The Shakespeare Company at UCLA extended beyond its previous productions with their fall production, “The Pliant Girls.”

On Nov. 21, the Shakespeare Company opened its theater doors for the first public showing of the 2025-26 school year. Written by screenwriter Meghan Brown and directed by second-year theater student Mia Perez, “The Pliant Girls” features a cast of five leading women and explores what it means to be a girl living under a patriarchy. Being her first full-length show at UCLA, this vision has been two years in the making and explores themes relevant to today’s political climate, Perez said.

“There’s so many interesting themes of queerness, of misogyny in general, living as a woman under the patriarchy, the power of secrets, betrayal, … sisterhood,” Perez said.

Second-year theater student, Sami Kuncharapu – the program’s co-director of educational outreach and the actress who played Leta – said while the production stars five women, each girl has her own faults and strengths, which makes the show entertaining. At the beginning of the play, Kuncharapu said Leta is hesitant – she is very loyal toward her sisters but often struggles with decision-making – yet by the end of the play, she learns to stand up for herself. Kuncharapu added that nowadays, people blindly follow others, but Leta manages to break through this hive mentality and educate herself. In a play centered on women, Leta learning to think for herself sets a powerful example for the audience, Kuncharapu said.

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Libby Bezdek, a third-year theater student, said the production highlights queerness as well. Bezdek, co-director of educational outreach and the actress who played Arianna, said she was excited to portray the canonically queer sister. Oftentimes, queer women have trouble coming to terms with their sexualities because society pushes patriarchal values onto them, conditioning women to marry men and have children, Bezdek said.

“This show is very beautiful because it shows her journey coming to terms with her identity and learning that being queer is a beautiful and freeing thing,” Bezdek said.

To embody her character, Kuncharapu said she worked with Perez to create a playlist for her character. With songs like “I Know the End” by Phoebe Bridgers and Billie Eilish’s song, “Birds of a Feather,” Kuncharapu said listening to this music helped her to understand Leta’s journey, making it easier to portray her, she added. Additionally, Bezdek said she created her own story as a way of following Arianna after she leaves the island. Working with Perez, Bezdek said she envisioned a new life for her character where she runs away to New York and becomes a ballerina. This practice helped Bezdek fall in love with her character even more, she added.

Behind the dedicated cast, there was also a large behind-the-scenes crew, Perez said. Between the cast, designers, stage managers, fight choreographer and even intimacy coordinator, the production consisted of 27 people, which was larger than typical student productions, Perez said. Both the cast and production team were chosen specifically by herself, she added.

“Being a director is kind of like being the captain of the ship, where it’s really my vision that ultimately drives the show,” Perez said.

Being the Shakespeare Company, “The Pliant Girls” was not a play that its production teams usually take on. Often, each show is Shakespearean, Perez said. However, the Company has been trying to move away from solely presenting his work, Perez said. The executive board values pitches that are passionate and those that are relevant to the UCLA student body, she added. With this production being one of the first non-classical shows, Perez said that she is excited to see the legacy “The Pliant Girls” leaves with the Shakespeare Company.

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In classical plays, there tend to be more male roles and male stories, Bezdek said, while “The Pliant Girls” allowed the company to highlight historical women and their narratives. Bezdek added that this production presented societal issues directly, which may have made audiences uncomfortable by forcing them to address messages of womanhood and queerness. “The Pliant Girls” is a great reflection of what society is currently experiencing and dealing with, Bezdek said.

“It is such a window into the experience of what it is to be a woman growing up in the world we live in,” Bezdek said. “I really encourage audiences to think about the show when they go home, … think about what it reminds them of in their real lives, and think about how they can take action to support the women in their lives.”