One thing I was thinking a lot about in rehearsals was what my high school experience looked like. People would tell stories from school and stuff, and I didn’t really have that. Mine looked a bit different. So, I always felt disconnected in that way. I went to high school for a little bit, but it was mostly done on set. That became useful for Shelby, because what really resonated was [the feeling of being a] teenager, but parts of you feel like you’re already an adult. It became a useful tool for me, just relating it back to my own life. But no matter what a person’s teenage experience was, this show encapsulates the rage and the catharsis, how no one will listen to you, and all those things that relate to girlhood, but also just womanhood in general.

There was a New York Times article that came out the other day about the show, titled “Why Women Are Leaving This Broadway Show in Tears.” What do you make of it all?

It’s beautiful and it’s heartbreaking. There’s audiences that, through this play, they’re able to think about things that have happened in their own life that maybe live in that gray area that this play talks about a lot. And so, a lot of women connect to it. A lot of my friends that come to see it have very similar reactions, and it brings up important conversations. It makes people feel really seen. Obviously, we didn’t plan the timing of it at all, but for this story to be told right now, under the same administration that Kimberly wrote [the play] under years ago… to be back in that spot is just really dark. It feels like such a gift that we get to do this right now.

What do you hope people take away from seeing the show?

I like it when people leave with rage, because I definitely feel a lot of that throughout the show. At the end, though, I hope that through Shelby and Raelynn [played by Amalia Yoo]—through their friendship—there’s an appreciation for the connections that you have in your life, and that sense of hope that, with the people around you that you can lean on, you can change the world for a second. That’s what these girls do. They change the world around them for the length of a song.