Bella: An American Tall Tale, a musical by Kirsten Childs
Unrealised Project

Synopsis:
Bella takes place in the 1870s in the Old West. Bella, a "Big Booty Tupelo Girl," sets off to Kansas to meet her fiance, Aloysius T. Honeycutt, who is a Buffalo Soldier. Bella must make this journey under a false name in order to escape the law. Back home in Tupelo, Mississippi, Bella is in trouble for beating up Bonny Jonny. Her Mama, Grandma, and Aunt Dinah encourage her to leave the state so that she is not arrested. When Bella boards the train headed for Kansas, she attracts the attention of the passengers because of her large bottom. While on the train journey, Bella has fantasies about a gaucho and a Chinese cowboy. A porter on the train, Nathaniel Beckworth, falls in love with Bella.

My POV:
Bella is the story of a woman who reframes her sexual assault by utilizing her imagination. She gets on a train heading West and is objectified by the world for her large behind. Then at the circus, she realizes the value of exploiting that gaze for her personal benefit. However, by trying to circumvent the gaze, she discovers that she has commodified her personal self and that the world and the moneyed society of Carnegie Hall around her has not changed. She steps away and again reimagines how she tells her story, taking over full artistic control of her narrative and body – showing us the story we see onstage today.