Lightning Girl!

Lightning Girl! is a play written by Rita Anderson that was selected for Madison New Works Laboratory in 2022. MNWL selects two plays annually to help develop new work at the Forbes Center for Performing Arts at James Madison University. Auditions for these plays happen at the end of spring semesters and actors arrive back to campus before fall semester to begin rehearsals. 2022 was the first year since 2019 Madison New Works Lab was able to operate do to COVID, so this was the only year I was able to audition. We had a total of ten days to work on these new pieces and playwrights were able to make script changes throughout the process.

Lightning Girl! follows the story of Juliane Koepcke, the sole survivor of the LANSA 508 plane crash. In this staged reading, I played one of the shapeshifters. Though this was a staged reading, we still utilized movement as it was written in the script that the shapeshifters are inspired by Butoh. Dance professor, Julia Vessey, visited a rehearsal to help choreograph specific parts of the play. Throughout this piece, I played Juliane’s grandmother, forest creatures, illusions, and other things Juliane encountered throughout her life.

Playwright: Rita Anderson Director: Garret Milton Assistant Director: Becca Stehle Stage Manager: Juleanna Green

Cast: Olivia Palmer, Makayla Parker, Camden Gillespie, Gavin Kiley, Aamir Alloo