Milk Like Sugar is a thought-provoking new play by Kirsten Greenidge that we are

honored to be sharing with you on the Riverside Theatre stage. It follows the story of sixteen
year old Annie, entering her first rite of passage as an adult with a fresh new tattoo. Joined by her
two friends Talisha and Margie, they discuss boys, clothes, cell-phones, and form a pact that
could change the course of Annie’s life forever. With themes of motherhood, responsibility,
unconditional love, and the need to feel accepted by those staring from the stars, Milk Like Sugar
tackles the conversations happening in high schools across the country. Will young motherhood
turn a little girl into a fierce lion, coach diaper bag in one hand and pushing a baby-pink stroller
in the other with a cuddly, ever-happy little girl? Is there more to find in life than what has been
prescribed to us by the generations before us? Will we ever find out what the people looking at
us through the windows of airplanes - of opportunity, feel about how far we’ve reached in life, or
the circumstances of which we were born? Is a ladybug tattoo too child-ish for a girl on the brink
of becoming a woman? Milk Like Sugar not only brings us closer the inner thoughts of
adolescents debating these questions, but is based in reality - on a story and a promise between
girls that has happened across the country over cell phones and chatty talks in high school
bathrooms. Combining both quick-witted conversation between teen girls laced with high school
slang and deeply moving lyrical poetry, we grow closer to these answers through studying
Annie’s journey between her two best friends, her hardworking mother, a new girl seen as an
outcast with deeply spiritual convictions, and the boys she yearns to understand as she grows
older in a growingly confusing and complicated world. She and her friends study their future
through a telescope, hoping to find an answer in the constellations or through making deeper
connections with one another. The Riverside Theatre and Columbus Repertory company believes
Milk Like Sugar is a powerful story worth sharing to the world, bringing us closer to the most
important problems facing teenagers today. How do we find our purpose in life, and what we
want to pursue forever? How do we even begin to explore the vastness of what society has to
offer without getting caught up in what we already know, or following the footsteps of our
parents? We hope you enjoy the show, which we have worked incredibly hard on to bring to life
onstage and share with an audience that needs to hear it. Content warnings for the plot of the
show include discussion of teenage pregnancy and its consequences.