this is shit we should be doing

[missmagan]

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Does anyone know Augusto Boal's "invisible theatre"? He used it to point out injustices in society - one story he tells is of a class of students who wanted to draw attention to the widening gap between rich and poor. They went to a restaurant, and spread themselves at different tables like they didn't know each other. One of the actors ordered the most expensive steak on the menu, and when the check came, he remarked loudly that it was more expensive than he thought, and didn't have enough money. At this point the waiter is getting flustered, and people around the table are starting to watch. The actor then offered to work off the meal by trading his labor for it. He asked how much the dishwasher earned. The waiter was speechless, and this is when one of the actors seated at another table piped in and says something like "i had a friend who used to work here, and they make $7.00 an hour." the first actor and the others at his table gasped - "$7 an hour? is that it? it will take 7 hours to work off this meal?" and so on. they go on to inquire about the wages of the cook, gardner, etc. and at this point everyone in the restaurant was talking about how much people should make, and whether the wages were fair, etc. someone stepped in to pay the actor's bill, the whole thing was resolved, and the actors left without ever revealing that they had staged something.

Some people call it guerilla theatre,etc....if you were one of those obnoxious theatre kids like me who went to Denny's or Waffle House at 1:00 in the morning and staged dramatic fights or breakups for unwitting patrons, then you were doing invisible theatre. The idea is to shake people up a little bit and get them thinking, or laughing, or just feeling something in general. Please check out this group's (Improv Everywhere) other videos for examples. Anyway, whether it's for social justice or poetic justice or just to fuck with people....this could be fun. Let's start tossing out ideas for random, public, improvised acts, hrmmm? Here's mine:

There is a statue on the campus of Saint Louis University, which is my alma mater. It depicts an enormous Jesuit priest standing over a native american man who is knelt before him. the priest is holding up a cross like he's about to bitch slap the indian with it. so many people walk past that thing everyday and i really want to do something to bring attention to its absurdity. Maybe dress up like an indian tourist group and take pictures of it. maybe act out indians forcibly converting christians. any thoughts?

[missmagan]

ew. the video didn't work. try this link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwMj3PJDxuo

[thestevenvance]

There's an interesting question of how over the top you go. On the one hand, the point is to draw attention to an issue and START a discussion, not to present a closed/finished/perfect dissertation. On the other hand, there's a decent chance that the tone you set for the discussion is the tone that the discussion will take. If you go overly simplistic or polarizing off the bat, there is a danger that no dialog goes on: instead those that agree say "yeah!" and those that don't say "no!" but beyond a pause to gawk they don't really engage.

As to the statue at SLU (which I don't know right off), I'd start by trying to be as nuanced as possible. Make it a now issue, not just a historical one. It seems that often this sort of thing works best when it (playfully) presents a compelling perspective that people normally overlook. I'd try to make it about the importance of supporting grassroots change, rather than imposing change (which is often done out of what people believe to be the best of intentions). So maybe I'd do something with several people just hanging out as (gross) stereotypes of Native Americans.

As to the larger issue...yeah, I'm down with that.

[Bill Chott]

My wife Vera used to do guerilla theatre like that in Germany, and it was very fun and controversial.

Another idea that might have wider-reaching effects is to use an attention-grabbing stunt like that to build audience for one of our benefits.

Then within shows you can express further and make more concrete points within the context of your work.

For example, using a stunt like that to promote the Christmas Jam to beneifit the hungry or to promote a Belly Jam to benefit Breast Cancer. That might build more goodwill and actually do something rather than just saying, "Lookit me and my statement."

Probably more people would get involved in the stunt if they knew it was benefiting a cause.

I'd love to help organize something like that

[thestevenvance]

Bill brings up a great point: whatever you do, don't go it alone. Maybe one can use performance to bring people to an academic discussion that they wouldn't have gone to otherwise, where the points can be discussed in a different way. If people have a next step that they can plug in to, I think they'll often be more likely to engage.

That said, there's a part of me that wants the performance to be able to stand on it's on and not just be a means to some other end. Maybe that's the difference between "stunt" and "performance".

One thing to think about might be staging reverse protests. I know United for a Fair Economy has done some of this with estate tax issues. For example, get a group dressed in tuxedos and furs and protest against living wage.