Enter The House Between: Astrid

Who is Astrid?

 

Depends on who you ask…

 

“Astrid,” is a stage name, and she really doesn’t like it when you call her by her legal name: Frances May Haven.  In fact, she almost never shares that name.

 

With anyone.

 

But even her “real” name does not begin to tell Astrid’s whole incredible story, or history. 

 

The daughter of fundamentalist religious fanatics, Frances grew up in an abusive household in the 1950s and 1960s. Eventually, young May escaped from her family, but was plunged into depression after learning that the younger brother she left behind, Joshua, killed himself.

 

Frances went on to begin a singing career as Astrid in the early 1970s, though it developed in fits and starts. She performed at clubs in Richmond, Virginia, and was on the verge of releasing her big album, Quarters, when she disappeared in 1974.

 

Or at least, that’s how some accounts go…

 

Some people tell, or rather whisper, another story. Or is it a tall tale? 

 

That Astrid, after a catastrophic meeting with Ethan, her father, (and learning of Joshua’s fate…), attempted to commit suicide in her Victorian bathtub. 

 

And that’s where the mystery of Astrid really begins. 

 

Some people claim that Astrid experienced a visitation from herself.   

 

An out of body experience? An apparition? A delusion?

 

Other people – at least people with the highest security clearance -- remember Astrid as the elderly Frances May Haven, who in the 21^st century becomes involved with the top-secret Project Habitat from her padded cell in Ward 6, a military-run mental hospital.

 

And the denizens of those high-tech smart houses in the 2050s?  

Some of them swear they hear her voice sometimes. That, in the dark of night, they hear a ghost singing a haunting melody. 

Some even claim they have seen her, lurking in the shadows, in their peripheral vision, between the blinks of an eye.

 

The truth about Astrid is complex, but at least one version of this mysterious woman, dwells in a lost smart house, with the other denizens of Enter The House Between. 

 

But this version is young and doesn’t remember anything after September 13, 1974. A hippie living in our future.

 

September 1974. 

That’s the date, by the way, that she recorded that haunting song, titled, mysteriously, The House Between…

 

Astrid is portrayed in Enter The House Between by Kim Breeding-Mercer, who draws on her background in theater and music as well as her day-job skills of writing and design. Kim loves that this show and its cast and crew push her, and each other, to continue to grow and try new things. She lives in Virginia with her husband, daughter, dog, and grand-snake…

 

Just 5 days until you hear Astrid in action…