Gaia Plants A Seed

Created and performed by Amy Oestreicher 2021 (Still in Development)

Theatre/Performance/Visual Art/Music/Dance (Can be performed as a live-stream virtual piece, outside with social distancing, or pre-recorded)

Genre: Healing, Resilience, Women, Sustainability, Environmentalism, Spiritual Ecology, Ecofeminism, Climate Change Activism, PTSD, Hope

How can we foster a compassionate connection with ourselves or each other if we don’t with the earth?

In a multimedia performance combining original songs, spoken word, mixed media artwork, puppetry and an inspirational true story of resilience, audiences are taken on a journey through the webways of healing, in a survivor's quest to heal along with Earth and they both push against the destruction done to them and use the hidden life swirling in the world of nature in order to reclaim their voice. On this journey, Tannin meets the five elements of fire, air, spirit, water and earth, who show her that in order to heal ourselves along with our planet, we must have a heart warm enough for listening, and hands tough enough to get dirty in the soil. In this solo performance, Gaia tell this story of creation and of resistance to a child born from a flower, who turns out to be a vital part of the web of life, an old soul and part of the Mycorrhizal network, through various forms of puppetry This "soil-child" gives Tannin - a resilient yet resistant survivor of complex trauma - hope that together we can make a positive change for our planet and future and surrounded by the elements of fire, earth, air, water and spirit, we are never truly alone.

I started developing this piece based on the question, “How can we connect/have compassion for ourselves or each other if we don’t for the earth?” We must start with healing our planet. “How?” We have to have a heart warm enough for compassion and listening.

This nature-inspired performance takes audiences on a fantastical journey of discovery in an extraordinary coming of age story, answering the question “can you sing about the beauty of life after near-death trauma?” with an emphatic “YES.” Gaia, tells the story of creation and of resistance to Tannin, showing how all of nature just like Tannin, has HOLES. Yet these forces of creation and destruction balance each other out, where in fact, the HOLES make us WHOLE. As The Pilodeh, the tiny mushroom giving back and receiving through the roots in the soil hears this story, she gives Tannin hope that together we can all make a change for our planet, our future, and heal.

Character Breakdown

SETTING:

Over the course of several days Prologue: Berkshire Hills Scenes: Woods

CHARACTERS:

Tannin - Young Adult, F, (interpret as you will), stubborn and resilient because of what she feels has been done to her. Looking for a way to repair her holes, longing for the "wholeness" of nature she once remembered at a more innocent and whole time in her life and body.

Gaia - a motherly figure, a presence who is sensed but not fully seen. Warm, wanting her elements to work together, for Tannin to work with them, and for all creatures to have a home.

Pillodeh: A Child, (Piloderma fungi, part of the Mycorrhizal network) but an old soul in a small body, discovering the earth as a newborn, but born from the ground, already has the lessons within her. Has childlike wonder with elements that Tannin is afraid of, which naturally come with the child’s inherent wisdom that these elements are part of her and part of her world

Elements:

Fire - strong, vibrant, determined and strong-willed
Earth - sturdy, grounded, yet flexible and malleable. Teaches tannin how to adapt to change
Water - vulnerable, emotional
Wind - humble and longs to connect everything, but doesn't know her own strength and endangers the child

TANNIN: portrayed by puppeteer (myself)
CHILD: portrayed by flower or mushroom scarf marionette
FOUR ELEMENTS: Portrayed by different scarf marionettes

Storyline:

See Storyboard here.

• EXPOSITION
• We meet Tannin loving nature and receiving a vision
• INCITING ACTION
• Tannin is struck by lightning, receiving holes in her body
• As Tannin cries out in pain, we also meet Gaia (with the elements represented) plants a seed that becomes a child and its home (demonstrate how all the elements create the child/home)
• Home/Child blooms
• Tannin still in pain, unknowingly steps on child’s home, destroying it
• Child cries out for Tannin to rebuild their home; Tannin refuses because she has her own problems and is seeking that vision; Child expresses they don’t know how
• RISING ACTION
• Child calls on Gaia and Gaia awakens and sends the elements (who are already working with Gaia, being represented visually)
• The elements introduce themselves COVEN SCENE reveal to the Child (excited) and Tannin (repelled) and offer to help
• Tannin wants to leave
• Elements tell her she is essential
• Tannin still refuses to believe them and help the child so Fire accepts the challenge
• Fire then shares her story showing how her devastation leads to life and the strength (strength)
• Child in intrigued and Tannin is repelled, but gets excited about strength
• But it’s not enough for Tannin
• Earth then shares her story showing how important it is to change and be flexible (take and give)
• Child in intrigued and Tannin is hesitant but curious
• But it’s not enough for Tannin
• Water then shares her story showing how the power of yielding and flowing (vulnerability)
• Child in intrigued and Tannin is hesitant but curious
• But it’s not enough
• Wind then shares her story showing how she is sensed by not seen (connection and humility)
• CLIMAX (or rising action???)
• Wind picks up and endangers the child
• Tannin decides to save the child (set this up with earlier moments of dismissal)
• Tannin argues with the elements how they are simultaneously light and dark
• FALLING ACTION (or climax)
• The elements together reveal how they need each other, just like the Child needs Tannin
• Tannin and the child learn to love the element together despite the light and dark. Love the dark and the light
• Tannin helps the Child rebuild its home with the help of the elements / nature
• RESOLUTION
• Tannin is alone; what’s next? ( tie this back to the beginning of her journey)
• Gaia meets Tannin and embraces her.
• The end!

(Child could possibly be Piloderma fungi, microzyyzeial network)

Examples of monologue/folktales that each element tells:

Songs

1. OPENING CHANT: https://amyoes.bandcamp.com/track/pushing-against-just-instrumentals

2. I WANT OUT: https://amyoes.bandcamp.com/track/i-want-out

3. https://youtu.be/69WStHEKNQs

4. THIS IS OUR NAME Song used in show sung between Tannin and Gaia: with painting, snake, scarf puppet - https://youtu.be/0-Z-_7m_MB0

5. GIVE IT TO WATER: https://amyoes.bandcamp.com/track/water-i-give-it-to-you

6. Stay out of corners: original songs and shadow puppetry: https://youtu.be/kKkAKSLov3Q

7. Break Me: https://amyoes.bandcamp.com/track/break-me

8. SPIRIT IS A WEB: https://amyoes.bandcamp.com/track/spirit-is-a-web

9. MADWOMAN: https://amyoes.bandcamp.com/track/madwoman

10. SCARY MORNING: https://youtu.be/DiflthwdnV4

11. BODY SONG: https://amyoes.bandcamp.com/track/body-was-once

*Each Element has their own musical motif

Water Motif: https://amyoes.bandcamp.com/track/water-motif-just-instrumentals

Videos (Explorations of Possible Mediums) Request a Script here.

Cardboard marionette hand and blank white mask is used as the “puzzle pieces” of Gaia that TANNIN finally puts together by the end. Bringing to life the cardboard hand: https://youtu.be/M-sdyEGnM0s

Gaia’s presence is just felt throughout the piece through sound, chant, and these “pieces.” At the end, TANNIN embraces the spirit of Gaia and acknowledges herself as part of Gaia. This prompts her to finally wear the “Four Elements Mask” and put on the mask, becoming all of the elements at once.