Gianna DiGregorio Rivera, Naomi Latta, Hillary Fisher, Yeena Sung in Girls Chance Music. Photo: Carol Rosegg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nEisa Davis\u2019 drama, ||: Girls :||: Chance :||: Music :||. <\/i>is\u00a0a painfully intimate portrait of four high school-age girls attending a summer music program in the San Francisco Bay Area. Besides being young women of color, they have little in common except for the fact that they\u2019re each incredibly gifted musicians. And it\u2019s only through their music that they\u2019re able to honestly communicate with one another.<\/p>\n
The dynamic feels entirely real and yet too real. For an hour and 45 intermissionless minutes, when they\u2019re not making music, the girls sound and act like typical teenagers \u2013 naive, insecure and full of emotions they\u2019re not yet equipped to handle. Friendships come and go; s<\/span>ignals are mixed, and they can\u2019t seem to get their equilibrium in a world that\u2019s forever shifting beneath their feet.<\/p>\nDavis drives the point home literally with heavy-handed symbolism as the girls are constantly interrupted by earthquake activity.\u00a0 <\/span>The rumbling earth is the most action to be found in this play that\u2019s dominated almost entirely by the girls\u2019 ceaseless angst. Their inability to understand each other is a repeated refrain that goes on too long. And to hammer that point home, the musical notations in the title \u2013 ||: Girls :||: Chance :||: Music :|| \u2013 <\/i>refer to music that loops to the beginning and repeats.<\/p>\nDavis\u2019 knows her characters well. The writing is certainly authentic yet indulgent and the text could benefit from cuts. But to the production\u2019s great credit, the four performers are pitch perfect. And I use the words deliberately because they\u2019re each extraordinarily talented actors and musicians. They were in the production that originated at San Francisco\u2019s American Conservatory Theater earlier this year and I have to commend the casting director for discovering them.<\/p>\n
Fax (Hillary Fisher) is a soprano with a gorgeous set of pipes. She\u2019s a striver and perfectionist \u2013 that girl who talks a lot before she thinks. And she doesn\u2019t realize how talented she is, saying:<\/p>\n
I was only hearing the criticism from the guys<\/em>
hearing it echo within me<\/em>
give up if you\u2019re not perfect at that<\/em><\/p>\nOn the other side of the spectrum is Margot (Naomi Latta) a drummer who exudes confidence beyond her young years.\u00a0<\/span>And when she exclaims things like \u201cwords are not my vibe\u201d, the girls look to her as the one who\u2019s got her act together. But it doesn\u2019t take long to realize it\u2019s all a pretense to cover up a deeply painful and lonely life.<\/p>\nRile (Yeena Sung) plays the piano. Unlike Fax who sees herself as a musical purist, Rile enjoys improvising, even the classics.That freedom to go off the page sparks tension between the girls.<\/p>\n
But finally when all three collaborate on their own music and Fax sings<\/p>\n
never been to this part of my life<\/em>
never know if I\u2019m doing it right<\/em>
out the window there\u2019s nothing but time<\/em>
am I moving or is life passing me by<\/em><\/p>\nit\u2019s the play\u2019s climax, a lovely fleeting crescendo that marks the high point of the girls\u2019 young lives; and they relish the moment, not realizing how quickly it will all disappear. Pity for the audience as well since these musical interludes \u2013 the play\u2019s highlights \u2013 are too few and far between.<\/p>\n
The 4th character, Clementine (Gianna DiGregorio Rivera), is a loner who just wants to practice her instruments, mainly the flute and bass saxophone. She\u2019s the least complicated in the group and the least social which, in this environment, seems to be the healthiest way to go.<\/p>\n
Pam McKinnon is a wonderfully perceptive director and she pulls beautifully nuanced performances from each of the women. The entire production has a polished look and the technical team is a huge plus. Nina Ball\u2019s scenic design, fronted by four platforms for each of the girls, surrounded by floor to ceiling pillars and columns gets an added boost by Russell H. Champa\u2019s colorfully mood-inducing lights. And Mel Ng\u2019s costumes contribute much to define the individual personalities.<\/p>\n
Anyone who\u2019s spent time with high school girls will recognize the four characters in this work struggling to make sense of their lives. But as presented, ||: Girls :||: Chance :||: Music :|| <\/i>feels less of a fully realized play and more like a character study depicting cliquish teen girl behavior and it drags in spots. By the time Margot states: \u201cIt\u2019ll be great when we\u2019re done being teenagers and never have emotions again,\u201d the message is all too clear. These are young women who have lots of growing up to do.\u00a0 <\/span>If only there was more music to quicken the tempo.<\/p>\n||: Girls :||: Chance :||: Music :||<\/em> opened May 28, 2026, at the Vineyard Theater and runs through June 21. Tickets and information: vineyardtheatre.org<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source nystagereview.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"May 28, 2026 9:00 pm By Roma Torre \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606\u2606 Pam McKinnon directs Eisa Davis’ play with music featuring four young virtuosos in search of harmony. Gianna DiGregorio Rivera, Naomi Latta, Hillary Fisher, Yeena Sung in Girls Chance Music. Photo: Carol Rosegg Eisa Davis\u2019 drama, ||: Girls :||: Chance :||: Music :||. is\u00a0a painfully intimate portrait […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2436354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2436353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Girls-Chance-Music-Teenage-Angst-in.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2436353"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2436355,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436353\/revisions\/2436355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2436354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2436353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2436353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2436353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}