An all-female cast and crew for Bull in a China Shop helped create a safe space on set
RICH LOPEZ | Staff writer
rich@dallasvoice.com
The stage adaptation of Mary Woolley and Jeannette Marks’ pioneering lesbian relationship, Bull in a China Shop, first played at Amphibian Stage in Fort Worth and opened earlier this week at Second Thought Theatre in Dallas. Bryna Turner’s play details Mary Woolley’s rise at Mount Holyoke College. Director Kels Ervi (they/them) helmed the show — their first since grad school — with momentum from the audience’s enthusiastic reception in Fort Worth.
“I was so pleased with how it all came together,” the director said. “The play offered so many qualities that I really like and search for as a director, obviously the biggest being the queerness of the show.”
The show runs through April 18 at Bryant Hall on the Kalita Humphreys Theater campus.
In Bull in a China Shop, Bryna Turner’s play tells the herstory of Woolley and her lover, writer Jeannette Marks. And while their lesbian love is front and center, this is hardly just a queer play.
Woolley would be named the first woman president of Mount Holyoke College.
The story spans some 40 years, starting when Woolley arrives at Holyoke and begins a shift that changes not only the course of the school and explores the relationship between the two intellects, played by Emily Scott Banks as Mary and Dani Nelson as Marks.
A key element in the director’s vision was moving beyond the well-trodden “queer pain” trope, because this story “wasn’t about queer pain,” they said. “And it’s not really about coming out. I really emphasized that to my main two actors. That is so much more interesting to me. Like, fuck that. Everyone knows, and let’s move on.”
This focus on queer joy or queer success in the face of societal constraints is what Ervi believes makes the story poignant today.
In this period piece inspired by the real-life letters between Woolley and Marks, Ervi and their team crafted a show that was anachronistic as well. Perhaps the most striking aspect was the use of contemporary music not in the original script.
“This was solely our production. Queer heartbreak and yearning are often tied to music,” they said.
This became the launching point for a soundtrack of pop music transitions and emotional moments.
“I was like, if we’re going to go for it, let’s freaking go for it,” they said. “The music externalized the characters’ internal yearning, making this story feel inherently contemporary and queer.”
The cast includes Laurel Lynn Collins, Nicole Renee Johnson and Mia M. Azuaje.
A happy accident that Ervi remarked on was how this was a very “AFAB-centered” production. Along with the all-fermale cast, the entire production features a primarily assigned-female-at-birth/women-centered team outside of costume designer Murell Horton.
For Ervi, this resulted in a special and safe environment.
“It was exciting to be in the room with such strong women, because it taught me something about the qualities of a woman’s experience that I feel like I don’t always align with, but also like ways in which we do and a celebration of that,” the director, who identifies as nonbinary AFAB.
For tickets, visit SecondThoughtTheatre.com.