 And event producer from Philadelphia and the last two years I've been working with team sunshine performance corporation to put on this event Society of civil discourse, which you all are going to get to experience tonight I'm super excited to be here to do the society with this course And I'm also excited to be here summer camp because a friend of mine, and I run a summer camp for adults And so this is like a double dose of fun for me This is Alex Okay, uh, Jamie's going to be the primary host for the evening. I'm going to step aside. I'm a director so I like to hide and worry I just wanted to say a little bit about team sunshine and about this event Team sunshine is a Philadelphia based artists collective ensemble theater company all of those And we do two things we do Experimental ensemble created theater, and we also do community gathering interactive social events Everything we do is about bringing people together and that it's not just about looking here, but looking at each other A couple years ago, Jake came to us and was like I have an idea for the event And he said we're in bullshitting and we were like, yes And then we made this thing I'd love to talk to you about what we do and But for now Awesome, how many people know by show of hands that this is about to be an interactive event where you're expected to do things great And the rest of you, I hope you're easily amenable to change. All right I would like to start the evening with a toast so you can either raise a bridge or just your hand To the sky and I would like to make a toast to the verbose the Equatious the untruthful the passionate Deeply stubborn in their opinions the bladder mouths talkers Boxes the listeners who give us space to breathe to all of you. Cheers Oh The size of this course happens in two phases the first part is interacting the second part is a great debate with some amazing Volunteers from the next network. We're so happy that you guys are here. There are three rules here at society civil discourse Okay, first rule no looking things up No looking things up. I say Star Wars first came out in 2011 and Star Wars first came out in 2011 you cannot take out your phone Show me on Wikipedia the year that came out, but you are committed to debate With me with me about the year that Star Wars came out. Okay, so rule number one. No looking things up Okay, no looking things up rule number two always hear your fellow society members out Some people may say some controversial things They may say that pudding is indeed a better thing to fill a swimming pool with in jello and you may find that Allow them the time and space to make their point to make their argument clearly without interruption Sound good. So no so always hear your your your fellow members out and the last one Which I will break multiple times even to speak passionately Just not at great length All 80 of you will get a chance tonight to say something and be listened to in order to make space for that We ask that you not give us your greatest filibuster that you have Be passionate and short Sound good to yeah Let's give you guys a chance to get to know somebody you don't know okay So what we're gonna do in a second when I tell you is you're gonna stand up I'm gonna sing a little song that goes like this Stop and while I sing that little song you're gonna move around you can move around like this if you want Or you can just walk around Find someone that you don't know find someone that you don't know introduce yourself and Tell them about the thing that you're passionate about today. I am passionate about my ankle it that I found in bunk number four So passionate I wrote up my pants like to show off Everybody stand up You're gonna find somebody you don't know and you're gonna talk about the thing that you're passionate about today Like all my summer camp tricks so just so here the society so with this course there is no Fourth wall okay, there's no fourth wall. So you want to want to encourage some some active listening some some audible affirmation So if you hear something you like you can say yes If you don't know how to snap your fingers you can take two and two fingers and just clap my hand I'm from Philly you can say word So as people on stage or when you're at one of your stations give give the people who are speaking some some affirmation some love with your Voices with your eye contact with their nodding love that this sound good We're gonna model our three stations and then we're going to induct all of you into the society of civil discourse So there are three stations there is the appreciation station where you can appreciate things On your heart or suggestions that are in that little cardboard box There is a hate station They don't things that are in your heart or things that are in that little box and there is that debate station up there on the balcony Yeah Where you can debate things that are in that little box and we're gonna show you how all three of those stations work So from our let's start on a positive note from our appreciation station Let's welcome up here Sam to appreciate something Sam is going to tell you why Sam loves this thing that I'm about to make up right now awesome, all right, so 60 watt lightbulb Appreciate something you can join Sam over at the appreciation station Let's get down to the wrong readiness that we all want to express right now. I did that wrong If you want to Say yes, thank you So Claudia is going to show us Even though Appreciation Tell me, uh, hey, ifica college. Oh my goodness. I've never been there See him After the base station, I need everybody to repeat after me to really internalize this Say I will Not lean on the railing. I will definitely not Lean on the right. Here we go. So this is how the debate station that works These two fine people will be facilitating the debate station up on the balcony. Okay, there are there are two rounds There's a 30 second opening statements that each of them will get to make and then there's a liking round They just make small little bite size I So the top that I would like for you all to debate is Which would you rather sustain yourself on assist on if you will for the rest of your life? Okay belly button weight Or couch crumbs Belly button weight for the rest of your lives. You're gonna be couch crumbs 30 seconds You have a bandana in your back pocket. You're gonna start all right couch crumbs You don't remember tweekies, right? But you haven't eaten any of them in a while But you still have them in your couches So going into your couch is like archaeological. Those of you who really are historical minded You'd like to reclaim your roots. You can not only reclaim your roots Theatrically, but you can also reclaim your roots behind the cushions of your couches There's lots of history that we can talk about and that we can't talk about but nonetheless There is edible history and there is so much sensual history behind your cushion Archaeological exploration of time right on my right with belly button lint one small point about belly button lint go One this debate just rub your belly button If you think couch cushion One this debate lift up your couch cushion on the count of three belly button lint or couch cushion ready one two three This is half of our show the second half of the show We are going to come back here for a great great debate You see two empty seats on each side that is because two four of you are going to be recruited by either David David's way to the people. David nice or Danielle way to the people So they come up to you and say hey, do you want to be in the great debate layer? Say yes Definitely absolutely All right, we're gonna have a five on five debate and making things that don't matter It is going to be really really fun. Are you guys ready to be inducted into the society? All right repeat after me I promise to converse passionately Respectfully Not beholden to the truth Importantly with concern For the health and wellness of the person with who I am speaking For the health and wellness of the person with whom I am speaking Nice nice nice. We're good with the station facilitators. Please go to your stations and open them up for the people There it comes good. The bar is back there if you would like to Drink and please enjoy all three stations at your leisure However, you would like and at some point I will yell something loud to the bullhorn to gather us all back at our seats Sound good sir. Yeah Talking listen talking listen Let's look at this guy The toilet must do Hey Sam how about a sticker No So much But we run it local. This has so much energy so much flow Look at all the traffic I need to see if you can feel the light shines with you Oh, wow This is what she also is It's discovered Discovering the load Discovering the darkness that is in the good But I'm not sure what to do I'm not sure what to do We need to dig into the ground All the way basically for us Celebrating It's sucking the life blood out of me But actually sucking the life blood Out of the food chain would not be a benefit if they were told that you made it from our Here's the wolves, the owls or the humans including myself Would care if the mosquitoes had left And I took two last words to close with To conjure a sense of hate inside of you about these bug bites And that is Last call So this is what we call the great debates Where we tease out, where we explore some of the great pressing issues of our time And so in great corny and robb's fashion I need some suggestions from the audience I need one thing that you forgot to bring with you to the conference Wonder where? The Skeeto-repellent Owl here, skin Towels All right Okay towels, okay All right, let's uh, let's go, let's combine two, let's go with alligator skin underwear, okay Alligator skin underwear Let's talk one, let's talk one, and uh, let's, let's, let's go with um, one, one, uh One activity, one activity that you do when you're born In your times Okay She said drowning Drowning on my ears, okay So we're gonna, we're gonna decide which has had a greater impact on human history Okay, which has had a greater impact on human history Alligator skin underwear or cleaning your ears while playing board games Cleaning your ears while playing board games, which has had a greater impact on the course of human history On the course of human history, okay, and so the way it's going to work is we have five rounds We have an opening statement from each team. We have an opening statement from each team We have a personal story. What has your experience been with alligator skin underwear or cleaning your ears while playing board games Okay, then we're going to go with the statistician enough of the emotion. We want cold hard Facts, we want data, we want graphs, pie charts Uh percentages, polling data Blind placebo tested Bad results Then in the fourth round Like any debate worth its weight insults The mind round if you have the mind round And then finally and then finally we have a closing statement from each team, okay closing statement from each team So on my left Uh, Danielle has recruited two new team members. We're trying to introduce your two new team members. Yes My team members up to my two team members here are our Argument alligator skin Underwear has had a greater impact on the ministry. I'm going to sit off to the side somewhere Maybe come and cut you off and your time is done. So please we have an opening statement from the q-tips Okay, can we have a moment for you guys to do that? All of you guys, I want you to do I saw the host do this out in California last week and I want to steal it from him So what I want everybody to do is in your row Cross your arms And with the person next to you get into a thumb wrestling One should begin such tremendous decisions by painting a picture. We are a visual people But we didn't start that way, of course There was a time we were animals that did not have eyes. We had not developed them with the power of evolution Until one eyeless animal had an idea a crazy idea, maybe Mr. Monroe's saviour is wearing extraordinary comfortable alligators Through my experience, but I think when that eyeless animal decided to skin An alligator and place the dried out skin of that alligator around its nether region That was the moment life Begins Yes, let's move forward in time Let's remember the horrible colonial legacy I'm gonna get real The English Empire Until one man and it's always just one man It's history, right? Decided He couldn't take it anymore In a country called India And even though he was a vegetarian He still skimmed that alligator. He didn't eat the meat Still placed that sexy as shit underwear on his body and he brought down colonialism imagine five more examples Broad picture a broad context and outlining people for us to put our thoughts in and next It's time to it's time to go from from the macro to the personal. It's time to go to the intimate It's time to go with with with the conversational of you. I want to hear a personal story So please from the Q-tip, so where are you sending out David for a personal story? Susan Ladder's incident of 1960 must be burned in my memory My little sister She yells above I've just taken her turn She landed the dice To my brother Goober And in a in a mystery turn when it killed President Kennedy Backwards and hit poor Goober in the ear And he lodged a fat chutes and ladders board Working dead He's one of the greatest Americans who ever lived George Goober From from the briefs we'll be setting up day. Yeah, please give the person a story Party with your friend quickly transition out of the personal I think I think we're we're we're losing the forest for the the branch. We need more. We need we need data We need data. There's something about numbers that I can say because they speak to all of us in a really special way as theater artists I say you bring your statistician to the stage. So please Q-tips Call 427. You see statistically through the dawn of time Human beings have used games and gaming technologies in order to survive great crises Dr. Jane McGonigal In addition to hygienic Cleanness Especially the use of ear wax residue Thrown with the roman empire. Does anybody know? They did not accumulate enough wax here. You can see the proportion per nation historical time to their gaming technology We see an incline here. Yes, everybody sees this In combination with high skilled gaming technologies in particular cultural constructs civilization will crumble I go in to regular The much respected The very lucrative and tropical arts Protests for the use of a whistle and a bang shot It's not a great protest A great night of passion and questionable information I need someone to tell me what to think And how to make a decision because I feel conflicted. I feel conflicted. I feel that both of you equally Have given me great reasons to support your cause And so now it's so now Texting dig and then it texted it Comes up all together. She's really big in theater right now. How does she sound? from the q-tips Yeah, a repeat of the chutes and ladder incident Statistically, we know that all of the societies profit from ear wax and board game technology It's true Why is this country so great? Is our ear wax build up? And our ability to invent games much love games Who know Still down This is actually we're they're together Yeah, we know that what makes this country makes you great Ear wax board games Yes with your closing statement What makes this country great? I want to talk to you about what makes this world Very specific points in history Places where The brief has helped to make world history better Um, we've shared some pretty um powerful and emotional stories Of trauma and survival to make you all That he had to whistle It had a greater impact on human history Cleaner your ears while playing board games or alligator skin Briefs on behalf of team sunshine and philly pigeon and myself and want to say thank you guys so much for having us out We really appreciate it. We would love to come to your city It just takes two of us and six of really talented people that live where you live, which I'm sure you can find I'm going to invite Alex. I'm going to say just so you can see the moment when the director stops worrying Come here all weekend, we would love to hear your feedback was a session on some other day That's not today Sunday to give us more structured and constructive feedback that we really really appreciate Uh, I think that's it. Is that it? Awesome. Uh, so here we go. You're voting between an outgoing director that you really respect An impressionable child count of three you're going to hitch them up All right, and if you think that cleaning your ears while playing board games one with one hand You're cleaning your ears and the other hand check makes okay ready on the count of three ready one two three