Ye're Here, Cuzin!
Incubator Arts Project, New York City, 2013
with: Matthew Boals, Sharla Meese, Amelia Olsen, Dave Shelley, and Katherine Wessling.
Photo by Steven Boling.
A 70s family drives from Midcoast California to the Arkansas Ozarks. The passionately accurate (or possibly delusional) narrator Mrs. Byrd argues with the characters about their shared experience in this reverse-"Grapes of Wrath" road trip, channeling the perceptions of two kids in the backseat as their parents embark on a deluded journey to the Ozarks in search of the simple life.
NARRATOR
Okay--they drive down Happy Canyon road, through the Los Padres forest, surrounded by conifers.
They camp and they fish.
They eat food cooked in the open air, on a grill, which is Dad's favorite.
They spend no money, and watch no television, and Mom says this is better for them.
MOM
They can use their imaginations, instead of relying on the boob tube.
NARRATOR
--Says their mother.
DAD
They can run around, breathe fresh air, and work off some of that steam.
NARRATOR
--Says their father. He tells them how lucky they are to have this opportunity. He reminds them that his sisters Millie and Loretta may be better off, but that's because they don't take enough time for the important things like this.
MOM
You're making him sound like such a jerk.