Creative Dialogue: Laughing It Off December 1, 2008

Political humor and satire are the stuff of cable television, especially in an election year, and both forms have been used on stage for centuries as a way of airing opposing, unpopular or even dangerous ideas. How do performing artists use humor today? Can they go too far? Is there anything left to laugh at? Join members of 500 Clown for this lively conversation, including insights into 500 Clown and the Elephant Deal, premiering on December 11. Source materials for the piece include Rudyard Kipling’s Kim, Bertolt Brecht’s A Man’s a Man, the musical Hair and writings on the unprecedented gap between civilian and military life in the United States.

Joining them is master storyteller and author Mike Daisey, whose many monologues include How Theater Failed America, I Miss the Cold War, Great Men of Genius and 21 Dog Years. Daisey performed his If You See Something, Say Something at Woolly Mammoth Theatre this summer, and brings his sharp and politically charged perspective to the conversation.

Official Website: http://claricesmithcenter.umd.edu/2007/c/performances/performance?rowid=7882