Up in Arms - Group Spotlight

October was a busy month for one of OU’s newest progressive groups, Up In Arms. The group wrote, directed, and produced its own politically-charged performance, “Burlesque for the Body Politik.” Despite the time consuming nature of putting on a production of this scale, performers Manda Leigh Martin and Kat Primeau, and technical director Liz Eggert, were able to say a few words about this new and exciting campus group.

The InterActivist: What is Up In Arms all about?

Manda Martin: Up In Arms is a network of activists on campus and throughout the Athens community working together to promote progressive awareness, action, and change through art and media. That’s our official tag line. What does that mean? We want to enable the voice of what has become a very large body of dissatisfied and questioning members of the community, by connecting them to like-minded people and facilitating the production of politically-provocative art, music, dance, film, theater, etc.


IA: What prompted you to form a group like this?

MM: Last year a group of students within the School of Theater got together to try and produce a production of Tony Kushner’s “A Bright Room Called Day,” which is about German artists and intellectuals during the rise of the Third Reich and their varying responses to it. Unfortunately our busy schedules prevailed and we never produced the play, but the conversations that happened around reading that script led a lot of us to want to create more political work. Then when Kat Primeau and I studied abroad in London for spring quarter, we were seeing a lot of political theater, and our conversations continued, until we got back to Athens and decided to really establish something. So we pulled the Bright Room group back together and put the word out among our friends outside of the School of Theater, and Up In Arms was born. The group became official just this quarter, getting University group status at the end of September.

Liz Eggert: Well, I got involved this summer while talking to some girls that are present members. It sounded like a really great chance to do some of the stuff we have all wanted to see done for a long time. Members of the group started playing around with the idea of the burlesque around this time… and from there it turned into a show that a lot of really great people were involved in.

Kat Primeau: I can’t even count the number of times I have found myself in a conversation with complete strangers about what could/should be produced on a campus with as many progressive, talented, motivated students as OU has to offer. With Manda, I finally found someone willing to put in the legwork and get it organized. It feels good to stop philosophizing and start working.

IA: Tell us a little bit about your recent performance, “Burlesque for the Body Politik.”

MM: “Burlesque for the Body Politik” was our first production and fundraiser. We began the night with music from Daniel Schwartz and some of the members of the Princes of Hollywood, Fokushima, and other local musicians. The burlesque show itself was song and dance numbers featuring members of Up In Arms and sketch comedy from Black Sheep Inc., a spin-off group from Lost Flamingo Company. All of the acts were satirical, and addressed a range of national and election issues. We also screened Chris Coogan’s “Why Vote?” video, which was a series of interviews with students around campus; we displayed the artwork of Bill Anderson around the Blue Gator; and representatives from InterAct, People Might, Planned Parenthood of Southeast Ohio, College Dems, and The Wire were all available with voter information and literature on election issues.

LE: Each girl who proposed a song got to pick a theme for that song, and had the chance to express opinions on matters that were important to her, and her group. As a whole, it was a very collaborative process, everyone had a say as to what they wanted the show to look like, sound like and feel like, which was extremely important to all of us involved.


IA: Are there any future shows planned as of yet?

MM: Right now we are developing a production of “My Name is Rachel Corrie,” which will be produced by The InterActivist’s own Kelsey McCoy, and directed by Kat Primeau to go up in March for the anniversary of Rachel’s death. In addition to that, we’re also developing a political poetry group, a t-shirt campaign, and possibly another play for next quarter as well. The wonderful thing is that we have so many people within our network that we have the ability to produce a lot of work.

KP: Theatre may not be able to change the world, but witnessing the passion and eloquence of a woman [Rachel Corrie] who, had she not been killed by a bulldozer in Palestine, would be considered my peer, will undoubtedly remind audience members of their own drive to change the ways of the world.

LE: Most everything is still in the works, but we are working very hard to make these things happen. Keep posted, it will be a trip to see what we come up with next. To me that is the whole fun of the process.


IA: It’s really exciting to see politically-charged performances in the forefront of the Athens art scene. What is your opinion on the importance of the artist’s voice in the realm of politics?

LE: Politically-charged art reaches a crowd that is creative and interested. This is why it is so important to create this kind of art so that that crowd can be involved as well. Art attracts a younger crowd as well, which is also extremely important. Political art is important to me because it seems to broaden the political audience. We should all be aware of our surroundings and our world, and if we can help educate people interested in this medium then we have widened the political audience, and I can say that we have done our jobs.

MM: As an artist and a politically-driven person, I know the obligation I feel to communicate my opinions and understanding of where we are as a county through my art, and I think a lot of the members of the group can empathize with that, which is why we’ve come together to support one another’s voice. I’m of the conviction that art reaches people on a different level than just watching the news or reading a newspaper, especially when people’s distrust of media bias is at an all-time high.

KP: For me, performance is the best medium for expressing my frustrations and concerns for the state of American affairs. I love Fine Arts and have faith in the communicative power of live performance, so a pre-election show seemed only logical.


IA: Do people have to be artists or actors to join Up In Arms?

MM: No, not at all. We depend on a wide-range of people and their abilities to produce our work, and beyond that we value and thrive on a variety of perspectives, opinions, and ideas.

LE: If art or theater is something that you enjoy, but don’t avidly participate in, you have every invitation to feed us your opinions. That to me is what this is all about, getting people to think in creative ways. If this is something you could become interested in then by all means please contact us. •

For more information or to volunteer for one of its productions, contact Up In Arms at upinarmsgroup@hotmail.com or join their facebook group “Up In Arms.”