Speaking of free speech and all, have you guys heard what happened to Mike Daisey this past week? Watch the video (NSFW beacuse of his use of the F-bomb at the beginning). It's one of the most ballsy and good-humored recoveries from this sort of thing I've ever seen.
Mike Daisey was performing his monologue INVINCIBLE SUMMER at American Repertory Theatre on April 19th when the show was disrupted by eighty seven members of a Christian group who walked out of the show en masse to protest the content, and chose to physically attack the work by pouring water on and destroying the original of his show outline.
Just for good measure, to anyone who may be reading: FUCK. Throw some water on that if you dare.
(Thanks to Solonor for the heads-up.)
UPDATE: Apparently the group in question was not, in fact, a "Christian group" as such, even though the water-pourer identified himself that way. Anyway, Daisey' s update is here. This doesn't change how I feel about this, by the way. There's a way to deal with disapproval of a performance, and this was not it. If they were even slightly concerned about possible objectionable content (seriously people, who buys tickets to a Mike Daisey performance without expecting at least some pretty offensive stuff), all they would have had to do was contact the box or business office for a content sheet or consultation. Every theater I've ever worked for provides them to potential audience members on request, containing listings of objectionable language and plot material. Again, I say in his defense, FUCK. So there.
Comments (3)
What the??!
Posted by :: jozjozjoz :: | April 24, 2007 1:52 PM
Posted on April 24, 2007 13:52
My son was there
One thing most people are missing. It seems to me, Mr Mike Daisey, knew before he posted on youtube, who this group were and came from. In the info area of the clip It states 87 members of a Christian group. why?
I talk to him about this in messages ,he said he had posted before he knew who they were. It does not look that way to me . The one that puts the clips on youtube, are able to pull their clips, and repost, They can remove comments and block viewers from making a comment. Which he did to me.
Day of walk out 4-19-07
Talked with Cindy L. from the school and the man the poured water David 4-20-07 acording to news papers and his site.
Youtube shows posted 4-21-07.
Why? After reading much about Mr. Daisey and hid followers. I think I have the answer.
Seems as he forgave 1 and punished 86 others lets not count the other 11 adults just the 75 kids that were 14-17 years of age.
He heard there cries with their comments .
They were high school kids from s. California .there for choral competition.
To date 5-4-02 more info are shows Christian ,still. He said 4-21-07 is a repost .but he did not amend info
Posted by Jim | May 6, 2007 10:47 AM
Posted on May 6, 2007 10:47
Jim, the point you seem to be missing is that for whatever reason they did it, the group's behavior was completely inappropriate. If they have that strenuous an objection to content such as the use of the word "fuck" or the situation he describes with Paris Hilton, then that information is almost always freely available by request from the show's management or the theater's booking office. Furthermore, any responsible party booking show tickets for a group such as that should have, with even a simple Google search, been able ascertain before the purchase of the tickets that this type of content isn't unusual for a Mike Daisey monologue: they never should have bought the tickets in the first place.
His behavior after the incident is neither here nor there-- the fact remains that whatever he did afterward, it was merely a response to the behavior exhibited by the group that left the show, and particularly the gentleman that dumped the water on his script. Whether he knew what type of group it was or not, his performace would not have changed measurably.
My point is simply that given the reprehensible behavior of that person, he showed a remarkable amount of aplomb in being able to continue the show for the patrons that were still in attendance, giving by all accounts a pretty strong performance after he picked up where he left off.
Posted by Sassy | May 6, 2007 4:53 PM
Posted on May 6, 2007 16:53