Santa Clarita, CA — The statistics surrounding women in film are pretty depressing. For young women pursuing careers in entertainment, those numbers are more than just a statistic. They’re a source of frustration on many levels. Opportunities for women to tell fully-formed stories often feel few and far between. Unless more women take on larger roles behind-the-scenes, it is hard to imagine that changing.

Samantha Macher, Hunter Drago, and Ariel Trocino grew up in Northern Virginia, where they attended Notre Dame Academy together as high school students. The three were certified “drama nerds,” and dreamed of one day pursuing careers in entertainment. They’ve each continued to work in artistic fields as adults, but have often felt the frustrations that can come with being a woman in a male-dominated industry.

When Samantha Macher wrote a play, To The New Girl: Sound Advice for My Former Husband’s Wife or Mistress, with an all-female cast in 2011, something clicked. The friends realized that this play, which has been performed all over the country for the past five years, would translate perfectly into a feature film.

Bringing To The New Girl to the Big Screen

The prospect of an all-female cast was a unique and exciting idea on its own, but they wanted to go a step further. They decided they could make a real statement by creating a film entirely made by women: cast, directors, and crew.

They’ve built a wonderful cast and crew of women with strong resumes in Hollywood. Actresses who’ve signed onto the film have appeared in high-profile film and television projects including True Blood, American Reunion, Louie, NCIS and Silicon Valley. The team has also assembled a group of female directors and crew members whose work has screened at film festivals around the world.

Putting this team together was surprisingly easy. Drago, who cast the actors, was especially thrilled that every actress she reached out to said “yes” to the project without hesitation… even though the film has yet to be funded. Drago noted that “everyone I got in touch with was so excited not only by the great material that Samantha [Macher] has created, but also that they’d be working on an all-female set. This is a unique experience, and something that I think ladies are very interested in being a part of. Women are so often painted as not getting along with other women in the workplace, but in my experience that is just a huge misconception.”

The team of To The New Girl is ecstatic to have a chance to shed light on a growing group of females in the entertainment industry who want to work together to build a community and create fresh, female-driven content.

Support To The New Girl

To The New Girl is a feature film based on a play by Samantha Macher. The play, To the New Girl: Sound Advice For My Former Husband’s Wife or Mistress, consists of 10 monologues from various women scorned who directly address their exes’ new wives and lovers.

The film will be made entirely by women, in an effort to shine a light on the importance of female voices in all aspects of the entertainment industry.

A Kickstarter campaign to support the film will run from July 5, 2016 until August 9, 2016.

Contact Information:

Hunter Drago
hunter@hunterdrago.com