FADE IN

SCENE 1.ESTABLISHING SHOT: 3 women: REPORTER, GRETEL, & CLEMENTINE (Kandis’ Next of Kin) sit opposite on chairs in a huge open room, evening, in front of a fireplace. GRETEL’s and CLEMENTINE’s chairs are next to each other, facing REPORTER’s. Others, not part of the interview can be seen around.

Transition to medium shot of the 3 women with the fireplace in the background. REPORTER is calm, interested, and professional. She is wearing typical ‘reporter clothes’: stylish yet professional.

GRETEL is wearing clothes that make it obvious she is an artist. She doesn’t quite match the other women or the environment around her, very colorful, mixes of textures. Her hands are slightly stained with paint. She holds a small sketchbook with some markers.

CLEMENTINE is wearing dark colors with a colorful accent scarf - she is professional looking and well-put together, but her pop of color reflects her creative job - gallery owner.

1. REPORTERHere with us today on SKT Interviews is Gretel, with an incredible underdog story you’ll have to hear to believe. And here with her, is Clementine, the woman who is partially to thank for her climb from the bottom. It’s a pleasure to have you both on today.

Gretel, how lovely to finally meet you! We are sorry that Hansel couldn’t be here today but I heard he is working in

Germany for the next few weeks.

GRETEL (smiling, obviously proud of her brother)Yes! He is curating an abstract expressionist show at the

Berlinische Galerie in Berlin.

REPORTERThat is brilliant. I have to say, Gretel, you and your

brother are such an inspiration to the youth of today and to all the artists out there. I think our viewers would love to hear

your story. Please tell us, how did it all begin?

2. GRETEL (holds up her pens/markers and sketchbook; speaks a little nervously as if interviews and speaking make her uncomfortable. The suggestion comes from Gretel’s familiarity with art and it being a comfortable way for her to relate to the world around her)

Do you mind if I draw it for you?

SCENE 2.

(Gretel doesn’t give the reporter time to object, she just stars illustrating her story.) White-board, parallel with the camera, frame in shot, markers scattered around. Gretel’s voice floats over as if from a distance. As Gretel speaks, the sketched scenes ‘draw themselves’ in a stop-motion esque display. The illustrations come from Gretel describing them.

1. GRETEL (voice over whiteboard)It was the dead of winter. We lived in Wyandotte, a small town in Michigan where the air always felt thick and cold. Our family had been struggling for a while. Living on one income made the winter

seem even colder.

Whiteboard features some quickly sketched snowflakes in the corners/sides. A ‘mitten’ is drawn with a little star near the edge of the hand, over the spot where Wyandotte is. The glove

gets covered as more snowflakes are drawn.

2. GRETEL (voice over Whiteboard)I remember that day so clearly. I was sitting in the kitchen with

Mother and Father, waiting for Hansel. We were having dinner. Dinner back then was was watery soup and a few thin slices of bread. It was a feast compared to what we had been eating the

rest of the week.

GRETEL (bitter laugh and short pause)But that day, Mother told us to eat quickly and pack. Apparently

we were going on a trip, but she wouldn’t tell us where.

3. REPORTER (interrupts GRETEL)May I ask, why was your family struggling?

4. GRETEL (clears throat)7 years earlier, the 2008 Global Recession had come in like a hurricane, destroying nearly everything. Mother worked in real estate and had lost her job almost right away. They wanted to limit the changes, to keep our life intact, and to keep up the

appearances so as not to disrupt us. When you’re a kid, you think your parents are invincible, that they can do anything. But the truth is, there was only so much our parents could do. They had

to cut down on the expenses drastically.

4. GRETEL (voice over whiteboard)The pair of us ended up on the streets because Mother and Father couldn’t support us anymore. We were 18 but we were young. We

were scared and hungry, doing whatever we could to secure a meal. Always the dreamer, Hansel kept me sane despite our awful

conditions. He insisted that we find a way to make art. We had no paper, but the city of Detroit became our canvas. He promised me that someone would see our art, fall in love with it, and swoop

us out of there.

(laughs with nostalgia in her voice)

5. GRETEL (voice over whiteboard)We called it art, though the officials called it graffiti. As we traversed the city, we left our paintings everywhere we’d been, like a kind of trail marking the places that we had conquered. Hansel always painted a loaf of bread, it was his signature. It was probably symbolic, I never really asked him. He was still

angry at Mother and Father.

It was scrubbed away, of course, but we were always determined to pick the trail back up and continue deeper into the city. We made

a meager living selling sketches to tourists, and for a while things weren’t too awful. We were starting to feel safe. As the weather got colder, though, we got more paranoid. We were always trying to find a warm place to sleep, something decent to eat.

And, to make matters worse, it seemed that someone was out to get us.

6. GRETEL (voice over whiteboard)Hansel had made a beautiful mural, he claimed it was probably his best. We went back so that he could show me, but it was gone. In

the place where he swore he’d painted it was a giant blue chickadee. He was very upset, but shook it off. We noticed,

however, the bird’s painted talons had cleaved deep marks into a crumbling loaf of bread. We were cold, hungry, and now incredibly paranoid. We began a desperate job search to try to get off the

streets.

SCENE 31.REPORTER (on couch)How did that go? What sort of obstacles did you face as a pair of

homeless children? Sure you were discriminated against?

GRETEL (with reporter)Hansel was a real hero about it, he applied at just about every

business he could find. I tried to keep selling art on the streets while he went about it, that way we could still get a little bit of income while he searched. He was turned away

everywhere, everyone had some excuse. Too dirty, not qualified, that sort of thing.

REPORTERI’m sure that was an eye-opening experience for you two.

GRETEL Not really, we’d been by ourselves for a while by that point. We were hopeful that things would go differently, but we weren’t

honestly surprised. 2. GRETEL

Eventually, we stumbled on a little gallery with a “Now Hiring” sign. We knew it would be a long shot, but Hansel and I brought

our sketchbooks and pitched ourselves to the owner.

REPORTER (couch, to Clementine.)That would be Kandis, your mother, right?

Clementine (nodding. Her voice shows disappointment in her mother)

One and the same.

GRETELShe did offer us jobs, which we were incredibly grateful for, but

things didn’t really go quite as we’d planned.

SCENE 41. GRETEL (voice over whiteboard)She gave us the grand tour of her gallery. The display was all about art made of food. Intricate cakes with delicate iced

sculptures, gingerbread and hard sugar. It was beautiful, and to two hungry street-rats, it looked delicious. There were leftover

“materials” in the fridge that she encouraged us to help ourselves to. We thought we’d finally figured things out, that we

were safe.

CLEMENTINE (voice over whiteboard, interrupting GRETEL. Her voice is grudging, though sympathetic. Still loyal to her family to an extent)Well it was incredibly kind of her to give you all of that for free, it wasn’t really negotiated into your contract. It wasn’t

like she was out to kill you or anything.

GRETEL (voice over whiteboard, annoyed)Wasn’t she, though?

CLEMENTINE (voice over whiteboard, also annoyed)Hardly. My mother put a roof on your head, gave you food to eat, and a way to earn money. She took you in when you said yourself that no one else would open their door for you! Do you know how

many people would have loved to be in your position?

REPORTER (nervous laugh)Okay, ladies. Let’s keep it civilized.

GRETEL (voice over whiteboard)As I was saying, we thought things were going alright. We turned out to be pretty wrong. Kandis had us both working in the glass studio, where the temperature was sweltering. That wasn’t too

bad, though. We worked until 4 a.m. that night, trying to make as much as we could because we were so thankful for a place to stay.

CLEMENTINE (voice over, interrupting)

As you should have been.

GRETEL (voice over, ignoring N.O.K)We were woken up by screaming, Kandis was furious that we had

slept in past 9 a.m. and weren’t back at the kiln yet.

CLEMENTINE (voice over, nervously)Well, it was in your contract.

GRETELWe apologized, and she immediately calmed down. It was like a switch was flipped. It should have been our first warning. We continued our work that day, and once the clock hit 5 p.m.,

Hansel and I started to clean up. That’s when Kandis told us that our shifts were not 8 hours, but 11 hours each.

CLEMENTINEThat was also in your contract.

GRETEL (voice over whiteboard)I’m pretty sure that’s illegal.

Anyway, we worked more and more every day, extremely long and exhausting shifts in an unbearable environment.We weren’t allowed to eat until our shifts were done. It drove Hansel to a snapping point, and when he finally stood up to Kandis, she went nuts. She started cutting herself and screaming that no one would believe him. Then she reported him to the police and had him arrested. I

wasn’t allowed to leave the kiln.2. GRETEL (to the reporterIt lasted like that for weeks. I wasn’t allowed outside. I had no sense of night or day, she took down all the clocks. And then,

there was a horrible...accident. She came in to check my progress on a client piece and stepped on one of the hollow metal rods that we use for glass blowing. She slipped and fell head first

into the kiln. (awkward moment of silence)

CLEMENTINE (quietly)They thought that she killed my mother. I thought she did, too. But when they checked the tapes, it was clearly an accident. And

then they were able to clear Hansel, too. (pause)

I guess it was kind of a good thing that she died, in a roundabout sort of way.I’m not proud of what she did, but I don’t

think her intentions were all bad. And at the very least, I’m glad that it led me to find you and your brother.

GRETEL (also quietly)I’m glad for that too. You’ve given us a great new lease on life.CLEMENTINE

I just did what I could to try to make up for my mother’s mistakes.

(sentimental silence)REPORTER (slow pan to only the reporter’s face)

How touching. Clementine donated nearly all of her mother’s fortune to the twins in order to help them fund their own art projects. For more information on their story and grand plans for the future, and to learn seven reasons why kilns are hazardous to keep in your galleries, join us again at ten. And now over to John with the weather.