Guitarist Mouse becomes ensnared in a world of outcasts and their charismatic leader, Trix, building a musical movement that will rock the city this Friday night!
Everything’s a show, and someone’s gotta be the star.
Christine arrives in the city one week before her 25th birthday, leaving behind her small-town existence and long-time boyfriend in search of big dreams and a new life. She soon encounters Trix, the intense, charismatic lead singer and proprietor at Timeless, a converted theatre where society’s outcasts join forces around shared ideals and a dream. Trix beckons newly-christened “Mouse” into a whirlwind of music and mystery, building a social and musical movement set to rock the city this Friday night. But who’s paying? What means are justifying whose ends?
Pushed and pulled between trust and fear, Christine needs to figure out what it means to live out loud, and how to be her own girl after all.
CHRISTINE / MOUSE
Teflon girl. Angsty dreamer. Petulent fear-facer. Enticingly real. Christine bumps from one step to the next without much thought about what comes after. Following her nose, she grabs any ride she can score, figuring out the city in all its faces, while stringing along her new boyfriend and hometown ex to help her feel anchored. She doesn’t know how to admit that she’s letting the breeze take her.
Trix calls her Mouse – she resents it, but accepts it; the way Trix enthralls her isn’t something she can look at too closely. She knows she’s something bigger inside, but she’s afraid maybe she’s not.
“Mouse, you’re a china doll that goes around handing people sticks!” – Trix
Christine thinks the music comes first but she always lets it fall to last, because deep down, she isn’t sure that her hard-won skill isn’t just a mask for the fact that she didn’t inherit her dead dad’s talent. At Timeless, she is pushed time and again to let go and be with the music, belong with the community. She fails and flails but she shifts and grows, until in the end, she discovers what it means to be her own girl, after all.
I didn't trust these people to see me
Julia Campisi as Mouse
Appearance: Simple style, plain hair, little makeup – self-protective, Christine doesn’t tend to draw attention to her appearance. She dismisses her beauty. Christine has a burn scar down the right side of her neck.
Race: Racially non-specific or caucasian – at Timeless, Mouse learns more about racialized experiences that she has not had, personally
Stature: Short, no taller than 5’3″ – Christine sees herself as small, and needs to learn to overcome her physical size to be her “real size” out loud
Traits: Neuro-divergent (ADHD, Anxiety), pansexual (hetero by convenience), deadpan, immature/over-mature, excited, brave, terrified, determined, open/closed, insightful, caring, fair, naive, gifted, insecure, hyper-self-aware with big blind spots
Talents: Guitar, Connecting with People, Perseverance, Compassion
Fatal Flaws: Self-Consciousness and Insecurity
Primary Relationships
TRIX
Suzanne Miller as Trix
Appearance: Lean, angular, serrated short black hair, cool, striking, distinct features
Race: Racially non-specific or caucasian – Trix likes to think she can represent any race, which is a white way to think, but she could be “passing”
Stature: Very tall, at least 5’10” – Trix is larger than life, and her height contrasts with Mouse when they are together. She looks down on the world.
Traits: High energy, low patience, blatantly pansexual, out-loud, compassionate, exacting, focused, principled, certain, aggressive, fast, cool, mercurial
Talents: Acrobatics/Movement, Singing, Guitar, Public Speaking, Manipulation, Photographic Memory, High IQ
Fatal Flaws: Arrogance, Impatience, Ego, Hides Dyslexia, Insecure about not having higher education
Primary Relationships
Striking. Charismatic. Narcissistic. Unforgettable. Trix doesn’t question her rightful role as cultish leader and moral guide for the outcasts and talented misfits she gathers into her circle. She knows she is meant for greatness and she expects that everyone exists to help her get there. If she can save the greater good, enlighten some people, or prove a point along the way, all the better.
Trix’s natural stature and talent have carried her into easy confidence, while her straight-edge intellect and burning ambition drive her every choice, every relationship, and every word. She needs her triad with Bash and Trace to ground her and keep her present to the work needed for her dreams to come true. She is a creature of her body.
“Trix is something else entirely. She is so right, that something feels wrong.” – Rekha
Trix stands on the precipice of a social and musical movement two years in the making, and she’s both certain it will work and terrified it won’t. She secretly fears that her recipe is missing a critical ingredient, and she’s become convinced that ingredient is Mouse. Everything is at stake, and she’s gambling on a win.
Story in a Song
TRIX AND MOUSE
I need to know, once and for all, are you in or are you out?
JAMIE
Jamie is an old soul, a recovering addict, a street kid, anyone’s son gone wrong. He clicks with Christine immediately – her “little brother”, his “unattainable crush.” Jamie vacillates between boy and man, struggling with his internal voices, his anger and vulnerability fighting for center stage.
Shawn Davison Vincent as Jamie
Jamie’s devotion to Trix and Timeless vie with his own sense of what’s right, and his attachment to the banished Luca. His production skills are integral to Friday’s show, but he’s starting to crack under the pressure, and he’s hiding a secret that threatens his very belonging at Timeless.
“Luca told me – yesterday’s for learning, tomorrow’s for dreaming, today’s for doing. So I’m doing.” – Jamie
Appearance: Longish hair, burn scar on neck on the right. Shabby, careless about his appearance
Race: Any
Age: 17-20
Traits: Self-deprecating, PTSD, impulse control issues, reserved, vulnerable but acts tough, sensitive soul, crush on Mouse, sees Trix as his savior and Timeless as his home
Talents: Visual art, sound production, street-smarts
Fatal Flaws: Mistrust, addiction, hero worship, a big secret
You see a guy who likes to make stuff but they know I’m junkie trash.
JAMIE AND MOUSE
Also casting…
BASH
photo by ID Shivam
TRACE
photo by Alexandr Ivanov
CHRIS
photo by Isi Parente
LIZARD
photo uncredited
ETHAN
photo by Cheryl Holt
MILO
photo by Rodger Shija
MOFFAT
photo by Jackson David
STAN
photo by Dan Fishers
FLANK
photo by Leroy Skalstad
DELANIE
photo by Irina Gromovataya
ECHO
photo by Istvan Szabo
BREN
photo by James Barr
DELOREAN
photo by Irina Gromovataya
REKHA
photo by RVA
LUCA
photo by Xandra Iryna
A converted arthouse theatre on the wrong side of the tracks, where the city’s homeless youth find shelter and a purpose, building a social and musical movement that culminates this Friday night.
Freedom
Featuring the fabulous Eden Hennessy
Cover
For Episodes 1 and 2 of our audiobook, and the first promo shoot, we were blessed with the talents of Eden Hennessy as Trix. Eden also shared her songwriting gifts, co-writing Freedom with Timeless writer CA Ives, and penning the songs Cover, inspired by a Timeless scene, and Violence, a Trix ‘n Traces-inspired song. It’s Eden’s sultry voice we hear on each tune. While Eden has moved on to other projects, she made an amazing Trix and we are forever grateful for the life she brought this project.
Violence
Now that nothing makes sense, how will this teflon girl choose between a life she’s supposed to want and one she can’t even imagine?
Timeless explores the deepest paradoxes we face as our social worlds close in and inequality raises the stakes for everyone. Mouse provides a middle point – not old, not young, not rich, not poor, both educated and street-aware, neither gay nor straight; at the same time, she becomes the hub where worlds intersect. Using the bus system and any ride she can score, Mouse navigates social norms of glitz-rich society, homeless youth, musicians, academics, working stiffs and corporate elites, all while outrunning her past, wrestling her present, and trying to believe in a future.
THE CITY
Hitching a ride or bussing it, and walking the seedy streets in between, newly-arrived Christine drinks in the City and its potential. In a single day she moves from a safe student-zone nest to dangerous encounters in dark passageways, or glitz-rich penthouse parties. The city holds its citizens, its victims, and those who inhabit the cracks and crevices in between; those who belong, and those who create their own belonging. This is your city, every city, where the small-town girl comes to Make It and the inhabitants thrive, or survive.
SEXUALITY
Eden Hennessy and Clarissa Diokno enact the Blindfold Dancing scene in an early audiobook promo
Timeless doesn’t shy away from sexuality, or the gradations of the sliding scale. Underlying plot elements tackle bi-erasure, unconscious hetero-biases among educated progressives, overt and systemic cis norms, and the struggle to understand and work within labels people expect when none of the labels seem to fit. Christine enjoys sex with men, but her attraction to Trix cannot be denied. Trix, Trace, and Bash comprise a triad, but Trix and Bash are married and Trix seems to act as a free agent. Luca’s gender fluidity causes tension and division, revealing cracks and assumptions inherent in inclusion. In the end, sexuality does not define these characters, but provides an undercurrent to all the interactions.
DELAYED ADULTHOOD
Shawn Davison Vincent and Clarissa Diokno enact Jamie and Mouse’s meeting for an early audiobook promo
Youth keeps stretching out for Millenials and Gen Z. More and more education for lower and lower level jobs. Young people waiting longer and longer to think about things like marriage, career, kids, while they push their dreams further and further into the future, collecting credentials they can never use, or not bothering. Young people face a future with less hope and more fear than previous generations, and the youth of Timeless don’t shy away from this reality. Trix’s philosophies incite the youth in her space to take action, to take control of the future, in a society that throws them away.
INEQUALITY
The chasm between rich and poor isn’t just material, it manifests across social and intellectual understanding, ways of belonging, and how people view their opportunities and challenges. The kids of Timeless all come from the streets, but each background is unique. Yet, as Trix says “it’s all the same story.” Christine’s spoiled young guitar students live rarified lives of privilege. How are they different from the kids at Timeless? How are they the same? And what happens when she accidentally brings them together? CEO Bren’s power comes from his wealth, but so does his dissatisfaction and uncertainty. As far as Trix is concerned, the whole system is a game that deserves to be rigged, and she’s not afraid to push everyone to the edge if it gets her the clicks.
I know I’m totally ignorant, but how can I get better if I can’t even ask?
POWER
The line between Power To and Power Over has never been more razor-sharp at Timeless than it is this week, and having our Mouse in the House has tilted the balance, shaken up the jar. Power transforms the human brain, and the higher the stress, the more it takes over. Seeking power, taking power, using power, looks different from every person’s view. Each character at Timeless is struggling to find and use their own power, while those with power struggle with their principles as stress increases. Jamie must defy Trix and face unbelonging. Bren must face how his use of power has wide-scale consequences. Trix becomes mired in the idea that exerting her will IS for the common good, and blind to how it’s not. As the neighbourhood’s fear and bigotry rises up against them, the struggle for power becomes deadly.
SYSTEMIC RACISM
Christine’s lived a pretty sheltered life. She knows racism exists and it’s a problem, but it’s not something she’s seen much of personally. It takes her awhile to clue in to the ways that race affects how she’s received at Timeless, and what people expect from her. As she begs origin stories, she soaks in some quick and sometimes painful education from the honesty of the kids she meets. Becoming Mouse in the House means more than just showing up, as she begins to face herself, her blind spots, and the kind of ally she has the heart to be. Timeless is supposed to be a race-free zone, but what does that mean, and how does it keep the conversation away from invisible, systemic biases and issues?
BELONGING
Unbelonging wounds at the deepest, most vulnerable levels, and the kids at Timeless have felt like outsiders, outcasts, for as long as they’ve been alive. That’s what makes the pull of community so powerful. Belonging at Timeless means being “in” 100% and it comes with a price. Christine has never felt like she belonged, always a tourist or a tag-along. She wants desperately to feel like she’s home, but her itinerant childhood and dreams of being “on the road” keep her teflon – she slides away as soon as the commitment feels too real. What does it mean to belong, and what will these characters do and give up to feel like they have a place, are a part, matter?
OUT LOUDNESS
The cameras are everywhere. The hallways, bathrooms, they catch everything, nowhere is immune. They feed the livestream 24-7, switching randomly from room to room, space to space – or at least, that’s how it’s supposed to work. But with Static running the data collection, it’s not so random – there are stories being tracked, reality-tv on steroids. Being at Timeless means accepting that you live out loud, and everything that happens is part of the show. There are no secrets when you live out loud, and if you have nothing to hide, that shouldn’t be a problem. Right?
You’d best know this, little girl – at timeless we live out loud. You never know what’s being caught. Like life.
MEDIA MANIPULATION
Behind the scenes, the kids of Timeless aren’t just hanging out, they are implementing a carefully orchestrated social media strategy, monitored in real time, testing Static’s theories and establishing roadmaps that could be very valuable in a world of shifting attention. Only gradually does it emerge that different teams are predicting different outcomes for this game, with real stakes at play, watching the Timeless feeds with hungry fascination.
MUSIC!!!
The thing they have in common, what brings them together, is the music. Playing guitar, making music with other people, is the primary way that Mouse communicates with the world. It’s how she connects with her dead dad, and integral to her sense of identity. Timeless, too, exists because of music, to perform and change the world. Trix is counting on music to give her the platform and recognition she craves, and believes is her due.
Trix’s Pressures
Children’s Services is threatening to close them.
Building Code and Fire Marshall are threatening to close them.
Local thug Flank thinks they are interfering and sends violent, sobering warnings.
Echo’s mother is inciting the neighbourhood to protest outside their doors, it’s growing every day.
Mouse is struggling, but this Friday’s show is IT!
If they don’t go viral Friday, she loses everything, fails everyone.
The financial backers are pushing for a big and dangerous stunt.
The funding is all used and they are running dangerously short on money.
The kids are getting restless, starting to question more, trust less.
Trace’s jealousy and ambition are threatening to ruin everything.
Luca has disappeared.
Her veneer is wearing thin.
Trix holds the majority of External Pressures
Christine/Mouse’s Pressures
Mouse holds the majority of Internal Pressures
She left her best-friend-boyfriend Ethan back home, but she’s not sure that she wants to do life without him in it.
She left Ethan for Chris in a quick series of sudden moves and reactions. She’s learning more about Chris, well aware that she has no money and nowhere to go if she decides to leave him.
She’s always longed to just get away from her small-town existence, and she’s in the city! So now, what?
She believes she is fatally flawed, that her skill comes from constant practice but she has not been practicing enough because of depression. She is afraid her talent isn’t enough to get her to Friday’s show.
She can’t say no to Trix. She wants to be around her. She knows she’s attracted to her, but ignores it, while letting it rule her.
She desperately wants to belong at Timeless, is terrified to belong anywhere, and believes she never will.
She’s afraid that her anxiety and PTSD reactions will get her kicked out or rejected by everyone if she gets revealed.
Her estranged, alcoholic mom is in the city and trying to reconnect.
She’s worried about the girl she saw in the ally, and afraid that Flank will follow through on threats.
She’s trying to juggle Timeless and a new job teaching music to spoiled rich girls in their wealthy homes.
She spends a lot of her time on the bus, and she’s not practicing guitar.
It feels like everyone has something they’re not quite saying, all the time, like she’s missing something obvious.
But maybe it’s all in her head?
Tension between Trix and Mouse
Trix has everything riding on Friday’s show, but she’s afraid that the carefully orchestrated social media movement she’s executing might be missing the secret ingredient, the je-ne-sais-quoi that sparks a true breakout. She’s convinced herself that Mouse can be that, under the right circumstances, with the world watching every moment of her struggle. Trix has a dramatic storyline and ending in mind, and Mouse is the star, if she would just play along. She’s attracted to Mouse, but she’s more interested in making sure everything goes to plan. She uses Mouse’s attraction to her in the narcissist’s game of hot and cold, angry and beguiling, keeping the sexual tension high on purpose with no intention of following through. She doesn’t want to jeopardize her precarious triad situation, and she doesn’t have time for distractions. But Mouse keeps surprising her, and she finds herself more emotionally involved than she meant to be. She needs to keep all the balls in the air for one more week, and now she’s added another one. She thinks Mouse better be worth it.
Mouse isn’t sure if she wants to sleep with Trix or if she wants to be her, all she knows for sure is that she wants to be in her presence, all the time. She wants to please her, and earn her attention and affection. She craves the kind of confidence Trix portrays. She suspects maybe Trix could be her ticket to focusing her life on making music, which is what she thinks she wants. She wants to be a part of a community, and she’s intensely curious about Timeless. She resents Trix’s hold on her, while seeking out her attention and basking in her glow. She resists Trix’s demand that she step fully into herself and her talent, that she let go some of her control, that she face aspects of herself that she prefers to keep hidden and quiet. Part of her wants to hide from Trix, but more and more she realizes she also wants to give herself over, heart and soul. She’s afraid of that, and she suspects that she should be. She’s afraid of being caught just being her.
Jamie’s Pressures
Along with Luca, Jamie has been breaking the rules, secretly using Timeless as a stop in an underground railway for trafficked girls.
Trix kicked Luca out. Luca’s disappeared and Jamie’s worried something bad has happened to them.
He is deathly afraid of Flank and others who were connected to his own drug use and abuse on the streets. He doesn’t leave the building.
Since Luca left, he has been trying to carry the production for Friday’s show, but he’s in over his head.
He is struggling with his addiction this week, more and more as stress mounts.
He’s worried about his friends, each for different reasons – Luca, Latchkey, Lizard, Mouse, Trix. He wants to make everything good for everyone.
He feels intense attraction to Mouse, and he knows he is too young for her to notice that way. He resents her and wants her.
He struggles with anger and a sense of unfairness, knowing intellectually that he is wrong but feeling all the angst.
Episode One: A New Mouse to Play With
PART 1
Chris drags Christine to the very-overcrowded Timeless for a Trix n’ Traces show, then promptly loses her in the crowd. Christine is taken up by the music and the iconic Trix performing; Trix notices her dancing in the crowd and watches her intesely. Christine dances away memories of leaving her ex and running away to the city. She suddenly notices and reacts to Trix’s intent stare with distress and finds Chris, who introduces her to his friends from his graduate program, Freida and Lance, and their spouses, Tim and Rekha. They discuss Timeless and Trix, giving Christine a very mixed impression of the place as a homeless shelter, performance space, and potential cult. The dialogue creates more questions than it answers, shouted over loud music.
PART 2
At intermission, Trix appears and drags Chris and Christine backstage, where she essentially “interviews” Christine in a quick banter about music and Christine’s guitar skills, at the same time bestowing on her the nickname “Mouse.” She announces to her band-mates and triad partners, Trace and Bash, that they’ve found a new guitarist. Trace seems very unimpressed, while Bash seems neutral. Back on stage after intermission, Trix calls Mouse out from the crowd and pulls her on stage to play a familiar number, passing her Trix’s own guitar. Christine rocks the jam to crowd approval, but as soon as the song is finished she runs off the stage, clearly dealing with anxiety. Mouse emerges into an alleyway taking deep breaths, not noticing she’s not alone.
PART 3
Christine finds Jamie in animated discussion with Luca, who disappears into the shadows when Christine emerges. Jamie and Christine have a short interaction during which they form an immediate, awkward, connection – he is like her kid brother, and she is his unattainable crush. Reunited with Chris at the front of the building, the two catch a cab and engage in rigorous, almost desperate making-out in the cab and on the stairs going up to the apartment, which leads to sex at home. Afterwards, Chris makes pancakes and they discuss Timeless, Trix, and whether she should accept Trix’s invitation to jam with them the next day. Chris is against it, but Christine is intrigued. Christine texts with Ethan and he encourages her to go back.
More to come…
Based on the episodic fiction
TIMELESS: AN URBAN LEGEND from CA Ives
A production of Which Writes
timeless @ togethermore.com