Student protest has ART upset
Celebrated storyteller Mike Daisey had barely begun his 90-minute monologue at the American Repertory Theatre when much of the audience stood up and walked out. One of the put-upon patrons even picked up a glass of water used as an on stage prop and poured it over Daisey’s papers. The problem? The posse, 87 students and staff visiting Thursday from Norco High School in Southern California, objected to Daisey’s dirty language. (They left during a particularly profane riff about Paris Hilton.) Daisey, who’s posted the episode on YouTube, invited the aggrieved audience members to talk to him, but they bolted. “None of you have the guts to stay here and talk to me,” said Daisey. “Saying [expletive] is the least racy thing I do, so I’m a little flabbergasted.” Daisey’s handwritten outline — he doesn’t work from a script — was soaked, but salvageable. “If a patron in an art museum objected to a painting and slashed it, we’d be clear that that’s a criminal act,” the ART’s artistic director, Gideon Lester, fumed yesterday. Seems the school group did inquire about the content of the show, called “Invincible Summer,” and was told it includes profanity and adult subject matter. They decided to buy tickets anyway. Daisey has since talked to Cindy Lee, Norco’s activities director, and received a halfhearted apology. “They keep saying it was a ‘security issue’ . . . They had to get their children out because of these words,” he said. “It’s ludicrous.” The show runs through Sunday.
Here’s some original reporting from the Boston Globe on the incident. Like my pal Hodgman, I apologize for spreading the rumor that it was a Christian school group. Turns out it was a *public* school group, which is even worse.