by Michele Markarian

“Queens Girl in the World” – Written by Caleen Sinnette Jennings. Directed by Dawn M. Simmons. Co-produced by The Nora@Central Square Theater, The Front Porch Arts Collective, and The Hangar Theater, 450 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, through October 31.

Jacqueline Marie Butler (Jasmine M. Rush)  is a black girl living in Queens, the overprotected daughter of middle-class parents, a doctor from the Caribbean and his elegant wife, Grace. Her friend Persephone – “I hate Persephone Wilson when she’s not my best friend” – lives next door.  Jacqueline Marie’s proper mother dispenses such as advice as “Once a lady lays down in the gutter, she can never be a lady again.” Once Jacqueline Marie is discovered in the company of Earl Waddlington, a boy she meets inadvertently through Persephone, Grace decides that Jacqueline Marie needs to associate with a different class of people. Instead of going to her local PS, Jacqueline finds herself taking the train into Manhattan’s Greenwich Village to attend the primarily Jewish Irwin School, where she is one of three black students. Nonetheless, she finds friendship, love, and care from the students and faculty there, even though, as she says, “I’m always afraid. Afraid of being the wrong me in the wrong place.” Manhattan Jacqueline is very different from Queens Jacqueline. 

Read more “Rush Delivers Tour de Force Performance in “Queens Girl in the World” at Central Square”