The Conversation on Cyber-Bullying Takes the Stage at George Street Playhouse

The lobby of the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick was a busy place on a recent Saturday afternoon.  A congenial and chatty crowd there, waiting to see “Circle Mirror Transformation”, the Mainstage production starring Sandy Duncan.  And, in the more intimate, black box theatre, there was a free performance of “IRL: In Real Life” as part of their as part of their Open Stage Series.  The show, written by R.N. Sandberg, addresses the provocative hot-button topic of cyber-bullying.

Bullying is certainly nothing new among children and young adults, but the technological developments of the past decade or so have changed it up.  Back in the day, being bullied might mean that some kid called you a nasty name or made a comment about your clothing choices or your eyeglasses when you were at recess.  If the playground was particularly crowded that day, it was possible that a couple dozen friends and classmates witnessed the encounter.  A few might mention it to you again later that day, or even tell others.  And maybe the incident would resurface again.  Some people might talk about it on the bus.  Or your friends might joke about it and encourage you to plan a defensive action.  But, most likely, the overall effect would not be too serious or long-lasting.

In today’s times, however, it is possible for an off-handed comment or an adolescent jab to escalate from minor and meaningless to something much more sinister at an astonishingly fast pace.

And this is the tale that unfolds – with texting and elaborate social media networking and computer-generated visuals – in this powerful show.  

Generation NEXT at MacHomer 3: Meeting Rick Miller/The AfterParty.

After the performance of MacHomer, the guests of JerseyArts were treated to a discussion with the sole performer of the show, Rick Miller.  First, a little about the multi-talented actor himself.  Miller is an actor, singer, and an architect who created the show while impersonating Simpsons characters while at a cast party after Macbeth.  He has performed MacHomer all around the world in several languages, as well as several other award-winning shows his production company, WYRD Productions, has produced.  As mentioned in my other posts, Miller impersonates over 50 characters from The Simpsons.

The discussion itself was both enlightening and entertaining.  Miller was unafraid to answer any question posed and was kind and courteous to everyone.  Some of the things he mentioned really stood out to me.  A look at the “cast list” and one can see some odd pairings between Simpsons characters and the roles of Macbeth.  Miller’s casting process was a combination of factors: obviously, Homer was the fit for Macbeth, but since Bart and Lisa are difficult for him to reproduce well and consistently, he has the Simpson children as much smaller roles.  Clearly, Miller’s voice is a vital component to his success, and he must take great pains to preserve it.  Also, his creativity in regards to his writing of the show was brought up when discussing several updates to the show over the past decade.  Miller makes edits for two reasons primarily: to keep the show fresh in the audience’s mind (although a George W. Bush joke did seem oddly outdated) as well as in his own mind, considering he performs the show so often.  In fact, Miller only performs the show a handful of months out of the year to avoid the risk of overdoing something as silly and outlandish (and exhausting) as MacHomer.

Rick Miller, while delving into short anecdotes and explaining various logistics behind his creation, also seemed to be a generally nice guy.  He constantly made jokes, even at his own and the show’s expense.  He was very aware that this concept probably couldn’t work on an epic scale, but he also appeared to be quite proud and pleased with the success it has had so far.  And could you blame him? By a simple agreement with Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, Miller has been able to live his dream life by touring the world and entertaining over half a million people.  And that is something I bet a majority of artists wish they could boast.