LOG LINE
Parents must unite to find their missing oldest child, but their grief threatens to tear the family apart and leave their surviving daughter behind.
SYNOPSIS
Persistence of Memory is a character-driven drama that combines authentic performances with an immersive soundscape. Named after a Dali painting, the show centers the surreal experience of family tragedy rather than focusing on the sensationalism of the true crime elements.
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Persistence of Memory centers on one family under the tremendous strain and trauma of absence.
this is for you if you liked:
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Dark
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Homecoming
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Moonface
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Broadchurch
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Twin Peaks
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Mare of Easttown
Artistic Statement
In the wake of immense loss, how do those left behind move forward?
The absence of someone we love is not a void; it leaves an impression. Much like the nuclear shadows of Hiroshima that impression is etched in stone, frozen in time. Like a black hole, the presence of their absence changes our trajectory. While we may not see Quincy, we see how everyone orbits around his negative space. Through this series we examine the different ways characters reconcile their grief and how those differences bring people closer together or further apart.
Persistence of Memory combines authentic performances with sensory immersive soundscapes. The sound design utilizes ASMR and surrealistic soundscapes to reach a more visceral level within the listeners. Our goal is to pull the listeners into the characters’ emotional perspectives, rather than making the audience passive spectators in the story.
The show will be recorded between actors rather than in isolation in order to create space for authentic performances. The blending of crafted sound design with "film-like" acting will create an immersive, multi-sensory experience: part art installation, part narrative fiction.
Our goal in handling grief through this style of storytelling is to provide catharsis. As creators who have relationships with loss we understand the importance of acknowledging the truth and weight of the experience. We hope this story creates empathy and validation that we are not alone in the sometimes messy ways grief manifests. We ebb and flow through it at different paces in different ways.
Each episode dives deeper into the many ways the characters engage with their ever-evolving grief and how news, help from community, hope, and pressure to return to the outside world disrupt and transform that process. There is no clear-cut, correct way approach loss, only an immense gray fog to be navigated. Ultimately, whether or not Quincy is found is irrelevant. The damage is done.
Persistence of Memory explores how tragedy both unites and isolates us as time continues on.
The Characters
Maria
MARIA has been a stay at home mom for the last five years. She had previously been in a career that took up most of her time, which was impossible to keep up with after she had her son Quincy. While Maria loves being a mom, she also appreciates her alone time. The fact that she isn’t “100% devoted to her children” and creates any space for herself gets some weird looks and whispers from other moms in town. Maria blames herself for Quincy’s disappearance but the shame is so great she would never say that out loud. She is sure that Quincy is still alive; she feels it in her bones.
Angelique Cabral as
Isaac
Baron Vaughn as
ISAAC works in a job that keeps him on the road often, so when he’s home he does a good job of leaving work behind to be with his kids. The absence of his own father have created a deep vow to give his children a much better, safer home life. The fact that Quincy goes missing feels like a deep failing on that front. Isaac can’t bear to keep hoping that Quincy will return. It’s easier, and logical, if they accept his death and try to return their lives to some kind of normalcy.
Fryda Wolff as
Olive & Quincy
OLIVE is Maria and Isaac’s youngest child. She’s always been calm and thoughtful, even as a baby. As the youngest she is often an observer internalizing her surroundings.
QUINCY is Maria and Isaac’s first child. He’s playful and seems to never run out of energy. He’s always been social and fascinated by new people. He’s a sweet child and loves to entertain.
Trish
Aida Rodriguez as
TRISH is Maria’s closest friend. They met at a book club that they both found to be cliquey so they formed their own. Trish is a patient woman who enjoys taking care of others, though she sometimes does so to her own detriment. She loves helping with her friends’ children but doesn’t want any of her own.
Cristela Alonzo as
Angela Pineda
ANGELA is the social worker assigned to the family. She is a kind resource and someone Maria can turn to during the transition into their new life with their oldest child missing. As Quincy’s case grows colder and more files pile on Maria’s desk she becomes less available to Maria and is the one to finally tell her that it is time to move on.
Additional Voices
Lisa Cordileone as
Officer Ferretti
The Story: Season One
Season Synopsis
Persistence of Memory is a character-driven drama that combines authentic performances with an immersive soundscape. Named after a Dali painting, the show captures the surreal experience of family tragedy rather than focusing on the sensationalism of the true crime elements. Persistence of Memory centers on one family under the tremendous strain and trauma of absence.
Season One follows the Fields family, who is reeling from the disappearance of their five-year-old son, Quincy. The parents, Maria and Isaac, search for their son while piecing together a semblance of an everyday family life for their two-year-old daughter, Olive, who is still with them.
Maria holds out hope for Quincy’s return while Isaac encourages them to move forward. She wants to stop time; he wants to focus on the future and has a job offer on the west coast that could be a chance for a fresh start. While Maria dives into perfection and manifestation in hopes of being rewarded with her son, Isaac seeks the comfort and intimacy of a Cam girl. When Maria forces Isaac to visit a psychic with her, they realize how far they’ve grown apart. They both seek reassurance from strangers, yet find the other’s source as unacceptable. Isaac and Maria subconsciously blame each other for Quincy’s disappearance, an undercurrent to every interaction. They are on opposite sides of the same grief coin.
In the midst of their turmoil, Olive ends up left behind. She must grapple with the loss of her best friend and brother without an understanding of the world. This formative event shows up in her play and dreams and behavior in abstract ways as she mourns in her own pre-verbal way.
Olive’s third birthday party brings all this to the surface. Being forced to play the happy family is more than any of them can bear. The seeming ease with which Isaac carries himself through the party makes Maria worry he has already moved on. She confronts him, but he assures her that they’re in this together. He has had to show face like this every day at work since Quincy's disappearance. Maria, however, is losing faith in everything and everyone now.
Isaac finally breaks down when he confides in the Cam Girl about Quincy’s disappearance. Isaac feels like he can't talk to Maria because she’s shut off from the possibility that Quincy isn’t coming back. He makes another plea to Maria for them to move. She is furious that he would suggest it again. Their fight is interrupted by a call: Olive bit another student at school.
Meanwhile, the world continues to turn and the police investigation goes nowhere as their attention is diverted when a white kid in a neighboring suburb goes missing. As everyone moves on, the Fields family grapples with how to go forward.
At the end of season one, Isaac decides that he must move out for his sanity. Maria won’t leave without her son. They decide to separate. The phone rings: the police have found Quincy.
The Story: Season One
episode breakdown
EPISODE 1
Maria plays hide and seek with her children which bleeds into her giving her statement to the police, reporting her son Quincy’s disappearance at a shopping center. She stepped away to answer a call from her husband Isaac and Quincy went missing in the few moments she wasn’t paying attention. Isaac is out of town for work but books the next flight back when he hears the news. The social worker assigned to the case tells Maria it’s best that she goes home to await any news. Maria and Olive go home without Quincy. Olive doesn’t understand where her brother is and Maria doesn’t know how to explain it to her 2-year old. Trish shows up with dinner and to help however she can. That night Maria dreams of once again playing hide and seek with her children, wishing this were just part of a dark game.
The Creators
Courtney Hope Thérond (Director, Co-writer) is an award-winning screenwriter and director who has screened films at festivals such as BFI London, New Orleans, Outfest, Nashville, and St Louis. Her latest short Rehearsal, which tackles the grey areas of consent, premiered online on Short of the Week, received a Vimeo Staff Pick, and was featured in RogerEbert.com, Fast Company, and No Budge.
As a screenwriter, Courtney has twice been a finalist at Austin Film Festival. Her pilot Between Us Girls was a finalist in the Screencraft Pilot Launch, a semi-finalist (top 50) for the ISA Fast Track Fellowship, and won its category at Cinestory. As the 2021 winner of Studiofest she is currently developing a feature film with them.
Courtney was a fellow in the inaugural Constellation Incubator and one of eight filmmakers selected for the Open Door Project. Her fictional podcast Persistence of Memory was recently chosen for the Gotham Week Project Market.
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Courtney is a graduate of NYU, Tisch School of the Arts, and was a Cinereach Film Fellow. She writes and directs narrative and branded content in Los Angeles and New York.
Some of her work can be found at courtneytherond.com
Rhiannon Ciara Vaughn (Writer, Editor) is an award-winning, produced playwright based in Los Angeles. Her plays ask questions about our perceptions of the world and the power those perceptions hold over us from her lens as a Mexican-American and a mother.
Her short play Wine Night was a Region 8 finalist at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival and has been produced at the InspiraTO Festival (Toronto) and The Scribes Stages Playwright Showcase (LA). Her play A Lovely Day Outside was selected as a Top 5 Play at the 2019 Living on the Edge Festival. Her play Gifted* was a finalist for the 2019 Kennedy Center/NNPN MFA Workshop.
Rhiannon has written, directed, produced, and edited short films that have screened at SF Sketchfest, Sitges Film Festival, Telluride Horror, Awareness Festival, and the 909 Film Festival, where her short comedy 9oh9 received the Ambassador Award.
She has produced and stage-managed live comedy including Underbelly, Good Heroine, and Riot LA Comedy Festival. In 2013 her variety show THEME PARTY PRESENTS: BLUTHFEST! Was featured in LA Weekly.
Rhiannon has a BA in Psychology from Pitzer College and an MFA in Creative Writing for Stage and Screen from Lesley University. www.rhiannonvaughn.com
