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Matthew Freeman is a Brooklyn based playwright with a BFA from Emerson College. His plays include THE DEATH OF KING ARTHUR, REASONS FOR MOVING, THE GREAT ESCAPE, THE AMERICANS, THE WHITE SWALLOW, AN INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR, THE MOST WONDERFUL LOVE, WHEN IS A CLOCK, GLEE CLUB, THAT OLD SOFT SHOE and BRANDYWINE DISTILLERY FIRE. He served as Assistant Producer and Senior Writer for the live webcast from Times Square on New Year's Eve 2010-2012. As a freelance writer, he has contributed to Gamespy, Premiere, Complex Magazine, Maxim Online, and MTV Magazine. His plays have been published by Playscripts, Inc., New York Theatre Experience, and Samuel French.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Mike Daisey's Night to Remember

Holy Balls. Pun Intended.

UPDATED:

Irony Department. The cowardly "protestors" who screwed with Mike Daisey have, instead, spread a lot of love around for the man. I'll bet you any money that his future performances won't have much trouble selling out. Perhaps because of the actions of these few, next time, they won't be able to score so many seats.

UPDATED YET AGAIN:

Looks like I spoke too soon. Just when it looked like Blogs were a monolithic collection of do-gooders, Garrett Eisler has to launch into an independent opinion of the event. And here as well. Note the links at the bottom of his post for more discussion on it.

Personally, I think that Mr. Daisey's response was pretty much the only right one he could have. I get a little wary of the view that the only response to right-wing nutjobs is to calmly rise above it. Sometimes, people are cowards and should be called cowards. Sometimes we are insulted and its perfectly reasonable to say "I am offended by your childish behavior." If anything, he kept his cool. He didn't, for example, throw stuff at them.

Now...do I think this single event represents some larger sign that there is a world of conspiratorial "Christians" that are looking to Censor the work of various artists? No. From this distance (and I know absolutely nothing, of course) it looks like a pack of people with nothing better to do, who felt like they could make a statement about...cursing. Or something.

I'd really like to know... what is it that they were protesting? Did they just THINK he was Eric Bogosian?

I'd love it if someone involved in the protest would, anonymously or otherwise, e-mail Mike or Playgoer or me or any Blogger, or even the mainstream press, and just let us know what they heck you were thinking. I'd be truly curious, more than anything, to find out what you were trying to say.

YET ANOTHER ANOTHER UPDATE:

Playgoer states his case here. Interesting read. Personally, again, I feel like Daisey is absolutely entitled to his response, as he was the one treated disrespectfully. I do agree that this isn't a censorship issue (as yet) but it is disturbing.

1 comment:

Jigsaw said...

I just headed over to your blog to find your email to make sure you had seen this. And you had. So... my job is done?

Yeah. Honestly, this makes me really want to do a one man show. Don't know why that is.