Photos of Rachel Brooker and Kathryn Stein in My Patriot Act. Taken by Amelia Shull at Common Ground Theatre, Durham, NC, November 21, 2009.
Filmed excerpts of a work-in-progress showing of My Patriot Act at Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA, April 20, 2009. Download concept statement.
Bush in Bondage: a short dance film using material from Oh, Beautiful: My Patriot Act. Video by Chris King, concept and edit by Rachel Brooker.
photos by Scott Bolden/Chris King
You're supposed to stand behind a nation when it
suffers a misfortune of this magnitude, but here the "misfortune" is so
hard-wired into the American system, the American way of life, that
you'd be standing behind the problem, taking off your hat in honour of
the problem, remaining, for two minutes, silent about the problem while
the problem lays a floral wreath at the fresh grave of the problem.
-Nathan Fuhr/Momus
It's very comfortable to live in a rich country. You
can almost always find a nice public bathroom (at McDonald's). I
secretly enjoy being a rich American. For example, I have so many nice
shoes. Most of them were not made in the USA. Sometimes it's fun to
shop and buy a bunch of random stuff. Even poor people here have a fair
bit of stuff. Homeless people have stuff. In other countries sometimes
I've seen people who literally have almost nothing. So even
when we are poor we're kind of rich. It's weird. But despite
the guilt I confess to liking it. I don't want to give up being
comfortable, I just want other people to be warm and comfy and well fed
and have pretty shoes, too. I'm so shallow.
-Mary DeCoster, Rachel's Mom
Excerpts performed at Das Pumpwerk and Ladyfest Berlin, Studiobühne Ritterstraße, Freie Universität Berlin, 2007
Full length premiere: Brotfabrik, January 2009
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