Ordinary pain: pilot script

Abstract

This creative work - an hour-long television pilot “dramedy” screenplay entitled Ordinary Pain - emerges out of a scriptwriting as research project within the academy, and seeks to reposition characters with an intersex variation as ‘an everyday social type’. Ordinary Pain is the story of Zoe, a hermaphrodite and creative type based in the bohemian suburbs of the Brisbane postcode of 4101. She is a rare blend of both male and female, and, and is overcoming traumatic experiences of growing up. This subject could be perceived as unwieldy and sad. Yet the core character of Zoe is an extraordinary one, trying to live in the ordinary world with the courage to overcome shame and adversity. Ordinary Pain explores family, gender, sexuality and place in engaging, inspiring and funny ways, and is informed by reflection on and within screenwriting practice.