The Kaleidoscope Creators on Acting
Get to know the acting process of the Kaleidoscope film from the creators.
When did you first start performing?
Sofia: I was always in my elementary school plays but my first major role on stage was in my middle school production.
Annabella: My first “official” role was playing Tinkerbell in a local production of Peter Pan when I was 5.
What has the journey of creating Kaleidoscope taught you about performing?
Sofia: This needs to be an actors on actors segment because one learns so much about about the writing process or the performing process that one wouldn’t know unless they write and perform their own project. Bells and I spent a good amount of time developing, structuring, and writing Kaleidoscope — you would have expected us to know everything about the characters, but that’s not necessarily true. We realized that we didn’t fully know the characters until we started performing them. It became a constant and evolving process. Beats found new paths, commas new breaths, sentences found new stories, and words found new meanings. It was very exciting and a very, very beautiful process.
Annabella: This process has showed me the importance of the relationship between writer and actor. When you are writing a script, you think about all of the character backgrounds, their relationships, and of course how they interact. When an actor picks up the script they elevate those words through their performance. The performance gives new meaning to the character that the writer may not have thought about before. I was honestly surprised that, after having written this script with Sofia for months, we were finding new avenues to explore each character through our acting processes. We were able to further develop the characters past the page into complex humans with thoughts between each line.
What feelings did you share with your character in the film?
Sofia: While I feel rooted in Paloma’s spontaneity and appreciation for the world around her, I feel most connected to Paloma’s resilience, she’s a wild heart trying to understand her place in this world and while she tries to protect herself from her family, she’s also aware that her actions have been causing a strain on her relationship with her sister which ultimately forces her to set her ego aside and have an open conversation. This level of humility, of knowing when to set your ego aside, is really powerful and a really beautiful place for the girls to move forward.
Annabella: In relation to Marina and her motivations, I feel very connected to her need to keep her family close. She has this innately maternal quality, especially when it comes to keeping her sister, Paloma, included in what is going on with the family. Although she is the younger sister, she is clearly the shepherd of the family, or thinks she is, which creates this controlling response when Paloma flees.
