Mike Daisey accosted by Fascist Creeps Evidently Misidentified as Christians at A.R.T.

SECOND ADDENDUM 4/24/07: See this link from The Boston Globe, and my post above; I've chosen to leave everything else as is, because I *did* refer to the Christian Fascist movement.

ADDENDUM 4/24/07: a few people who don't know me (probably brought here via Josh Glenn's excellent Brainiac at The Boston Globe) have been visiting, and before I get buried under semi-literate hate mail, I should point out that I don't hate Christians, or think that all Christians are fascists. I am quite fond of riling my fellow progressives by saying that, like George Bush, Jesus is one of my favorite philosophers (check out Slavoj Zizek's The Puppet and The Dwarf, for more on why).

I've worked closely with Catholic and mainline Protestant activists as well, and think that the progressive strain in American Christianity gets short shrift from the media. But I also think that Christian Fascism is a very real, active, and dangerous movement in this country, and that it is wise to take Christ's advice on bringing not peace but a sword, and fighting them in the most ruthless and disrespectful ways that I can.

Also, even if not all of the people who left were creeps (I understand that some of them were kids who didn't have any power in the decision), clearly some of them are. So if you're still set on the hate mail, you should at least know where I stand.



"Last night's performance of INVINCIBLE SUMMER was disrupted when eighty seven members of a Christian group walked out of the show en masse, and chose to physically attack my work by pouring water on and destroying the original of the show outline.

I'm still dealing with all the ramifications, but here's what it felt like from my end: I am performing the show to a packed house, when suddenly the lights start coming up in the house as a flood of people start walking down the aisles--they looked like a flock of birds who'd been startled, the way they all moved so quickly, and at the same moment...it was shocking, to see them surging down the aisles. The show halted as they fled, and at this moment a member of their group strode up to the table, stood looking down on me and poured water all over the outline, drenching everything in a kind of anti-baptism."