Saturday, May 26 marked the kick-off of OWS’ Disobedience Summer School, weekly trainings in preparation for Black Monday – the one year anniversary of the Occupy Movement. On the syllabus for the 26th was “invisible theater,” based on Boal’s “Theater of the Oppressed.” A theatrical form of sabotage, invisible theater hopes to convey its message by slowing down the operation of the antagonist’s machine with low-key disruption. Examples that came up during the introduction at Bryant Park were asking for a large sum of money at the bank window in nickels and dimes (because the banks are “nickel and diming” us); wiping the walls, windows, and counters with a rag (because the bank is dirty); and so on and so forth. Good in theory, but the proof is in the pudding. While Saturday may have been effective as training (and this is summer school), the immediate effect was perhaps counter to Occupy’s goals.
We walked to the Citibank on 42nd and 9th in “civilian mode,” or without chants, banners and the usual accoutrements of a march. The police kept us company along the way, but across the street from the bank, the group dissolved, and the police soon left to do whatever police do when they’re not marshalling protesters. About five or ten minutes later, the protesters started to filter into the bank and form a long line. This was at about 1:30 in the afternoon. Not many people, apparently, do their banking on beautiful Saturday afternoons. There were only a handful of customers and bank employees there, well outnumbered by the 20 or so Occupiers. Most of the theater that they did was so low-key that I couldn’t pick it up with my camera from across the room. Mostly it was for the benefit of the people around them – other Occupiers and the increasingly frustrated employees and customers, all of whom are part of the 99%. All the action seemed to accomplish immediately was to throw up a barrier between Occupy and the rest of the Commons. Hopefully it was at least educational for the protesters, and next week’s theater will be more effective.
You can check out my footage of the events here:
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