These Girls Have Demons
Book and Lyrics by Meghan Brown
Music by Sarah Taylor Ellis
After a lifetime of playing nice in a failed attempt to get ahead in a patriarchal society, four wildly different teenage girls are possessed by demons (literally, demons) that unleash all the rage, sexuality, insecurity, and sheer feeling they have been taught to repress as well-behaved little girls. Although The Horned Man – the physical embodiment of the patriarchy – tries to charm the girls into embracing the existing systems, these girls are no longer so “nice”; they begin to overturn patriarchal structures as an anarchic Demon Queen chorus. But at what point can power corrupt? Is flipping the hierarchy a solution, or just a new systematic force of oppression?
Infused with a contemporary rock sound and killer girl group harmonies, These Girls Have Demons is a Little Shop of Horrors for the post-#MeToo generation and a galvanizing siren song for demon girls everywhere.
See the full Deutsche Musical Akademie schreib:maschine presentation in German here and a choreographed demon possession sequence from our Penn State workshop here. Contact [email protected] for further materials.
Development History:
Music by Sarah Taylor Ellis
After a lifetime of playing nice in a failed attempt to get ahead in a patriarchal society, four wildly different teenage girls are possessed by demons (literally, demons) that unleash all the rage, sexuality, insecurity, and sheer feeling they have been taught to repress as well-behaved little girls. Although The Horned Man – the physical embodiment of the patriarchy – tries to charm the girls into embracing the existing systems, these girls are no longer so “nice”; they begin to overturn patriarchal structures as an anarchic Demon Queen chorus. But at what point can power corrupt? Is flipping the hierarchy a solution, or just a new systematic force of oppression?
Infused with a contemporary rock sound and killer girl group harmonies, These Girls Have Demons is a Little Shop of Horrors for the post-#MeToo generation and a galvanizing siren song for demon girls everywhere.
See the full Deutsche Musical Akademie schreib:maschine presentation in German here and a choreographed demon possession sequence from our Penn State workshop here. Contact [email protected] for further materials.
Development History:
- Deutsche Musical Akademie schreib:maschine Showcase: December 18, 2023 at Neuköllner Oper.
- 2-week workshop at Penn State, directed by Ellie Heyman and choreographed by Bo Park: June 2022
- 2-week workshop at CCM, directed by Ellie Heyman: April 2020 *Cancelled due to COVID-19*
- Script workshop at ArtsEd: October 2019
- Reading at Pittsburgh CLO's New Musicals Weekend, directed by Ellie Heyman: April 2019
- Writers' residency at Pittsburgh CLO: August 2018
- 2-week workshop at Pittsburgh CLO's SPARK Festival, directed by Kristin McCarthy Parker: April 2018