“Actors” always play a passive role in a production— waiting, being chosen, holding a script written by a playwright, and making a fictional world feel real in a specific time and place. But what if the actor takes the lead? What if they become the creator? What if they reverse the order in which a story is born?

What if an actor allows events to happen first in life, then consciously documents them, and only then rewrites from this lived reality?

During the 2023 residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, while working on a cross-cultural adaptation of Scenes from a Marriage by Ingmar Bergman, Angie asked herself: What else could this story be? What other possibilities are there for this character and collaboration?

If actors can make roles bloom within the ups and downs of a pre-written life, guided by an all-knowing perspective, could they reverse that process? Could they live out the stories they desire, as a way of preparing for the roles they play?

So, this actor/character/Angie said to the French actor: “Let’s get married.”

1,000 days. Whatever happens, it becomes part of the plot. It is neither an imitation nor a rehearsal, but living the “character” as a form of practice and observation in an attempt to establish a role emerging not from within, but from the outside in.

Let life happen before the text, then document, then rewrite. Then bring it back to the stage or the screen. Of course, the goal of life (as a project) is always the same: To live as art. To love as method. To inspire by being.