Chicago Tribune: An audience disruption took place at the Saturday evening production of "Hamilton" at the PrivateBank Theatre in downtown Chicago.
According to audience member Brea Hayes of Batavia, who was at the performance, an audience member seated in the front of the balcony shouted profanities and election-related political statements after the cast sang the line, "Immigrants / We get the job done," which is part of the show's "Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)" number.
That lyric is among the most overtly political references in the show and generally gets a big reaction from the audience.
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As an theater person, I am all for audiences expressing their feelings during shows, whether that be laughing, crying, or gasping, but what really grinds my gears is when people go our of their way to disrupt the art. It's one thing to disagree with the art. I mean, I've scoffed my way through many a show. But here's the thing: you have to be mindful of the people around you. Yes, please engage with the art that is happening in front of you. Please have visceral emotional reactions to it. But please do not ruin the theatrical experience for everyone else. I also want to bring up that this wasn't even the same production of Hamilton that the inciting incident took place at. When you pull this kind of stunt in the theater, you're not only being rude, you're just being a crappy person. Without a doubt in my mind, these patrons paid good money to see this show, they did not come to see some drunk guy spew out whatever he thought was important. I'm glad he got kicked out.
Now we start to see the influence of Trump's America in our field, and the consequences are scary. Interruptions in the middle of performances are nothing new, but often they end up being farcical (the phone-charging incident at hand to god), but this is one coming from a place of hate, meant specifically to derail the performance. Hamilton is a show about the American spirit, built around the idea of diversity and inclusivity, showing that America could not be the country it is without the help of immigrants. Trump, a man elected on a platform of hate and fear, is trying to limit immigration and return America to the isolationist philosophies that ran rampant 100 years ago after World War 1. The man in question appeared to be intoxicated and continued to hurl insults throughout the entire production, including screaming "We Won" at the end of the production. In that statement is all the sound and the fury that has come out of this election. These people who supported Trump feel like their xenophobic, privileged views have been validated in the most significant way possible, and that is scary. The cast handled it with grace and tact, continuing to perform. At the end of the day, that is all we as artists can do. Continue to perform, share our art with the world, and if it makes people angry, it means we're starting a conversation, which is always a good thing.
I think that it is terrible how people disrupt theatrical performances. Hamilton has always had a political, pro-immigrant and diversity message; nothing has changed in the show since the election. So it made it that much more disrespectful to interrupt the show; that is something that we, as theatre artists, know very well. I think that it is okay to have differing opinions than what is shown on stage, but please discuss it in a polite manner that doesn’t discount the hard work the cast and crew of Hamilton has put into the show. Also, no one was saying that Trump did not win. The cast of New York City Hamilton purely asked Mike Pence to represent all of America, basically to do his job as Vice President. I hope that these occurrences will stop in the near future, but seeing how the Trump Administration is turning out, it seems like we will have more of these articles in the future.
As sad as it is, this was to be expected. One could argue that if the cast can do it in New York, than and audience member can do it in Chicago. Now here’s the thing, its totally different for many reasons, 2 of which are most prevalent. First, an audience goes to the theater to look and listen, not to speak. Sure there are immersive theater pieces that do that differently, but not this theater experience. Second, the Hamilton cast presented their message to Vice President Elect Pence after the show as to not interrupt the story telling. This outbreak was a major draw from the onstage action and was done inappropriately. I wonder if the cast keeping on with the show was the right choice though. On one hand you do not want this man to dictate how the show runs, but on the other hand, this was a major distraction that probably pulled people from the story and they paid to see the whole thing.
Without regard for weather to not the cast of Hamilton should or should not have singled out Mike Pence at the show, they could not have done a better job of it. They could have garnered support as it is if they had been vulgar and booed him from the stage, but what the did was far more effective than that. No one but Donald Trump himself, who is I assuming hoping that all of his supporters did not watch the actual video of what the cast did, could call what they did harassment. If the statement “When they go low, we go high” was a tagline for the Hillary campaign, this act was actually the embodiment of that philosophy. A particularly effective way of making someone look like a monster is to say “We are scared, please help us” and wait for them to attack you back. Although we all want Trump to grow up, his response could not have been better for garnering support from those that didn’t vote for him, and unfortunately perfect at garnering support for him from those that did.
Interesting that who I can only assume is a trump supporter chose to have this outburst at one of the regular shows of Hamilton, which was written even before everyone started to realize that Trumps run for the presidency wasn’t a joke. There are so many more provocative place that he could have had his outburst. That being said, I cant really put any extra blame on him than I could any other person who disturbs me watching a show. People are always free to express their opinions, not always free of the consequences though. If all of the performances of Hamilton have now decided to be a public protest of Trump, that is certainly up to them, and it is certainly up to Trump supporters to boycott the show and protest it. As a liberal, its very easy for me to say “well, that guy was being a asshole, so they threw him out, no problem.” But it cuts both ways, what about all of the democrats thrown out of Trump rallies, was it not their right to lodge their civilly disobedient complaint? More or less regardless of your creed, being an asshole will not be looked well upon, it is important that you decide what is important enough to be an asshole about.
Gotta love drunk racists getting up and hollering at the stage during a show. Though, I have to say, I prefer this kind that make themselves known by their loud calls rather than the kind that snicker together quietly to their bigoted comments. At least with the former they cause enough disruption that they get thrown out and cease to ruin peoples nights, with the other kind they can continue their offense as long as they please. I was at a Steelers game a few years ago where two drunk assholes (thankfully rooting for the other team) were sitting within earshot. Trough out the game they were trading racist comments with each other about African American players on the field. In front of them sat a mixed race couple, a white woman and a black man. The woman was incensed visibly, and kept shooting nasty looks at the bigots. The man, however, while he looked unhappy he didn't turn nor show any reaction to their words. While watching this I realized that he must be so used to this, he knows reacting won't help at all, which was worse than it happening in that instance for me. Still, it was a relief to all of us when they took off early. I am aware how incredibly privileged I am, and I can't imagine having to tolerate such open hate. But if it is going to happen, I say let them be openly hateful so they can be reprimanded for their hate and sequestered for it.
Disruption in the theater is nothing new, and I can only imagine how much more disruptive people are going to start to be with the new president we have galavanting into the oval office. As much as it hurts me to say this I think if people have these horrible thoughts and want to yell them out during a performance of Hamilton we should let them. First off, I wouldn't go into a bar in rural Pennsylvania in a Hillary for President sweatshirt scream Hillary2016 and expect to do very well, and that is what these people are doing when they yell their derogatory or pro-trump things at Hamilton. You're gonna be vastly outnumbered in the theater if you are pro-Trump, and thats fine with me. Joe is right if these people have these horrible things in their head I would rather they scream them out and let me hear them, and have a conversation with them than let the thoughts stir and never say anything about it. That is what happened the past 8 years and look what we got stuck with. We have to have these hard conversations, we have to start forcing these people to hear our side and change some minds, it's the only way to make some change.
When Trump first won, his victory was surreal to me. The uprise of Hamilton and Trump's victory seems to be from two different worlds. It's moments like these that make the harsh reality sink in. It is just sad that someone is so hateful that he is willing to pay so much money to go to a show just to express his hatred. It is sad that there are so many ignorant people out there whose beliefs are now justified more than ever, and they are now not afraid to voice these beliefs. Theater (as well as other forms of art) are more important than ever - it is a primary way for us to communicate with, educate, and challenge these people. However, with people like the audience mentioned in this article who seems to be unwilling to listen, I'm not so sure what to do. All I know is we shouldn't back down when we encounter these people, especially in the middle of a performance. If we don't acknowledge or reprimand their actions, to them it means that these actions are acceptable and justified, so that's the least we can do.
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