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Sunday, January 12, 2003
I just spiffed up my page a little—thanks to M for her html tips! Now I’ve gotta try to up my posting rating so I can live down my once-a-month rep… Anyway, I’ve been thinking about Jack’s call for strategies of revolt against the Homeland Security Bill and have a couple of ideas. 1) Street theater—I think CAPGAS, with all our Aliens and Charades and degrees of affection training and the high proportion of screenwriters among our ranks, is well poised to do some great street theater in Seattle. We could do it straightforwardly or experiment with Invisible Theater, a “theater of the oppressed” technique developed by Brazilian activist Augusto Boal. His big thing is to turn the relation of actor-spectator (which he argues like the teacher-student or the ruler-ruled relation has a function of training people in passivity) into a more dynamic relationship of actor-“spect-actor”, in which those viewing a scenario become involved in it. Here’s how he describes it: “Invisible theater is theater; it must have a text with a scripted core, which will inevitably by modified, according to the circumstance, to suit the intervention of the spect-actors. The chosen subject must be an issue of burning importance, something known to be a matter of profound and genuine concern for the future spect-actors. From that starting point, a small play is constructed. The actors must play their parts as if they were playing in a traditional theater, for a traditional audience. However, when the play is ready it will be performed in a place which is not a theater and for an audience which is not an audience… [for example] in Argentina before the last elections, we started doing Invisible Theatre in trains and restaurants, in queues for shops, in markets.” Also-- “Invisible Theater almost always comes up against an important problem: safety. Invisible Theater offers scenes of fiction. But without the mitigating effects of the rites of conventional theater, this fiction becomes reality. Invisible theater is not realism, it is reality.” He gives lots of examples—here’s one done on a ferry boat in Sweden: 1st action: As the first move, a black woman actor takes a seat positioning herself strategically in a visible spot. An Italian man, a male office worker, and a female drunkard all sit or stand a little distance away. The drunkard (an excellent actor) was one of the first people on board. Can of beer in hand, she solemnly greets every passenger who enters. She chats amiably to some, provokes others, and generally outrages most with her behavior. 2nd action: The boat leaves. After a few moments, the Italian approaches the young black woman and asks her what she’s doing there; she a black girl, is sitting, and he a white man, is standing. Argument about racial rights. The angry black woman gets up and the Italian sits, he starts reading the Italian newspaper. The drunkard, who as witnessed the scene along with everyone else, approaches the Italian. 3rd action: The drunkard insists that the Italian get up and giver her his place, saying “you said this was a land for whites—fair enough, this is a land for whites, white Swedes; and you’re Italian. Get out of that seat.” Further discussion on countries of origin, races, and rights. Finally the Italian leaves. 4th action: The office worker approaches the drunkard. He insists that she get up and give him her place, because Swedish she may be, but she is also drunk and unproductive, and in his book, the priority for seated accommodation is not solely a question of race and nationality but also of class: he is white, Swedish, and a white-collar worker. General revolt. The cumulative effect was extraordinary. A crowd of people defended the Drunkard, all arguing at once, for and against relative differences in rights for different nationalities, races, or classes. 5th action: An actor pretends to convince the young black woman to return to her place. She refuses the ‘charity.’ Different actors seated around the place stand up to argue against prejudice, and each cites a reason: ‘I am standing up because I am Brazilian!’ ‘I am standing up because I am poor,’ etc. “The result was incredible and wonderful. Quite apart from the effectiveness of the discussion, it was amazing to see so many empty seats, vacated in token of protest, in spite of the fact that the boat was crowded and everyone was cramped.” I bet we can devise lots of invisible theater scenarios around the homeland security bill—e.g. creating a scene in the seattle public library about the people’s web usage being monitored, etc. What do you all think?? 2. Getting involved in the anti-police brutality struggles in Seattle. I think that the anti-homeland security and the anti-criminalization of communities of color fights are deeply connected, not in the least because they both give lie to the equation of enhanced state/police power=protection. I don’t know so much about the ins and outs of the movement in Seattle—I wish I had gotten more involved—but it seems very vibrant. |