Second Skin

On these nights, you hear footsteps behind you.
But when you turn around, nobody’s there.
There’s just the smell of salt.
That’s me.

When Quinn discovers her estranged mother is dying, she returns to a home she fled long ago. As she cares for her mother, Quinn wrestles with disturbing childhood memories. What is her mother’s secret? What do the bedtime stories of Selkies her mother once told her really mean?

Written by Kristin Idaszak
Directed by Jess Hutchinson
Dramaturgy by Hannah Herrera Greenspan
WildClaw Theatre — Chicago, IL
September 14- October 13, 2018

Second Skin is unique in both it's form and content. More specifically, we have a monologue play in conversation with a matriarchal ghost selkie story. That in and of itself is a lot to unpack. So dramaturgically, my approach here was to help bridge as much of the world of the play as I could before rehearsals. I executed this by creating digiturgy- digital dramaturgy on Google Drive. I divided the digiturgy into three larger concepts: 1. Location, Location, Location, 2. Form and Structure, and 3. Femmes in Fam. Each folder is then further split up into different documents centering on other specific topics that help the team understand the world of the play in s different way. 

*Access to Second Skin dramaturgy available upon request! 

Photos by Joe Mazza