This week, No Refund Theatre (NRT) continued its spring semester performances with its performance of the dark comedy “Horse Girls.” Students can view the play starting Thursday, February 22, until Saturday, February 24.

Originally written by Jenny Rachel Weiner in 2013, the dark comedy explores the complex and diverse emotions that come with being a pre-teen girl. “Horse Girl” director Tess Murphy purposely chose the play due to its all female cast and wanted to showcase a play that was “not only funny but had some deeper emotional meaning to it.”

The play takes place in 12-year-old Ashleigh Whitford’s bedroom with her friends from the Lady Jean Ladies (LJL) society; a group for equestrian enthusiasts. Ashleigh, the bossy and entitled leader of her friend group, consistently puts down her friends for their financial status and is easily threatened by her best friend Tiffany’s equestrian success. Throughout the entire play, Ashleigh tries to assert her dominance in the friend group by preying on her friends’ weaknesses and promoting herself as the leader of the group, since she is the wealthiest.

Trish, Camille’s cousin visiting from the country, reflects the audience’s emotions by challenging Ashleigh’s entitled behavior, but is quickly met with Ashleigh’s domineering tone.

When one of the group members, Brandi, arrives late with news their beloved Lady Jean horse stables are being bought out, the pre-teen girls let out a startling amount of screeches. From there, the members of the LJL society devise numerous plans to try and save their beloved horses from becoming horse meat. The group goes as far to call the White House asking for Ann Romney’s help to devising a plan that entails them running off into the sunset with their cherished horses.

It’s at this point that the bulk of the comedy ends, and the characters shift into a darker light. Murphy does a brilliant job of displaying the outrageous emotions of pre-teen girls by having the characters run up the aisles of the auditorium whilst singing about saving their horses.

Murphy acknowledged the insane and complex plot line of the play but stated there were deeper meanings to each character beyond the stereotypes of being an eccentric pre-teen girl.

“I wanted to pick a show that was both funny and dramatic. It was important to pick a show that displayed multiple different women who are their own people with their own stories,” Murphy said. “For Ashleigh, we wanted to show how she saw herself as an adult even though she still acts like a child, which plays into her control over characters like Margaret and Trish.”

Different from most shows, “Horse Girls'” all-female cast lead to a deeper insight into the characters’ backstories and the directional elements of the show.

“We took out a few things in the original script that we just didn’t feel was necessary to the story or would upset the audience. As a group, we found that some of the subtle hints of racism and self-harm were not needed to understand the story line, so we took them out,” Murphy said.

When building on the dimensions of their characters, members of the cast pulled from their own pre-teen years to give an authentic representation life as a 12-year old.

“I added more jealousy and insecurity into my character because that’s what a lot of girls that age struggle with. It felt right to strategically do or say things that the audience can identify and relate to,” actress Katie Marakovits, who plays Tiffany, said.

Gabby Kline, who plays Ashleigh, does a fantastic job on re-enacting the harsh emotions that come with growing up and entering our teenage years. During one of her most dramatic and rage-filled scenes, Kline noted how important it was to display a character who, at a young age, “finds validation from control and needs to be the most dominant part of each group.”

Murphy expanded on the importance of showing the intricate backgrounds of each character through the way they talk to the rest of the group.

“Ashleigh is clearly insecure and doesn’t have the best home life, which causes her to be jealous of her ‘best friend’ Trish. She is unable to put into words how she feels so she lashes out, which a lot of people that age can relate to,” Murphy said.

In order to prep for their roles, Murphy encouraged her cast to engage in activities they practiced as a 12-year old.

“We made friendship bracelets and just talked about characters we could relate to in the story,” she said.

While some characters found it useful to play characters similar to themselves, like Mariella Lionato, Gabby Kline found it easier to play characters completely opposite to her, thus choosing to play Ashleigh.

“I find it easier to step into characters that are not like myself,” Kline said. “I’ve played bratty and entitled characters before, so this felt more in my wheelhouse. I definitely knew some Ashleighs growing up, so I pulled on some of those experiences, but it was also just fun to have a moment to play an outrageous character.”

On the other hand, Lionato found it easier to improv lines when playing characters similar to her own personality.

“I definitely was not at the top of the food chain in middle school, similar to Trish who comes into the group as an outsider, so it felt more authentic to play a character like me. It also makes it easier to improvise lines when it feels like something I would say in real life,” Lionato explained, playing characters similar to herself felt like an “alter-ego,” making her more relatable.

Lionato’s improv added comedic breaks to the dramatic and intense moments of the play. Her reference to pop culture influencers, such as Brendon Urie, help her relate to her audience in a more genuine way.

Aside from referencing pop culture icons from our generation, Murphy and her associate directors strategically designed the set to look like a typical 12-year old girl’s bedroom. With pictures of Justin Bieber, Troy Bolton, and Jessie McCartney, they stressed the importance of making the bedroom look similar to what the girls in the audience might have had their bedroom look like 10 years ago.

Isabella Natosi, who portrays Camille, shares a similar sense of comfortability with playing a character to herself.

“I, too, like Camille, have deep emotional layers, and I think it was important to show that in a girl so young. I also felt it was important to show the dynamics each girl had to boys and how those relationships affected the girls because they do have lasting effects.”

By having an all female cast and crew, Murphy explained how they were able to collaborate on the specifics of how the bedroom should be laid out.

“We, of course, had a rug and beanbag chair but adding her medals on the wall was useful in showing Ashleigh’s dominance over her friends.”

Outside of prop design, members of the cast spoke to the importance of having an all-female staff and cast while working on an all female play.

“It was one of the reasons I joined the play,” Kline said. “Not only do they get what it’s like to be a girl, but we can relate to one another on how specific things should be done.”

One of those specific “girlhood” moments came when the group of girls start fawning over Ashleigh’s neighbor Jonah.

“We were just able to show authentic girlhood by pulling on our experiences. It comes from a place of truth in everyones middle school girl experience, where I had to dig deep and go back to those moments where it felt like the world was revolving around us.”

The feeling of truth carries throughout the entire play, but specifically with the character Margaret.

Margaret is continuously used as a punching bag by all the girls and even referred to as poor by Ashleigh. As the play evolves, Margaret’s spiral shows the impact of negative relationships in girlhood and how damaging they can be to a girl at that age developmentally.

“It was important to show Ashleigh’s response to Margaret spiraling,” Murphy stressed.

Showing such real and raw emotion meant Murphy had to collaborate on ways to handle the situation delicately.

“We, of course, allowed the cast to have some creative freedom and would either tell them we loved it or we had to change it in some ways. I remember telling Kline to talk in a higher pitch to gain that pre-teen voice and allow the audience the see her as a character instead of Gabby,” Murphy said.

“I’m just so proud of everyone in this cast. I genuinely love all these people so much and it’s been so much fun putting on a play that is outrageous but also has some deeper meaning,” Murphy added.

As always, No Refund Theatre’s shows are free of charge to anyone who would like to attend. Showings of “Horse Girls” will take place at 9 p.m. on Thursday, February 22, with two shows scheduled for 8 p.m. on February 23 and 24. All shows take place in Forum 111.