Subject: 1st annual Wplace theatricals
Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2000 13:58:20 -0500
From: Marc Bousquet <m0bous01@athena.louisville.edu>
To: "WORKLIST@LISTSERV.LOUISVILLE.EDU" <WORKLIST@LISTSERV.LOUISVILLE.EDU>

Had an idea following out of the Labor Heritage project announcement
over on the mlg list. Actually, it's an old idea that we kicked around
in GSC but never did anything about.

How would you all feel if *Workplace* produced a "First Annual Holiday
Theatrical" at MLA 2000 in Washington, D.C.? All I have in mind is a
short skit or two, with one or two song parodies and limericks. We could
ask the Graduate Student Caucus to host the event at their cash bar (or
in the event they're not interested, seek out rad cauc/mlg/ minn review,
etc). Total of fifteen minutes, tops.

We might seek the sponsorship of CGEU (and through this coalition of
locals perhaps gain also the support of UAW, AFT, NEA, CWA, as well as
AAUP). By sponsorship, I just mean that they'd agreed to send members to
the event with literature and so forth, but if UAW wants to provide some
cash for flyers, stickers, and props--or buy hors d'oeurves for 200
people--we could let 'em.

Of course we'd advertise the event with a flyer and email campaign,
videotape the affair and let the press know. Workplace could store
Quicktime video of the event.

As for the details of producing the show itself, I'd be glad to serve as
producer, if no one else offers. If you all approve the idea, I'd
propose it to GSC and then contact CGEU and/or some of the more active
locals in that coalition, and then follow up with a call for scripts,
songs, limericks, and bits, and performers. We'd develop the program and
script online, but rehearse the production upon arrival in Washington.

Below,  a totally imaginary illustration of what the program might
distantly resemble:

Song to the Administration: You're So Lame (I Bet You Know This Song is
About You)

Bit: "The Dozens"

Enter twelve Graduate Students. They stand in a row before twelve
chairs.
Emcee (big wave): Welcome, Graduate Students.
Graduate Students (big wave): Hi, Emcee.
Emcee: Hey. How many of you will actually get the Ph.D?
(seven sit down)
Emcee: How many of you will get full-time jobs?
(three sit down)
Emcee: How many of you will get tenure track jobs?
(one of the two remaining sits down)
Emcee: How many of you will actually survive the tenure process?
(the one remaining holds up a poster with a large question mark on it)
etc.
....

Limerick: There once was a writing director named Miller/Gave his PTL a
teaching load that would kill 'er... etc.

Main Event.  "It's the Policy, Stupid!": A Five-Minute Tragicomical
Farce-Pantomime and Symbolical-Melodramatic Masque of Labor:

act one: Lear, a scholar of the old school, loves his work so much that
he hands administration of the kingdom to his three daughters, who
secretly plan to retire all of the noble old scholars and replace them
with their friends from the school of organization and management.
Cordelia, the old scholar's only true daughter, tries to do all of the
research by herself. Meanwhile, an army of bewitched zombies does all of
the teaching, and the three administrators loot the kingdom.

act two: Count GSC and  UAW try to free the zombies and rescue Cordelia
from taylorization, but the MLA and other Lords of Complacency invent a
spell called "market theory" so powerful that it keeps the Zombies
working harder and harder. Whenever one drops, two spring up to take her
place.  The early symptoms of zombification are identified, including a
strong belief that the "invisible hand" of someone else will dignify our
workplaces...

act three: Back in the GSC laboratories, a cure for market theory is
found. GSC activists discover that the "demand" for academic work is
entirely a matter of policy established by the administrators that now
rule the kingdom. If persons who hold the Ph.D. did the teaching, they
realize, there would be a vast sucking shortage of degree holders. They
create a spell which, if repeated often enough, and by enough people,
will banish the three sisters and raise the zombies from the dead: "It's
the policy, stupid!"
 etc.

Let me know what you think. Best, Marc