Prosterman&nbsp;<br>Directed by Jenna Place<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>CAST<br>Lucille Rieke: Truus; Maddy Cooper: Hannie; Mira Gross-Keck: Freddie; Shelly Wiese: Franz<br><br>ENSEMBLE<br>Laurel Brown, Iliana Cardoso, Gabriela Cohen, Bitaniya Menkirs, Lan Mourad, Ainsley Noven, Madelyn Ruyle, Sophie Laurence<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>CREATIVE AND PRODUCTION TEAM<br>Director: Jenna Place<br>Assistant Directors: Morgan Kullen and Olivia Morrison<br>Stage Manager: Quinn Laubach<br>Assistant Stage Manager: Siena Johnson<br>Fight Choreographer: Robb Hunter<br>Intimacy Director: Sierra Young<br>Dramaturg: Lindsey R. Barr<br>Scenic Designer: Samina Vieth<br>Lighting Designer: Jesse Belsky<br>Sound Designer: Jordan Friend<br>Properties Design: Mason Dennis<br>Costume Design: Sydney Moore<br>Stage Manager Advisor: Martita Slaydon-Robinson<br>Theatre\/Musical Theatre Artistic Director: Aaron Posner<br>Theatre\/Musical Theatre Program Director: Jason Arnold<br><br>GREENBERG THEATRE STAFF<br>Technical Operations Manager: John Stahrr<br>Lighting &amp; Audio Coordinator: Kassie Bender<br>Costume Shop Manager: Sydney Moore<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>STUDENT PRODUCTION TEAM<br>Production Assistants: Jackson Smith and Emmett McNulty<br>Light Board Operators: Aaron Miller, Alist\u00e9 Bills and Emmett McNulty<br>Wardrobe Head: Finn Fairfield<br>Wardrobe Crew: Emme Fischer, Ivy Collins, Allison Evans, and Justine Lee<br>Fight Captain: Shelly Wiese<br>Sound Board Operators: Twain Steven and Alist\u00e9 Bills<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/app.feedblitz.com\/f\/?sub=1115536\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"247\" src=\"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DCTA-newsletter-subscribe.jpg.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-371975\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DCTA-newsletter-subscribe.jpg.webp 1000w, https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DCTA-newsletter-subscribe.jpg-300x74.webp 300w, https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DCTA-newsletter-subscribe.jpg-460x114.webp 460w, https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DCTA-newsletter-subscribe.jpg-768x190.webp 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This timely play tells the true story about a group of young women who figured out something they could do to fight fascism.   By GREGORY FORD<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":381557,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,63],"tags":[1748,95500,95499],"class_list":{"0":"post-381544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reviews","8":"category-university-shows","9":"tag-jenna-place","10":"tag-kallen-prosterman","11":"tag-sarah-caroline-billings"},"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.0 (Yoast SEO v26.2) - 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