Shape of a Girl

Laureen F. Guenther
Times Contributor

 

Jenny Daigle, a fourth-year student at Rosebud School of the Arts, will perform a one-woman play ‘Shape of a Girl’ on Feb. 12-14, in Rosebud’s Community Hall.
‘Shape of a Girl’ is Daigle’s Final Project, the culmination of her studies in Rosebud, and she chose to produce and perform it because, from the first time she read the script, she loved the main character Braidie.
“She was just a bratty teenager and she was so sassy and smart,” she says. “I found her so hilarious.”
But this story isn’t all hilarity. It tackles the issue of bullying.
“(Braidie’s) best friend, Adrienne, who she’s basically been best friends with since she was little, is now turned into this vicious bullier to a girl and (Braidie) doesn’t know what to do,” Daigle says. “She doesn’t agree with it. She doesn’t like it. But she’s too scared to do anything about it.”
Braidie feels she’s become a bully in the shape of a girl.
The story is about “learning to take a step back from all of the people that she’s always been dependent on and learning to find her own views. … and what she’s going to do about it,” Daigle says.
“I’ve never been bullied, and I’ve never been a bullier,” Daigle says, but she relates to Braidie’s growth toward independence.
Daigle’s own independence grew when she left her hometown of Red Lake, Ont., to study in Rosebud, and it’s expanded further as she’s produced this play.
“I’ve built this show from scratch, from a script,” she says.
That included getting rights for the script, and creating a personnel team, a marketing plan, a production calendar and a rehearsal schedule.
“There’s a million different branches off of every main task that I have to do,” she says. “Learning how to manage all of those things has been super helpful and it’s a big confidence builder.
“The best thing that Rosebud School (does) for students is (assign) the final project because once they get out of school, they now know how to produce their own work. They can make their own work if they don’t get work. That has been invaluable.”
‘Shape of a Girl’ may be geared to young adults and teens, but no matter how old we are, Daigle believes we’ll relate to Braidie’s story.
“It totally relates to anyone who’s ever felt fear or felt stuck or trapped in a situation that they have no control over. That’s something that is real to everyone,” she says. “I want to be able to give people the freedom from fear, not to not feel fear, but to still do the right thing despite fear.”
Daigle performs ‘Shape of a Girl’ in the lower gymnasium of the Community Hall, Thursday, Feb. 12 at 4:30 p.m.; Friday, Feb. 13 at 11 a.m. and Saturday, Feb. 14 at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. Reserve a $10 ticket at fireheartproductions2015@gmail.com or on Facebook: Shape of a Girl, Fireheart Productions.