Broadway! Bellies! Bums!

Celia Macdonald is bringing a curvaceous celebration of body positive diversity to the BATS Theatre stage this month. On from the 22^nd to the 25^th of March, A Fat Girl’s Cry incorporates iconic songs from well-known musicals like Hairspray, Chicago, and Into the Woods to challenge the stigma around plus-size bodies in the musical theatre industry and society as a whole.

Macdonald was inspired to write and produce A Fat Girl’s Cry, which is her first-ever show, after presenting a research project on fatphobia in the industry during her final year of drama school. Additionally, she has experienced her fair share of bullying for always being “chubby” despite living a very active life.

The 23-year-old Wellington actress says she learned early on that being a larger size in the entertainment industry would not be a walk in the park. She remembers being told “no one wants a fat actress” – which, she winks, she’s since proven wrong.

“I want to prove that plus-size artists are worthy of being onstage, our stories are just as worthy to be shared, and we’re worthy of being happy and treated like equal human beings”, Macdonald says of the upcoming musical adventure. On a personal note, she hopes A Fat Girl’s Cry will bring her a sense of closure – “that it’ll be cathartic and I’m able to gain control of those negative words and experiences, rather than having them control me and my passion.”