VICTORIA RIGBY
Girl From Nowhere
Set in deepest Texas, 1969, Girl From Nowhere tells the story of a young singer struggling for renown in a fame-hungry world, and veering wildly out of control as circumstances begin to deteriorate.
The play was performed as a workshop in Cambridge in 2012 to great acclaim, and is currently in production for a London run.
Texas is the world of oil and big business. Rock music is owned by the Stones, Hendrix, Dylan and the Beatles. So where does a sweet Southern girl turn if she doesn't want to be a sweet Southern girl?
Jeannie fights tooth and nail for her right to reject the world of her mother, and for her right to be recognised by the rock musicians who accept her as a body but reject her as a voice. Examining the dark underside of our celebrity culture, Girl From Nowhere resonates strongly today as we are faced with a music industry in which women's main marketing appeal is as sex objects.
Jeannie is based on Janis Joplin, Maggie Bell, Edith Piaf, Grace Slick, Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Nicks, Whitney Houston and Amy Winehouse, amongst many others - women who both pre- and post-date her, but all bold musicians who rejected society's deafening shout that they were only as good as their men.
"That's the thing about women in the music business, man. Because women sing their fuckin' insides, man. Women, to be in the music business, give up more than you'd ever know." - Janis Joplin
Girl From Nowhere is produced with White Cloud Productions and Kino Associates.