“ . “
When I first joined Red Theater, I did a series of what I called "punctuation pieces." I took a punctuation mark and made it into a series of short, repeated sentences or statements about different things.
Last spring (2018), I did a piece called "."
This piece is about again, an assault/r*pe I went through.
(I find the best healing comes from making art.)
I hadn't realized after this specific incident that I had been collecting half consumed water bottles in my room for months.
Someone would visit and comment on it, and I wouldn't notice the mess until they observed it.
My trauma had manifested into a physical collection of memory.
For this piece, I took all the water bottles out of my room and from under my bed, and had the RTP collective members toss them around and at me as I struggled to pick them all back up.
I repeat the phrase "It's okay," after starting the piece with:
"I brought him birthday party vodka in a water bottle. I did not know he put it in my drink."
This is and was obviously NOT okay.
In the piece I am attempting to represent the embodiment of trauma in physical objects/triggers, and the struggle that comes with cleaning up the mess someone made of you.
This performance was done in Spring 2018 as part of Red Theater Purchase's show "Flash Flood."