How it's all connected...

Explanation:

This piece is about a girl who went out to search for her siblings that she had never met from her fathers side whom she had also never met. Upon finding them she actually met up with one which was her sister (the other 2 brothers wanted nothing to do with her). They instantly clicked as if they knew each other their whole lives and no time was ever lost. They drank, partied, told each other things they had never told anyone else, they were best friends and the girl felt as if a huge hole had been filled in her life. Then after some time the girl stopped getting responses from her sister, and eventually came to realize something was wrong, for whatever reason her sister just cut her out almost completely with no reason why, she just vanished. This really took a toll on the girl and caused her to feel lost and confused how could she have finally found her sister and clicked so well just for her to be gone again. This went on for a long time, her reaching out to her and her sister never responding, except on completely random occasions she would remind her that she loved and missed her. This made coping with it even harder for the girl and made her feel completely insane about the situation. She began thinking maybe she pushed to hard, but she didn't it was her sister who came up with all of these grand plans that they could do together, travel, work together, live together etc... make up for lost time. This fact left her even more lost. 

How it all connects:
 The piece as a whole is about the emotions felt by the girl about the time that is ticking away as she hopes and waits for her sister to return into her life. I am the girl. The memories are memories I have with my best friend (my sister). The doc side will focus on the emotions that people feel when being rejected by their siblings. One person that will be interviewed actually has a very similar story to mine and her interview will play a major role in tying it all together. The doc side will help to express the longing that the girl is feeling for her sister (in the memories) by sharing other peoples similar stories and emotions; and the live action of the girl (representing me) will literally show the longing, the agony, the pain, and the feeling of being trapped in the situation and not being able to let it go no matter how hard she tries, and how it is literally driving her insane. 

The editing of the Doc material will be crucial to making it all link together. Basically my story will be told thru the stories of others. 

Treatment and Character Bios

Treatment:
This installation is about estranged siblings from a negative point of view. It will not only show real life people and stories from their personal experience on the topic thru the doc side, but it will also pin point events that occurred in a specific situation thru the memories sequence and the live installation.

It will start out with darkness, in which two screens will turn on and play their parts.

Left Screen: This screen will play the 5 or more people's stories and experiences of finding their estranged siblings. There will be a real focus on the emotions they felt of not having them around and/or the emotions of their estranged siblings not wanting to meet them or suddenly cutting them off verses the actual journey of finding them. It will not follow any particular pattern and will most likely be cut up a lot and made really depressing (haha) This will provide the sound.

Right Screen: This screen will play the memories sequence. Two actresses will play sisters and they will act out different things such as drinking at a bar, singing in the car, karaoke, Dancing crazy, etc... This will be silent

Without warning a bright light will turn on and the Doc screen will turn to snow. There will be sister #2 standing with her back to the audience and she will be reaching towards the memories sequence. It will then go back to darkness and the doc screen will come back on and continue playing. After a period of time the light will come on again but this time both screens will go to snow and the sister#2 will be facing the audience acting out her pain, by looking worn and upset and maybe even crazed. It will continue alternating from on and off until the end of the doc and memories, each time when the light is on the duration will change and so will sister #2, after her 2nd appearance she will be trapped with either rope or chains. Every time the light comes on their will be an ear piercing screeching sound to provide the audience with a way to experience her agony.

The purpose of this piece is to expose the negative side of having siblings out there you don't know, because it isn't always a happy meeting. Also, because this is from a personal experience of mine that I felt and feel alone in, I also would like to use it as a tool for others and myself to show that I/they are not alone. Also if my estranged siblings hear about it or somehow see it that's always a plus.


Character Bios:
Beyond the Doc side which I plan to have at least 5 people there will be two actors that will play sisters for the memories sequence
Sister 1: She is the estranged sibling that was found by sister #2. They partake in a lot of fun times and click very quickly.
Sister 2: She is the one that went looking for sister #1. After some time sister #1 stopped almost all contact with sister #2 with no explanation, and sister #2 is dealing with the emotions of her random "disappearance". Sister #2 plays an important role in showing the agony and pain that was caused, by the sudden loss of contact after finally finding her sister.  Sister #2 will also be live in the installation acting out her "pain"

Project Description

For my project Naomi and I will be doing a Documentary/experimental Hybrid Installation. The installation will consist of 2 TV screens that will be put onto a wall or to been seen thru large square "holes" behind a wall like structure. On the two TVs two different things will be playing and they will not go with each other as far as "storyline". On the first TV there will be a documentary about the negative side of finding estranged siblings, which will show people expressing their pain and sharing their experiences. On the other screen there will be a series of acted out memories being played of two sisters who were estranged but then found one another. The area will be completely dark except for these two playing screens. The people from the documentary will be the only sound. Then randomly in the most unexpected places all at once the TVs will turn to "snow" and there will be a bright light that turns on to expose one of the girls from the memories standing in between the two TVs, and a fast moving clock on the "wall". For the sound there will be a loud agonizing screeching sound to supply the audience with the feeling of agony that the girl is feeling. Then without warning it will all go back to dark and the TVs will continue where they left off. This will continue in this way for the rest of the installation except the parts with the live girl, which will
change in duration and she will change every time she is exposed, displaying how she is becoming more warn and crazed by the time that is fading away.

Something similar to this setup: