“That’s the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they’re not much to look at, or even if they’re sort of stupid, you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are. Girls. Jesus Christ.
They can drive you crazy. They really can.”
– J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
14 was an interesting age for me. I turned that age between the years of 1995 and 1996, during which I was obsessed with Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Aniston (her haircut, really), and Brad Pitt. I listened to Oasis, Janet Jackson, Weezer, Lauryn Hill and Alanis Morissette. My favorite show around that time was Dawson’s Creek, and films like “Clueless,” “Scream,” “American Pie,” “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and “She’s All That.” I was very much on brand for being a teenager in the 90s. Those are just a sampling of the things I latch on to that spark memories of that time and place for me. Then I remember my friends. I had the unique experience of getting out of my hometown in the suburbs of Chicago for a bit, when my dad’s job led us to spend seven months in Singapore, and a year and a half in the UK. Those feelings of teenage angst spurred by being trapped in one’s home town hadn’t entered my mind during my teens, since I would live in a different place every few years or so.
So when I saw Jessica Fisch’s production of Melissa Ross’ play “Do Something Pretty,” I was transported into a different teen experience that was not my own, but it felt so real and relatable at the same time. The immersiveness of being in a living room circa 1992 felt real and lived in. It opens with 14-year-old Phoebe, played by Katherine Mallen Kupferer (“Ghostlight,” “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”) and 19-year-old Jason, played by Reilly Oh (“Dark Matter”), lounging on a living room couch as “90210” blares on the TV–though not as loudly as The Smiths’ music emanating from Jason’s walkman. The competing noisy distractions eventually reach a truce as Phoebe shifts her attention to painting her toenails red. Jason’s taste in music appears to be more mature, though his placement on the couch next to a girl five years his junior makes his growth seem stunted, and his path in life stagnant. All of this is vividly captured in the show’s first few minutes.
The production design is amazing, complete with magazines (including one of my favorites from the time, Seventeen) and video cassettes of films now hailed as classics (“The Big Chill,” “The Princess Bride,” and “The Breakfast Club,” to name a few. The universal appeal of such works possess the ability to connect teenagers through all different walks of life. Though Phoebe’s popular older sister, Evie, played by Jocelyn Zamudio (“Chicago Med”), has yet to make her entrance, she is fully present in the onstage conversation. Phoebe paints a picture of Evie that fits neatly in our minds. It’s clear that Jason is obviously painfully in love with Evie, and he waits for her to come home from her job. But when Evie finally walks through the front door, she finds Jason and Phoebe in a compromising situation. As Evie reacts to what has just occurred, her many layers are revealed, obliterating whatever stereotypes we have formed about her in our head.
Evie loves her sister deeply, and treasures Jason as a friend, but is focused on moving toward what could be her new life. To get through her current existence, she does the things teenage girls do without taking the time to think deeply about them. This is where that phrase, “Youth is wasted on the young,” pops in my head. We see how teenage girls allow themselves to be taken by their romantic delusions of reality as painted by the music, TV shows, and films that they consume. In the midst of that, we hear the underlying news story of a girl who has gone missing in their neighborhood. The horrors of this offstage crime story connects with the complexities of being a teenage girl. I often did think about how the story in Jeffrey Eugenides’ book The Virgin Suicides was told from the point of view of teenage boys. But when Sofia Coppola adapted it into her 1999 feature directorial debut, she visualizes the depth of the teenage girls’ experience, with Lux (Kirsten Dunst) smoking cigarettes on the rooftop, looking sad and broken, while one of her sisters dances at her prom in a dreamy fervor.
“Do Something Pretty” is a must-see. It intimately captures a certain moment at a certain time that I feel will resonate across generations. Thank you, Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, for bringing another powerful production to your stage. This play will live in my bones, my thoughts, and dreams, serving as a reminder of a time when I felt invincible for anything that life would throw at me. It’s a feeling I’m grateful to have reignited, thanks to this show.
“Do Something Pretty” is showing now at Rivendell Theatre until June 6th, 2026. All performances held at Rivendell Theatre, 5779 N Ridge Avenue, Chicago.
Get tickets: https://www.rivendelltheatre.org/dosomethingpretty
