I felt like I sort of knew what to expect walking into the theater because I had been working on different characters costumes and had a faint idea about the plot of the story. I was wrong. The story and the way the cast brought it to life was much more violent and personal then I had imagined. I also didn’t expect the characters to have such a deep history with one another before the play even started. The emotions that came up for me the most throughout the play were shock, uncomfortableness, surprise, and relatability. I found that the very beginning of the play felt forced and that the characters weren’t real, but when they started arguing I felt like they were really living in the play. The reactions to the pictures were interesting especially the sense of denial we felt from Tony. She didn’t want to believe that her father had anything to do with those pictures or racism. It showed a realistic perspective of the reactions people may have to finding out they were connected to the actions of the racists in the south.
I also found the children’s reactions to the pictures very interesting. They weren’t nearly as disgusted by them as the adults had been and Cassidy, the teenage girl, seemed more curious about how much they were worth then what they even meant. I wonder if this is because of ignorance or because they children are less connected to the past and feel like they can just ignore it. Also in relationship to our class, they talked about how there was a graveyard behind the back of the house and how the tombstones is what they were tripping over. And that there was also a slave graveyard down by the lake but how its hard to find because there are no markings for it. This relates directly back to our class and I found it interesting that the play write chose to include that specific detail.
Kayla Connelly
I love your comment and honesty, by saying your initial thoughts were wrong. I would like to add on about the feelings and reactions from the children in relation to the pictures. I don’t believe that it was ignorance or them wanting to ignore it, but I think as a child many things that are exposed to you yet you can’t determine wrong from right if no one has ever told you. Some of my personal experiences as a 13 year old girl, the things and examples my mom had to discuss with me, and how I felt based on the way society treated me, was completely different than someone else who lived during a different period of time or who’s background was different to mine. I believe that children these days are exposed to a lot more, a lot quicker than previous generations. As a result of this, and as seen in the play, parents feel rushed to have these uncomfortable conversations with their children and are scared to do so, because they never knew about certain things until they were older and/or in college. So, being exposed to something like this so early and never being told anything about it, you would automatically assume it was normal or wouldn’t want to simply guess what reaction you should have. Remember, when they found out, Tony didn’t seem bothered at all by the photos, she was only bothered at the fact that everyone thought they were her father’s. If they belonged to the neighbor down the street, she probably wouldn’t care or would react the same way the teenager did. On the other hand, the mother, Rachel, was very disturbed and even saw it appropriate to add on to the disgust by telling of another example where the father was being racist.
I would ask you, how do you think parents should teach their children to react to something like this, if you think they should teach them at all or let them have their own reaction and thoughts?