Snowbound: Voicing the Actor's Perspective

This work is both a project of self-exploration as well as an attempt to give voice, as a writer and a director, to a child actor’s 20 year perspective of the television, theatre and film industry. Through a series of writing exercises and directorial projects the author experiments with and refines the use of metaphor to universalize her personal experiences. Investigations into memory and autobiography prompted the author to re-order her primary experiences into a work of art that might speak to adolescent and young adult identity formation. The two-year process of writing, performing and directing resulted in the production of the play Snowbound, which is an examination of how those we love influence our identity and of who we are outside of the roles we all play. This play, following the life of one actor from child to adulthood, speaks to the particular challenges of those who grow up in the shadow of the entertainment industry, as well as to the generalized difficulties of navigating adolescence into adulthood.