Carrie's Final Response to Feel the Bend

First, I'm sorry I couldn't attend the full read through after class (the class I TA for had a workshop with the Rude Mechs) so my comments pertain to the shape and content of the 2nd act as they were when read in class yesterday.

AFFIRMATIONS:/OBSERVATIONS
(As promised Michael!) Nice sense of closure/completion by focusing our attention back on your initial goals--the work that you both have done in class and with Leslie seems to have flowed in a smooth trajectory toward those goals. It was even nicer to hear Priscilla say that this was not so much a conscious effort but seemed to come right out of the work itself. I think I said in my first post that the strength of your collaboration seemed to come out of a really keen and acute listening to the play and letting it direct you, great work this semester!

It was lovely to see the play with actors--as I mentioned in class, just in watching John adjust the height of the music stand and watching Jon and Betty flow in and out of Anna's space helped me to understand Anna better and see the way that these different worlds and influences were washing over her and pulling at her.

The new structure of act 2 seems like a more aggressive and focused way to get into some of the big issues your play is grappling with. In the first few scenes the issue of commitment vs gender (as a way of making choices/loyalties/self-defining) was really popping for me--the repetition of "This is not about the sex/This is just sex" (which actually functions as a play on words--the physical act of sex vis a vis commitment, or the biological gender--maybe i'm reaching here) came out in the alternation of scenes between Anna and Carol, Anna and Betty, Anna and John.

The above is really heightened by the strap-on scene, where the strap on becomes the physical object that takes the place of the elephant in the room--the placement of this scene *really* worked for me

Its really funny that Carol is threatened initially by Anna's description of bi-sexuality (But I don't WANT to sleep with a woman!)

Betty is a much stronger character in this revision--I particularly attached to the lines: "I won't make it that easy for you" and "At least I know there is a guilty bone in your body." John seemed much more likeable and understandable/much less slick and sleezy--(I love it when he talks about Marie) the line where he and Anna are talking about love that is something along the lines of "you just put it somewhere so you can go on" is heartbreaking.

The theme that was really popping for me in the second half of the 2nd act was the integration of dreams/memories/reality--its lovely how these lines blur, that there are memories of dreams, dreams of memories, and that both memories and dreams seem to have a way of structuring reality. I'm not sure if this theme is dealt with in the first act but it really gave me a way in to the "logic" of the play and made me feel (as I said in class) that the play was reflecting in its structure Anna's inner logic and journey.

The mesh between the first half of Act 2 and the second seemed to be around the idea of accidents, fate, control: that we don't pick who we love and can't control it, whether or not Anna could/does control how the people she loves dies

QUESTIONS

-The idea of forgetting as part of Anna's project (that she could control what she remembers/holds onto) becomes a strong theme that connects the hair to the "black widow" idea--but I'm not sure I totally understand why Anna decides to keep the hair

-Is Anna also losing her hair as well as pulling it out? (I'm sorry if that's answered in Act 1)
-Does Anna really love Betty? When did she stop? (before Jon? after John?)
OPINIONS

What I really loved in this version was the shortness of the scenes, the realistic feel of the conversation/dialogue in contrast to the sort of magical realism quality of the world of the play--I felt pulled out of that by the first scene between Anna and Carol--Anna seems very preachy/didactic in this initial scene which makes me a) not like her as much and b)lose that great contrast between the very believable and real quality of each individual scene against the larger magical quality of the progression of the scenes

I'm not sure I agree about there being an evolution in Anna's "insanity" (again, I don't read her as crazy--but) her level of losing touch with reality seemed somewhat static to me, and the response of those around her (Anna you need to get help, you should see someone, you should talk to someone) also seemed a little repetitive. I think that where the hair cutting comes in is great and is one spot that really anchors this trajectory, but it might be worth tracking what we learn in each of the scenes that show Anna losing it, and how the responses of those around her change/escalate etc

I had a really strong image in my head while listening to this act of a bed in the middle of the stage with a sort of gauzy/blue fabric draped over it that could be lofted from underneath to sort of roll like the ocean and spread out accross the stage in the dream scenes/ocean scenes--I don't know if that is useful, but that is what I was seeing throughout

I have to agree with Erica N's really insightful comment about both how powerful the round robin is at the end and how strange it is that Carol is sitting on the side-lines during this amazingly powerful scene--I wonder if there is a way that she might have a right to enter into this round some way--if she has a larger stake or is pulled into the themes of this play in a personal way that might earn her a slot in this ensemble?