Posted by Flashbulb Member, Emily Seymour

An Introduction to the Family from the West (as told by Sally) (AKA Emily)

We're a month away from opening today, and since the groundwork has been laid in rehearsals and we are beginning to delve, I figured I'd lay some groundwork on this here blog.

A Lie of the Mind orbits around two families, connected by a son and daughter. (Familiar, right?) The households aren’t close. They either don’t know or don’t like what they know about each other, but these families are crafted to fit together like puzzle pieces.

The Family Up North:

Clockwise from left, we have Beth and Mike, siblings, and Baylor and Meg, their parents. These folks live in Montana, deep in the wilderness where the weather can kill you as fast as a bear. They live in a cabin lit by cozy firelight. For them, hunting is an art, not a hobby.

However the family I will expand on, because I feel more educated to do so, is the Family Out West:

Here we have (clockwise from left) Jake, Frankie, Sally, and their mother Lorraine. Obviously one member of this family has an attitude problem.

I didn't have time to Photoshop it, but you can imagine the empty grey silhouette of a man, his arms extending over the shoulders of both his boys, looming over this family. That shadow is looming there, and it never goes away.

These are the California folk, the "Oakies" as Baylor disparagingly calls them. Oakie is an enlightening term- "n. vagabond, from Depression times when the droughts that led to the dust bowl caused people to abandon their worthless farms in Oklahoma and Texas and take to the road to seek jobs elsewhere. They packed up as much as they could salvage and became Oakies on their way to California". You can thank Urban Dictionary for that.

I feel this is a perfect term for the origins of Sally and her family. Being an outsider, on the run, is in their bones. Sally and her family moved constantly when the kids were young, following their father around the southwest, from air base to air base. When Dad left them for good they landed in southern California, and they stayed ever since. Lorraine’s house is made up of rooms still decorated for children, with dust an inch thick, and boxes under beds filled with priceless memories, the lids firmly shut. They are all faced with the challenge of abandoning something once it becomes worthless.
At the top of the play, a whirlwind begins, glazing over reason and common sense. It grips each character with a need for love, and the air seems tinged with destruction. I hope you can come and see how our families mesh and tangle with one another, and even unknowingly walk side by side. It’s gonna be quite a ride.