This body of work represents an autobiographical questioning of memory, exploring familial roles that shape the identity of self in intimate relationships with the other. I was interested in creating an experiential process that aimed to address my personal history in the present tense. The piece was set in summer and took place in an empty country club, a glorified stand-in for a suburban home, and the structure of the day was like a reality show. The six-scene script was based on the year of my thirteenth birthday. I spent three months auditioning actors to play the parts, dressed them in my family’s clothes, bought and styled wigs based on their hair from that time and adorned them in period jewelry and props. I then asked each actor to perform based on the brief character analysis I provided. Never at any point did the actors know they were performing as my family. This fictional version of reality depicts a specific place and time and revisits actual events from my childhood. These portraits are biographical in nature and can be read as reconstructions of my past seen through the prism of memory.
Life in Fiction
