Scene 1: Mrs. Compson (Maddie), Caddie’s mother, and Caddie (Gabrielle) as a child

Scene 2: A stranger, Daniel (David), meets Caddie (Maddie) in the park

Scene 3: Margaret (Molly), Caddie’s childhood friend, and Caddie (David) discuss Margaret getting her period. Some romantic feelings and hinting that Caddie may be in an abusive relationship.

Scene 4: Quentin (Bailey), Caddie’s brother, berates Caddie (Molly) for having sex. Quentin has romantic feelings for Caddie.

Scene 5: Mara (Sophia) deduces that Caddie (Bailey) is pregnant

Scene 6: Caddie (Sophia) plans to run away with her lover (Carina) but her lover abandons her

Scene 7: Caddie (Carina) abandons her daughter Q (Gabrielle) on the playground

(CADDIE, 14, sitting in a field. A strawberry field. The stage is covered in strawberries and dirt. CADDIE is humming. She is tearing the stems off the strawberries and not wearing shoes. Her feet are dirty. She has a bruise on her arm. She hears something in the distance. MARGARET is running toward her, wearing a white dress.)

MARGARET: I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT

CADDIE: You got it?!?!

MARGARET (sliding down next to CADDIE, out of breath): I got it.

CADDIE: Finally.

MARGARET: Geez.

CADDIE: I’m just saying.

(MARAGARET takes a wig out of her bag. It is a pageboy haircut)

CADDIE: What are you doing?

MARGARET: My mom said that when I got it I could cut my hair.

(She puts her hair in a ponytail and puts on the wig.)

MARGARET: Ahhhhhh. Way better. I’m free.

CADDIE: It looks good.

(They smile at each other.)

CADDIE: Does it hurt?

MARGARET: Not too bad.

CADDIE: Mine hurts. Mine hurts so bad I have to stay in bed.

(MARGARET touches CADDIE’s arm. She accidentally touches the bruise and notices. But CADDIE doesn’t.)

MARGARET (softly): I’ll bring  you strawberries.

CADDIE: Yes let’s! Let’s eat strawberries!

(They stand up and begin to gather the strawberries, using the fronts of their dresses as baskets. They hum while they do this. They sit back down with the strawberries in their laps, look at each other, silently count to three, and spit on the strawberries. Then they each pick one up and rub it on their mouths, like lipstick.)

CADDIE: Oh, Mar-guar-ette!

MARGARET: Oh, Candace!

CADDIE: Yes! Well, yes I can! I can-dance! I Candace!

(They get up quickly, letting all the strawberries fall to the ground, and giggle as they do-si-do.)

CADDIE AND MARGARET: CANDACE CAN DANCE. CANDACE CAN DANCE. WEEEEEEEEEE!

(They twirl until they are hugging and tripping over each other. They fall to the ground. Whose body is whose? They slow down, laying next to each other. MARGARET touches CADDIE’s bruise.)

MARGARET: Men are bad.

(CADDIE recoils.)

CADDIE: Shut up.

MARGARET: I won’t be bad to you.

CADDIE: Shut up!

MARGARET: Caddie! I—

CADDIE (pulling on a cardigan): You don’t know anything. You just got it. You don’t know anything.

(MARGARET is silent.)

CADDIE: You shouldn’t wear white, you know. Not anymore.

(MARGARET is hurt. CADDIE’s anger begins to melt. She picks up a strawberry. She feeds it to MARGARET.)

CADDIE: I’m sorry.

(CADDIE begins to walk away. MARGARET sits in silence, chewing the strawberry. Then she grimaces in pain.)

MARGARET: It’s starting to hurt now…Caddie? CADDIE!

(But CADDIE is gone.)

END SCENE

Keep it:

I think the beginning is a particularly powerful way to start a performance. It lets the audience know that we want to have a relationship with them and that we’re asking them to trust us. It violates their expectations right away, which maybe sometimes can be bad, but I think is ultimately good in the context of what we’re doing because we can still surprise them within the piece without throwing them for a total loop (ie: they enter the space and sit down, expecting to watch a performance, and then we randomly do something totally crazy and freak them out). With Carina’s beginning, we freak them out from the start but in a safe and caring way. This part also really seemed to stick with most of the people I talked to and starting the piece with such an interesting sensory experience seems like the way to go with what we’re doing.

Leave it:

The iPad as a video-viewing medium. I think video-viewing needs to be an EXPERIENCE, similar to Paige’s video in the closet or the giant projected backwards writing video. I think there are better ways for people to have individual interactions with our material than to have them sit at an iPad with headphones on.

Want it:

In that vein, I am interested in incorporating one-on-one conversations/performances. This was something I sort of tried to incorporate into the showing with Jackson’s closet. I told Jackson that what I liked about his cocaine/flower performance was the character that he created. During the showing, I wanted him to just go up to people while being that character and ask people about their favorite flower. I think there’s something interesting to explore theatrically with the idea of a human library. A performer asking questions of the audience one-on-one. A performer wanting to be asked questions by the audience. A theme that may be emerging/that we certainly seem to be questioning is audience-performer relationship. How do we establish a friendship with our audience versus how do we alienate them? Contrasting one-on-one performances with other performance mediums could be a way to explore that.

My reflection:

• I think one of the most successful parts of the event was the beginning. Bringing the whole audience into the communal experience of being blindfolded set the stage (excuse the pun…) for the entire performance. However, after taking the blindfolds off, people were unsure of what to do next for a really long time.
• I loved the museum aspect of the whole thing. It probably went on for a little too long though. We had to adjust the timing to drive things forward.
• What were we (the class) supposed to be doing? Are we performers even when we’re not performing? How much do we guide people versus letting them just do their thing?
• This was a radically different experience for the audience doing these things (being blindfolded, being fed bread, etc.) with people that they know than it would have been if the performers were total strangers.
• My albinism performance ended up happening on the opposite side of the elevator because everyone got in the elevator with me. The performance felt like total chaos to me but everyone I talked to found it really interesting.

Questions people had:

• Is part of it improvisation?
• How much were we allowed to break the rules? Should the rules exist at all?
• Was there an ending?

Things that stuck out to people:

• Bailey’s piece
• Kimmy’s bark
• Omar’s performance – dealt with substantive things in a quick amount of time and was so funny
• Being masked and applauded for
• Sophia’s piece about all the sad things that happened to David Carter
• Paige’s video in the closet – “Woodbridge: A Love Story”
• Scott Lewis trying to help Carina
• How far away Carina was from us
• The elevator door opening and closing
• The albinism piece passing through the elevator
• Albino character was sexual (having participants represent my parents, mentioning testicles) but also sincere…
• Connection between genetics and identity

Themes/Groupings:

• Love:
  • Gabrielle – 3 Dates and a Wedding (5/50)
  • Paige – Us (5/50)
  • John – You and Me (5/50)
  • Kimmy – A Kiss for the Heart to Grow (5/50)
  • Molly – The Origin of Love (5/50)
  • Maddie – Socks, and Ketchup, and a Golf Field (5/50)
  • John – Hotels Across the Country (Juxtapositions)
  • Molly – The End of the World (Juxtapositions)
  • Gabrielle – Love Is… (Juxtapositions)
  • Paige – Genesis of Love (Juxtapositions)
• Personal Honesty
  • Paige – Obsessive Compulsive (5/50)
  • Molly – Realizing Tourettes (5/50)
  • Carina – Failure (5/50)
  • David – It Runs in the Family (5/50)
  • David – David’s Quarter-Life Crisis/Panic Attack (Juxtapositions)
• Memory/Forgetting
  • John – Short-term Memory (5/50)
  • Sarah – Peter (5/50)
  • Gabrielle – Goodnight, Soldier (5/50)
  • Phoebe – ELI5 and Show, Don’t Tell
• Origin/Childhood/The Beginning of Something
  • Gabrielle – Easter, 1996 (5/50)
  • Molly – The Origin of Love (5/50)
  • Molly – Adam and Eve (5/50)
  • Molly – Suspicious Grapes (5/50)
  • Sophia – Cosmogeny (5/50)
  • Bailey – Brothers (5/50)
  • Molly – Show, Don’t Tell
  • Paige – Genesis of Love (Juxtapositions)
• Death/The End of Something
  • Sarah – Gram (5/50)
  • Molly – Cremation (5/50)
  • Phoebe – Tip Tap (5/50)
  • Maddie – 5 Senses

2-3 Things I Made:

• 3 Dates and a Wedding (5/50)
• Love Is… (Juxtapositions)
• Albinism (Show, Don’t Tell)

These three objects of mine were most interesting to me because they progressed in order from most to least personal as I became interested in experimenting with truth and playing pretend.

3-5 Things Other People Made:

• Sophia – Cosmogeny (5/50)
• Paige – Genesis of Love (Juxtapositions)
• Molly – The End of the World (Juxtapositions)
• Jackson – Show, Don’t Tell
• Bailey – Show, Don’t Tell

To me, these 5 objects all distorted beauty in some way. Sophia’s Cosmogeny was so visually perfect that it was disturbing. Paige’s Genesis of Love took the possibility of romance in the story of Adam and Eve and twinged it with ironic commentary. Molly’s The End of the World combined beauty and sadness. Jackson’s Show, Don’t Tell put us as audience in the strange position of voyeurs and equals in conversation; our vantage point was beautiful but our role was colloquial. Finally, Bailey’s Show, Don’t Tell was like Sophia’s Cosmogeny in that it was aesthetically beautiful to the point of being perverse.