Produced and directed by Akisa Omulepu
[This is the second (and final) part of the transcript of “The Arts Interrupted,” the PBS program first aired on Great Performances on 14 May. If you have just joined this blog, the continuation of this post won’t make a lot of sense if you haven’t read Part 1, posted on 3 June; I recommend going back to read the start of the transcript before reading Part 2.
[I’ve provided the first names of people who speak on this program, but for full identification of any who first appear in Part 1, readers will have to return to that post. (Newly-appearing figures are identified below.)]
VANESSA WILLIAMS: Maintaining a performing arts career is a daunting proposition, even in the best of times. This past year, it seemed inconceivable for a relatively new artist to gain recognition. So, it must have been an unexpected thrill for singer-songwriter Somi to learn of her first Grammy nomination. With it, the world was introduced to a brilliant artist who, I have a feeling, is here to stay [Somi sings “Holy Room” (2017)].
♪ I can’t hold these burdens anymore ♪
♪ Love feels like a holy room
♪ Washed my feet
♪ Leave ‘em at the door
♪ Your love feels like a holy room ♪
♪ Soothe my sorrows and clean my heart ♪
♪ Holy room
SOMI: When I found out I was nominated for a Grammy, um, of course I was overwhelmed. I was really humbled by the outpouring of love, kind of honoring that moment, sort of a landmark in my career and a reminder to keep going—that’s what it felt like.
But I think the fact that the nomination came in in the midst of a global pandemic, um, was even more humbling.
WILLIAMS: Somi’s Grammy-nominated album started out before the pandemic, as a concert for German public radio, recorded in May 2019. Once the pandemic stopped artists from touring or performing, Somi realized she could offer her fans something new and timely.
([Somi] vocalizing)
♪
(vocalizing)
SOMI: I decided to call the album “Holy Room” because in listening to a live recording in the midst of a pandemic, when I first heard it, I had no intention of releasing it as an album, but it had been recorded for radio broadcast in Germany.
And so when I was listening back, it took me back to that thing that makes me feel most alive. And I thought that if I was to share . . . If I were to share that with my audience, then surely they might be reminded of leaning into the thing that makes them feel most alive, too.
(vocalizing)
♪
WILLIAMS: For Somi, like so many artists, there wasn’t just a loss of income or career opportunity, but also the joy of performance. Performing with other artists, connecting with audiences just disappeared almost overnight.
SOMI: I think what I miss most about being on the road is the sense of community that can only be fostered not only on the bandstand with my band members . . . (chuckling): Who I miss dearly. But also that sense of community that can only show up in that exchange of storytelling between artist and audience. I feel my most powerful on stage. And I miss the magic, you know.
(applause)
Thank you so much, danke schön [‘thank you’ in German].
(applause)
WILLIAMS: In the past year, we’ve all learned that a stage can be almost anywhere. So, Illinois-born Somi, whose parents hail from Rwanda and Uganda, with a Grammy-nominated German radio concert, still found a way to let her fans hear some new music.
World music indeed!
♪
Somi has reached a whole new audience in these strange times. But she’s not alone. The COVID age has revealed so many new stars for us to appreciate.
– ♪ . . . left unchanged
♪
♪ It’s so funny how quickly
♪ We forget the sweet . . .
WILLIAMS: Artists comment on, critique, and often challenge the culture itself. They bring new ideas in fresh forms, they force us to think differently, and they interpret the events of our times in ways that enlighten us all.
So, that was a big assignment during lockdown in the Year of the Plague. As COVID raged on, another crisis engulfed America.
♪ When the moon is in the seventh house ♪
WILLIAMS: Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr., married for 50 years, were two-fifths of the Fifth Dimension R&B and pop ensemble. In April 2021, they released a new album, “Blackbird,” Beatles songs with a new relevance, they say, in the context of the racial reckoning and the Black Lives Matter movement.
(“Blackbird” playing)
♪ Blackbird fly
♪ Blackbird fly
♪ Blackbird fly
DAVIS: Many people don’t know “Blackbird” was a Civil Rights anthem, written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon in 1968 after they saw the Civil Rights struggles and resulting violence.
♪ Blackbird singing in the dead of night ♪
DAVIS: Blackbirds were a hymn to the soul of the young women, men, and children we were losing.
McCOO: Martin Luther King [civil rights leader assassinated on 4 April 1968 at 39].
Malcolm X [human rights activist and spokesman for the Nation of Islam assassinated on 21 February 1965, aged 39].
Medgar Evers [civil rights activist murdered at 37 on 12 June 1963].
We remember the cross being burned on the lawn of our first home [22 March 1977, Encino, California].
♪ Blackbird singing in the dead of night ♪
♪ Take these sunken eyes
♪ And learn to see
♪ All your life
WILLIAMS: Marilyn and Billy have long musical and political memories. The Fifth Dimension had an inclusive and diverse 1960s audience, even at a time of racial division and political turmoil, some of which they witnessed firsthand.
DAVIS: It was 1968. We were performing at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago. At that particular time, somebody threw a stink bomb, cleared out the whole place. Once we got outside, to our surprise, all hell had broken loose.
(people shouting)
We were trying to get to our car, to get into cars so we could get out of harm’s way.
(people shouting)
We’d never seen anything like that before, because it was like a riot in the middle of the street. I mean, all of this commotion going on.
– On Michigan Avenue.
– On Michigan Avenue!
You know, and, and the things that’s happening out there today, I mean, it’s like it’s all happening again.
♪ Set sight on pride [”Africa” by Scott Patterson]
♪ For the power
SIMONE ECCLESTON: I’m going to channel James Baldwin, right?
And so he has this quote, you know, “The role of the artist is much like the role of the lover.
“If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you do not see.”
And so I like to think about that in relationship to this period, because this period has been a time of tremendous change.
We’ve been in the midst of two crises, right? When we’re thinking about the public health crisis, as well as the crisis in regards to race and racism in America.
(crowd chanting, clapping)
And our movement for social justice.
And so, like, within this context, artists have helped to bring light to the darkness and have helped to hold us accountable, and get us privy to the things that sometimes history would like to have us forget.
(crowd chanting, drum pounding)
OSKAR EUSTIS: George Floyd’s murder had a transformational effect on The Public Theater. Were we doing enough to oppose the horrible racism of this society? Were we doing enough to oppose police violence?
But even more important: were we doing enough as an organization to examine our own practices, to make sure that our own practices were genuinely anti-racist?
To make sure that the way we worked actually tackled the horrible legacy of slavery upon which this country was built?
♪ One message [“Africa,” Patterson]
♪ No life in hatred
♪ Live for all kind
(holding note)
♪ Yeah
♪
WILLIAMS: There’s no denying that the past 14 months have been a time of immense sadness and loss, of dreams deferred and, for some, dreams shattered and impossible to realize. In addition to losing jobs, workplaces, and the irreplaceable spirit of collaboration, we’ve lost something far greater: beloved and much-admired colleagues.
♪
♪
♪
ECCLESTON: I would definitely consider this to be a moment in which the arts are further democratized, right?
And I would also, you know, like, I think that it’s beautiful that audiences nationally and internationally have been able to, you know, tap into or access performances by world-renowned artists in the comfort of their homes.
What we were able to do is turn the Kennedy Center Opera House, a venue that is often only seen during Kennedy Center Honors, into, like, what would be the backdrop for performance. And so we presented presentations with Renée Fleming and Vanessa Williams and, like, Grammy Award-winning artist Robert Glasper.
♪
♪
MAN (on recording, echoing): Are you a god?
Are you an angel?
♪
ECCLESTON: You know, we were really excited about being able to kind of, like, lean in and experiment to create content for audiences.
ANNE HUANG [Executive Director, World Arts West, San Francisco]: During live, pre-COVID live performance, um, live performances, it was very difficult to bring all of that together in-person.
And actually, in the virtual world allow World Arts West and the many dance companies we serve use the rapidly improving Zoom technology.
MAURE ARONSON [Executive Director, Global Arts Live, Cambridge, Massachusetts]: During the pandemic, it was very important for us to continue to support artists not only through virtual streams, but to put money in artists’ hands so that they could continue to create new work.
STANLYN BREVÉ [Director of National Programs, Performance Network, New Orleans]: I feel like, um, there is this hope. I feel like there is this unsustainability that has come to the surface, um, and really, artists are leading, you know, this whole movement of reimagining. The COVID crisis saw performers reaching out to their social media fans and followers online.
WILLIAMS: Past and present company members of Broadway’s “Wicked” performed one of the most popular viral moments—no pun intended—with a virtual performance of “Defying Gravity.”
♪ Something has changed within me ♪
♪ Something is not the same
♪ I’m through with playing
♪ By the rules of someone else’s game ♪
♪ Too late for second-guessing
♪ Too late to go back to sleep
♪ It’s time to trust my instincts ♪
♪ Close my eyes and leap
♪ It’s time to try defying gravity ♪
♪ I think I’ll try defying gravity ♪
♪ And you can’t pull me down
WILLIAMS: Why do we care about the arts? Why do the arts matter?
– Arts have given me a voice.
– A sense of purpose.
– The freedom of expression.
– I have a power.
– A safe space.
– It gives students a home.
– A home.
– A home.
– Long-lasting friendships.
– So many friends.
– People in the arts become my family.
– A family.
– Community.
– A huge community and I finally felt like I was worth something.
♪
♪ There’s a place where we don’t have to feel unknown ♪ [“You Will Be Found” from a high school production of Dear Evan Hansen]
WILLIAMS: If the enthusiasm of those kids is any measure, the arts not only matter, but the future of the arts looks promising. And as the year rolled on, there were reasons to be optimistic, or at least feel that the big gray COVID cloud had a tiny silver lining.
♪ So let the sun come streaming in ♪
♪ You’ll reach up and you’ll rise again ♪
♪ If you only look around
♪ You will be found
WILLIAMS: Isolation and harmony, fragility and resilience, oppression and hope. These are the emotions of our time and the subjects my dear friend Renée Fleming and I explored in “A Time to Sing,” a unique event at the Kennedy Center.
[A Time to Sing: An Evening with Renée Fleming and Vanessa Williams was presented at 8 p.m. on Saturday, 26 September 2020, at the Kennedy Center. An invited in-person audience of 40 sat on the stage of the Opera House while Fleming and Williams performed on a specially-built platform over the first rows of seats. The concert was also streamed live to paying viewers at home.]
DEBORAH RUTTER: Good evening to all of you.
We welcome you back to the Kennedy Center for our very first on-stage in the Opera House in more than six months. My name is Deborah Rutter, the proud president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. This tonight is proof that the show truly must go on.
(“What the World Needs Now Is Love” playing [Fleming and Williams singing])
♪ What the world needs now
♪ Is love, sweet love
♪ It’s the only thing
♪ That there’s just too little of ♪
BOTH: ♪ What the world needs now
♪ Is love, sweet love
– ♪ No, not just for some
♪ But for everyone
♪ Lord, we don’t need another mountain ♪
♪ There are mountains and hillsides enough to climb ♪
♪ There are oceans and rivers enough to cross ♪
♪ Enough to last till the end of time ♪
BOTH: ♪ What the world needs now
♪ Is love, sweet love
– ♪ It’s the only thing
BOTH: ♪ That there’s just too little of ♪
♪ What the world needs now
♪ Is love, sweet love
– ♪ No, not just for some
BOTH: ♪ But for everyone
♪ Lord, we don’t need another meadow ♪
♪ There are cornfields and wheat fields ♪
♪ Enough to grow
♪ There are sunbeams and moonbeams ♪
♪ Enough to shine
♪ Oh, listen, Lord
♪ If you want to know
BOTH: ♪ What the world needs now
♪ Is love, sweet love
– ♪ It’s the only thing
BOTH: ♪ That there’s just too little of ♪
♪ What the world needs now
♪ Is love, sweet love
– ♪ No, not just for some
♪ But for everyone
♪ Everyone
– ♪ Everyone
♪ No, not just for some
BOTH: ♪ But for everyone
(holding note)
(cheers and applause)
Thank you!
FLEMING: Thank you.
WILLIAMS: Singing for that small audience in the grand Kennedy Center Opera House gave us hope that one day soon, every single one of those seats would again be filled.
And now, there’s even more reason to hope. With vaccines approved and being distributed, the possibility of a return to normal life began to flicker like the ghost light.
For performers and their audiences, for the support industries and their employees, the hope began to grow that the bright lights might shine again soon.
HARI SREENIVASAN [Anchor, PBS NewsHour Weekend, on TV]: Good evening and thanks for joining us.
A second coronavirus vaccine is approved and millions of doses are expected to be shipped out starting tomorrow, as infections rise and hospitals in many states report intensive care units are near . . . .
(cello playing “Ave Maria” [Yo-Yo Ma at a vaccination clinic on tape])
LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA [playwright and actor]: So I’m emotional today. I’m going to be talking to you mostly in Broadway quotes, ’cause that’s where we are. I can’t help but have the sense of empty chairs at empty tables. I’m thinking of those in the Broadway community we’ve lost over the past year.
I am thinking of Terrence McNally [prolific and esteemed playwright who died from complications of COVID-19 on 24 March 2020 at 81].
I’m thinking of the great Nick Cordero [actor and singer who died on 5 July 2020, aged 41, of COVID-19], who is my age [also 41] and we lost to this terrible virus.
And I’m thrilled to be here at the opening of a vaccination clinic for Broadway workers. And that’s everyone. And if you worked on Broadway or you worked off-Broadway, you work in the theater, if you worked in the wardrobe department, if you were a stage manager, if you were a front-of-house staff, you were an usher, you are welcome to this incredible facility on 47th Street which I have just toured.
We want to gather again. And we want to tell stories in the dark. We cannot do that if we don’t feel safe, and if you don’t feel safe.
So the first step in that process is getting our vaccination shots. And I can’t wait to be in a theater with you again. Thank you so much.
ARONSON: There were so many things learnt during this pandemic, but overall, and so many crises that we dealt with, but overall, what we learnt was, stay connected to your community, stay connected to your artists, continue to be resilient, persevere, create a space where we can gather.
REMINGTON: The arts inform us of who we were, they tell us who we are, and they also point the way to what we aspire to be.
FORBES: And I think what’s gonna be so important for, as our cities come back in line, as our communities come back in line, that, quite frankly, it’s artists who will lead the way to teach us, to heal us, to teach us to feel again. Just to, to guide us in that way, in that modality about how we are able to sort of access the parts of ourselves that we, quite frankly, have not been able to access throughout this pandemic.
JORDANA LEIGH: You know, I look at photos from all these great performances that I’ve been to before the pandemic, and it does feel like another life to me at this moment. And I think that what happens after this pandemic leaves, it’s gonna be another life, as well.
ECCLESTON: I’m excited about being in community, being in fellowship, and being able to experience the transcendent power of live performance. I’m just excited to see who we’ll be as a community as we come back and experience each other anew, and our artists anew, and our community.
JANICE SINDEN: For me, that’s the most uplifting part of this, is seeing a community come together to say, “This is going to be very hard, and very real, “but at the end of the day, we’re gonna do this together and we’re gonna come back strong.”
EUSTIS: What this last year has done is issued an enormous wake-up call and a chance to reset. And that reset for The Public is doubling down on our mission. Doubling down on the idea that the enormous diversity of voices is America’s great strength. That we need to give agency to those who have been denied agency, historically, in this country.
WILLIAMS: This past year, we have seen “Great Performances” from every space imaginable. The marriage of arts and technology has expanded accessibility to the arts and more opportunities for performers to be seen and heard. Digital distribution has allowed audiences to discover new talent who we’ll follow for years, and new ways of performing that bolstered our enthusiasm for live events.
And if you have a pulse, I know you want to walk through those theater doors, smile at your neighbor in the next seat, commit to two hours in the darkness, and expect to shed tears of joy when the artists once again ply their craft live on stage. It can’t come soon enough.
The arts may have been interrupted, but they’re comin’ back!
I’m Vanessa Williams for “Great Performances.”
♪
ANNOUNCER: To find out more about this and other “Great Performances” programs, visit pbs.org/greatperformances. Find us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
[The program will be streaming on the PBS website until Friday, 9 July 2021, at 11:59 p.m. EDT. It can also be viewed on video at https://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/pbs-for-the-arts-about/12512/.]
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