BY GRAY BIRCHBY ’28

I went to CHICK FIGHT!: A Reckoning in Nine Movements by Sara Jean Accuardi on Tuesday, February 17th. The audience sits, talking. Garin Miner Drewes (‘28) comes out with a guitar. He sits on a block. The room is silent. We wait for the show to begin. And wait. And wait.

And then suddenly, an unseeming person in the front row breaks a sacred rule of theater: whispering to the person sitting next to her. This causes tension, and the pair begin to fight, revealing one girl was on her phone. She stands up and begins walking out, as the other person continues making snide remarks. The spotlight following the leaving person indicates to the audience that this is none other than the character “She”, played by Nora Steckline ‘29. This spotlight was only the first of many incredible lighting decisions from Co Lighting Designers Liz Gluz ’27 and Jordan Zickmann ’26, which were then masterfully executed by stage manager Maggie Hogan ’27. As Steckline announced she had taken time on her Tuesday night for this, laughter rippled through the crowd. The instigator stands up as well, revealing Audrey Tignor ‘27 in the role of “Her”.

After she loses again, Steckline tried to leave the theater, but Miner Drewes’ voice boomed out from the ceiling, revealing the trick of Chick Fight The stage is set as the voice reveals the pair must fight. After brief convincing from the voice, Steckline tore off her outer clothing revealing a pink fighters outfit. Tignor tore off her clothes (I was impressed with the costumers finding breakable sweatpants) and revealed a matching purple outfit. The lights shifted colors to match each reveal and give the aura of a wrestling ring. I cannot over emphasize the immersive quality of Chick Fight. The pair squared up and a brutal fight commenced. The violence of this match was astonishing. Even knowing the show was Chick Fight, I still gasped as Tignor’s tooth flew from her mouth. The scene ends with Tignor beating Steckline down and then taking a victory lap, high fiving the front row. Steckline stands dejected.

But nothing is lost yet. The voice from the ceiling calls round two. Tignor and Steckline take a pause, drinking from water bottles. They then pull out pillows and square up. And then they flop down on the floor and we are witnessing a middle school sleepover. Tignor plays a popular girl only at this sleepover because her mother is forcing her. Steckline is “weird” and ostracized. Tignor takes Steckline’s hand and announces she is going to ask questions and Steckline’s pulse will reveal the truth. The questions are all about if Steckline would sleep with a male classmate.

The talent of the actors blew me away. Every emotion was perfectly choreographed onto their faces. The pair laugh and repeat “shit” to one another, shocked at the power of words. With expert line deliveries and body movements, Tignor and Steckline could tell stories without a single word. Steckline’s She clearly had a crush on Tignor’s Her. But nothing is simple in Chick Fight; even as the audience laughed at the brilliant line deliveries, the pressure intensified. Steckline finally snaps as the two fight about Tignor’s infatuation with Tignor declaring she will sleep with Steckline’s brother. Tignor then calls Her weird, setting off Steckline. Steckline begins hitting Tignor with a pillow, harder and harder until She smothers Her. The bell dings triumph. This time, the audience’s uncertainty was palpable as they put out their hands for Steckline’s victory lap.

Round three is announced and the voice from above asks the pair to break the tie. Once again, the scene shifts and Tignor pulls out an apron, taking on the role of a barista. What follows had me breathless as the pair silently act out a relationship’s formation.

Here, Tignor and Steckline’s acting talent, as well as the expert direction of Katie Steele ‘26 shines. No movement feels unintentional as the characters’ desires war on their expressions. We watch their first date, the awkward moment of putting an arm around another person, and the deep fondness generated from both sides. The pair’s dates brought up long forgotten memories of my first queer experience. Tender intimacies of queer girlhood were expertly acted in this show but as the love blooms, and yet the audience is unable to forget the context. Most heartbreaking is the confession of first love. The scene displays both women’s anxieties as Steckline asks Tignor to promise she won’t let her down. The audience is forced to reckon with the surrounding shell of Chick Fight: we watch as the relationship begins to splinter. Steckline cleans Tignor’s apartment, and we watch the power of acting once again as Tignor thanks Steckline, Her tone betraying the annoyance at this intrusion. The mismatches that splinter relationships widen the gulf between the pair as they move in together and their needs clash. Tignor cheats on Steckline, shown through She looking through Her phone. The scene is overlaid with music from Him, the soundtrack to every round of this fight. The pair fight and Steckline orders Tignor out. Tignor walks out. Steckline heartbreakingly asks how Tignor can possibly walk away so easily and Tignor’s grief is evident in the response that this isn’t easy. The bell rings. The voice from above declares Tignor the winner. Both characters are shocked by this development, protesting that surely what ensued was a tie.

It raises the question: who wins a break up?

Steckline and Tignor spit vitriol at one another. They square up, simultaneously declaring that “this is gonna get ugly” as they sit down for tea.

Steckline and Tignor play out another social fight as two high class women, Jane and Helen, with exaggerated high-class British accents. The scene is hilarious, with Helen finally making it apparent that Jane has been sending love letters to Helen’s husband, John. Him goes from passive decoration to part of the scene as the two call him out explicitly, raising the question: who brought a cellist? Here, I will add that while Miner Drewes is in the background, his acting is more than a setpiece. The cellist is invisible yet the soundtrack to the show in more ways than one (especially given that Miner Drewes also worked as assistant sound). Tignor and Steckline kept me rapt so I only rarely looked over at Him, but when I did, Miner Drews always enhanced my performance. He sat as a watcher and guard, following the action yet never intervening.

As British women, Steckline and Tignor hurl insults back and forth. The words escalate until Steckline brings out the c-word. The crowd gasps. Then, in one of many wonderful callbacks, the pair began repeating the phrase and giggling. Soon, they are saying every curse they know. The laughter cuts through the tension we have been suspended in and brings us to pure joy.

But, like the characters, the audience is pulled from our revelry by the voice in the sky calling out a winner. The pair look at one another, stricken.

The most touching scene of the show comes as the Voice from above instructs the two to fight one last time. Tignor begs Steckline to spare her, bombarding Steckline with a torrent of facts about her life and dreams. Tignor reveals a pet iguana that refuses to die, breaking the seal and unlocking the connections between the two. Tignor then reveals that she punched a girl at school for making fun of her. Steckline reciprocates this confession and tells Tignor about drawing a picture for Her grandmother and then tearing it up after Her grandmother caught Her stealing and seemed to fundamentally change views on Her. 

Both actors play characters terrified of death, balancing the horrifying scenario they are in with their human instincts for connection.

The voice from above gives us a brief reprieve of a tie. The pair embrace. Things will be okay. And then it begins demanding a fight once again. This time, Steckline and Tignor make a break for it. The lights go out as they run for the door. And just like that, we are left with an uncertain future.

Photos by Logan Waugh ’26

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Gray Birchby ’28 is a staff writer for the Skidmore Theater Living Newsletter