By Gillian Clarke
Directed by Jimmy Blais
POOF is the story of Gill, a self described, “extremely average 16 year old girl”. She isn’t cool like 16 year old girls in movies, and she isn’t a loser like 16 year old girls in movies, either. She is just a 16 year old girl.
So why does your self described “extremely average 16 year old girl” interrupt her school’s production of Romeo and Juliet to declare that something about its definition of love feels inadequate? Gill is processing the death of her Grandma, her parents’ impending divorce, and that she has been cast as the minor role of Balthazar in R and J, while her crush, Qasim, is cast as Romeo.
POOF is about love, grief, change and how language can fall short to describe the ways in which we are feeling. It is about how sometimes, everything happens at once. It is about how illegible notes from a dying loved one might lead you to find a bit of what you are looking for in an unexpected place.
Cross-curricular themes: Emotional Support, Mental Health and Wellbeing, Allyship, Healthy Relationships, Community, Self Love, Identity, Grief