The Process

Why did you chose to write a screen play?

I have been writing since I was about ten years old. All were either short stories, non-fiction pieces, or poetry. I always wanted to write a full-length novel or screenplay, but I was too nervous and could never find the time. When my teacher told me about the Capstone project, I knew it was the perfect thing to finally push me into writing a screenplay.

How did you come up with Mosaic?

I had three main ideas of the direction I wanted to take my capstone. The first was expanding on a short story I wrote titled The Curious Stories of Matthew Larson; my second was to write a script based on a poem I wrote titled little red & the wolf; and my third idea was to write a script based on a poem I wrote titled Mosaic. As I brainstormed, I realized I had no comprehensive thoughts on lengthening The Curious Stories of Matthew Larson, so that one was out of the running quickly. When deciding between my two poems, I thought of the technical aspects of how they would play out on a stage. Creating a werewolf costume would be difficult in a high school theater, so I pursued Mosaic. 

How did Mosaic the poem become Mosaic the play?

I first wrote the Mosaic poem in June of 2021. The piece is about my mother and father and the idea that every child is a mixture of their parents. In the poem, I speak about rejecting the parts of them that are negative and instead embracing the positive aspects of myself, which I inherited from them. This poem sparked the idea that we are not just one whole person but a mosaic of our parents, friends, lived experiences, and even strangers who have a lasting impact on us. That, in turn, got me thinking what it would be like if I split all of the significant parts of myself into different people, which became the central idea of Mosaic the play. 

Coming up with characters

In the early stages of brainstorming, I wasn't sure how many character I wanted, but it occurred to me that there were six letters in the word mosaic and also six colors in the rainbow (excluding indigo, which is just a combination of purple and blue). That inspired me to have six main character's in my play, each with the first letter of their name being a letter from the word. For Max, I wanted to use a name that was gender neutral, but could be a derivative of a feminine name. Because he is trans, he goes by Max, which is short for Maxine, his deadname. Oscar's name was inspired by Oscar the grouch, the sesame street character who lives in a garbage can, because poverty is often linked back to garbage can's and the idea that homeless people are dirty. I chose Sam because I wanted a second gender neutral name, for no particular reason though. For Abraham, I chose his name because when I asked my mother what name she would've chosen for me if I was born male, she told me Abraham. Issac and Camelia were both names that I didn't have any particular inspiration for but simply chose because I liked them.

More about the characters of Mosaic

Each character represents a different part of my life or something I've experienced in the past. Max is transgender and bisexual, thus struggling with transphobia and homophobia. Oscar grapples with poverty. He struggles with not having any food in his house, being behind on rent, and having an absent father, which eventually culminates in his becoming homeless. Sam represents the experience of having an abusive father. The script never explicitly states that Abraham has autism and ADHD, but his actions and experiences heavily imply it. He is seen going into sensory overload, unable to regulate his emotions, and even experiencing ableism due to his stimming. The character Issac represents my struggles with depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide. He talks briefly about his suicide attempt and how he felt during that time, all things I felt after my own. Camelia is much different than the other five characters. She is the only girl out of the six main characters, and this was a very conscious decision on my part. Despite being a trans man, I recognize that the experience of plus-sized girls is very different from that of plus-sized boys, specifically due to misogyny. As many of her lines suggest, the root of her body image issues is how others perceive her. She is terrified that she will never find love because she is bigger. I believed this for a very long time and am still unlearning it to this day.

Once you had the characters, what did you do?

I began writing! I started writing the script in April of 2022, very sporadically. After two months of writing a few pages here and there, I set a goal for myself. One page a day, at least. On my first attempt, I failed. I quickly lost motivation and stopped writing altogether. When I started school again in August, I decided to push myself to write a page a day, and I did! For the next 30 days, I did write at least one page daily. But of course, writer's block comes to everyone. I wrote again in February 2023, finally finishing my second act.