A Fat Girl’s Diatribe Against the Theatre Community

by Abigail Mowbray, Guest Editorial

The theatrical industry is, on the surface, seen as an inclusive environment full of openly accepting members who desire to experience the same kind of public appreciation an eighth-grade version of myself so desperately craved. As a young artist, it has only taken me less than a handle of auditions and feedback to realize that theatre was not the fat girl’s sport.

If you speak to the choreographer, they’d say that it’s visually unappealing to have an uneven amount of  “heavier” people on the stage than the other. If you speak to the costume designer, they say that it’s more difficult to create flattering costumes for the “common figure” a fat girl carries. If you look in the ensemble of most running musicals, you will rarely find anyone that doesn’t fit an “average” body type to the production staff’s discretion.

The mentality that fat girls are not an acceptable “type” of performer not only infiltrates the professional and community circles but has now trickled into high school theatre as well.

During my high school’s production of Thoroughly Modern Millie, where I played Miss Dorothy, we were learning the steps for the “Nutcracker Suite.” The choreographer mapped out a lift in the middle of the dance break involving Millie and me, where we both sat on our male cast members’ shoulders. After multiple attempts to master the lift, the choreographer looked at me before the entire cast and said, “Can we get a smaller girl over here?”

Because two high school boys couldn’t carry a 175 lbs. curvaceous junior in high school, the choreographer chose to replace me with the smallest female member of the ensemble cast.

I was fed up after experiencing similar treatment with the costuming department during measurements and costume fittings. Once the choreographer ran the lift with my replacement, I looked at her and said, “Replacing me with the tiniest actress in our company does absolutely nothing for my confidence. I hope you’re happy with your decision to compromise the integrity of your actor’s performance instead of your choreography.”

Once I made such a bold statement, I walked out of the rehearsal space into the dressing room, where the director tracked me down and calmed down so that I could re-enter the stage.

While the aforementioned example seems like petty high school drama, situations even more extreme happen daily in conference rooms surrounded by production teams of people who don’t live up to the external expectations they hold their anticipated cast members to. I feel like the theatrical industry is no place for a fat girl because a fat girl isn't what the public wants- at least the paying public wants.

Well, I’m sick and tired of it.

I’m tired of being typecast as the “fat best friend”.

We, the “fat girls” of the theatre community, no longer desire to be quieted by being thrown roles like “Tracy Turnblad” in Hairspray or “Bridget” in Bring It On. We ask for the opportunity to portray every actress's dream role. Here’s to fat “Elphaba” in Wicked, fat “Christine” in Phantom of the Opera, and fat “Reginas” in Mean Girls.

Is that asking too much?