The B Party by Cosmic Fishing Theatre Company is an auto-ethnographic performance that takes the audience through the life of artistic director Viktorija Kovac who grew up with Barbie and the consumer culture which she believes it continues to sell to girls.
The performance goes through the history of Barbie from the late 1980s to 2017, as well as the history of a girl growing up with Barbie, moving to Canada, and dealing with life changes. Throughout the performance, Kovac shows how Barbie has affected her view of the world.
The B Party started as Kovac’s project for the drama creation class instructed by associate professor Andy Houston.
“We were assigned Studio 180 as an echo chamber for the theme of alienation, and maybe four years ago, I had the thought of doing something with my Barbies because I seem to have collected my Barbies over a long time and I really didn’t have anyone to pass them onto yet.”
“When the assignment came in, all I had was the visual of a bag and a balloon attached to it — I didn’t know right away it would be a Barbie coming out,” Kovac said.
In collaboration with drama and speech communication associate professor Houston, and fellow UW alumna Brooke Barnes, Kovac turned her story of growing up with Barbie, and criticisms thereof, into a performance about consumerism and Barbie’s influence on girls.
Kovac hopes to develop the performance into a festival style in the future.
