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Cleveland State Students Give Voice to What Young Women Face in 'Emotional Creature'

The cast of "Emotional Creature." [Cleveland State University]

From worrying about finding the perfect selfie to working in a factory making Barbies, young women around the world can have very different experiences. But they all have feelings, and students at Cleveland State’s University explore them in “Emotional Creature- The Secret Life of Girls Around the World.”

The all-female cast gives voice to young women’s secrets, triumphs, fears and pain through poetry, monologues, songs and scenes in the play by Eve Ensler of the "Vagina Monologues."

While the CSU production falls in the #MeToo era, it wasn’t planned that way.

“When I choose it a year ago it also seemed incredibly timely,” director Holly Holsinger said. “What makes it so right is… that women are speaking out and they are being heard and believed for the first time in a long time.”

Student and actress Brooke Myers said the #MeToo experiences of both celebrities and her acquaintances influences her performance in the play.

“These people give me strength to portray these characters,” she said.

One character she portrays is grappling with pregnancy and another mutilation.

“Their stories are beyond what I could ever understand," she said. “That has been something that is hard for me.”

Some of the character’s stories have also been shocking to student and actress Brittany Ozanich.

She portrays a factory worker in China making Barbies while living in deplorable conditions.

“I’m in America, I’m going to college, I’m in a very privileged position,” she said. “It really makes me think how lucky I am.”

This play also includes more lighthearted scenes. One cast favorite is the “Beyonce dance party,” where the actresses literally dance on stage to music.

“It’s really freeing, and I love it,” Myers said.

The play runs Thursday until March 4 at the Helen Rosenfeld Lewis Bialosky Lab Theare at Playhouse Square.

Carrie Wise is the deputy editor of arts and culture at Ideastream Public Media.