After the Fact

I've been reading about the incident with Mike Daisey with curious fascination. Hopefully, at this point, there's some type of closure. I've experienced something of a direct confrontation with an audience, and it isn't pleasant. Nothing as bad as pouring water on my work, but I will say that it does take some doing to "get over," even if the confrontation for me was small in hindsight.

I have seen Mike perform onstage. Back in my NYC days, the Playmeister took me to see his show 21 Dog Years. It was terrific, and I had a great time.

That said, I've kept quiet over the whole thing because I kept waiting things to sort themselves out. It's been my experience that when something flares up on the net, it's sometimes best to wait for more information. I also think that because our society values reaction without contemplation, now may be the best time to consider not only what happened but what it says about theater.

So here's a few things I'm thinking about today:

Juxtapose reactions to what happened and our discussions on why nobody cares about theater. Any conclusions?

Substitute any other religion for Christianity and fill in various sentences on blogs. What would it mean? How does it feel?

Also, if you work in theater and believe in a deity, do you feel alienated by the discussion? Does it make you feel like you don't belong?

I'm curious because there's a number of notable people who aren't taking part in the discussion. You can leave a comment or email me.

None of these questions are to imply that what happened to Mike was justified in any way. I didn't see the video because I've got slow dial-up, but I can only imagine the ugliness. I'm mostly interested in reaction to the discussion after the fact and what we all might learn about theater.

Thanks, and have a great day. Heh.

Comments

[Mac]

Hi Laura! Sorry I haven't commented for so long. I am reading you regularly.

I also held off on writing about the Daisey thing because so many things were unclear from his original post. My only substantive quarrel with Daisey's behavior is that I wish he hadn't just written "Christian group" with no elaboration on his first posting. I'm not a Christian myself, but I do dislike the automatic assumption on the part of secular liberal artists (among whom I number myself) that "the Christians" are out to get us with pitchforks or something. Based on everything that has come to light, it seems clear that nothing like that happened here.

[Al]

Laura --

I've been doing a lot of thinking about this incident. My knee-jerk reaction was anger, and I still think the group acted inappropriately for many reasons.

But I did read some interesting comments on a forum at tpsonline.org in which a poster opined (I'm paraphrasing) that the act was a compelling piece of theatre in and of itself. And you know what? It is. The "performance" is so alive and in the moment because, well, it is. As I watched it, I did wonder momentarily if it was a put on. That would be brilliant theatre. But therein lies the problem. The incident was not a performance. This was a disruption and attack on a performance. Perhaps in these days of reality TV that line blurs a bit.

I'm sure that the rest of Mike's show had an amazing energy - perhaps uncomfortable, uncertain energy, but energy nonetheless. It would be incredible to be able to get that kind of alienation and boundary-breaking into a theatrical piece, but how do you do it 8 shows a week? After a few shows (depending on reviews and word of mouth) the surprise is blown and it becomes shtick in stead of shock.

[Joshua James]

Mac, trust me, the Christians are out to get us, for real . . . I've been to their meetings, undercover . . . there's a list.

Unfortunately, there's a ways to go before they get to you or me . . . we are well below Ellen, Snoop Dog and Elmo.