In the world premiere of MIA: Where Have All the Young Girls Gone?, writer and director Mary Bonnett uses interviews and research to illuminate the crisis of missing young women in the United States.
The performance interweaves the fictitious story of a missing young girl named Mia (Jamise Wright) with real-life cases and statistics, emphasizing the urgency behind the issue. The two-person cast tells the story in fragments, and each short scene uses various mediums, such as dance, song, and photographs, to explore and untangle important questions and uncomfortable truths.
MIA: Where Have All the Young Girls Gone?
Through 4/9: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 2 PM, Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln, 773-404-7336, greenhousetheater.org or herstorytheater.org, $20 ($10 students)
Bonnett’s script invites audiences to ponder why young women go missing, why they are too often never found, and what more could be done to help keep them safe. The show also interrogates whose stories get amplified, addressing disparities in media coverage around cases involving white women and those involving women of color. Still, some questions remain around the legal system’s accountability in the crisis, which the performance could address more firmly within the conversation it seeks to start.
Wright also appears as Mia’s mother, desperate to find her daughter, and as a community activist heading up the search for her. Wright brings depth and power to all three roles, giving a voice to stories confined to the shadows.
