Long before he knew Barack Obama would be the Democratic presidential nominee, local filmmaker Mitch Dickman knew the party’s convention here would be an anticlimactic and expensive orgy of spectacle and excess.
What he saw at the Greek-themed Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium on Aug. 29 only confirmed that.
“Walking in, I thought the convention was going to be a scam,” Dickman said, “and walking out, I thought it was a scam. I still have no idea what the purpose of it was.”
Dickman does have an idea that the media were complicit in the superfluousness he perceived, with certain networks more focused on promoting on-air personalities than exploring in-depth issues; others blatantly aggrandizing political agendas held by their corporate owners.
Everyone, he says, was in the business of show business.
During the Democrats’ four-day takeover of Denver, Dickman landed a legit interview with third-party presidential candidate Ralph Nader, who dismissed the convention and all its trappings as nothing more than “political theater.”
And that’s just what Dickman is turning it into. His Listen Productions is presenting “DNC Media- mockracy,” an original piece of live political theater culled from material it gleaned during convention week. A week actor William Hahn sums up as “a zillion dollars spent on spectacle to mesmerize the audience.”
Dickman dispatched actors who represented themselves as TV journalists and recorded all they encountered, including protests, police, delegates and celebrities. Hahn hatched the persona of comedy news anchor Richard Guy, who will draw inevitable comparisons to Stephen Colbert. Karen Slack became “Fax” News correspondent Piper Cummington, a viperous conservative talking head who landed a real interview with film star Rosario Dawson.
Slack went into the project “wanting to explore conservative media and their manipulation techniques,” she said. But the idea for Piper came when she saw a correspondent on CNN whose name was Poppy Harlow, “and she was just so . . . shiny,” Slack said. “I wanted to be just like her.”
Some of the footage will be incorporated into the play they will perform.
Their challenge was not simply to hold the political process, or the media, up for mockery, they say. The title, Dickman insists, simply mingles the words “media” and “democracy” — though an inquiry into the inclusion of the letter “k” draws only a wry grin.
While “Mediamockracy” will be comic in spots, the overall artistic purpose is to ask big, ponderous questions, such as: How does the relationship between politics and the media affect the American people and our democracy? Has the conglomeration of huge parent media companies, and the subsequent blurring of TV news and entertainment divisions, eroded the public’s trust in the media?
And with a once-a-century convention taking place right here in Denver, the team also saw fit to ask: Have the conventions outlived their usefulness? Is it right for the federal government to be paying $50 million for security at both?
“Listen, even my dogs were moved by Obama’s speech,” said Hahn. “But we’re talking about the people who are supposed to lead us down the path to the future of this country. Does that mean that their priority at this time is a party? Or is it the people? I think that’s up for discussion.”
“Mediamockracy” takes that notion of discussion literally. Plays (story continues below)
often include talkbacks — postshow gabfests during which audiences question and comment on what they just saw. At “Mediamockracy,” the talkback is not singular, it’s not “post” — and it’s not optional. Three times, the action of the play will stop, and cast member GerRee Hinshaw will lead discussions about the issues the play has raised.
“The thing I will be most in danger of every night is crying,” Hinshaw said, “because I feel overwhelmed, as a person and as an American, right now. And at that point in the show, I’m not a character — I’m me. And I am an extension of you, so I am going to ask us to have conversations that I know we all want to have.”
Engaging the audience
And one of the key questions she will raise with audiences: “What is your personal responsibility in all of this?”
The idea for “Mediamockracy” came when Dickman was attending a screening of the Nader documentary, “An Unreasonable Man.” Afterward, a Denver politician stood up and repeatedly blamed the media for Nader’s failure.
“But then it was suggested that the media is just a representation of the people, and that really stuck with me,” Dickman said. It’s easy to point the finger at the media — but they just give us what we want.”
The media make for an enormous target, one that includes everyone from Fox News president Roger Ailes to your local theater critic.
“But I don’t think our play is about exposing ‘the media,’ ” Hinshaw said. “It’s about peeling back a very big, smelly onion that’s not any one thing.”
Still, “Mediamockracy” primarily targets networks, many reduced to pawns in major media mergers like Viacom/CBS. And when the entertainment divisions of those networks start offering hundreds of hours of degrading but highly rated reality programming hosted by presumed legit journalists like Julie Chen, Slack said, who’s to blame for blurred perceptions? And who’s to blame for demand? The network that airs it, or the public that watches it?
“If people didn’t want to see Britney Spears’ panties, or lack thereof, they wouldn’t be shown,” Slack said. “So our play is a bit of an examination into your own accountability as a citizen of a country whose media is essentially owned by corporations that also essentially own our politics.”
Wait, the media owns our politics?
“I know that they certainly sleep together,” Hahn said. And that, Hinshaw added, makes it much more difficult for a jaundiced and, ironically, underinformed public to seek or fully trust the information that does get disseminated.
Ironic, Dickman contends, because while never before has information been so readily available, never before has it been more ignored, or skeptically received. As the public looks to alternative news sources like bloggers and “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central, network news ratings have reached historic lows.
Credibility at issue
A further complication: Little of the information spewed on the Internet is vetted for accuracy or objectivity. And even at traditionally more trustworthy news organizations like networks and newspapers, historic cuts in staffing and resources have taken their toll on accuracy.
That’s why it’s vital, Hinshaw said, for our sound-bite citizenry to take responsibility for collecting, assessing and challenging the information they choose to use to form their own beliefs.
“It’s a big job, just to simply stay informed,” she said, “and we are going to be reflecting on why a lot of us simply choose not to do it.”
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
“DNC Mediamockracy”
Multimedia political satire and exploration. Presented by Listen Productions at Buntport Theater, 717 Lipan St. Written by ensemble. Directed by Mitch Dickman. Starring Karen Slack, William Hahn and GerRee Hinshaw. Through Oct. 25. 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 4 p.m. Sundays. $20 (2-for-1 Thursdays), 720-290-1104 or
The DNC: What did it cost?
There is no clear price tag. The host committee was contractually obligated to raise about $40 million. Then the city got $50 million from the Justice Department for security. The actual cost went above that $40 million because of the decision to move Barack Obama’s acceptance speech to Invesco Field, but the Democratic National Committee has not yet reported a true, final cost (that’s due on Election Day). The Denver Post estimated the additional expense at $3 million to $4 million. The projected economic impact of the convention has been placed at $160 million.
Actor Karen Slack: In her own words
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“It’s important to create theater that has the potential to really change something, even if it’s as simple as a point of view. It’s not only incredibly intriguing to me as an actor, but even more so as a citizen.” — Karen Slack (plays TV news anchor Piper Cummington; most recently Lady Macbeth in Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s “Macbeth”).
The story: “DNC Mediamockracy” will use the recent Democratic National Convention as a backdrop to explore how the relationship between media and politics affects the American people and democracy.
The intrigue: This multimedia exploration will include original footage with Ralph Nader and Rosario Dawson taped during Democratic National Convention week in Denver.
Sept. 26-Oct. 25 at Buntport Theater, 717 Lipan St., 720-290-1104 or
Complete theater listings
Go to our complete list of every currently running production in Colorado, including summaries, run dates, addresses, phones and links to every company’s home page.
This week’s video podcast: Running Lines at … Creede Repertory Theatre
This week, by video, John Moore brings you images and interviews from Creede Rep, which closes its 43rd season on Saturday with final performances of three plays, including Steven Cole Hughes’ world-premiere, Old West freakout, “Billy Hell.” Guests include Hughes, Maurice LaMee and Kendra Kohrt.
Below are images taken from our visit to Creede. Video and photos by John Moore.
