I'm Seeing Red: Watching a not so silent mime troup

When I heard mime troupe, my thoughts immediately went to a group of quintessentially black and white striped t-shirted, white face painted, Marcel Marceau looking individuals silently gesticulating while being trapped in an invisible cube. But my interest was piqued when my Media Studies teacher said the San Francisco Mime Troupe was anything but silent. So, as one does on a Saturday afternoon, I took a Lyft, accompanied with my roommate and two strangers, to Mission Dolores Park. 

Arriving at Dolores Park

After an awkward 20-minute drive in a shared Lyft with two complete strangers (what a college student would do to save 4 bucks), Carolina, my roommate, and I hopped off the Lyft onto the beautiful Mission Dolores Park green grass. Picnic blankets, dogs, and people sunbathing could be seen across the park's green grass. It was 1:15 p.m. and we still had some time to find out where the mime troupe was going to perform. We walked all the way across to the other end of the park and saw a small shop with a trailer looking-object and a music set up next to it. As we got closer, we noticed that we were standing infant of the SFMT gift shop... we made it. 

Seeing Red: A Time-Traveling Musical

One thing that really stood out to me about this particular mime troupe was that they were going to be performing a musical. And not just any musical, a socialist musical. The performance started off with some vaudeville-esque music and opens at the 2016 Presidential Election: Trump v. Clinton. Set in Ruby's Bar (Red symbolism??). Last election, Bob voted for Obama but she decides o take a chance on the candidate promising change in America... Trump. Along comes a mysterious stranger who promises to take her back to 1912, a time where socialism was not a dirty word and red was not associated with Republicans. 

I learned so much history from this musical than I would have in my high school history class. But then again, my high school class never taught me about Eugene Debs and the American Socialist party. 

The SFMT seeks to uncover the hidden history Americans don't traditionally learn in the educational system. In fact, I remember being taught in high school the socialism is a no-no word. Money is important. Money is the goal. 

Something that caught my attention during the musical was when one of the characters mentioned that working in warehouses are going to be the jobs of the future. And that is true! If big online corporations keep knocking out small businesses out of the pool, we are all going to be working in warehouses. Business majors will be the most sought degree. Because we all need to make money, right? Forget learning about history, art, philosophy, or diversity studies. Business is where the money is. But that's wrong. We all need to have a well-established education in order for us to be happy and vote for our interests, overcome divide-and-conquer tactics, and get off the swinging pendulum that had us in our current state of progress not being possible. 

I very much enjoyed watching the SFMT this weekend. It helped me uncover some hidden history and invigorated a desire within me to learn and uncover some more of the history Americans are not traditionally taught. Education is the key to progress.