Born with a Trunk

Institute History

Description

What happens when a rebellious, street-smart, wildly imaginative eleven year old girl is

plucked out of the Welfare System of New York. Landing on a catfish farm in the middle of nowhere, she is confronted with a grandfather she never knew she had.

From the moments she meets the difficult, unfathomable, even dangerous man, they circle each other like a pair of crafty prize fighters. Will is a skilled controller, a "winner" who hangs onto his rigid values. Samantha, impetuous and inquisitive, is determined to crack through his armor, to unveil his guarded past. The more she pries, the more he panics. The more he panics, the more she presses.

What follows is volatile, comical, poignant and sometimes terrifying. A troupe of tattered clowns burst on the scene who not only hold the key to some of Sam's questions, but provoke unsettling new ones. The clowns steal away into the night, leaving behind the only remnant from a circus Will once owned; an elephant, with a serious personality problem.

We now have three misfits struggling to survive on a small, one-man catfish operation, teetering on the brink of disaster.

Samantha, fascinated with the elephant, comes up with a plan of escape, unwittingly stumbling into Will's devastating past. The final round begins.

Credits

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