Amy Abrigo

February 26, 2020

Initial Response*

Play: Sometimes the Rain, Sometimes the Sea

By Julia Izumi

*This document is meant to be a spring board for conversation between the Dramaturge and
playwright (in this situation of our reading workshop) and/or director. Clarification questions are
welcomed and encouraged. Please note this was written after I first read the play individually.

1. Positives - Elements in the play to which I responded strongly.

•
o I love that from the first page of the cast list, Julia tells us this is not realism, so
my heart and mind were open for the magical adventure ahead.
•
o “Where rain clouds fall in love with humans” (1)
o “A rain cloud was formed with a soul” – Voice (Dolan) (2)
o “This small human is raining from her face. And I thought maybe she was a rain
cloud who had managed to become human” – Rain Cloud (42)
§ “That’s the human rain. It waters our hearts.” – Ralmond (42)
o The screaming match love scene between Edvard and Ina (34).
o “Because you are here” – Midi to Rain Cloud (69)
o “You are so loved” – Rain Cloud to Bessie’s corpse (69)
o “You love like water flows. And I love like grass grows” – Midi (72)

• Word
o “I have a cowfriend” – Rain Cloud (5)
o “Okay, little rain human person” – Midi (49)
o “I hate the mountains. They’re just giant land wrinkles.” – Little One (58)

• Jedi Tricks
o “He waves his hands around as if he is doing magic” (16)
o “You. Are. Forgetting. Now it is forgotten.” – Dolan (16)

•
o “~contemporary~” – Dolan (16)
o “It’s a fair question!!!!!!!!!!!” – Dolan (34)

•
o “mature non-sex novels” – Dolan (17)
o “based on nothing except my incredible imagination” – Dolan (23)
o “Love, Rain Cloud (That’s Me)” – Rain Cloud (25)

•
o “You get to see me do A quick change” – Dolan (29)

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o “I’m a very good actor” – Dolan (29)
o “What translation is this?” – Midi (45)
o “The gun is what killed me. Just want to make that clear.” – Bessie (68)
o “Okay. Well. Um. It is. I wrote you. And you are in love.” – Dolan (32)

• Empowered Individuals Whose Stories Are Normally For Them

o “we have our own voice” – Bessie (41)
o “I have my own life outside your imagination” – Bessie (66)
o Bessie’s prologue to her own death scene (67).
o “Why do bluebirds talk to fairies? Why do mermaids sing? Why does anyone fall
in love?” – Little One (73)

•
o “I mean, what is reality anyway?” – Rain Cloud (47)

2. Challenges
• Dolan and Little One’s Relationship in 2020 at a Catholic University
o It helps that platonic love is introduced before this with Bessie and Rain Cloud
(67).
• “RAIN CLOUD falls into RALMOND’S arms” (3)
o Staging-wise this might prove challenging.
o Thankfully, we don’t have to worry about this for our reading.
• “Something changes” (28)
o These shifts might be confusing, especially the first time, but it simultaneously
makes the audience feel the same confusion Dolan is experiencing.

3. Questions
• Wonder:
o Do we ever get an answer to what the shoelace means?
§ “I love her because . . . a shoelace . . . a frying pan . . . a tidal wave . . . an
aftershave” – Ralmond (26)
§ “Why don’t I still get it?” – Rain Cloud (50)
o What is the end of the show hoping to say? Are they all trying to tell Hans he was
loved or is he just selfish and being dramatic?
§ “I get it. You’re all trying to tell me that I was loved.” – Hans (70)
§ Was he really loved?
• Logistics:
o Are lines in parenthesis and smaller font spoken?
o Does the actor playing Rain Cloud sing “a siren song” live or does maybe another
actor like Ina or Little One, or is this a recorded thing? (Production choice?
Which is the best for the storytelling we want to tell?)
o Where did the pillow come from? Actual pillow? Metaphorical pillow?
§ “Scream into the pillow, hun . . . She does” (59)
o “Everyone gasps” (67)
§ As in . . . Everyone?
§ “Everyone does” (69)

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• Clarifications:
o Why are there so many trashed umbrellas (17)? Is it because the storm is so bad,
and people buy terribly cheap umbrellas? Sometihng Something Environmental
Capitalism? Waste?
o Am I correct in assuming Edvard and Hans have a little something going’ on?
§ “he never visits anymore” – Little One (64)
• Characters:
o Does Midi really care about the Earth (18)? Is she’s caught up in the capitalism of
saving the planet, or does she see the investment as a better way to save the Earth
(as opposed to trying to seek profits out of sustainability)?
o Why does Midi really hate the rain (56)? Is it only because of what she says or is
there a specific story or experience hidden behind that?

4. Crack/Thread - My way into the play

• The Rise of the Social Justice Warrior: The Force Awakens
o Midi
• Being of Mixed Race – I identify as Mexican American though I appear white. My entire
family is Mexican American but my mother was artificially inseminated and my father
was a tall white man with blonde hair and blue eyes. I was referred to as guedita or “the
white girl” growing up in a Hispanic household.
o “You’re not a fish, and you’re not a human. You’re a mix of both and also
neither. But the sea is meant for fish, and you don’t feel like you fit in there . . .
the land is meant for humans. And no matter how you change to fit in . . . deep
down you’re still . . . only half-human.” – Ralmond (20)
• Problematic Expectation of Soulmates
o “Why can’t someone love and see and hold me and only me for the rest of my
life?” – Hans (65)

5. Audio and Visual Moments

• Sight
o “Translations of BESSIE’s text are somehow communicated to the audience” (7)
o Ralmond’s proposal (36)
o “RAIN CLOUD is crying” (69)
o “And in place of Bessie’s body is a beautiful patch of grass and dandelions” –
Little One (72).
§ This could be a fun improvisation visually.
o “HANS jumps into the water” (73)
• Touch
o Rule: “Dolan cannot physically touch any of his characters . . . his characters have
the ability to touch him, and when they do it feels like water and knives” (1)
o “RAIN CLOUD falls into RALMOND’S arms” (3)
o “RALMOND and RAIN CLOUD really kiss. At that same moment, DOLAN
drinks the wine . . . Ralmond is drowning. Rain Cloud breathes for the first time”
(43).
o “This is her first real human touch.” (54)
• Sound

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o “a siren song, an aria, It is so beautiful, so present, so penetrating, that it shakes
the world” (25)
o “BESSIE snatches the book and runs away mooing” – Dolan (41)
o “the cast could tell their own love story . . . DOLAN/HANS . . . covers his ears
and starts convulsing” (62)
• Dance
o “And when I say jig, I don’t mean a mid-16th century British folkdance. I mean a
casually choreographed dance of jubilation set to pop music” (74)

6. Concretes - Specific objects or special effects crucial to the play's actions, characters or
world. More than just props, these are ways in which the play makes meaning.
• Hans’ story book
o “Who’s been doodling in my storybook?!” – Dolan (33)
• Thunder as a Device
o Dolan uses to display control and/or transitions
o Later in the play, I felt thunder was associated with loneliness because Dolan is
often found again after the thunder to be alone.
• Water. Water, everywhere (36)
o Rain/sea/tears/rebirth/baptism/cleansing/purifying/purging/overwhelming cosmic
force/basic human need
o “Why do you keep invalidating my love for people? You think I enjoy feeling my
heart drowning with every corner I turn?” – Hans (65)

7. Echoes, Repetitions, Returnings –

• Language/Translations
o Bessie (7) and Dolan (52)
• Those Beautiful People (Not Me)
o “who those strange but very beautiful people were” – Dolan (16)
o “very handsome but cocky Prince character” – Dolan (22)
o “You can’t, you adorable acorn.” – Dolan to Rain Cloud as Bessie (30)
o “you stunning snickerdoodle” – Dolan to Midi (37)
• “I am a Rain Cloud” – Rain Cloud (4)
o “I am a rain cloud!” – Ralmond (68)

8. Summary (WTPN) - Why This Play Now?

• Losing control of your own narrative, especially when others (often news outlets or
politicians or film stereotypes) are writing it for you.
• Feeling out of place, feeling half-human, lack of belonging:
o Universally:
§ Race
§ Gender Binary
§ Spectrum of Sexuality
§ Political Affiliation
o Villanova University specifically:
§ Living in Your 20s - Lost in Transition
§ Lacking a “Home” / place of belonging

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§
Imposters’ syndrome
• Academically
• Religion (being at a Catholic University)
o Current Event: Coronavirus spreading fear against Asian populations

9. Confusions
• “Omg did I say moo? I totally meant woo. My bad” – Bessie (8): When I first read this
line, I thought Bessie meant woo like Woohoo! Not like to woo.
• Rule: “Dolan cannot physically touch any of his characters . . . his characters have the
ability to touch him, and when they do it feels like water and knives” (1)
o Didn’t see any specific moments in the text outlined, but this is something I look
forward to playing with in a full production.
• Ina’s biggest fear being drowning (15). Is she supposed to be almost drowning when she
saves Edvard on p21?
• P65 – Not quite sure what’s happening from “They sound like they’re written to the same
person” through “Sleep well” (65). My understanding is Edvard is revealing that Hans
love is all for one person, Edvard, and that Hans is gay or at least bi or pan-sexual?

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