“Once There Was and Once There Was Not”: A Play in V Acts
In January 2024, I collaborated with earthbased.media to
create a micro short film “teaser” of the longer play.
"Once There Was and Once There Was Not", an original choreopoem based on stories and themes of the wild woman archetype, as told in Clarissa Pinkola Estes' seminal work "Women Who Run With the Wolves" - a Jungian exploration of intercultural myths, stories, folk and fairy tales. The stories in this play are adapted to characters and settings reflecting the Mexican-American lived experience, but like their original tellings, are relatable to all.
YARROW
If a story is seed, then we are its soil.
ROSE
We are its soil: permeable. complex.
ECHINACEA
Too complex, some would say.
YARROW
For this world.
ROSE
For all times.
(excerpt from “Once There Was and Once There Was Not”)
wear & tear from working with this text over 10 years…
“… to keep thinking about how we can use storytelling and art for people with flooded homes, flooded jobs, and flooded nervous systems.”
- Madison Murphy Barney, Our Medicine
In 2024, I intend to begin working on a screenplay for a short-film that I’ve been ruminating on since September 2022. The story will follow a group of independent characters living in the same neighborhood over the course of one day, the day after they all attend the same concert. Rooted in traditional archetypes and inspired by the dreamscapes of David Lynch, the pacing of Waves, the structure of films such as Fruitvale and Crash, and the surrealism of The Twilight Zone.
