The improv kids have been following the Mike Daisey story, in which an esteemed monologist (I love monologists) purported to be the second-coming of Spalding Gray, faced an unprecedented and frightening protest in which a gaggle of high schoolers from the SoCal shit-town of Norco (you drive through it on your way to the quintuple-ivory-tower that is Claremont) loudly got up from their seats and thundered out of the theatre. But not only were they very rude but well within their rights to exit a performance, one of their chaperones (supposedly adult, though he could be around my age and still have a teenage kid) defaced Mike's handwritten notes by dumping a cup of water all over them. Not only did he do this, he apparently stared down Mike like some Hitler version of the Cheshire Cat while he poured.
The viral video of this event has been watched by thousands and performers and elitists like me are aghast and agog that such a horrendous act of vandalism occured on the American stage. I mean, what a fucking asshole. I'd be livid if that happened to me, during a performance or anywhere, and I salute Mr. Daisey for his decency in handling it all.
However, there is one small point that even makes me uncomfortable. Early reports of the incident stated that the group was a Christian group, and it was inferred that their act was intended to make some sort of Christian point. When it was learned that the group was from a public school, and that it was overheard that one of the angry mob had said something about being Christian, these statements of this being Christ-motivated were redacted.
I feel a bit uneasy that this giant assumption was made, that these were small-town Christian crusaders who traveled cross-country to purposely destroy a man's monologue about fucking Paris HIlton. I felt this reaction was just us liberal agnostic NPR types who enjoy The Theatre's reactionary response: whenever something anti-art happens, blame the Jesus Freaks.
Part of me says, this is how they want it. This is the other side of the culture war, the one where scaring me into becoming a Republican failed and now my enemy is the dimwitted Jesus Freak who thinks I'm going to hell because I like art and don't have a problem with two guys kissing. But it also seems unfair to equate Christian with Conservative, with Hater of the Arts, with Jackoff That Would Deface a Man's Creative Property.
In sum, it is not fair to dump every act of hatred on Christians, no matter how convenient. However, I don't think the artists are to blame for Christian reputation of smallmindedness and extreme adversity to teenagers hearing the F word.
Posted by Zerd at April 24, 2007 08:56 PM