New Beginnings Immersive Party : Jules | Immersive Performance Art with Cléo June and collaborators

This immersive party: New Beginnings is held at Hypha Arts, a cool artisan space with a rich history which has since been transformed. New Beginnings is a ritual-centered event that happens routinely to celebrate new beginnings by party-goers. It is a time for self-exploration and allowing your true nature to shine while being in a party setting. Audience members, who are also party goers, have the pleasure or rather bizarre experiences of encountering different characters and their intentions at the party. The night unfolds with a series of dramatic events. A weird acid trip.

Jules is a sweet, naive 17 year old girl hired to be a face painter by the hosts, Lance and Harley. Jule's bubbly and aloof nature conceals her darker past of being institutionalized and suffering from the abusive care she received from the foster care system and her family, before they passed away. At the weekly AA meetings, where Lance met Jules, he took her under his wing and became a connection in her life that she treasures dearly. She finds solace in her art-making and her pursuit of owning a successful art business. At the start, Jules is part of the initiation process of welcoming guests and painting them. Later as the events of the night unfold, Jules gets conned into drinking the mystical, "miracle water" by Clay West which she succumbs to the side effects and transforms into a mermaid. She performs "Cigarette Daydreams", a nod to her troubled teenagehood and the plethora of traumatic events she's experienced at the young age of 17. Guests interact with Jules, the mermaid, to access her psychic and magical gifts. She spends the rest of the evening in a bathroom emanating a installation-like scene, this is the small pocket of magic that remains as reality starts to creep in at the end of the night.

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Photos by Carlo Marchet, Sarah Carter, Erika Latta, Michelle and Joe