Our meeting lasted three hours. Sitting in a dingy, fluorescent-lit office while mice scampered around, Meg McInerney and I were sipping tea and coffee, respectively, and gushing about the three loves of our lives: theater, teaching, and girl power. We were also bonding over our common goals: to provide young artists with an inspiring acting/theatrical experience and to create theater that challenges communities. We were half venting and half brainstorming. We weren’t satisfied with our current situations; we didn’t feel creatively simulated; we wanted to do something...but what? Looking back, it was the best meeting of my life. I found my creative soul mate and, though I didn’t know it at the time, I was about to embark on a fun, crazy, life-changing adventure. That day, Meg and I decided to take a big risk: We would quit our teaching jobs, move on from acting professionally, and start the Arts Effect All-Girl Theater Company. And so it began Sept. 12, 2007, at 440 Studios in New York City, with 10 9–11-year-old girls we found through former teaching jobs and nannying gigs looking at us, excitedly awaiting their instruction. Could we create an experience we would have loved as girls?
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