Pulling Push Doors
After losing her parents and being left by her boyfriend, Bubblegum Teddybear moves from Kansas to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Bubblegum’s social life consists of meetings at the local coffee shop where she rejects and makes fun of any potential suitor. The only bond she is comfortable making in Albuquerque is with her neighbor, Mickey, and his band mates in the rock and roll act. Bubblegum knows that her life is a movie and she can talk to her projectionist. She steps out of the screen, and she addresses the audience watching her movie directly. She is concerned about what the genre of the movie of her life will end up being. She knows about cinematic structure, so any time things go well in her second act, she becomes concerned that her life will end up being a tragedy. Hoping for a happy ending, Bubblegum sabotages her own life and second act. Bubblegum yearns and ends up in Amsterdam where she can immerse herself in the arts. She begrudgingly accepts her most persistent coffee-shop suitor into her life. Gary becomes a comfort to Bubblegum and he has many of the characteristics of her boyfriend from Kansas. All of the men in Bubblegum’s life have a fondness for pasta, but Gary’s love of macaroni and cheese makes her suspect that Gary is literally a ghost from her past. Bubblegum now lives in a ghost world between life and death where the reality around her is questionable. Eager to escape her life with its ever-looming, what-she-believes-to-be tragic ending, Bubblegum finds The French Basement where The French Bartender offers Bubblegum advice about the meaninglessness of life. Once Bubblegum has spoken to French Bartender, Bubblegum considers that the genre of her movie just might be romantic comedy. She asks Gary to meet her at an arbitrary place at an arbitrary time on the next arbitrary holiday. She packs and heads off to Amsterdam where she races the clock against the end of her movie and the end of her life. The genre of her movie remains a matter of perspective.
Starring Lauren Poole, Jason Witter, Harrison Sim
Director Aaron Hendren