Girls Against God: Tisch Student New Work

April 1989. Underneath the church altar is the shame of a thousand young virgins. In the dead of spring, five girls are sent to the chapel basement as punishment—all waiting to become brides of Christ. Forever condemned for their disobedience, forever dancing to death to the melody of Father Michael’s mass. Luke and Bel, shining prodigies of the neighboring seminary, arrive to pray for their souls, only to be lost to the basement forever. There is no escape from the heat, the starvation, and each other. Within this newfound freedom, the depraved take over holy space, sex beneath altars, female bodies embracing, the sweat and bone of limbs intertwining. Where does shame meet pleasure? Where does pleasure meet holiness?

I played Amelia, a young girl with the voice of an angel, wanting nothing but to feel good. She taught me how to live in my body and voice unapologetically. 

I also co-choreographed the play with Sofia Costanzo; taking inspiration from Pina Bausch’s The Rite of Spring, Gabrielle Roth’s 5Rhythms, the dancing plague of 1518, and the 2018 film Suspiria. 

November 2025

The Shop Theatre, Tisch School of the Arts