Erica N.'s response to "Saving Mom"

Affirmations:

I am completely smitten by the concept of Jeong. I think you explained it beautifully, and it really opened up my thinking about the play. It made me see ways in which the relationship between the Mother and Reverend are thematically connected to the interactions between Harriet and the Reverend. (I want to move a bit into opinion territory here, so more thoughts on Jeong are in that section...)

I really enjoyed your work on the two molestation scenes - Harriet's level of implication (or how much the Rev sees her as implicated) is an interesting thing to play with there.

The mother's vitriolic anger is really coming through - the emotional violence of this piece is totally popping for me.

Harriet's character is becoming increasingly nuanced - I'm starting to feel from these scenes that the play is her story, rather than her story/memories feeling like a framing device. I love how she functions as someone who struggles to maintain clarity of vision - both as young Harriet telling it like it is and as a character with a degree of hindsight. It's exciting to see the complexities of seeing "truth" mixed up with desire and lonliness and emotional distance from her mother.

As others have said, great workshops! You both did an excellent job of helping us think about big picture ideas of feeling (home, jeong, culpability) as well as offering us a chance to look at specific textual nuance. I'm looking forward to seeing this piece develop!

Questions:
Like Erica S. These are not all questions that I want to see "answered" in the text. Some of them are just for you to know that they exist as questions in the room.

- What are the Rev's thoughts on salvation? In which scenes and relationships is he playing a savior figure? When is he asking someone else to play that role to him?
- What are the specifics of the church? Is it primarily a cultural gathering place? Is it fundamentalist? Is it a front?
- What's up with Harriet's father? When/where does he find the will to fight for his marriage? Does he suspect anything about the molestation?
- What does/doesn't Harriet believe about romance?
- Did the Rev desire Harriet when she was younger, or only now that she could be considered a woman?
- Is there longing underneath the Mom's hateful speeches?
- As I wondered in class, why does the Rev love Mom OTHER than reasons we might see as pitiful (isolation, loneliness, feeling lost)?
- Does the mom truly love anyone?
- If mom feels like home to the Rev, who/what feels like home to mom? to harriet? to Dad? to Sunshine?
- How does sex play out between all characters? When does Jeong intertwine with sexual connection?
- Is this play a love story?


Opinion/suggestion:

The discussion of Jeong also made me think about the connections between Harriet and her mother, mom and dad, harriet and Sunshine. After the discussion and exercise around Jeong, I began to see the play as an exploration of the ways that people change our emotional landscapes, and the ways in which this connects us to them forever. To me, this is the most exciting essence of the piece.

I'm not sure I understand what great need underlies Mom's hurtfulness, though I think there must be one, an this makes it easier to get annoyed at characters that want her affections. This may be something to heighten.

I understand Sunshine's role in terms of other characters - particularly as someone whom Harriet needs to protect, but I'd like to know a little more about her outside of her function in the family and more as her own person.

I think there's something really interesting wrapped up in the fact that the rev takes the family out to eat all the time. How can the big ideas within that action (sustainence, providing, publicness, formality, manners, sensuality, special-occasioness, etc.) contribute to rewrites on this piece?