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The University Musical Society held its second performance of Ontroerend Goed’s “Fight Night” at the Power Center Thursday night, where more than 200 University of Michigan and Ann Arbor community members gathered to participate in the interactive show. The performances are an installment of the U-M Year of Democracy, Civic Empowerment and Global Engagement, an initiative that seeks to highlight the important aspects of democratic societies.
“Fight Night,” directed by Alexander Devriendt, gives audience members the opportunity to vote on candidates of their choosing as information about their views and personalities is revealed. According to Mary Roeder, associate director of programming at UMS, the show’s objective is to push viewers to consider who they vote for and why.
“It really asks an audience to think a lot about why we vote the way we do, why we’re attracted to the candidates that we’re attracted to,” Roeder said.
Ontroerend Goed, based in Gent, Belgium, premiered “Fight Night” in 2013 and initially toured across Europe, Australia and Asia. Roeder said the show was recently brought back with some changes to reflect the different political landscape of today.
“The reason that the artists were bringing the show back into their repertoire is because of it being an election year in the United States, and just because of the content of it, it always just made sense as something that happened in the lead-up to the election,” Roeder said. “And regardless of one’s political affiliation, it’s all of our civic duty to participate in elections.”
In the new version of the show, candidates do not mention specific policies or political opinions, encouraging audience members to question who they vote for and why. Instead, the show invites viewers to challenge their views of democracy.
“I think the really important thing to note is that it’s not a political show, so there are no Republicans, there’s no Democrats, there’s no socialists,” Roeder said. “It’s really just trying to get at the act of voting.”
Roeder said the show’s format is a cross between a debate and a verbal wrestling match where members of the audience choose who wins.
“Each audience member has a voting device and they are engaged in a kind of polling process, and the job of the audience is to choose a winner amongst five candidates,” Roeder said. “It’s not totally clear who you’re voting for, what these candidates are running for, but by the end we’ve got to have a consensus.”
The performance began with introductions by UMS President Matthew VanBesian, City Councilmember Linh Song, D-Ward 2, and Jocelyn Benson, Michigan secretary of state. Benson, in anticipation of the presidential elections in November, spoke about the importance of voting and the role of performance arts in helping voters realize their power.
“If you take nothing more from tonight, take the reality that your vote matters, and that we are all better off when you choose to exercise your voice and cast your vote in furtherance of a collective, shared future,” Benson said. “I’m excited for us all to experience together the power of theater to teach us about our own voices and our own power, and that is why this production is so important.”
Benson was not the only one focusing on voting. Turn Up Turnout, a student-led nonpartisan organization focused on increasing civic engagement among U-M students, held a booth in the Power Center atrium to encourage audience members to register to vote. Roeder said this was an important addition to the performance for UMS.
“For me, having seen the show a couple of times now, I think it’s really effective as an antidote to the apathy that sets in,” Roeder said. “I think the show makes a very good case for why participation is critical and it’s also happening in such close proximity to this big election that it just feels like it’s an important moment of intervention and maybe shaking loose any apathy that’s set in.”
LSA freshman Natalia James said the performance allowed her to learn about the importance of individual votes.
“Seeing a big group in the room, it gives you a visual of what a majority looks like, and how even one person who doesn’t vote affects a huge part of the outcome,” James said. “I think it definitely was eye-opening; everyone should vote.”
Daily Staff Reporter Lizzie Foley can be reached at elfoley@umich.edu.
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