San Francisco Mime Troupe: Red State August 31, 2008

Just in time for the fall elections, the Tony Award-winning San Francisco Mime Troupe skewers a system which puts the actual needs of the voters last with a new musical comedy, 'Red State.' It's Election Day in small town America! The Heartland - apple pie, general stores, hard work. But in Bluebird, Kansas, apple pie has been replaced with government cheese, general stores have made way for pawn shops, and hard work on the job has become the hard work of survival. Littered with a crumbling New Deal infrastructure and its monuments to a feisty union past forgotten, Bluebird is ready to slip into oblivion. But what if a small town in a Red State found itself at the forefront of a political fight? That's what happens when, due to an Electoral College tie, the entire Presidential Election comes down to the one district that, due to a voting machine glitch, didn't report any results. As America awaits a re-vote, the citizens of Bluebird wrestle with even bigger questions- who's going to fix the sidewalk? The roof of the post office? And how are they going to re-open the Library? And it occurs to some of the citizens of Bluebird, with the eyes of the nation fixed on them and the world waiting for a result, that perhaps they might get some long overdue government money if they don't re-vote right away... Can one little town hold an entire nation's election hostage? Should it? Is bread in the farmhouse tonight more important than deciding who sits in the White House tomorrow? A new President, but not until the new sidewalk is finished? Or should they just pack it in, move away, and try to build a life somewhere else in their Red State?