The Policemen's Ball

"My high school gym teacher was the most, uh, oppressive out-front personality it's ever been my misfortune..."

The Policeman's Ball[1]

Series
Work In Progress
Original Broadcast Date
1987
Cast
Tim Jerome, Arthur Miller, Nick Ullett, Larry Block, Barbara Sohmers, Steve Friedman, Denny Partridge
Format
Scripted Actors, Improv Actors, 56 minutes
Preceded by:	In The Middle Of Nowhere (Part 3)
Followed by:	He Hesitated

The Policemen's Ball is a program Joe Frank produced as part of the series Work In Progress. It was originally broadcast in 1987.

Synopsis

• A guy talks about his high school gym teacher torturing a fat kid who later becomes a school sports enthusiast.
• Panel discussion: understanding the value of life by saving or destroying life.
• Actors: a man and woman (Steve Friedman and Denny Partridge) overlook a riot during the policemen's ball, shoot at people. People robbing robbers.
• Panel discussion: coexisting socialist and capitalist systems within one society.
• Presentation: a private security force protects an animal research lab.
• Panel discussion between critics and a security force proponent: modern security forces as city states, samurai, death squads. A modern secured house. The price of vigilance is freedom. Imprisoning oneself. A war between wealthy households.
• Actors: A concert by a charity orchestra at the (fictional) Helmsley Hills Foundation - the orchestra plays horrible music, then the orchestra hall comes under siege and dissolves into chaos.
• Panel discussion: The nature of theft, stealing and usurping property, the theft of a shiny stone.
• Actors: The riot continues. Aiming for legs. A play about class revolution that costs $100 a ticket. A man watches television coverage of the riot beneath his window.
• Actors: a DJ with a tinny voice set against percussive electronica reads poetry, urges the audience not to get shot, coughs and begins cawing like a bird.
• Panel discussion: a slick arsonist contrasted with an ordinary arsonist. Workplace theft. Traps and threats in everyday life - binoculars which stab the eyes, asphyxiating pillows, refrigerators that attack people, flesh eating socks. A list of criminals. Are we all criminals?
• Actors: a woman lists things that she likes against the sound of battle and percussive music.

Music

This is an incomplete record of the music in this program. If you can add more information, please do.

• "Ho Renomo" - Cluster & Eno (from Cluster & Eno, 1977) | YouTube [4:52]
• "Brujo Magic (Remix)" - Suns Of Arqa (from Bugs On The Wire, 1987) | YouTube [34:48]

Shared material

• The Policemen's Ball (Remix)

Additional credits

The original broadcast credits state: "The performers were Tim Jerome, Arthur Miller, Nick Ullett, Larry Block, Barbara Sohmers, Steve Friedman, Denny Partridge, and Joe Frank. This program was recorded by Jess Plumley at Westrax Studio in New York City, and by Carey Breese at KCRW. The Policemen's Ball was mixed by Jeff Sykes."

Miscellanea

The programs "Policemen's Ball" and "Policemen's Ball (Remix)" from joefrank.com are identical, but KCRW broadcast a longer version of the program with the "Remix" title in the mid-1990s.