The Extra Mile (my first reenactment)
Alicia Ward remembered when her 5 year old, boy cousin, Jordan, and her 15 year old self played in her mother's bedroom, which amounted to painting his fingernails red So proud of her work, Alicia took him out to see his mom, Liz, who was chatting with her mom in another room. At first sight of the polish, Liz laughed a bit, but she quickly showed discontent afterwards. She then told Alicia and Jordan that they had it to take it off before his father saw, and they quickly obeyed.
For this reenactment, I employed Katelin Collings and Wyeth Chalmers to play the roles of Liz and Jordan, respectively. We reenacted Alicia's memory within Alan Hall's rehearsal space and with nail polish provided by Alicia.
I must admit that her memory made me a bit hesitant, yet curious. My project already included a boy that wanted to wear makeup and asked his grandma to put it on him. In this case, though, Alicia would play the role of the grandmother, more the constructor than the constructed. I had faith though because every action leaves an impression on the person that commits the act and the person they target, even if it just reaffirms what they already believe. If this process did not have an effect on her, in the end, it would still aid part of my research that questions if phototherapy works.
In this case, it did. Alicia started to remember specifics about the memory itself as she looked at the photos. She recollected that she knew she could only get away with painting one of her cousin's fingers for many reasons. First, she knew that kids changed their mind almost instantly and that he could have quickly become disenchanted from the whole ordeal, even if she enjoyed it. Second, Jordan's attention span would have never lasted past one finger, especially with the time it took for them to dry.
Alicia also started to remember what she was taught in regarding to gender. She could always play with makeup with the multitude of females in her family, but she took that extra, forbidden mile when she painted her cousin's fingernail. He was easily excited about this new endeavor, so, she wanted to join in on the fun (and you cannot achieve that with nobody around). Therefore, taking Jordan to see his mom made her finished product fun for her because it broke the gender code emplaced upon her.
Despite having forgotten the connector chord, it all worked out. Even just looking at the photos on the camera's screen she exclaimed, "This is real to me."