Street Theater at Centrepointe Altering a Bankrupt System

North of CeNter WedNesday, september 9, 2009 Free take home aNd read Volume I, Issue 9 Street theater at CentrePointe Something finally goes up on the block…and then the Webbs take it down NoC News Desk citizens who’d just left: one carried a faces—presumably out of shame for the keep on the lookout, michael, and clipboard; one was dressed like a jani- heinous crime of hanging art on pub- heed the words of the street theater at 4:00 p.m. Friday, august 28, tor; one looked like a bellhop; and one lic property. troupe: no Facebook, no myspace, no a group of roughly 20 lexingtonians wore an orange polo and spoke uncer- orange-shirt gave this reporter twitter, no pretext for pre-meditated descended upon the empty down- tainly on his cell phone as he removed nothing substantive to report on the surveillance. sometimes good old fash- town block euphemistically known as the signs. Webb Companies’ behalf, though the ioned sixties ideas do work best. “the Future home of Centrepointe.” taking orange-shirt for the leader guess is they’d say that everything with they appeared in a flash, toting doz- of the group (the guy with the clipboard Centrepointe will be resolved “in the ens of colorful signs and ribbons to seemed to carry it for purely cosmetic next 60 to 90 days.” (that has been Manhattan Short attach to the northern section of fence reasons), this reporter approached and their go-to statement for the past year.) strangling the block and facing main asked, “What’s going on here?” It’s likely the demonstrators/ Film Festival at street. their actions were part of a “you tell me,” he answered. litterers/street actors are hatching Kentucky Theatre new street theater troop in lexington that combines art, politics, commu- By A.G. Greebs nity building, and just a whole mess of fun. this was their first performance, september 23 and 24 the a reclamation project that encour- manhattan short Film Festival returns aged YOUR participation by hanging to lexington, giving residents the rare pretty bits of cloth and personalized chance to enjoy what is arguably the messages for the public and the Webb most enjoyable part of any film festi- Companies LLC to see. val – the shorts. and like any true film It turned out to be a tame though festival, this is an event as much as a uplifting—and above all else fun— screening. first performance. most of the signs every year the festival sends out attached to the fence had positive a call for the most compelling short messages: “read a book,” “recycle,” NICK KIDD films of the year. this year, ten films “Gardening Is patriotic,” and “ride a have been selected, culled from 436 bike.” others reflected the contempt Webb Companies LLC workers remove signs from the fences surrounding the “Future Home entries from 36 countries. many citizens have toward the Webb of CentrePointe.” manhattan shorts takes the con- Companies’ languishing Centrepointe cept of a traditional film-festival and project and its destructive effect “you’re taking down some signs,” another plan to descend upon the stands it on its ear. rather than tying on the city block. these read “tear the reporter observed. block again soon, perhaps thinking its identity to a specific city, this festi- down this Fence,” “build something “yeah, just taking some litter of more permanent ways of voicing val happens all over the world. In the taxpayers Can use,” “reclaim,” and down,” he said as he removed the their dissatisfaction with what one course of one week, the same series of “as Inhabitants of this City We have “ride a bike” sign. “yep.” sign described as “the pit.” If so, ten short films will screen across five a right to decide What Goes HERE.” he then told the questioning it would make at least one observer continents. audience members then about twenty minutes after the reporter, who was merely doing his happy. as upstanding citizen michael vote on which film should win highest street theater congregation left, four job, that if “your friends” wanted the marchman, featured in this month’s honors, in what a previous finalist has Webb Companies LLC employees signs he and his cohorts were throwing “Notable Neighbors” section of Chevy called “the ultimate audience award.” arrived and removed all the signs and into trash bags, they were welcome to Chaser Magazine, observed, “It was the organizers of manhattan ribbons from the fence. this quartet come and reclaim them. but the guilty great, even if for only 20 minutes, to short are committed to making this embodied both a dramatic ideological litterers chose to watch the scene from re-appropriate the space. I hope this a truly global experience. there are and visual counterpoint to the playful a safe distance, preferring to hide their was just the start.” screenings in all fifty states, through- out most of europe and the soviet bloc and extending into the south- ern hemisphere to countries such as Altering a bankrupt system argentina and australia. Next year the festival is adding venues in africa. the Placing citizens at the heart of healthcare reform year after it’s moving to the ice stations of antarctica. By Beth Connors-Manke of July, with red, white, and blue rib- the crowd was critical but not like the venues, the shorts them- bons and bunting. signs proclaiming crazed. the most contentious moment selves are drawn from a wide range of If you’ve been paying attention “single payer because america Cares” came when a few audience members experience. an autobiography of an to coverage of the health care reform and “everybody In, Nobody out” questioned the financial viability of aIDS orphan in mozambique is jux- debate since Congress went on its advertised the political agenda. the reforms that would cheapen cost to taposed with a French animated short august recess, you may have come scene reminded me of the auxiliary, patients by limiting payment to doc- about a man who is forced to live 91 to the conclusion that, taken to the but no less potent, issues surrounding tors and hospitals. Fortunately, it centimeters from himself after a col- streets and to town hall meetings, the health care reform: 1) how any changes wasn’t much of a Wild West that morn- lision with a meteor. an australian issue has turned into a political Wild to economic structures in the u.s. gen- ing. overall, the message presented at film of a woman who discovers she West. False tales of death panels and erally get made over by manipulators the forum was that government already can mold her face like plastic minutes murmurs of socialism have been circu- of public opinion into a litmus test for plays an important role in our lives before an all important first date con- lated, scaring seniors and raising the american patriotism and 2) our end- and can improve upon health care by trasts with american themes of border hackles of Cold War baby boomers lessly contentious struggles over the providing a single payer system. It was tensions. ready to defend their way of life from balance between the collective com- a message that stressed our collective long term residents of lexington an age-old enemy. mon good and individualism. interest in health care and ultimately understand that one of the prices we so, despite all the talk during the forum presented the platform in our national government. pay for living here is a dearth of any real the 2008 presidential primaries from of kentuckians for single payer health independent cinema. the kentucky democrat and republican candidates Care via the PBS Frontline documen- America, the Private theatre makes a real and valiant effort, about the dire necessity of health care tary Sick Around the World, comments the “america’s hope: healthcare and in them we’re better served then reform, despite all the anecdotes pre- by richard dawahare, and a panel for all” forum demonstrated one most towns our size. but the reality of sented during the election about aver- discussion. the organization describes type of pro-nation stance, one that the world we live in dictates that films age citizens saddled with monstrous itself as “a coalition of individuals and valued the role of our government. like The Hurt Locker (which starred medical debt, despite the inauguration organizations working to pass HR 676, other versions of pro-nation senti- Guy pierce and ralf Fiennes, and was of the democratic candidate, despite the united states National health ments exist, of course. another one directed by James Cameron’s ex-wife) a democratic Congress, health care Care act, legislation that will provide voiced in the current debate is sup- are considered independent, because reform may still go down the tubes. comprehensive, universal and afford- port for the private sector as the core they only got “limited release”. able coverage under a single payer, of the american way of life and its Which isn’t to say anything bad America, the Public nonprofit system.” HR 676, a bill also most treasured ideology. about Hurt Locker. I’m convinced that I wanted to see what kind of Wild called “the expanded and Improved one interesting example of this it deserves every academy award it will West could happen here in lexington, medicare for all act,” aims to reform type of pro-nation rhetoric can be doubtless receive. but the manhattan so I decided to go the august 29 the health care system by implement- found in david kirkpatrick’s august short is a different breed altogether, “america’s hope: healthcare for ing a “publicly financed, privately 27 article “some Catholic bishops because short films, by their very all” forum sponsored by the Central delivered health care program that uses assail health plan” in the New york nature, are what actual independent kentucky Chapter of kentuckians for the already existing medicare program times.

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