Written by Lyn Gaza, Afterimage is the story of two siren sisters, Evan and Evaline. After falling in love with her band mate Gabe, Evan rejects the life of a mythical being and chooses to live as a mortal in the Waking World. Jealous and enraged, Evaline crosses into the mortal world to steal Gabe along with all of Evan’s memories and whisk them away to the Shadow World. In the Shadow World, mortals gradually lose their humanity. Directed by Velos, ruler of the underworld and an Artificial Intelligence, these animal human hybrids collect the souls of innocents to fuel a state of immortality.
Meanwhile, in the Waking World, Evan wanders a wasteland without any memory of who she is or what happened to her. She encounters two other lost souls, Pirate Davey and Malador, seamen who barely resisted the call of the siren, and now reside in a state of limbo. Together they cross into the Shadow World in pursuit of Evan’s memories. Will they make it in time to save Gabe and thwart the death-fueled culture of Velos? Will Evan and Evaline reunite or destroy each other? The story originated from a writing exercise in Marilyn Friedman’s Writing Pad class (2007-2008), was further developed with Aaron Henne’s guidance (2008-2009) and has been rewritten with the generous assistance of Leon Martell and the many talented writers in attendance at his writing workshop (2009-2017).
Afterimage is an immersive theatrical experience utilizing elements of projection, puppetry, original music, Augmented and Virtual Reality. It is currently in development with a staged reading planned for 2018. In 2012, Afterimage enjoyed a partial staging of the first 10 minutes at Cal State Los Angeles. Kymm Swank directed and created the set. Lyn Gaza created projections and costumes. Michael Manning created concept drawings of the set and characters. “Afterimage Pirate Song” was written and performed by Antonio Aguilar (All Souls and Alma Sangre), who is currently composing additional music for the show.
The cast pictured are:
Lisa Lynch as Evan
Noel Olken as Pirate Davey
Michael Kass as Malador