Now, I’m all for free speech, it’s the absolute cornerstone upon which this great experiment in democracy is built, but in This Bit from the UK’s Telegraph, it seems that Anti-Bush supporters are protesting delegates going to Broadway plays.
A snip from the article…
A more immediate threat to delegates came in the form of a planned protest outside Broadway theatres last night, where activists have promised to picket and disrupt shows attended by the Republicans.
Now I gotta know, what kind of asshole do you have to be to protest people sightseeing? People that spend their own hard earned money to do things that they want to do, and because of their politics, you, asshole protestor, want to interfere. Well y’know what, just you fuck right off.
You are not, by any stretch of the imagination, engaging in meaningful political discourse, or peaceful protest. You’re harassing innocent people walking down the street. You’ve sunk to being discriminatory hate mongers, no better than what you claim to be against.
I’m all for protests, and freedom of speech, but come on, this is just stupid.
As an actor and a musician I hope someone makes it clear to these COMPLETE ASSHOLES that we don’t care who buys tickets we just want to have a paying audience to perform for, and we are happy to perform for ANYONE who helps pay our rent.
In fact, if we do find ourselves in a situation where we have strong ideological differences with people in the audience we are THRILLED to have a chance to express ourselves to them and are GRATEFUL that they take an interest in listening.
One of the things we love most about what we do is that much of our work transcends the petty differences that make it difficult for some of us to deal with each other in other areas.
Besides, ASSHOLES, Supreme Court precedent has established that Free Speech applies to the right to RECEIVE information as well as the right to express it. By hindering people from accessing a performance you are infringing upon their rights.
Republicans may be evil but Democrats are COMPLETE FUCKING IDIOTS. We REALLY need other options DESPERATELY!
P.S. DESPERATELY!
Not I. Though a safe assumption can be made that at the very least the protestors are anti-bush, which, makes them, almost, but not completely defacto dems. Not pinning the asshattery of these malcontents on the DNC or it’s constituency what-so-ever, just sayin, is all.
No-one’s denying that Democrats are involved in protests - the question was raised whether they were involved in the protests referred to in the OP. They may be but it doesn’t appear to be referenced in your link.
I think it’s a great tactic (not that I care one way or the other who gets elected, since it won’t affect me in the least). You have Republicans going to plays, so bring them your message outside the performance.
If the party brass really wanted to hide delegates from people who didn’t think like them, they shouldn’t have come to a city where they’re outnumbered by Democrats 5 to 1. Or to a city that gets short-changed in anti-terrorism funding.
Maybe New Yorkers are a little irritated that the party that has a long long history of bashing and insulting New York is now coming to town to smear 9/11 ashes all over it’s face and cry “why, why!?” I mean, they bitch about Hollywood and Broadway, and now they are trying to use Broadway as a backdrop?
My sunday paper described the measures that the RNC has taken with respect to theater. Apparently, they have bought blocks of tickets to the big, bland, baby-safe broadway shows, and pressured NYC into removing a gay revue (“Naked Boys Singing”) from their tourism website. Given this, I’m not so sure that it doesn’t make sense for lovers of the theater to pickets shows attended by Republican conventioneers.
Hmm, this weekend would’ve been the perfect time to add that cut scene from Wicked back in - the lesbian love scene between Elphaba and Glinda would have been perfect for these audiences!
As long as it’s not disruptive to the show inside, I see nothing wrong with protesting OUTSIDE. However, as a major theatre fanatic, if my show is disturbed due to protesting, you can be sure as hell I’m going to be pissed off. I don’t care if the protesters are Republican, Democrat, or Whig. Do NOT disrupt the show I’ve paid $45+ for, or you will get your ass handed to you on a platter. I do it all the time with regular patrons, I’m not afraid to take members of my own party to task as well. I wonder how many people who couldn’t care less about the RNC or the protesters have tickets to these shows as well.
I am quite annoyed that “Naked Boys Singing” was removed from the tourism website. Hello, it’s a fun show! They may be naked, but who gives a shit - they can sing!
OK, calm down. You should read more about the situation before you post about it. As nametag mentioned, the shows that the RNC delegates saw yesterday were handpicked as to not be “threatening” or even “enlightening” as to the rest of the world outside of Disney. (In fact, Disney and the New York Times paid for the tickets). Excluded were some of the season’s biggest hits, including Tony-winner for best Musical Avenue Q, which features gay characters, RENT, a pulitzer-Prize winning show that features AIDS, gay and homeless storylines, and WICKED, which was deemed anti-government!
If you are buying blocks of tickets for people you don’t know you should buy tickets to “tame” shows. You will be buying for people old and young , from the North, South, East and West. If you bought tickets to a more controversial play you’re an idiot. I wouldn’t mind going to see just about anything on broadway but I wouldn’t assume the same for my grandmother. Or your grandmother. Any tour going into New York will go to these same “tame” plays, before, during and after the convention. Its just good business. If someone wants to go to another play there are plenty available.
On my way home from work tonight, I passed by Phantom of the Opera (44th St.?) and there was the usual line of big-haired, brightly-clothed rubes outside. Just then a security guy dragged what must have been a Democrat protestor into the street and then escorted him to the end of the block.
Well, I’m not entirely sure where you’re getting your numbers, and I don’t have any to cite, but if that were true, it would seem like they’d not have elected 2 republican mayors, recently. Just sayin, is all.
So what? Not everyone goes in for cutting edge theater. Fact is, fewer people go in for the more cutting edge stuff than the blameless, tame crap you’re talking about. If Naked Boys Singing, RENT and Wicked were something that had mass appeal (i.e. disney crap) way more people would have seen them than have.
It’s just not something everyone can identify (or wants to identify) with. How is that wrong?
Why force people to see things they wouldn’t, if they choose not to? That’s just stupid, what’s more, it’s hurting the protestors cause, and by default, the dems.
Liberal, I would concur with your research. There are those that would demonstrate only to rouse the rabble, as it were, rather than to promote intelligent discourse on the state of the union. Unfortunately, you can’t tell the players without a scorecard, and it seems if left up to Mayor Bloombucks, those scorecards would be available at nyc.gov for 19.99.