Ashes to Ashes – Rust to Rust is a section of Object of Her Affection that I performed as a stand-alone piece, while I was developing the rest of the performance. In Ashes to Ashes, Rust to Rust, a woman who desires intimate relationships with inanimate objects discovers that the bridge she has come to love is cheating on her.
Object of Her Affection is a solo puppetry and object performance art piece centered on a woman, who in her search for true love develops intimate relationships with inanimate objects. In this unconventional love story, puppets and performing objects are a primary through-line, as I explore the synesthetic relationship between objects and personalities, and ways that objects can occupy more than one meaning at any given time. Object of Her Affection is a visual narrative about human beings (flesh and blood) developing intimate relationships with inanimate things and the universal development and loss of relationships we encounter on our journey through life.
Object of Her Affection follows the emotional journey of protagonist, Andrea Lowe, after she has mysteriously fallen from a building. In her last moments, she reflects on her meaningful relationships starting with her first love, a baby’s blanket. As an adolescent, she loses her virginity to a bad-boy hunting rifle and subsequently becomes infatuated with the Berlin Wall. As Andrea evolves, so do her desires. In adulthood, she forms doomed relationships with monumental structures: a high-profile statue, tragic twin skyscrapers, and a bridge who cheats. Each of these relationships has a profound effect, shaping Andrea’s views on life and love. Finally, she finds solace in Roy, a crumbling tenement who ultimately fails her.
I have performed the entire workshop version of the Object of Her Affection at Automata in Los Angeles (where I also had a separate full reading, and reading of Ashes to Ashes Rust to Rust, I have also performed a truncated version for the REDCAT at the New Original Works Festival (also in Los Angeles). I have performed Ashes to Ashes, Rust to Rust as a standalone piece in Los Angeles at Bootleg Theater and REDCAT (for the Fall 2013 edition of Studio), in Fullerton, CA at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center, and in Waterford, CT at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, where I also had a separate reading of this section.