Patrick's Response to Saving Mom Workshops 1 and 2

Affirmations:

Firstly, I’d like to congratulate you both on what I felt was some excellent development of a play I enjoyed (in our first class reading) and on helpful, informative, and insightful dramaturgical workshops/exercises. You provided an excellent model and I hope to create workshops that are equally creative, engaging, and productive.

While I enjoyed each of the elements (video discussion, scene work, music/discussion, etc,) I found the specific scenework we did (in which there was one Reverend/one Harriet, and one person to play each of those characters’ respective thought processes) particularly beneficial. Of course a character’s thought process should be something we are conscious of when exploring a scene, but there was something especially fruitful about seeing that thought process embodied and juxtaposed against another the character’s actual lines.

As someone relatively unfamiliar with this text, this exercise was the most productive in encouraging me to generate questions I had about each of the two characters and the play’s narrative as a whole. (Most of the questions I list were rooted in that brief 10-minute or so period we were allotted outside of the classroom). Granted, I can’t imagine ever having the time and resources to be able to do that for every single scene of the play—but for me, this was an extremely effective means of encouraging a desire for an intimate knowledge of the characters.

On a not-even-tangentially-related note, I would like to reiterate George’s and Michael’s comments about those moments of culturally-specific language (I think most often spoken by Mom); “flavorless girl” is a treat amongst many.

Questions:

What is the Reverend’s sexual history?

What is Harriet’s sexuality?
Not just hetero or otherwise, but where is she in the development of her own sexual identity? Has she been kissed before? Is she a virgin? How does/does she express her current sexuality.

Is Harriet queer?
Where does the Reverend think Harriet stands sexually?
What have Mom’s other friendships in life been like?
Will this happen to Sunshine next?
What is Reverend’s name? (Maybe it comes up and I just can’t remember). Who uses it? When?
When is the molestation about sex? When is it not?

Opinions:

I initially found myself wanting to ask what his history with molestation was, but what about the whole spectrum? Certain scenes (especially the new molestation scene re-writes, and I think the original) were peppered with certain language (“pretend I’m you’re father/older brother/older friend) etc. that make me wonder what only what his sexual history is, but how that has informed his construction of this new moral code? Perhaps the question I’m really asking is, “What is the Reverend’s sexual history and how has this shaped his current attitudes about what is and what is not sexually acceptable?

The more I think about your exercises, the scenework we did, and read over what has captured me about this process the most so far, I become more inclined to think that an explicit knowledge/charting of Harriet’s and Reverend’s sexuality, (and Mom’s? Dad’s? everyone’s?) desires and concerns might benefit the molestation scene and the rest of the play as a whole. I mean of course, explicit only in the mind of the play’s creators/artistic team, though that might potentially generate interesting material to dabble with elsewhere. Even if this is the only occurrence of molestation, I think mapping it out against the rest of the play’s sexual topography may be enlightening and allow us to understand this complicated home climate.

You have both done incredibly work and I’m excited to see where this play goes! Congratulations!