Hello Internet,

Mike Daisey here. I’m a monologist, and I do new shows every month at the Public Theater’s Joe’s Pub. Two weeks ago we announced and put on sale a show titled YES ALL WOMEN, in which I planned to talk about how our world is built on the subjugation and ownership of women, and how men perpetuate that violence.

I was always aware that it’s a provocative title—I get that. I want it to be provocative, because I want to get under people’s skins. My work has often functioned that way, and I wanted to try and be a man taking responsibility for my own complicity in the way things are. I was leery of the title, but you learn in theater to be even more leery of silence and having the world ignore your work. So I pulled the trigger.

Three hours ago Twitter blew up about the show. People were outraged and furious, and as I read their responses I saw that some people were genuinely hurt. And that felt terrible—I had thought that since I never used the actual hashtag, I would be commenting on and exploring the space opened up by #yesallwomen, but I never wanted people to feel their voices were being co-opted and silenced.

It’s a straightforward irony: I’m a man, who monologues, speaking. It was a charged gamble. I should have realized that often people judge me for what they know of my work, and I am sorry for anyone who felt hurt or betrayed. I’m especially sorry for anyone who felt like this was belittling #yesallwomen, which I think is a fantastic and necessary hashtag and conversation.

So, effective immediately, I’m changing the name of the show from YES ALL WOMEN to YES THIS MAN.

I’ve chosen to call the show YES THIS MAN not just because it better reflects what I aim to discuss in the monologue, but also because it is simply a better title. I engaged with many people on Twitter throughout this, and someone who was upset with me was kind enough to suggest it. The truth is that it was always a better title, and I would have used it from the start had I been clever enough to think of it.

I’ve learned in my life that it’s a process of revision—the past few years have been all about that for me, and I’m grateful. I hope that people take this change in the spirit that it’s intended: of openness, transparency, and with the belief that everyone has stories to tell.

Best,

md

YES ALL WOMEN

Created and Performed by Mike Daisey

Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater
Wednesday, June 25th—Doors at 9

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Mike Daisey tackles what we don’t like talking about: how our world is built on the subjugation and ownership of women, and how men perpetuate that violence every day. Rejecting simple catchphrases and rote thinking, Daisey doesn’t try to speak for women—instead he interrogates his own history and choices as a way of framing a human discussion about how it could be possible to live an authentic life where we actually see one another. Gender, sex, violence, and passion mix together with dark humor as he does his best to try and tell an untellable story.

Mike Daisey, hailed as “the master storyteller” and “one of the finest solo performers of his generation” by The New York Times, is the preeminent monologist in the American theater today. He has been compared to a modern-day Mark Twain and a latter-day Orson Welles for his provocative monologues that combine the political and the personal, weaving secret histories with hilarity and heart. This fall he performed a critically acclaimed 29-night live theatrical novel, All the Faces of the Moon, onstage at the Public in Joe’s Pub.

He has performed in theaters across five continents, ranging from remote islands in the South Pacific to the Sydney Opera House to abandoned theaters in post-Communist Tajikistan. He’s been a guest on Real Time with Bill Maher, the Late Show with David Letterman, a longtime host and storyteller with The Moth, as well as a commentator and contributor to The New York Times, The Guardian, Harper’s Magazine, Newsweek, WIRED, Vanity Fair, Slate, Salon, NPR and the BBC. In a brief, meteoric career with This American Life, his shows are among the most listened to and downloaded episodes of that program’s nineteen year history.

He is currently at work on his second book, Here at the End of Empire, which will be published in 2015 by Simon and Schuster. He has been nominated for the Outer Critics Circle Award, two Drama League Awards, and is the recipient of the Bay Area Critics Circle Award, six Seattle Times Footlight Awards, the Sloan Foundation’s Galileo Prize, and a MacDowell Fellowship.

“The master storyteller—one of the finest solo performers of his generation.”
—The New York Times

“Pure magic.”
—New York Magazine

“He embraces the insightful hostility of the best comedy.”
—The New Yorker

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