Handouts and Histrionics

Article I: Preamble

"So what I'd really like to talk about is a different kind of censorship; one having less to do with the direct suppression of ideas than, perhaps, a more insidious redirection of them."

"When all a man wants is set free to his hand,
what becomes of the law of supply and demand?
Cakes, barley loaves, chestnuts, warm clothes, wreaths, wine, fish,
blossom out of the air at his ripening wish...
why then should he cling to his ill-gotten gains?
Tell me why if you please? Those who take the most pains
to thieve money are those who already have most.
That has been so till now; but I make it my boast
that my scheme must destroy capitalistic morality.
Why cheat for a shadow? Here's free...the reality."

-Aristophanes, Women in Congress (translation by Jack Lindsay)

Hi! My name's phillip low. I'm the founder and producer of Maximum Verbosity, one of the countless theatre-less theatre groups roaming the countryside in search of artistic gratification and money. If you'll indulge me for a moment, I'd like to share the mission statement for the company:

The mission of Maximum Verbosity will be to stimulate questions; more specifically, to interpret old mythology through the lens of the new and, perhaps more importantly, to interpret our new mythology through the lens of the old, with an especial focus on the use of language to create myth. This approach implies a willingness to embrace creative anachronism and to explore issues of religion, spirituality, and politics across a wide variety of genres and disciplines. The troupe will function as a decentralized collective of individuals without relying on state recognition or support.

That last line is the one that, to the best of my knowledge, makes my company wholly unique in the upper Midwest: we are the only theatre company I know of that will neither pursue nor accept state support.

A while back I was invited to a Flag Day fundraiser, to speak to a libertarian group about the First Amendment, and why I think it's a good thing, and why you think it's a good thing, and why everyone thinks it's a good thing. After a few false starts, I kept hitting dead ends, I think because it's something of a straw man argument: I'm not aware of any recent credible attempt to oppose the First Amendment within our profession, or at least, not one that the vast majority of people take seriously. I mean, we all think it's a good thing, right? So what I'd really like to talk about is a different kind of censorship; one having less to do with the direct suppression of ideas than, perhaps, a more insidious redirection of them.