On Thursday, November 14, the Verbatim Performance Lab successfully collaborated with Artists’ Literacies Institute and the Centre for Social Innovation for the third edition of The Democratic Field. The Democratic Field, held in advance of the Democratic primary debates, is a theatrical experiment where actors read out anonymized policy statements by leading presidential candidates, in an effort to dis-integrate substance from the spectacle that is the campaign trail.
Actors of The Democratic Field 3 read out policy statements by candidates on foreign policy and education, which were then voted on by members of the audience. The first surprise of the night came when members of the audience learned that in addition to policy statements by nine leading Democratic candidates, one policy statement each by Republican presidential hopefuls Mark Sanford and William Weld were also read out by an actor playing a hybrid Republican candidate.
Coming into The Democratic Field 3, an overwhelming majority of the audience self-identified Elizabeth Warren as their preferred presidential candidate, with Pete Buttigieg coming in second. Following the reading out of the policy statements, Elizabeth Warren was still in the lead, but with fewer votes than what she started with — a steep decline.
The second surprise of the night came when the audience learned that the candidate with next highest number of votes after hearing the policy statements was Tom Steyer, one of the least known Democratic candidates. Policy statements by Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobchar and Andrew Yang received the next number of votes respectively, with the rest of the candidates receiving one vote each.
Commenting on the policy statements, an audience member said that he found it difficult to pay attention to the substantive message of candidates who employed negative attacks on others.
Another audience member observed that it stood out to her that only one candidate did not mention Donald Trump in either of their policy statements.
The comment that gained the most nods of approval from other members of the audience: anonymized verbatim performance made it easier to distinguish “pretty talk” from “substance,” especially when candidates’ statements did not have any substance at all.
The actors participating in The Democratic Field 3 included Andrea Ambam, Stephanie Anderson, Laura Cabochan, Durell Cooper, Jack Dod, Analisa Gutierrez, Scott Michael Morales, Carmen Meyers, Brandon Salerno, and Mackie Saylor.
Stay tuned for details on The Democratic Field 4 slated for January 2020!
Post by Sudaraka Ariyaratne