"A satire of deception and manipulation in Hollywood as producer Herb Fauxfeld attempts to get a heavily fictionalized feminist epic based around 9/11 made, much to the progressively uneasy feelings of lead actress Audrey Sittle."

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The staged reading of Grandmama Mama's Baby Food Presents The Legend of 9/11 was produced by Experience Theatre and premiered for one night only in September 2024. In addition to performing in the reading, I was also the writer. I began developing the play in February 2023 as part of my Playwriting II course in university. The inspiration for the piece came about when I discovered an animated film based on the Titanic entitled Legend of Titanic, which depicted an octopus putting the ship back together, allowing everyone to survive in the end. To see such a blatant disregard for the real human lives lost got me thinking about the line of fiction we allow in our media based on truth and how far it can be taken before history becomes distorted for audiences to identify fiction from fact. Thinking that way naturally transitioned me into also considering the other ethically questionable choices made by Hollywood in the strive for profit that many people may not be aware of. And furthermore, the potential for comedic possibility of such through a purposefully ethically questionable film set and the various personality types we've come to associate with the Hollywood scene. I wrote two drafts of the script for the class before it was shelved to focus on my university graduation and developing other projects with broader appeal. After all, as invested as I was in the idea, it was a niche idea that would be a hard sell to the public to convince them of the script's viability.

 

But in January 2024, Lethbridge-based artist Jesse Thibert came to me with the idea of developing the script as one of the first productions under his new theatre company, Experience Theatre. Showing clear excitement for the prospects of a production, even to the extent of wanting to perform the week of September 11th, I agreed to Jesse's proposal and started developing new drafts of the script with creative insights and offerings from Jesse. By early May, we had a director, started meeting with designers and stage managers, and began preparing for auditions at the end of May with a rehearsal start date of late June or early July. But as I predicted, people were struggling with the idea of being attached to a script that was only inevitable to stir some controversy. Soon after, the director left, very few actors signed for auditions, and it was made apparent from readings there was still a lot of time and work that needed to be done to the script before it would be ready to physicalize as a full-scale production. Time and work that wouldn't grant us enough to deliver a satisfying show for our September deadline. 

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After some much-needed discussion and reorganizing, it was decided to delay the production and host a staged reading on our proposed date as a way of building interest in the idea while allowing more time to develop the script. Jesse stepped into the director's position and began reaching out to actors who would read for us. Meanwhile, I started working on a script overhaul, preserving the original premise and characters, but starting the dialogue, characteristics, and story from scratch (more on that in "The Unproduced Mama Di Version" in section Writing). By the end of July, we had amassed enough people to read for every role, designers who could provide some sound and props for us to play with, and a vastly improved version of the script that granted more defined personalities and more physical performances. It was a gratifying experience after so much uncertainty to see wonderful talents adapt themselves so engagingly and humorously to such a chaotic script, which culminated in the reading itself on September 13th, 2024. It was a success to not only see audience members enjoy themselves with reaffirming words about the piece, but it's certain to be quintessential help in future developments knowing what an audience responds to most about it. Currently, there are plans with Experience to revisit the piece as a production in September of 2025. Whatever may come of that, I am deeply indebted to the people who gave their time and determination to make the, at times seemingly unstageable, play a reality as a staged reading. As I continue to develop the script from here, I will take with me all the good and the bad this experience has given me, grow from it as a stronger and more resilient artist, and hopefully perfect this idea in time to bring it to stage the way it was meant to be seen.

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FUN FACT: Every character was at one time meant to have a joke/reference that corresponded to a quality of their character, whether it was their character in the "real world" or their character in the "film world". Examples include:

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Audrey Sittle/Mary Sue - Mary Sue, the name of Audrey's character in the film, is also a literary term coined to describe "an idealized female character who shows unrealistic competence in all aspects of life and a distinct lack of weaknesses or character flaws". Despite the use of the archetype usually being negatively responded to for dehumanizing female characters, it still makes regular appearances in media under the guise that it's "regressive" to portray a woman as requiring self-growth incited by a conflict. Mary Sue, the character, was written to be a purposefully exaggerated form of the archetype to contrast with Audrey's more grounded arc and character flaws.

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Brittany Deep/Alison Bi - In an original draft of the script, Brittany was written as a pornstar appearing in the film as sex appeal. Her name hinted at this with her first and last name containing the pun "BritKNEE DEEP"; a trope associated with pornstars that their stage names make some connection referring to their position. The pornstar plot was cut as the script redeveloped, but the name remained the same. Alison Bi, the name of Brittany's character in the film, is also a reference to Hollywood's recurring inability to provide natural portrayals of underrepresented sexualities; quite literally having her last name refer to her sexuality as bisexual.

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Dwayne Dunhem/Steel Hunter - Dwayne is named after the director/editor of the same name who has done editing for Twin Peaks and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi and directed films such as Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey and Halloweentown. There is no characteristic or narrative correlation between the man and the character. However, Dwayne, the character, was written with the intent of portraying the prevalent success of Caucasian males in the Hollywood system. Dwayne Dunhem, as a name, has a quality that sounds inherently Caucasian and happened to fit the direction of the character well.​

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Herb Fauxfeld - In very early development stages, it was considered to have Herb, near the end of the play, be revealed as a James Bond-esque mastermind villain who made the film purposefully bad to dumb the audience's minds, manipulating them to only see films made under his company, resulting in all other film companies going bankrupt and giving him sole control over Hollywood. The name, Fauxfeld, was a direct reference to the James Bond villain "Blofeld" with the faux also suggesting his initial deceptive persona as a regular film producer. This character turn was dropped before script writing began with the name remaining the same yet opting for something exaggerated but more grounded instead.

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Rick Mooney/Osama Benjamin Laden - In early drafts, Rick Mooney was written as being "half-caucasian and half-Guetamelan" and to be playing the real Osama Bin Laden. This was meant as a commentary on white-washing as well as reports of casting actors in certain ethnic roles based on their appearance suggesting said ethnicity without consideration if they actually were. Rick Mooney, as a name, was chosen as a spoonerism of the name Mick Rooney, short for the name of actor Mickey Rooney. A reference to Mickey Rooney's racially insensitive performance as I. Y. Yunioshi in the film Breakfast at Tiffany's; one of the more well-known uses of whitewashing in twentieth-century cinema. However, the use of Osama Bin Laden and the themes of whitewashing were both dropped as the script redeveloped with many readers finding it uncomfortable and "controversial to the point of distracting". Osama was retooled as a multiverse version born in America and always meant to be Caucasian. Yet the name Rick Mooney remained the same. 

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Albert Heim/Fritz Lang - In early drafts, German director Albert Heim was going to be revealed as Oskar Schindler, which was dropped due to controversy and for leaning more into farce whereas the play was meant as satire. Schindler was switched out instead for an American cop undercover as Albert Heim to uncover the movement of drugs on the film set. The cop's name, Fritz Lang, is a reference to the Austrian German-based film director of the same name, known for films such as Metropolis and M. The joke of the name being that where Fritz adopts a German film director persona to keep his identity a secret, his true American self actually has the name of a German director.

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                                                                        Photos courtesy of Me