Reflective Practitioner: Defensive?

I had a slightly offensive e-mail today from an interested student. When I first read it I felt hurt and indignant but on reflection have found it to be quite challenging. I wanted to share the e-mail with you in case anyone else wanted to offer up some thoughts on it:

Hi Joanna,

This project is quite unusual and the vagueness of the character who captures the main focus whilst not being physically present really allows for a massive amount of development of Her and those at Her party. However, I do not want to sound critical but the vagueness could lead to confusion on the part of the performers as they develop this project and its aspects, unless you want that to happen, which probably will. I'm not entirely sure if you want to be ambiguous with everyone about who She is and Her qualities but in order for this project to progress and develop into something at least slightly understandable, digestible to the minds of everyone or some of those involved, and to have a direction (not necessarily a set direction but one that will eventually lead to an end product, conclusion or some form of finality), you may perhaps want to give the wording a little more thought. I mean it is your idea and project, and if you aim to have everyone in the dark or slightly in the dark then by all means keep doing what you are doing.

Also, as I understand it, you want to achieve a final result, a pieced together puzzle that is a picture of Her, perhaps a different picture puzzle each time with different pieces. I know that if done in practise it would make more sense to me I'm sure yet if indeed you wish to create three possibly different images of Her, yourself and the performers would have to come up with entirely new things each time in order to keep it fresh, unless that is not your intent. What I'm trying to say is, in order to keep the project from appearing a tad stale and/or over rehearsed and monotonous, completely new aspects should be introduced each time or different things thrown in to not make the performance seem like six hours of the same performance put on three times, unless that is your intention.

Please do not misunderstand that I do not like your idea, it's very original and different, it reminds me of Beckett's 'Play', Sarah Kane's '4.48 Psychosis' as well as some of Pinter's works. What I am not clear on is where you want to go with it? What details and aspects will be provided to enable an image or Her to be created unless only the speeches, objects, questions, contents of the tapes, etc are to be the only things provided and it is purely left up to the performers and audience to form a picture and get to know Her in their own way? Please do not take what I've said the wrong way, I certainly would not like to lecture and instruct you on how you should conduct your work but I always feel it does not hurt to get feedback from different sources as after all, not everyone could comprehend your creation the same way as no one thinks alike. I'm sure that once things are put into practise that everything will become clearer and smoother to think about. Please don't think I’m trying to knock you down, it's just the lack of details that have been given that makes the project a tad perplexing to comprehend but I would love to be involved in any way I can. Please do not hesitate to contact me further and I look forward to hearing from you.

I am going to take a little time to consider my response but I think that in terms of my research and development I need to think of it as an opportunity to reflect upon my concept and sharpen up my theorisation of it too. I know that I am easily offended creatively-it is because when you push at the edges you always get resistance and aggression….you get so used to defending ‘reactions’ to the work that you have to remember not to just strike back but to try and be understanding and make a considered response. It is hard though when the work is so much a part of you….it can’t help but be personal.

I am going to my folks for a few days to discuss dresses with my wonderful seamstress Mother and to consult my props shed! I won’t be back until Monday morning and will have no access while I am there.