Reverend Billy
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Radio: Bio of Reverend Billy
December 25, 2005
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Reverend Billy invaded Times Square as a solo performer (a sidewalk preacher) in 1995. He created a series of monologues, or sermons, about consumerism’s evils, with the Disneyfication of Times Square as evidence the Devil was at work. The first ensemble plays, based on versions of church services, were staged during a residency at St. Clement’s Playhouse in 1996. The Augusto Boal-influenced “Retail Interventions” followed, in which Billy used the Disney Store, and soon after Starbucks and other transnational chains, as stages for prepared characters and scripts.
Residencies at various New York institutions, including New School University, Judson Memorial Church and now St. Mark’s in the Bowery, have seen the “church service” evolve into an interactive play with larger audiences. Billy canonizes saints (still living, usually unsung local activists who use the moment in the spotlight to explain their work from the stage); exorcises credit cards; and reads from books such as "No Logo" as holy writ.
Director Savitri Durkee’s organizational and aesthetic vision has been instrumental in building these “revivals,” which feature guests, activists and artists. Carl Hancock Rux, Kurt Vonnegut, Rosalie Sorrels, Chip Delaney, Daniel Elsberg, Citizen Reno, and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have assisted the Reverend at the altar. Savitri and Billy have staged revivals at universities across the United States and facilitated workshops so students can develop their own "stop shopping" techniques.
In the last two years the Church of Stop Shopping has toured on both coasts and in Europe, establishing parishes in cities and towns struggling against the Consumer Evil. Since March 2004 citizens have been able to join the reverend at New York City's ground zero for first amendment mobs, where they recite the Bill of Rights into cell phones. This process led to a blessed afternoon on Sunday, August 29th, during the Republican National Convention, when the reverend joined 11 couples together in marriage on Central Park’s Great Lawn, weaving the first amendment into the vows. Change-a-lujah!!
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