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At fifteen, the world can feel like a television show you haven't quite figured out how to turn off.

For Salma (Jacqueline Guillen), it may be even more difficult. She watches too much television—especially detective shows—and has begun to see the world through the eyes of a detective. So when Maria (Andrea Ferro) disappears, Salma doesn't simply wonder where her friend is. She decides to investigate.

She recruits Este (Carmen Berkeley) and Phoebe (Ariana Burks) to help her find Maria, and Phanèsia Pharel's Dead Girl's Quinceañera takes off from there.

Produced by Goodman Theatre in association with Chicago Latino Theater Alliance, the production is a collective World Premiere with Barrington Stage Company and Hartford Stage. Directed by Melia Bensussen, the play has at times the quick-cut energy of the procedural television shows that inspired Pharel when she originally conceived the work.

And it moves fast.

Very fast.

Pharel understands the language of fifteen-year-old girls—the rapid-fire speech, the sudden shifts in thought, the jokes that arrive in the middle of serious conversations and the ability to move from one subject to another without warning. These girls don't simply talk; they process.

And Salma processes everything like a detective.

Television has given her a vocabulary for understanding crime, clues and suspects. She has watched enough procedural television shows to believe she knows how an investigation works. There is something funny about her confidence, but there is also something unsettling about it. For all the light-heartedness there’s an air that something isn’t right.

Pharel wisely doesn't allow that danger to become the only thing we see. The girls joke, argue, tease one another and behave like fifteen-year-olds. Their humor is genuine, but it also creates an increasingly uneasy contrast with what may be happening beyond their immediate world.

That contrast gives the play its darker edge.

The girls are dealing with situations that are far more adult than they are. Salma's television education has taught her that mysteries have clues and crimes have solutions. But real life doesn't necessarily follow the rules of a television show.

The four girls come from distinctly different cultural backgrounds. Salma is Cuban, Este is Salvadorian, Phoebe is Dominican/Haitian, and her cousin Maria is Dominican. Their different cultural experiences shape their ideas about family, friendship, behavior and what it means to grow up American, while their interactions allow Pharel to explore questions of identity, belonging and how young people see one another across economic and cultural lines. Yet they share something equally important: they are all approximately fifteen years old, and they are all American.

Pharel doesn't present Latino identity as one uniform experience. Instead, she allows the girls' differences to shape their relationships and their understanding of the world. They are negotiating family expectations, cultural identity and American teenage life simultaneously.

Dead Girl’s Quinceañera is ambitious, culturally layered and unapologetically youthful. Pharel gives us four girls who may come from different places, but who share the complicated experience of growing up American while carrying the histories, expectations and family secrets that shape who they are. As those secrets begin to surface, friendship is tested, identities are questioned, and the girls are forced to confront realities far beyond their years.

Ultimately, this is a play about friendship, identity and agency—and about young women discovering that sometimes the most important story is the one they have the courage to uncover for themselves.

RECOMMENDED

When: Through Nov. 1

Where: Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St.

Tickets: $34-$79

Info: www.goodmantheatre.org

Box Office: 312-443-3800

Secrets, sisterhood and solving crime take center stage this fall in the world premiere co-production of Dead Girl's Quinceañera by Miami native playwright Phanésia Pharel. Director Melia Bensussen's ensemble cast includes Carmen Berkeley (Hartford Stage's Romeo and Juliet), Ariana Burks (A Christmas Carol), Andrea Ferro (Columbia Lenfest Center's Big Love) and Jacqueline Guillén (Off-Broadway, Torera). Understudies will be announced at a later date. Co-produced with Barrington Stage Company and Hartford Stage, Dead Girl's Quinceañera appears in the Owen Theatre September 26 – November 1. For tickets ($34 - $79; on sale August 7), call 312.443.3800 or visit GoodmanTheatre.org/Quince. The Goodman is grateful for the support of Conagra Brands Foundation (Corporate Sponsor Partner), The Elizabeth Morse Charitable Trust (Lead Sponsor of IDEAA Programming) and Bold Ventures (Production Support).

"Dead Girl's Quinceañera is a celebration of young women's imagination, initiative and courage," said director Melia Bensussen, who is also Artistic Director of Hartford Stage. "Although all four identify as Latina, each one arrives with a different personal experience and history.  In their collaboration and friendship, we see our own journeys reflected – as they harness their power and agency, we too, watching them, celebrate our own transformations and those of our neighbors. ¡Que feliz estar haciendo este trabajo en Chicago!" 

FACT: Maria was last seen at her Quinceañera. FACT: The party ended early due to an unknown emergency. FACT: Maria has not responded to any messages in 19 hours. Now, her three best friends—armed with confidence, questionable clues and zero adult supervision—are on the case, racing against the clock to find out what happened. The pressures of Latine girlhood punctuate the joy ride through the power and pleasure of adolescent friendships in this comic thriller. 

"I'm in awe that my play appears at The Goodman at the start of their 101^st Season and second century," playwright Phanésia Pharel said. "I wrote this play for my best friend, to celebrate how much our relationship changed my life. It's been a beautiful experience to see this coming-of-age story resonate with people who may have never been to Miami and/or who might not be of Hispanic descent. It reminds me that even at this moment where forces are hoping to divide us, theater can connect us all to our true humanity."

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Phanésia Pharel (Playwright) is a Haitian-American playwright and screenwriter from a dragon fruit farm in Miami. She is the daughter of an immigrant teacher and farmer. She recently made her Off-Broadway debut at the WP Theater with her play The Waterfall. She is the Playwriting Fellow (2025-2027) at Emory University, where she serves as a visiting professor and has a new play produced by their repertory company. Her plays have been developed at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference, New Harmony Project, Playwrights' Center, New York Stage and Film, SolFest, Thrown Stone, Shattered Globe and Echo Theater Company. She has received commissions from the Atlantic Theater, Lucille Lortel (Alcove), La Jolla Playhouse, Miranda Family Fund, Hero Theatre, City Theatre Miami and the Latinx Playwrights Circle. Pharel is a member of the Obie-winning EST/Youngblood group and The Wish Collective. As a screenwriter, she is a member of Lena Waithe's Hillman Grad Screenwriting Lab. Her honors include The Kilroys Web, five awards from the Kennedy Center and an A is For Playwriting Award recipient. She holds a BA in Urban Studies from Barnard College of Columbia University and an MFA in Playwriting from the University of California San Diego. 

Melia Bensussen (Director) is an award-winning director, teacher and artistic leader who has directed extensively at leading theaters throughout the country. The first woman to lead Hartford Stage, she has been its Artistic Director since the summer of 2019. Devoted to new work as well as to classic texts, she was appointed Artistic Director of the National Playwrights Conference at the O'Neill Theater Center in 2024. Raised in Mexico City, Bensussen is fluent in Spanish and has translated and adapted a variety of texts, including her edition of the Langston Hughes translation of Federico Garcia Lorca's Blood Wedding, published by Theater Communications Group. Among her credits developing and premiering new works, she co-conceived and directed, alongside playwright Kirsten Greenidge, the theatrical adaptation of Anthony J. Lukas' Pulitzer Prize winning Common Ground, which premiered at the Huntington Theater in Boston. A graduate of Brown University, Bensussen serves on the Arts Advisory Board for the Princess Grace Foundation, and on the executive board of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC). Prior to her position at Hartford Stage, she was Chair of the Performing Arts Department of Emerson College, in Boston. She is the recipient of an OBIE Award for Outstanding Direction, as well as the Statue Award from the Princess Grace Foundation for Excellence in Directing. 

Company of Dead Girl's Quinceañera
By Phanésia Pharel 
Directed by Melia Bensussen
A World Premiere Co-Production with Barrington Stage Company and Hartford Stage 

Carmen Berkeley...Ensemble
Ariana Burks...Ensemble
Andrea Ferro...Ensemble
Jacqueline Guillén...Ensemble

Creative Team

Set Designer...Sara Brown
Lighting Designer...Dan Kotlowitz
Sound Designer...Salvador Zamora
Costume Designer...Raquel Adorno
Movement Choreographer...Mayte Natalio
Dialect Coach...Cynthia Santos Decure
Associate Director...Ludmila de Brito
Assistant Director...Lorenzo Rush, Jr.
Assistant Set Designer...Daniel Prosky
Assistant Lighting Designer...Emma Berry
Assistant Sound Desiger...Harper Justus
Line Producer...Malkia Stampley
Second Line Producer...Sarah Slight

Casting by Alaine Alldaffer, CSA, Lisa Donadio and Lauren Port, CSA.

ENHANCED AND ACCESSIBLE PERFORMANCES
Visit GoodmanTheatre.org/Access for more information about The Goodman's accessibility efforts. 

ASL-Interpreted...October 16 at 7:30pm – An ASL interpreter signs the action/text as played. 
Audio-Described...October 17 at 2pm; Touch Tour; 12:30pm – Action audibly enhanced via headset. 
Spanish-Subtitled...October 17 at 7:30pm – Spanish-translated dialogue via LED sign. 
Open-Captioned...October 18 at 2pm – LED sign presents dialogue in sync with the performance. 

ABOUT THE GOODMAN

Since 1925, The Goodman has been a theatrical home for artists and a gathering space for Chicagoland, where bold stories spark connection, conversation and change. Now, as it enters its second century, The Goodman builds on that legacy with an eye toward the future. Under the leadership of Walter Artistic Director Susan V. Booth and Executive Director John Collins, the theater continues to champion new work—following hundreds of plays developed and a national reputation for commissioning and premiering original stories by living writers—while reimagining classics and produce large-scale musicals.

But The Goodman's reach today extends beyond its home in the heart of the Loop. From the intimate magic of The Magic Parlour, now in its third year, to the boundary-pushing world of Theater of the Mind—an immersive experience that blurs the lines between science, storytelling and sensation—and from citywide initiatives like 100 Free Acts of Theater to partnerships with artists and companies across Chicago and around the world, The Goodman is expanding what theater can be, and where it can live.

At its core, The Goodman is driven by a belief that a more empathetic, more connected city is built one story at a time. Generation-spanning productions and programs offer theater for a lifetime—from babies and young children to teens, adults and seniors—including Theater for the Very Young (ages 0–5) and the beloved annual A Christmas Carol, which has welcomed audiences for five decades. Education and Engagement programs, led by Clifford Director Jared Bellot and based in the Alice Rapoport Center, use the tools of theater to spark imagination, reflection and belonging—reaching thousands each year, the majority from underserved communities.

With nearly 200 world or American premieres, two Pulitzer Prizes, 22 Tony Awards and nearly 200 Joseph Jefferson Awards, The Goodman remains a defining force in American theater—and the first to produce all 10 plays of August Wilson's American Century Cycle. The theater also frequently serves as a production partner—from national and international companies to Chicago's Off-Loop theaters—to help amplify a wide range of theatrical voices.

Founded by William O. Goodman and his family in memory of playwright Kenneth Sawyer Goodman, the theater carries forward a legacy of artistic ambition and civic generosity. With the help of Mr. Goodman's descendants—Albert Ivar Goodman and his late mother, Edith-Marie Appleton—that spirit continues to shape its future as The Goodman expands its impact across Chicago and beyond. Marsha Cruzan is Chair of the Goodman Theatre Board of Trustees; Diane Landgren is Women's Board President; and Kelli Garcia is president of the Scenemakers Board for Young Professionals.

The Goodman stands on the unceded homelands of the Council of the Three Fires—the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi Nations—and acknowledges the many other Nations for whom this land now called Chicago has long been home, including the Myaamia, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Sac and Fox, Peoria, Kaskaskia, Wea, Kickapoo, and Mascouten. The Goodman is proud to partner with the Gichigamiin Indigenous Nations Museum (Gichigamiin-Museum.org) and the Center for Native Futures (CenterForNativeFutures.org)—organizations devoted to honoring Indigenous stories, preserving cultural memory, and deepening public understanding.