If you haven’t heard of Off-Broadway’s “School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play,” by Jocelyn Bioh, it is only a matter of time before you do. The play, directed by Tony winner Rebecca Taichman, is about a group of high school girls in Ghana, reminiscent of the other “Mean Girls” currently onstage, but with an edge. 

The show earned the 2018 Lucille Lortel Award for Best Play, and its run keeps getting extended, deservedly so. The cast includes MaameYaa Boafo (“An African City”), Zenzi Williams (“The Good Fight”), Joanna A. Jones (“Hairspray Live!”), Myra Lucretia Taylor (“The Big Sick”), Latoya Edwards (“The Get Down”), Paige Gilbert (“The Deuce”), Abena Mensah-Bonsu (“Orange Is the New Black”), and Mirirai Sithole (“Broad City”).

An actress and playwright, Bioh can be seen next in family drama “Ben Is Back,” with Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges, out December 7. She was last onstage in “In the Blood.” Her written work includes plays “African Americans” and “Nollywood Dreams” and the libretto “The Ladykiller’s Love Story.” She’s also penned episodes of “She’s Gotta Have It” and another Netflix show called “Russian Doll,” which she will also act in.

Women and Hollywood spoke with Bioh about “School Girls,” her career to date, and why colorism and representation play such big roles in her work.

“School Girls” is playing at The Lucille Lortel Theater’s MCC Theater through December 9. Find tickets and more information at MCC Theater’s website.

W&H: Can you talk about what it’s like to be a woman of color working in theater today — both as an actress and a playwright?

JB: I feel very excited that I’m coming up in a time where there are so many opportunities. Even 10 years ago, when I was just out of school getting my MFA, times were very bleak. It was 2008. We were in a recession. If you weren’t a celebrity or a working playwright of award-winning plays, there was no real opportunity for writers like me. So I’m just so glad to be a part of a time now that feels like everything is changing and people are realizing that diversity is reality and not trendy. To be able to add to the conversation specifically about how the African diaspora is being reflected is really exciting as a writer.

Plus, as an actor, there are so many new and incredible plays being written for women of color. I feel lucky that I’m coming in at a time where I’ve only ever worked on new plays and I’m able to originate roles that will last forever.

W&H: Do you feel that the #MeToo and #TimesUp and #BlackLivesMatter movements are pushing your writing to address tough topics and challenge stereotypes?

JB: I think that maybe unconsciously or subconsciously it’s influencing my work. Look, I’ve always been a woman. I’ve always been black. So, the kind of want and need to push these stories forward has always been a part of me.

Having the social justice aspect really come to light in a forward way is very exciting. Just add that layer to the conversation when audiences come and they’re made aware of what is happening in the world and how that relates to my work — this has always been a part of my process. I’m just excited politically that these are issues that have come to the forefront and can’t be avoided.

“School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play”: Craig Schwartz

W&H: There seems to be an increase in the number of stories being told about African culture in NYC theater. Why do you think that is? Do you feel a responsibility to pay homage to where you were born?

JB: I feel an incredible responsibility. Ghana got their independence in the 1950s and my parents came to this country just about 10 years after that. To be part of a generation, a culture of people who have African parents that came to this country willingly for the first time in our American history and then had children and families here, gives me the incredible responsibility of making sure that the narrative of African stories is changing. The ideas and dreams of my parents are much different than the African people who came to this country and were forcibly brought here for over 300 years. It’s very different than what my parent’s relationship is to America.

And also, in terms of what Americans think of African countries and society, there is a lot of Stone Age thinking when it comes to how the everyday African is living. There is the universality of our stories, such as teenage girls who are struggling with insecurities as we all do in “School Girls.” In another play, I wrote about a young actor who is trying to break into the Nigerian film industry. Or in another play I’m working on, I write a remix of an African Destiny’s Child-like girls’ group and what it’s like for them to be huge superstars there. There’s just so much universality in pop culture and everyday people trying to live extraordinary lives.

My parents didn’t think that arts or entertainment was a viable career, so to have this platform is really important. But whatever version of success I’m experiencing is good for me.

W&H: “School Girls” is a lighter look at African culture, yet it gets inside some very important issues, from bullying to racism to casting stereotypes. When you sit down to write, do you intentionally know how you’re going to flesh these stories out?

JB: In the case of “School Girls,” as a dark-skinned woman, I know in a very personal and visceral way what it’s like to feel inferior to people who are lighter-skinned than me. The journey to owning and accepting my beauty was a really long one and I always knew I would address that in a play, but I wasn’t sure how. It didn’t feel like an after-school special because that’s also not my thing. Colorism is played out in my play, although it’s not mentioned. That’s why I think the story really lives. Just watching it play out, as opposed as to, “Here’s a word, now here’s the ‘School House Rock’ lesson.”

There’s always a bit of me in my plays — something I’ve personally gone through or experienced. That is something I pull from when I write. I want to write about African people but I inherently write comedy. I just didn’t know how I would get them out there because African comedy wasn’t a real genre in American theater for a long time. [Audiences] were just tolerant of only one singular narrative of African stories. Now that “School Girls” did okay and people get it, they will be more accepting of the stories I’m trying to write.

W&H: What was the process like bringing “School Girls” from the page to the stage, and did anyone in particular champion your work?

JB: I have an incredible agent and I really credit her. She was one of the first people who read my earlier plays and was just like, “I get it, I get you, and I’m going to figure out how to make everybody else get you, too.” You just need one cheerleader and she was definitely that.

I had another play I was trying to get produced called “Nollywood Dreams,” a play about a young girl in Nigeria in the 1990s trying to break into the film industry. There’s a big “Titanic”-type movie with a big Western cross-over, and a fading actress comes head-to-head with her for the role. There are comedy, dreams, and immigration stories in there. It’s a fun and lovely play, but many theaters just didn’t understand it.

I gave up on that play for a bit and had the idea for “School Girls,” which I brought to my agent. A few theaters were interested in reading it. That’s when I added the subtitle “Or the African Mean Girls Play” to help them understand this is what I’m doing, this is what I’m writing — the same way you felt when you watched “Mean Girls” and you knew you were walking into a comedy. I need you to get it right now.

MCC’s Artistic Producer, Jessica Chase, came to my second public reading and loved it. In the very early stages, the play was very different but she thought it had potential and plotted it into MCC’s reading series, and two days later they told me they wanted to produce it.

“Nollywood Dreams” took me four years to get produced [it played at the Cherry Lane Theatre last year] and “School Girls” took only 10 months.

“School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play”: Craig Schwartz

W&H: What has your collaboration been like with director Rebecca Taichman?

JB: This play would not be what it is without her — 1000 percent. She has been the most incredible collaborator on this play. Dramaturgically, she is such a great director. She can just dig in and understand.

The play is about black women. I’m a black woman. Rebecca is a white Jewish woman from Long Island. That was what was so great about our collaboration. She was never intimidated by the fact that she’s white nor apologized for it. She connected to the universality of the characters in the play, which has nothing to do with their complexion, even though the play is about colorism. All colorism is about pointing out a difference within your own community. As somebody who was Jewish and one of the only Jewish people in her own community, even though there were a lot of white people, she understood that difference.

I felt like she asked me the right questions, and always gave me the right provocations that really excitedly threw me into writing the play very rapidly. In that year before it hit the stage … there were 27 drafts.

W&H: Your characters are very real, as are the events that unfold. How important is representation to you in your storytelling process?

JB: If you don’t see the things, you don’t know the things exist. To have a play of eight black women, where all the women are funny, all of them are three-functional, all of them are able to share their weaknesses and be super vulnerable, all in an enjoyable night. These kinds of plays are very rare.

To be able to create something like that for other actresses all over the country to do — why should they be limited to five black plays that regional theaters feel are being worthy of getting produced every year? Why can’t we add to the conversation black female bodies onstage? The representation aspect is very exciting to me because I will always be putting African women onstage.

W&H: What are you working on now?

JB: I’m working on a lot of commissions right now, with Second Stage Theater, Williamstown [Theatre Festival], and others. One is about a shifty actor who wants to open a mega-church. Another is the one I mentioned before — the Destiny’s Child group in Africa and there’s a Beyonce character in the group who wants to go solo. I have another play set in an African hair braiding shop, which I’ve spent a lot of time working on. I’m excited to throw these ideas out there and hope that these plays will be onstage in the next few years.

I also wrote an episode for “She’s Gotta Have It” and a new Netflix show called “Russian Doll,” and I guest star in the episode I wrote. I will also be in the new Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges movie “Ben Is Back,” which comes out in December.