Theater of the Bizarro

The reading of the first act of my first play is fast approaching, and is becoming more surreal by the day.

While the play is not strictly autobiographical by any stretch of the term (none of these things actually happened), the characters are more than loosely based on my own family. But of course, the more dysfunctional the characters, the more interesting the play, so I had to ratchet up everyone's personality "quirks" just a bit. So yes, the mom seems like my mom in many respects (one of those being the obsessive application of lip gloss) but it's a negative portrayal. As in, if my mother were a bad mother, she would be like this.

But it will still be strange to watch the reading with my mother there, and even more so with my dad if he attends the reading...let's just say the portrayal of him is a little closer to the truth than that of my mom. But it's still an exaggeration. So real life Mom and Dad will be watching the play about Bizarro Mom and Dad and Bizarro Jackie, written by real life Jackie.

To add to the Bizarro-ness of it all, my mom's friend Ryan will be playing the role of Jack (Bizarro Sibling). Ryan is actually a real-life bizarro sibling - when I was with my sister in New York for Christmas, he went to the big Christmas family celebration with my mom and dad. They've sort of adopted him...and now, more than they know.

I'm trying not to think about the play on the level of "what are my parents going to think?", because I could drive myself insane (ha!) and it's not going to change the outcome. They'll like it or they won't, they'll see themselves in it or they won't, they'll be pleased or they'll be pissed - and I'll cross that bridge (or jump off it) when I come to it.