The Reverend Billy Project

Summary

Reverend Billy, the revivalist preacher created by performance artist Bill Talen, has attracted an international following as he has railed in white suit and clerical collar against the evils of excessive consumerism and corporate irresponsibility. In his early solo performances in Times Square he delivered sermons by megaphone against Starbucks and the Disney Store; as his message and popularity spread, he's been joined by a 35-member choir (The Life After Shopping Gospel Choir) and a 7-piece band. The group's acclaimed stage show and media appearances (including a major motion picture, What Would Jesus Buy?) have reached millions. The Reverend Billy Projectpresents texts and backstage accounts of recent performance-actions by Reverend Billy and the troupe's director, Savitri D, recounting their exploits on three continents in vivid narratives that are engaging, shrewdly analytical, and at times side-splittingly funny. We watch as the group plans invisible theater interventions in Starbucks, a mermaid hunger strike to thwart gentrification plans for Coney Island, and an extended effort to preserve the public nature of New York's Union Square. We follow them to an action camp in Iceland, a thwarted performance in Buenos Aires, a flop of a show redeemed by a successful impromptu demonstration in a Berlin shopping mall. As thoughtful as they are funny and inventive, Reverend Billy and Savitri D's story-essays bring to life a playful yet sincere new form of political theater. At a time when such direct activism is easily sneered at and dismissed, when political protest often feels pointless and demoralizing, and when much radical theater seems trapped in moribund forms, Reverend Billy proposes a new way of thinking through the relationship between commitment and performance.

Author Biography

Savitri D and Bill Talen are leaders of an activist performance community based in New York, the Church of Life After Shopping. Alisa Solomon is a theater scholar and critic. She is currently Director of the Arts and Culture Masters Program, Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University.

A Dedication to Shouting	p. 1
Introduction: A Theory of the Leisure Suit	p. 3
City of Angels: Banished, Convicted, and Free	p. 17
Northridge, Reseda Boulevard Starbucks	p. 17
On Trial in the Valley	p. 24
On Trial in the Jail	p. 33
New York and Barcelona: Ceremony in the Action	p. 47
The Precise Moment of ôI DO!ö	p. 48
Lick-a-lujah, Lamer-lujah	p. 55
Coney Island: The Mermaid in the Window	p. 63
Long Island: Police Theater of Hofstra	p. 81
Warm-up for Interruption	p. 81
Missed Cues, Stolen Script	p. 84
NYC, SF, and Alberta, Canada: Vicki's Dirty Secret	p. 95
NYC: Radicals in the Park	p. 110
A Shout from the Pavilion	p. 110
Union Square Campaign	p. 111
Sermon of the Wild Commons	p. 137
Iceland: Holding Back the Dam	p. 147
Action Camp	p. 147
Letter to Saving Iceland	p. 159
Berlin: Tear Down This Wall	p. 168
The Third Generation of Feeling Fine
Gute Nacht, Berlin	p. 177
Resurrection	p. 182
Kings and Thieves	p. 182
If I Can Dream	p. 190
Theater, Justice, and Holy Spirit: A Conversation with	p. 198
Benediction	p. 231
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