WHAT EVERY GIRL SHOULD KNOW to Open at The Wayward Artist

The Wayward Artist will present What Every Girl Should Know from November 5 through 14, set inside the Irvine United Congregational Church, 4915 Alton Parkway in Irvine. Shows are Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.

In 1914, four teenage girls confined to a Catholic reformatory discover the writings of birth control activist Margaret Sanger and begin to imagine something they have rarely been allowed to consider: lives of their own choosing. That is the starting point for What Every Girl Should Know, Monica Byrne's provocative play about female friendship, sexuality, faith, abuse and personal agency, which closes The Wayward Artist's 2026 season.

'I was immediately drawn to What Every Girl Should Know because of the strength of its female voices and the way it weaves together Catholic imagery, sexuality, faith, friendship, and the complicated question of choice,' said Wayward Artist Founder and Artistic Director Craig Tyrl. 'It's a fascinating, provocative story about young women trying to understand their bodies, their desires, and their own agency within a world that has already decided so much for them.'

Portraying the teenage girls are Ariana Dolan as Anne, Ava Loren Lopez as Theresa, Heather Buckler as Lucy and Sara Davis as Joan. For Director Lizzy McCabe, it was important that the actresses portray the girls honestly and authentically.

'As the girls begin exploring their sexuality and confronting their individual experiences of abuse, they find solace and hope in Sanger and her advocacy for reproductive rights,' she said. 'Their discovery gives them a way to imagine possibilities beyond the lives others have prescribed for them.'

'The Wayward Artist has always been about choosing edgy, challenging work that asks us to wrestle with difficult questions rather than offering easy answers,' Tyrl said. 'This play does exactly that.'

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