World Premiere of MIA: WHERE HAVE ALL THE YOUNG GIRLS GONE? to Open at Greenhouse Theater Center in March

In 2020, 268,884 women were reported missing, according to the National Crime Information Center, with nearly 100,000 of those being Black women and girls. Mary Bonnett's world premiere play, MIA: WHERE HAVE ALL THE YOUNG GIRLS GONE? is taken from interviews and research on girls and women who have vanished into the world of the missing in America. The play goes beyond the statistics to portray the crisis in personal and human terms, mirroring the plight of the missing and their loved ones trying to solve the mystery of their disappearance.

Bonnett will direct this production of her script, and Jamise Wright (pictured, click on image to download file), who earned raves for her performance of a bereaved mother in Her Story Theater's 2018 MONGER, will perform the lead. The cast also includes Tristan Hall. The production team includes Blake Cordell (Lights and Sound Design), CCDM (Music Design), and Sean Smyth (Stage Manager). MIA: WHERE HAVE ALL THE YOUNG GIRLS GONE? will be performed at Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago. Press opening is Sunday, March 12, 2023 2:00PM, following previews from March 9-11, 2023. It will play through April 9, 2023.

Through a driving sound design, MIA: WHERE HAVE ALL THE YOUNG GIRLS GONE? tries to put the puzzle pieces together and answer the questions surrounding this crisis. How can so many young girls go missing with so little response? Where are the 6000 missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls and the thousands of missing and murdered girls from the south, west and north sides of Chicago? Who took them? Why don't we have systems in place to protect women from this form of Femicide and abuse? Why isn't more being done to find and protect them?

The crisis is especially acute among the African American community. In 2020, 268,884 women were reported missing, according to the National Crime Information Center, with nearly 100,000 of those being Black women and girls. While Black women account for less than 15% of our U.S. population, they made up more than one-third of all missing women reported in 2020.

Her Story Theater was founded in 2011 and has focused primarily on raising awareness of the epidemic of sexual exploitation of minors and homelessness. The four produced plays in Her Story's "Chicago Sex Trafficking Cycle" include SHADOW TOWN (2013), THE JOHNS (2014), MONEY MAKE'M SMILE (2016, 2017) and MONGER (2018). As a group, the plays depict domestic sex trafficking from the perspectives of the various participants - the traffickers, youth who are trafficked, and the men who buy them. INVISIBLE (2019) is concerned with issues of bigotry, nativism and violence against minorities. Her Story Theater continues its work to raise awareness of the prevalence of domestic sex trafficking and the trauma-based victim through its touring presentations and programs.

Tickets to MIA will be on sale soon and will be available at www.greenhousetheater.com or by phone at 773-404-7336. Fir information for group tickets or questions, email: HerStoryTheatre@gmail.com More information on MIA and Her Story Theatre is available at www.herstorytheater.org.

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