Love, Candy/Final Session

First of all, great job Erica and Jenny—it’s been a pleasure to be part of the development process for this play! Once again, because of the nature of your final session, I’m not sure that the final affirmation/question/opinion structure is necessary, so I shall just meander through and provide feedback as it comes to me!

I really enjoyed this final activity—I hope it proves to be as fruitful for you in developing the script as it seemed to be in class. As soon as you described the activity, I remembered what Debbie Saivetz said during your previous in-class session—she mentioned the presence of the “theory voice” that emerged in some sections of the play as perhaps another character all together. I thought about that throughout yesterday’s activities (I was expecting to find “theory voice” as the other voice we were “supposed” to separate)—and when I found other voices instead, I began to wonder who all of the voices are. If I remember correctly, the characters lines are divided in the script as male ensemble/female ensemble, not as Nurse (female) or Hippy (male) or what have you. I’m wondering if creating a list of these characters/other voices and THEN discovering the gender balance might be helpful I love the idea of them functioning as a chorus, an ever present gender spectrum that frames, organizes, and sometimes interrupts Candy’s narrative—and this was incredibly clear, even in the staged reading at New Works—delicious.

So two questions here include:

Who are all of these voices?

How are they gendered? (some of these are specific/explicit…but some not. Why is the nurse female? What might it look like if Candy’s mother was played by a drag queen, whose gender is never commented upon.)

How can the male and female ensemble members on either side of Candy both be “opposite” of one another and create a spectrum?

Is the entrance of the female ensemble member a direct reaction to the male ensemble member who just had his “scene?”

What is the chorus doing for the play when they are onstage but not interacting with Candy directly?

Maybe this is taking the structure of affirmation/question/opinion…

I don’t remember what was done with the “theory” voice during New Works—but I’m wondering if that might come in the form of the existential nurse? At least in the context of what my group produced yesterday, the theory lines might fit well/resonate well with the other lines that were stolen from Candy and reassigned to the nurse.

Also, along the same lines with George what George mentioned in class—so much of this play is about the power of celebrity, but I’m not sure that I ever learn the extent/see the extent to which Candy achieved that status.

I can’t wait to see what comes next!