Voices rise, and responses are hurled back and forth. The white man leaves the argument with his counterpart and starts talking to people throughout the car, asking strangers what they think of this, whether this is fair. Most do not respond. One older man with a shock of white hair refuses to even acknowledge the raggedy young man. Some help, some don't.
Several passengers get off at the next station, including the angry African-American.
The young white man gets off at the stop after that. This is Invisible Theatre, or the taking of a rehearsed scene, unannounced, into a public space where no one knows who the actors are, nor who the audience is. It was just one of the many exercises that a group of fourteen activists and artists studied, learned and created during a three-day workshop recently held in Washington, D.C. to explore the roles that performance can play in community organizing and the struggle against urban violence. A woman riding near her agrees, even though Scott has never been here before, and Erica secretly knows it. The woman says she too had seen him begging on the subway, and the myth of a sly panhandler grows.