Occupy #S17 Occupies the Night

A special thanks to all of our participating artists, both in New York and across the country, as well as everyone who was able to come out and see the show!

Monday night, we packed Joe’s Pub for Let Me Ascertain You: Occupy #S17- a night of monologues, punk rock, and democracy in honor of the Occupy Movement’s one year anniversary.

_{Jill Sobule, one of our musical guests, takes the stage to perform “We Want Our America Back”.}

The show was a lively and moving part of our Occupy Your Mind program, which seeks to archive the living history of the Occupy Movement. It tells the story of Occupy (thus far) through monologues derived from interviews with activists, occupiers, and many other people who have found themselves amid the Occupy Movement for one reason or another.  

But Monday night wasn’t just about our performance for #S17 - numerous other theatres and performers joined in the festivities in their own homages to the one year anniversary. Using the transcripts of interviews that we compiled, as well as their own original pieces, theatre groups and schools staged their own readings. 

Our participants were:

Kitchen Dog Theater in Dallas, TX
THE-TREE Institute in Portland, OR
HartBeat Ensemble in Hartford, CT
Theatre4 in New Haven, CT
Hartford Stage Company in Hartford, CT
Bated Breath Theatre Company in Hartford, CT
ARTFARM in Middletown, CT
Capital Classics Theatre Company in Hartford, CT
Jacques Lamarre in Hartford, CT
University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, OH
Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY
Emerson College in Boston, MA
Company One/Boston Center for the Arts in Boston, MA

Here are some pics from their performances:

University of Cincinnati students Garrett, Roderick and Trey read the parts of Will, Ian and Cliff in an original piece about three peers who got arrested the previous fall during Occupy Cincinnati.

Kitchen Dog Theater in Dallas, TX performing Maddy

From the event in Hartford, CT 
Tweeted by @lnlbee

The event flier for the Occupy #S17 festivities and performances in Hartford Connecticut.

Not only were shows happening all over the country, but we also had a live Twitter stream going during the event. Here are some of the awesome Tweets that were going out, which included descriptions of the events, plus quotes from the monologues:

From @Kitchen_Dog in Dallas, TX:

Not just monologues - photos by Dylan Hollingsworth will be on display tonight. Sneak peek here: http://ow.ly/dMwCP #S17Civs @Civilians

From @DannyBryck: 

.@Civilians #NoRoomForWishing contains >30 voices from Boston & NY- "Dennis"asks "Is this a movement about reform...or revolution?" #S17Civs

and  
"but you can't have free speech over there because you're gonna wreck the petunias!" #S17Civs @Civilians @company_one @centsqtheater

From @OccupyPdxAction (Tweeting for the TREE-Institute in Portland):

"A VOTAR LATINO TE ESTOY LLAMANDO" #s17civs #opdx #occupyportland #ows http://opdxlive.org

From @OccupyDallasCOS (Tweeting for Kitchen Dog):
"Capitalism is a game. You have to buy your way out of it. You have to buy your freedom." #s17civs

From ‏@CCMDrama:

@Civilians "A corporation is not a person. A corporation can't bleed, but if it could it would bleed money" #S17Civs

and

@Civilians "It was a thrill to be in the safety of the movement itself" #S17Civs

From @FireZia (Tweeting for Kitchen Dog):

"The most precious comodity we have as a country is our children's minds." @Kitchen_Dog #s17civs

From @hiiimeg (Tweeting for University of Cincinnati):

@Civilians #S17Civs "the political climate in this country was 100% changed by Oct. 16 from where it was Sept. 16" pic.twitter.com/j6Ht7oxg

From @culturecreate (Tweeting from the Hartford event):

"you're telling me that I can't occupy the park that you are occupying" #S17Civs

From ‏@hiiimeg (Tweeting for University of Cincinnati):

@civilians Had an audience member ask us to perform our pieces at Piatt Park: the park of Occupy Cincinnati!                   

Plus LOTS more!

But what really made the night a success wasn’t just the awesome performers, or the killer bands- it was the sense of community and empowerment that the night created for all who were involved. We were so glad that people came together across the country to bring attention to the many issues that the Occupy Movement is all about.

_{All of our performers hit the stage for one last song- Neil Diamond’s classic, “America”- and encouraged the audience to join in and rock out with them.}

CCM Drama tweeted at the end of the night, “What an amazing evening it was to be a part of #S17civs @civilians and share stories that effect and inform. #occupy.”

And if you’re bummed that you miss the show- not to worry! It will be up on The Civilians’ free podcast series Let Me Ascertain You on iTunes. 

Sneak-Peek of Occupy #S17

Let Me Ascertain You: Occupy #S17 is right around the corner! We have a really incredible lineup of performers and musicians for you (which you can see HERE). Our street team of interviewers has been hard at work talking to lots of new folks, and we can't wait to share their stories with you on Monday. Click HERE to get your tickets! And here is a sneak-peek of some of the interviews we'll be showcasing:

Brazilian theatre activist:

“On January 17th we started a campaign called Glamarchy. Which is Glamourous Anarchy. We, we love acronyms. And the whole idea was to experiment with, um, glitter bombing oppression… Glitter bombing is the art and science of (laughs) having a bunch of glitter in your hand or in a bag and when you see oppression, personal or impersonal, you just aim it and you glitter bomb.”

British former diplomat:

“When I went down to Zuccotti park I could almost feel the bankers looking down on us, laughing, thinking, you know, these guys are just, just, you know, they’re never going to change the way things are really done. So I always felt that Occupy needed to be about actually, practically, building better systems to replace what are very bad systems.”

Man from Shelter System:

“And I would see like, 5 million dollars in some sort of stock transfer and it just astounded me to think that I’m carrying all this money in my, you know, in this satchel and I was getting paid maybe $8.75 a hour to do it. ‘Why am I carrying this 5 million dollars and I’m, you know starving.’”

We have all our interviews available for you HERE (and we added a few more yesterday) if you want to read more! Plus, we have satellite shows of Occupy interviews happening across the country. Here's our list of incredible participants:

Kitchen Dog Theater in Dallas, TX
THE-TREE Institute in Portland, OR
HartBeat Ensemble in Hartford, CT
Theatre4 in New Haven, CT
Hartford Stage Company in Hartford, CT
Bated Breath Theatre Company in Hartford, CT
ARTFARM in Middletown, CT
Capital Classics Theatre Company in Hartford, CT
Jacques Lamarre in Hartford, CT
University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, OH
Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY
Emerson College in Boston, MA

Follow #S17Civs for updates and conversation that day!

Lastly, this cabaret is launching what we're calling our Autumn of Revolution, which also includes Paris Commune at ArtsEmerson and BAM. We want to know:

If you could change one thing in our country, what would it be? 

Share your responses in the comments!