ASSIGNED AT BIRTH, A Web Series About Some Bodies Launches This Month

YouTube on October 25, 2020 at 7pm, and will release the following 5 episodes every other week.

Early in the pandemic award-winning writer Lyralen Kaye began participating in on-line festivals presented on Zoom, Youtube and Facebook Live, as theater and film artists did all over the world. In the process, Kaye met Clare Solly, who suggested Kaye write a play about body image. Certainly both thought it would focus on size. But Kaye, who identifies as a non-binary gender fluid pansexual living with a PTSD disability, began reaching out to queer communities and communities of color for interview subjects, and so AFAB took on a life of its own.

"Body is race, gender, identity, age, ability and size," Kaye says. "You can't write about body image in today's world and not enter the complications of intersectionality."
The series follows the lives of 3 couples and their immediate families. The characters include an agender trans man who wants to get married in a dress, zir mixed race lover who is definitely not on board, a black lesbian who doesn't like her trans husband's new penis and a non-binary therapist with a diagnosis of their own working to commit to their recovering addict partner.

As the series developed, so did the work of artists on line, and Kaye saw the limitations of Zoom plays and readings. They began to write toward a hybrid documentary/web series/theater format and to interview Directors of Photography with a single question: could actors filming in different locations be made to look like they were living in the same rooms? The answer seemed to be a hesitant yes, so filming began on September 9.

Using Zoom to view and instruct, the AFAB crew began to film scenes with 23 actors using smart phones, Filmic Pro, breakout Zoom rooms and external microphones. Lead actors performed from their homes in New York City, Salem, MA, San Francisco, Chicago, Pottstown, PA, Vancouver, WA and Los Angeles.

The Greek chorus who represent the interviewees are spread even wider.

The story of Assigned Female at Birth, which includes a unique focus on the body as a character in and of itself, tells stories of grief, identity, oppression and the absurdity of everything human.

Kaye won the the 2018 San Francisco Best in Fringe and Techie Best in Fringe, the 2015 Meryl Streep-funded Inaugural Screenwriters Lab, the 2017 Moth story slam and Boston Story Slam, and was a 2018 finalist for the Hollywood Fringe Soaring Solo Artist Award. They were a finalist for the 2005 Massachusetts Council of the Arts Awards in Playwriting. Kaye has also won numerous finalist mentions and awards in fiction, playwriting and slam poetry. A professional actor, she can be seen in Martin Landau's last film, Abe and Phil's Last Poker Game as well as 27 Dresses and the web series The Naturals and The Man at the Door.

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