From 2003 to 2015, I ran with Insurgent Theatre, performing all original DIY plays, first in Milwaukee, then touring around the US and Canada. At the end of the run, Insurgent’s mission statement read: “Insurgent Theatre strives to connect performing arts with radical struggles, to make theatre that is relevant, engaging, challenging and useful for those who confront the US police state and global capitalist empire.”
The first five years Insurgent performed in non-traditional venues in Milwaukee doing full length original works, absurdist short play festivals, guerrilla street theatre stunts, and wild adrenaline-soaked experiments. We re-wrote Sartre, mashed up the Weather Underground and the Iraq war, we brought many people to the stage and the audience for the first time. For 4 years in a row we co-produced Play in a Day, which unlike your typical fun collection of short sketches, took the title seriously: we wrote, designed, built, costumed, rehearsed and performed full length plays in the completely inadequate span of 24 hours.
In 2008 Insurgent began touring, bringing four plays I wrote or co-wrote around the US and Canada. In 2011 these plays became fundraising and awareness-building tools for prison abolition projects, helping foreground prison rebellion in radical communities. A book collecting some of Insurgent’s work as well as essays and manifestos written over the years is available from Little Black Cart, or by contacting me at Insurgent.Ben@gmail.com.
Behind the Badge (August 2013)
What does it mean to be a compassionate, dedicated, humane police officer in the country with the world’s highest incarceration rate and a continuing tradition of racial injustice?
Insurgent Theatre brings audiences behind the badge of a neighborhood liaison officer, using stripped-down interactive theatre and a radical analysis to peer into the inner life of a man in blue*.
Written by Ben Turk, Directed by Kate Pleuss
Performed 57 times between August 2013 and June 2014 by Turk and one volunteer from each audience, with sometimes contributions from Firehawk OhYea!
In the Belly (February 2011)
In the belly is where things digest, where they are broken down so their value can be extracted. This is where things are made to rot. If our society is a beast, its belly is the prison system. This work from Insurgent Theatre seeks to manifest imprisonment on stage, overlays it with critical analysis of the system, and follows up with in-depth discussion about abolishing prison in America.
Created in workshop by Weslie Coleman, Kate Pleuss, and Ben Turk, with assistance from Harmony Bench and Rebecca Riley.
Performed about 70 times between February 2011 and April 2012 by Coleman, Pleuss, and Turk.
Ulysses Crewmen
(August 2009)
A militant dissenter abuses her hostage from the US delegation while faintly aware of the audience surrounding her. This claustrophobic scene creates a space for radical introspection, defiant theatre, and tactical conversations. With only a few props, two actors, one of whom is bound and gagged, and a serious commitment to DIY politics, Insurgent Theatre refutes ancient dogmas found in Homer’s Odyssey and examines the psychosexual underpinnings of empire and rebellion.
Written and Directed by Ben Turk.
Performed over 100 times between August 2009, and October 2010 by Kate Pleuss and Ben Turk.
Tour was documented exhaustively here.
Paint the Town (July 2008)
A militant fairytale about an inspired revolutionary, the perfect family who loves her, and the man who slaughters that family in a wave of brutal terrorism to set her free from the bondage of the establishment.
Written by Ben Turk
Directed by Tracy Doyle
Performed an uncounted number of times in 2008 and 2009.
This era of drama writing and performance deeply informs my writing techniques, relationship with audience, and organizing projects. As Bertolt Brecht advocated and Augusto Boal realized, I’ve found theatre to be primarily didactic and enriching for its performers.
“Freaks are revolutionaries and revolutionaries are freaks.”
– Weather Underground Organization, 1969