Anna and I got to go to the Seattle Rep on Sunday afternoon for an outstanding performance by Mike Daisey. The one-man show, A People's History, is a cycle of 18 stand-alone monologues based on Mike Daisey's understanding of American History. He contrasts views from the traditional history book from how own high school experience to Howard Zinn's classic book A People's History of the United States. The monologue we watched yesterday was on the civil rights movement, and it gave us so much food for thought. He came on stage and sat at a desk as if he were a history teacher teaching in a classroom, and he talked on the subject for 1 hour and 50 minutes straight with all of us in the audience in the palm of his hand.
The artistic director of the show put it best in the program notes: "Watching Mike explore his historical education, political awakening, and feelings about America prompted me to consider my own experience and beliefs and positions. I find myself looking back on how I learned the history I assume to be true and acquired political values. This is one of the great achievements of Mike's art: he is a storyteller who inspires us to reconsider our own stories."
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