Music Has Charms

 

[On 3 March 2024, I posted “The Arts & Health” on Rick On Theater.  It comprised two reposted transcripts from PBS NewsHour, both dealing with the convergence of the performing arts and matters of health.  The first report of the pair was “Opera legend Renée Fleming teams up with Dr. Francis Collins to study how music can improve health,” which aired on the NewsHour on 22 February 2024. 

[The topic of that report was the work of Francis Collins, the former head of the National Institutes of Health, and opera singer Renée Fleming on the effect of music on people’s mental health.  My original intention was to combine that transcript with some other material on the same topic, but I came across an entirely different report on another issue of health and the performing arts, so I set aside my plan and paired those two pieces.

[I anticipated returning to the subject of music and mental health at a later time and pick up the articles I kept in reserve.  Then I heard a report on WCBS news about another application of music therapy on people’s mental wellbeing, namely its effect on patients with dementia.  I decided to post that report with the remaining pieces on the NIH program.  Here is the result.]

“BROOKLYN MUSIC THERAPIST HELPS DEMENTIA PATIENTS
BRIDGE THE PAST TO THE PRESENT”
by Steve Overmyer
 

[This report was originally aired on 8 March 2024 on CBS 2 New York (WCBS, Channel 2 in New York City) on CBS 2 News at 5PM; it was updated online on 9 March (Brooklyn music therapist helps dementia patients bridge the past to the present - CBS New York (cbsnews.com)).]

NEW YORK – More than 6 million Americans are living with dementia, and while there is no cure, patients can be helped by music.

In this Snapshot New York, Steve Overmyer learns how melodies help bridge the past to the present.

In a place where the days unfold with a predictable rhythm, a symphony of kindness is being composed.

Rafe Stepto is a credentialed music therapist in the music therapy department at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music.

In the hallways of the memory care unit of the Watermark Senior Living Home [Brooklyn Heights], filled with a lifetime of stories, Stepto has brought a revolution – not with grand gestures, but with the gentle strum of a guitar.

“We happen to have a kind of maximum recall for songs. For example, from when we were 13 to 21 or so, sometimes people call it the reminiscence bump. And so we leverage that quirk to get people’s best-remembered songs out so that they can be in the lucidity of those intact memories even in the midst of advanced dementia,” Stepto said.

Dementia attacks a particular part of our memory dealing with people, places and things. It doesn’t attack procedural memory, the act of doing things, which is why you can see those in memory care join in harmony and come alive.

“Music and memory – it’s a powerful, powerful engine,” Stepto said.

Music is more than entertainment. It can be a beacon that guides them back to a moment of clarity, the joy of youth or the warmth of love. In these moments, the true power of music therapy reveals itself. It’s the key to unlocking buried memories.

“Their memory of listening to a song, dancing to a song, courting to songs, socializing to a song – all of that is in the procedural memory, which remains intact longer into advanced dementia,” Stepto said.

The truth is we’ve all been touched by the transformative power of music. We do it almost every day.

After the class, Stepto has a private moment with a resident who struggles to find his voice, but music unlocks that door. Time stands still as they hold each other’s gaze, reaching out across the divide of forgetfulness and forging a bridge of validation.

“The moment between two people . . . . There’s nothing more important,” Stepto said.

Together, they’re rewriting the narrative of dementia – not as a journey into silence but a celebration, where every day brings the promise of a new song, a new memory, a new connection.

We all use music to help alter our mood, but music therapists are using this clinically and intentionally, they say with reliable results.

[Steve Overmyer joined CBS 2 in February of 2011 as a sports anchor and reporter. He hosts Sports Update every weekend on CBS 2 and WLNY 10/55 (Long Island, New York; owned by CBS).] 

*  *  *  *
“IS MUSIC REALLY THE MEDICINE OF THE SOUL?
AN INTERVIEW WITH RENÉE FLEMING AND FRANCIS COLLINS”
by Joanna Cross, NIMH 

[This article is from The NIH Catalyst 27.4 (July-August 2019), updated on 4 April 2022.  The NIH Catalyst showcases the scientific research conducted at the National Institutes of Health and contains feature stories, essays, profiles, and other news on NIH research, Scientific Interest Groups (SIG’s), new scientific methods, NIH history, the Clinical Center, and more.]

What happens when you get a world-renowned scientist and a famous opera singer in the same room? A spontaneous rendition of “The Times They Are a-Changin’” and the establishment of an important collaboration. NIH Director Francis Collins [b. 1950; director of the NIH, 2009-21] and Renée Fleming [b. 1959], who met a few years ago at a dinner party, realized that they both were curious about how music affects our minds. And so the “Sound Health: Music and the Mind” initiative, an NIH–Kennedy Center partnership in association with the National Endowment for the Arts, was born.

Fleming visited NIH on May 13, 2019, as the featured guest at the annual J. Edward Rall Cultural Lecture, named for the former deputy director for intramural research. She and Collins discussed the creative process, the intersection of music and science, and the Sound Health initiative, which aims to expand our understanding of the connections between music and wellness. 

Music has been part of our lives for millennia and may well predate speech. The earliest known surviving instrument is a bone flute from about 40,000 years ago, and our vocal mechanisms have hardly changed throughout the years. “Can you imagine a Neanderthal opera?” Fleming joked. Because music has been part of our society for so long, it follows that it must have an identifiable impact. Indeed, it has been shown that exposing children to music can enhance reading proficiency and tends to lead to higher rates of career success.

Plato remarked that “Music is the medicine of the soul.” But why is it so beneficial? We can all understand how a piece of music can influence our emotions, but one study showed that rhythm may also be important in our development. Fleming showed a video of a study that demonstrated that when a stranger bounced in time with a baby, the infant was more likely to help the stranger complete a task afterwards than if the bouncing was out of sync. This study showed that even from an early age, music can bring us together, but to find“” out what happens in the brain, we need to be able to observe neuronal activity.

Bring in the magnetic-resolution-imaging (MRI) scanner. In 2017, Fleming experienced the feeling of being in such a scanner for herself. [This episode can be seen on the video of the recent PBS NewsHour report related to this topic (Opera legend Renee Fleming teams up with Dr. Francis Collins to study how music can improve health | PBS NewsHour.) The transcript is posted on this blog in “The Arts & Health,” 3 March 2024.] She chose the song “The Water Is Wide,” and her brain activity was measured as she spoke, sang, and imagined singing the words. Interestingly, imagining the words produced the most striking brain activity, but she put this down to the fact that singing is natural to her; imagining the words was the hardest.

MRI studies have revealed the fascinating influence of music. Fleming described an experiment in which neuroscientist Charles Limb asked jazz piano prodigy Matthew Whitaker [b. 2001] to undergo two tasks while in the scanner. First, Whitaker had to listen to a boring lecture and, unsurprisingly, very few areas of his brain showed activity. However, when he listened to his favorite band, his brain lit up like a Christmas tree. Although Whitaker is blind, even his visual cortex responded, indicating that music could have very potent therapeutic benefits.

One striking example, said Fleming, is the case of Forrest Allen [b. 1993], who was left in an almost lifeless state after a snowboarding accident in 2011 that caused a traumatic brain injury. Allen’s recovery was long and tough, surgeries to repair his skull catapulted him into comas, and he couldn’t speak for two years. His childhood music teacher noticed a tiny movement in Allen’s pinkie finger when music was playing, as if he was tapping along with the rhythm. As part of Allen’s rehab, the music teacher began using rhythm and melody to help his brain heal. Thanks to his doctors, surgeons, and physical therapists, Allen slowly recovered. Thanks to music therapy, he eventually learned to talk again. Today, Allen is a college student at George Mason University (Fairfax, Virginia).

Given that music can affect us to such a degree, Collins asked Fleming how she manages singing professionally during emotional moments. She recollected two particularly emotional moments—singing “Danny Boy” at Senator John McCain’s funeral in Washington, D.C., in 2018, and performing “Amazing Grace” at the National September 11 Memorial in New York City in 2013. She said that it was all about mental preparation before the events. She had to keep reminding herself that the she was singing for everyone else and not just for herself: The singing had to be right. Despite being raised in a musical family, it was not an easy road to becoming a famous singer. Nevertheless, she had the drive to be successful and became fascinated by the skill and practice of singing, observing that “The voice is like a horse: You never know when it will betray you and be off!”

Regarding her dreams for the Sound Health program, she hopes music therapy will become more widely covered by insurance and that the arts will be increasingly involved in our general well-being. She concluded by saying that she had been privileged to work with so many amazing people and takes great delight in performing in all sorts of ways. At this, Collins picked up his guitar and they wrapped up this unique event in an unforgettable way. They joined their voices in harmony to Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and the spiritual song “How Can I Keep from Singing?” The audience sat spellbound as the music echoed around the room.

[Joanna Cross is a postdoctoral fellow in the National Institute of Mental Health.] 

*  *  *  *
“FOR SCIENTISTS ABOUT TO ROCK (WE SALUTE YOU)”
by Michele C. Hollow

[This article was posted on Next Avenue, a nonprofit, digital publication produced by Twin Cities PBS for older adults, on 27 February 2019 (NIH Director Francis Collins and His Band (nextavenue.org)).]

When not overseeing the NIH, Dr. Francis Collins is jamming with his colleagues

Science and music are closely connected. Says Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH): “Whether you’re working with another person or a whole team of people who have different skills, different dreams and different aspirations and you put them together, you create something magical. Science does that and so does music.”

Collins, a physician-geneticist, is noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes and his leadership of the international Human Genome Project, which culminated in April 2003 with the completion of a finished sequence of the human DNA instruction book. He served as director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the NIH from 1993 to 2008. He was appointed the 16 NIH director by President Barack Obama and was confirmed by the Senate in 2009.

When Collins came to the NIH, he was concerned that his passion for music would take a backseat to science. He soon learned about The Directors, a band consisting of former NIH senior staff. The name changed to the Affordable Rock ‘n’ Roll Act (ARRA) and everyone at the NIH is welcome to join.

The name’s not political. It stems from being affordable, “since we don’t get paid for performing,” Collins said.

Making Music 

Collins grew up in a musical household. His father, Fletcher Collins, was trained as a classical violinist and worked for President [Franklin D.] Roosevelt’s New Deal project collecting folk songs from coal miners in Virginia. About 200 of those songs are in the American Folk Life Collection at the Library of Congress.

Collins’ mom, Margaret, sang, and musicians gathered at the family’s farmhouse to jam. Collins remembers a sullen young man with a scratchy voice celebrating his 18[th] birthday at his house. He didn’t think the singer would go far. It was Bob Dylan [b. 1941].

In order not to be left out, Collins taught himself how to play the pump organ at age five. He also wrote songs and picked up the guitar around the same time. “My family didn’t own a television,” he explained. “Music was our entertainment of choice.”

Collins played in high school and joined a bluegrass band at the University of Virginia. Throughout high school and college, he aspired to be a chemist, but music remained an important part of his life.

All NIH Scientists Are Welcome

Crystal “Crys” Young, lead singer and post baccalaureate grad from Washington University’s class of 2017, has been working at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of NIH, and has played music “all my life,” she said. She’s a classically trained pianist who started practicing at age four. 

“I was excited to be accepted into the program and at the same time was worried I wouldn’t have an outlet to do music,” she said. “Playing in ARRA is so much fun. I was really nervous going into it because I’m performing with the top people in their fields. Music brings us together.”

The number of musicians changes depending on the workload. Currently, there are a dozen regulars. They rehearse at Dr. John O’Shea’s house. Chief of the Molecular Immunology and Inflammation Branch of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, O’Shea plays guitar and mandolin. Occasionally, depending on the music and who’s in the group, he has also performed on violin, bass guitar and drums. O’Shea is self-taught and picked up the guitar at age eight. He enjoys old-time and Irish music.

The music ARRA plays is geared towards its audience. When the group plays for scientists, Collins has been known to take a “Weird Al” Yankovic approach by changing the words of a song. For instance, Del Shannon’s hit “Runaway” was changed to “Amazing DNA.” He performed this at the NIH’s National Heart, Lunch, and Blood Institute.

“In my perspective, the best rock ‘n roll is from the last century,” Collins said. “We also play The Black Eyed Peas and songs from Bruno Mars when the audience is younger. We often meet at John’s (O’Shea’s) house for good food, conversation, and of course, to rehearse.”

Rehearsals can be one or two times a week if they’re getting ready for a performance. Otherwise, they’re less frequent. ARRA performances can be year-round, with more during the holidays and summer. They’ve performed for the National Association of Science Writers, at the Building Museum, the Library of Congress and numerous science and medical conferences.

“Francis is supportive of the extraordinary talent here at the NIH,” O’Shea said. “All of us love playing. I like rehearsals more than performances because we get together, have dinner, talk and have fun playing together.”

“Francis also has a yearly music party at his house where he invites a whole bunch of people over. Audience members call out a song and we play. The venues vary, too. Francis would say — and I’ve always felt this way, too — that music creates a sense of community,” added O’Shea.

Collins has had the pleasure of performing with YoYo Ma, Jackson Browne, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds and Whoopi Goldberg. “One of the most heartwarming things is being with these stars and their roadies backstage,” Collins said. “It’s exciting for us and they respect what we do.”

Researching the Links Between Music and Science

He and Renee Fleming sang together as part of an interview on NPR [National Public Radio]. Now, they’re working together on an initiative between the NIH and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts called Sound Health: Music and the Mind, to expand on the links between music and mental health. It explores how listening to, performing or creating music involves brain circuitry that can be harnessed to improve health and well-being.

For Collins and the members of ARRA, life rocks when you combine music and science.

[Michele C. Hollow is a freelance writer, editor, and ghostwriter specializing in health, climate, social justice, pets, and travel.]

"Austin theater company works to preserve Latin American culture"

by Journey Love Taylor, Marcos Sanchez, Natalie Erzal,                    Tara Bordeaux and Gil Garcia

[The following report on the Latino theater troupe Proyecto Teatro of Austin, Texas, was aired on PBS NewsHour on 5 March 2024.]

The Austin, Texas theater company, Proyecto Teatro, aims to promote and preserve Latin American culture. Its latest project is helping redefine Latin American history. Journey Love Taylor of our Student Reporting Labs Academy shares the story as part of our arts and culture series, “CANVAS.”

Geoff Bennett, “PBS NewsHour” Co-Anchor: The Austin, Texas, theater company Proyecto Teatro aims to promote and preserve Latin American culture. And its latest project is helping redefine Latin American history.

Journey Love Taylor of our Student Reporting Labs Academy shares this story as part of our arts and culture series, Canvas.

Journey Love Taylor: At The VORTEX Theater in Austin, Texas, Proyecto Teatro is in the middle of rehearsal “Cabarex 2,” the second installment of a trilogy of stage plays that explore Latin American history, from the times before the arrival of Columbus all the way through to an imagined future.

Luis Armando Ordaz Gutierrez is the longtime artistic director for the company.

Luis Armando Ordaz Gutierrez, Artistic Director, Proyecto Teatro: We’re wanting to use this show to raise awareness of what we can do as a local community to take back our culture, to take back our art form and our identity.

Journey Love Taylor: But this isn’t just a play. It’s a cabaret, and it’s performed completely in Spanish.

Luis Armando Ordaz Gutierrez: This type of work, you don’t really see it so much in Spanish, and you don’t see this type of work in the Latino community, because cabaret is derived from European art forms, and so it’s a little odd and a little different and new to see it in the context of our culture.

And so when people saw it, they were just so happy to be able to see their stories, their people, their characters in the lens of cabaret with, like, the musical numbers and the dance sequences and the jazzy music.

Valeria Smeke, Dancer and Performer: My favorite part about being involved in this production specifically, I think, would be the dances.

There’s one with, like, chairs. You have your little, like, chair dance routine. I love that one.

Rachel Rivera, Choreographer, Makeup, Costume, and Hair Artist: Being a part of something so impactful in my community feels like a great responsibility, especially since I feel that I am a leader and someone who creates something for other people to see and other people that are not part of my culture to see, to make sure that what I’m doing always carries that intention that I want it to carry and the intention of respecting and honoring my culture.

Valeria Smeke: I really don’t get a chance to, like, connect with my roots, so being here and, like, Rachel teaching us these indigenous dances, just learning about the history, it’s a really beautiful thing.

Journey Love Taylor: For the “PBS NewsHour” Student Reporting Labs, I’m Journey Love Taylor.

[Proyecto Teatro was founded in 2007 and is located at 5700 Avenue G, Austin, Texas 78752-4510.  The Principal, or Artistic Director, is Luis Ordaz.  The company can be contacted at (512) 524-8555 or info@proyectoteatro.com; the website is www.proyectoteatro.com.] 

*  *  *  *

[Because the NewsHour report was so brief, I went looking for some other coverage of Proyecto Teatro.  The two pieces below are both a little older (pre-pandemic) than the one above, but I found them informative and interesting.]

“TEATRO CON TENACIDAD
THE SHAPE OF LATINA/O THEATRE IN AUSTIN”
by Emi Aguilar and Roxanne Schroeder-Arce 

[This article was posted in the website HowlRound on 19 June 2015.]

This is the second of seven posts in a series about the state of Latina/o theatre in Texas.  In this series, each of the contributing writers presents insight into the happenings, developments, and future of Latina/o theatre and performance in their respective regions.

Austin, Texas hosts several Latina/o theatre companies, and each year more historically white institutions are producing plays with Latina/o themes and characters. In past the few seasons, Austin Latina/o theatre companies like Teatro Vivo, ALTA Teatro (Austin Latina/o Theatre Alliance), and Proyecto Teatro have produced and showcased plays from the Latina/o experience, while other mainstream companies like ZACH Theatre, Austin Community College, and the University of Texas at Austin have produced plays with Latina/o themes, characters, and bodies. Additionally, presenting houses like the Paramount Theatre presented productions from Latin America and US Latina/o theatres. Overall, the number of Latina/o productions being offered in Austin is growing, and represent a diversity of perspectives and aesthetics from Austin Latina/o communities. However, there is still relatively little Latina/o theatre in comparison to the number of Latina/o-identified people living in Austin. What exists is sporadic, hard to find, and in some cases reeks of appropriation and tokenism. In an attempt to paint a picture of the current Austin Latina/o theatre scene, we will highlight some of the challenges Latina/o theatre in Austin faces and articulate how the Austin Latina/o theatre community is responding to such challenges.

One issue faced by Latina/o theatre artists in Austin over the past several decades is the need for a consistent venue for Latina/o arts. The Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center currently hosts four performance groups, including ALTA, Teatro Vivo, Proyecto Teatro, and Aztlan Dance Company. Each company has its own artistic and social objectives. This center, often referred to as “the MACC,” has helped with the need for a consistent space where the Latina/o community and those interested in Latina/o arts can find theatre told from the uniquely Latina/o perspective. This magnificent new facility also provides free parking for sanctioned events, though it is taking some time for the Austin community at large to become accustomed to attending events at the MACC.

One resident company of the MACC, ALTA, has been in existence for over fifteen years. The company’s mission has recently changed, and it now works as a community of artists and volunteers to foster new Latina/o theatre talent in Austin. ALTA promotes collaborative productions among local and international artists. ALTA’s productions are typically written by Latin American playwrights, and produced in Spanish with English subtitles. One exception is their annual Pastorela. Conceived and directed by Patricio Villareal, La Pastorela 2013 engaged the Austin community in a way that is rarely experienced elsewhere in the City. At the end of the play, the young and young at heart pummeled a Satan piñata in a joyful community ritual. 

[La Pastorela dates back many centuries, performed during the Christmas season by amateur and professional artists, in theaters and churches, in Mexico and in Mexican communities since the middle part of the last millennium. La Pastorela changes from year to year and from production to production, but at its core its always the same story. It’s the story, usually told with humor and song, of the shepherds who are visited by angels and told to go to Bethlehem and see the newborn Jesus. In the course of the trip to Bethlehem, the devils come and try to trick the shepherds. The details of the story are often changed to reflect the current state of the world.] 

Proyecto Teatro also typically produces work in Spanish. The company’s mission is “to preserve and promote the Latin-American culture through theatre, providing a source of transformative arts education and quality cultural entertainment.” Proyecto Teatro strives to offer theatre artists and audience members a space conducive to human development through the arts. Recently, Proyecto Teatro produced an original piece called Por Los Mojados, which was devised and performed by young people ages seven to seventeen, under the direction of the company’s executive and artistic director, Luis Armando Ordaz Gutiérrez. Combining visceral dialogue, contemporary dance, and comedic elements, Por Los Mojados showed the realities of border crossings from the youth perspective. Working as an ensemble, the young artists courageously implicated the US and Mexican governments in these violent experiences to put truthful narratives on stage. The production is set to tour to Los Angeles this fall.

Teatro Vivo produces and promotes bilingual theatre, and strives to “nurture a window into the community to make theatre accessible to all audiences, especially those underserved in the arts.” Founded by Rupert Reyes and JoAnn Carreon Reyes, Teatro Vivo’s mission is to produce culturally relevant Latina/o theatre that addresses critical social issues such as colorism, citizenship, and cultural fluidity. Teatro Vivo serves the community by telling stories that positively reflect the Latina/o community and uniquely celebrates the vibrancy of the Latina/o culture. A highlight of Teatro Vivo’s season each year is the Austin Latina/o New Play Festival, produced by Teatro Vivo in collaboration with Scriptworks. Now in its fifth year, the 2015 festival featured three Texas playwrights, Andrew Valdez from Austin, Jelisa Jay Robinson from Houston, and Adriana Garcia from San Antonio. Each playwright was selected through a blind panel and then given over a month to work with a dramaturg and develop their play. The process included auditions, a week of rehearsal, and a staged reading at the MACC followed by a post-show discussion. Teatro Vivo always offers these discussions as a mode of community engagement through which audiences affect the shape that each new play takes. Based on what they have discovered throughout the festival, each of the playwrights has expressed their desire to continue their own play development process.

ZACH Theatre, a historically white institution, recently began consistently staging plays with Latina/o themes, bodies, and characters. In collaboration with Teatro Vivo, ZACH is producing Latina/o works *through their Theatre for Families program. Cenicienta, a bilingual production for young audiences based on Cinderella, features a strong-minded Latina more concerned with becoming a writer than marrying a prince. Written and devised by two artists from Austin, Rupert Reyes (Teatro Vivo) and Caroline Reck (Glass Half Full Theatre), Cenicienta uses object puppetry to tell a new Cinderella story. Cenicienta marks the second collaboration between Teatro Vivo and ZACH Theatre.

Educational institutions in Austin have also begun to produce more Latina/o theatre. The University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre & Dance produced Esperanza Rising in 2015, though their 2014 production of In The Heights faced challenges of representation in casting which led to student protests. Austin Community College also recently produced GUAPA by Caridad Svich. The value of representation of Latina/o stories on the stage is trickling down to the high schools throughout the state. Edinburg High School’s production of Zoot Suit from the Rio Grande Valley landed at the UIL state meet at UT Austin a few years ago, a grand and influential state theatre festival competition. Donna High School brought their production of blu by Tejana playwright Virgina Grise to the state meet this year.

As Austin continues to produce a diverse range of Latina/o stories in a variety of venues, we are hopeful that each company and artist gains more support and continues collaborations that engage deeply with the community. In addition to the theatre companies and educational institutions producing Latina/o theatre, several independent artists known on the national Latina/o theatre scene call Austin home, like Amparo Garcia-Crow, Adrian Villegas, and Raul Garza. New work is consistently generated in Austin and spread throughout the nation.

Through a newly founded theatre collective in Austin, TIA: Teatro In Austin, we hope to continue the dialogue about how each of these works is in conversation with one another and with the current national Latina/o theatre community’s momentum. Austin Latina/o theatre companies and artists are tenacious and eager to share their stories with diverse audiences far and wide.

*  *  *  *
“AUSTIN THEATER TROUPE RECOGNIZED
FOR PLAY ABOUT ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION”
by Marlon Sorto 

[Marlon Sorto’s article about Proyecto Teatro’s winning a local theater award was posted on the website of the Austin American-Statesman on 4 September 2016; it was updated on 25 September 2018.]

When the Latino kids in the theatre company Proyecto Teatro debuted their first play “Por los Mojados” in March, they aimed to expose Austin audiences to some of the not-so-well-known history of illegal immigration from Latin America to the United States.

They did not expect that many months and performances later they’d be nominated for five B. Iden Payne Awards, which recognize exceptional theatrical performance, production, and design in Austin.

Proyecto Teatro, a local organization which promotes Latino culture through theatre in Spanish, also plans to start a tour to perform this show across the country. The youth company is mostly made up of Latino kids 9 to 17 years old.

The Payne Awards nominations committee includes local theater performers, producers and advocates and nominated the play in the youth category for Outstanding Production and Outstanding Direction in Theatre. The production also was nominated for Outstanding Original Script, Outstanding Choreography and Outstanding Cast.

The awards ceremony will be held Oct. 26 [2016] at the Rollins Studio Theatre in the Long Center. The troupe will tour with the play across the country, beginning in Nov. 19 in Austin and before visiting cities such as San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, El Paso, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Miami.

“We are very happy to help change the perception about the Hispanic community here in Austin and in the United States,” said Luis Ordaz, executive and artistic director of Proyecto Teatro. Ordaz also wants to submit the play to the Festival Cervantino in Guanajuato, Mexico, in 2016, he said.

“Por los Mojados,” which combines theater performance in Spanish with English surtitles, dance and video, was inspired by the border crisis in 2014. More than 60,000 unaccompanied minors entered illegally into the United States, escaping violence and gang threats in their home countries in Central America, said Ordaz.

The actors spent several months researching and writing the script, a process guided by Ordaz, he said.

The title of the production, “Por Los Mojados” — which translates to “For the Wetbacks” — aims to reclaim a derogatory term by reflecting the tough experiences and raw stories of Latino undocumented immigrants, Ordaz said. With this production, the ensemble has the opportunity to “highlight the work of Latinos and show that we are not (all) ‘criminals and rapists’ as a politician said recently, but a community which has a rich culture and the same artistic potential as Anglos.”

Ordaz referred to comments made by presidential candidate Donald Trump.

The show also challenges audiences, explained Ordaz, especially when it describes some darker passages of history, such as the Inquisition in Colonial Latin America and United States intervention through policies like the Truman Doctrine, which critics say was the beginning of a long process by which the U.S. increasingly played the role of world police force.

[With the Truman Doctrine, President Harry S. Truman (1884-1972; 33rd President of the United States: 1945-53) established that the United States would provide political, military, and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces.]

“Although we are very young, we are professional actors and we have worked a lot under our director to create a great script about this very sensitive and controversial issue,” actress Briana Campos said.

The Arts & Health

 

[Here are two reports from PBS NewsHour on the confluence of the performing arts and matters of health.  The first report concerns the beneficial effect of music on the health, particularly mental health, of people who aren’t musicians.  It’s proof that, indeed, “Music has charms to soothe a savage breast” (William Congreve [1670-1729], The Mourning Bride [1697]). 

[The second report examines the relationship between the Houston healthcare community and that city’s performing artists and performing arts institutions.  Performers, including actors and musicians but especially singers and dancers, are susceptible to many career-endangering health issues that “civilians” (as one of my teachers called artistic muggles) don’t face.  Houston’s hospitals and health-care facilities have developed a community of care for Houston’s performing artists that the professionals of both societal groups claim is unique.] 

“OPERA LEGEND RENÉE FLEMING TEAMS UP WITH
DR. FRANCIS COLLINS TO STUDY HOW MUSIC CAN IMPROVE HEALTH”
by Jeffrey Brown and Anne Azzi Davenport 

[The following story, about opera singer Renée Fleming and former NIH head Francis Collins working in tandem on the application of music therapy to a range of mental and emotional stresses, was reported on PBS NewsHour on 22 February 2024.  The transcript and video of the segment is at Opera legend Renee Fleming teams up with Dr. Francis Collins to study how music can improve health | PBS NewsHour.

[Note: The NewsHour transcript of its segments is annotated with the warning, “Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.”  In light of that statement, I have edited or corrected mistranscrIptions directly from the video, sometimes without marking them below.  I’ve also added annotations in brackets to clarify some remarks.]

Giants in their fields of music and science are merging their knowledge to propel advancements in body and mind. A recent international gathering of researchers, therapists and artists took stock of what is known and what is yet to be discovered. Jeffrey Brown reports for our ongoing arts and health coverage on CANVAS.

Amna Nawaz, “NewsHour” Co-Anchor: Two giants of music and science are merging their knowledge to propel advancements in body and mind.

Researchers, therapists, and artists from around the world gathered to explore what is known and what is yet to be discovered.

Jeffrey Brown takes a look and a listen for our ongoing arts and health coverage on Canvas.

Jeffrey Brown: [Renée Fleming singing in concert.] She is a singer, one of the world’s most beloved sopranos. But at times in her remarkable career, Renée Fleming has experienced terrible bouts of somatic pain [relating to or characteristic of the body as opposed to the mind or spirit], the body’s way of distracting her from the mental anxiety brought from performance.

Renée Fleming, Singer: I was never a natural performer. And so I just kept reading and reading about the mind-body connection, trying to understand more about what was causing this, et cetera. And I discovered that the medical profession and neuroscientists were studying music. And I asked him [indicating Dr. Francis Collins, sitting next to her] why one day.

Jeffrey Brown: He is the renowned physician-geneticist best known for his landmark discoveries of disease genes and leadership of the Human Genome Project.

Dr. Francis Collins, Former Director, National Institutes of Health: [26 June 2000, in the East Room of the White House, at the presidential conference, Decoding the Book of Life: A Milestone for Humanity] Today, we celebrate the revelation of the first draft of the human book of life.

Jeffrey Brown: Francis Collins headed the National Institutes of Health, the world’s largest supporter of biomedical research, for 12 years until 2021.

Dr. Francis Collins: I’m a doctor. I want to find every possible way to help people who are suffering from illnesses or other kinds of life experiences that are limiting their ability to flourish. I want to make everybody flourish, and music is such a powerful source of that kind of influence.

Jeffrey Brown: Together, they are leading proponents of a marriage of arts and health, advocates for research, understanding, and practice in the nexus of music and the brain.

We talked recently on the NIH campus [Bethesda, Md.] about their music and health initiative, now in its seventh year.

Renée Fleming: I believe the arts should be embedded in health care across the boards.

Jeffrey Brown: Embedded meaning?

Renée Fleming: Meaning, we already have it in many, many places. Many hospitals have discovered just how beneficial it is to have creative arts therapists on staff. Children’s hospitals should have a creative arts studio, I think, available to parents and their children and families. So, I just think it should be everywhere in health care.

Jeffrey Brown: It’s a growing movement, one we have been reporting on around the country, including neuroscientists at Johns Hopkins studying music’s impact on dementia patients, a hospital at the University of Florida incorporating arts into its care, individuals who’ve suffered traumatic brain injuries, like former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, playing the French horn to help rewire her brain and rebuild her ability to speak.

[Gabrielle Giffords (b. 1970) is a retired member of the United States House of Representatives from Maricopa County, Arizona, from January 2007 until January 2012. She suffered severe brain injury during an assassination attempt on 8 January 2011, when she was shot in the head.  Giffords resigned from Congress on 25 January 2012 to focus on her recovery and, as of 2016, has recovered much of her ability to walk, speak, read, and write, though she continues to struggle with language and had lost fifty percent of her vision in both eyes.]

Our understanding of the brain’s connections and responses is still in early stages, Francis Collins says, with projects like the NIH-funded BRAIN Initiative [Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies] helping show how individual circuits connect and respond. We do know some basics, however.

Dr. Francis Collins: I think you can say the acoustic cortex, which is where your brain processes incoming sound, and particularly musical sound, does have some pretty interesting circuits. It’s also plastic [easily shaped or molded]. It responds to training.

If you look at the brain of somebody who had intense musical training before age 7, you can actually see that part of the cortex is a little larger than in somebody who did not have that. So, our brains are responding to the environment very clearly in that way.

And then you can say, OK, if you have a musical experience that affects you, you can see how that signal that starts out in the acoustic cortex spreads to many other parts of the brain.

Jeffrey Brown: Maybe you have had an MRI? Renée Fleming got in and sang for two hours.

(Singing [in the MRI machine])

Renée Fleming: When I show this video to people, I always say, well, no Grammys for this performance.

(Laughter)

Jeffrey Brown: One interesting finding [was], that for an experienced singer like Fleming, her brain circuits were more active while she thought about or imagined singing than when she actually sang.

Did that surprise you?

Renée Fleming: It surprised me a great deal. It’s also — I think what’s even more surprising to me is that music actually is in every known mapped part of the brain. So it’s extraordinarily diverse and throughout the entire brain, as we know, as we currently understand it.

Jeffrey Brown: The research so far has a wide range of implications for child development, Alzheimer’s, and other forms of dementia, Parkinson’s, and other conditions and interventions.

Some research goes on in labs, some in the world, as in a study in which individuals were offered singing lessons. One group was given individual training, the other as part of a chorus.

Dr. Francis Collins: For 12 weeks, and to just see what happens as far as their health, the people that had individual singing, they did OK. The people in the choir, by all kinds of measures, were actually affected in a very positive way.

Many of them had chronic pain. Their chronic pain was noticeably reduced. They had various measures of personal attitudes. Their attitude toward generosity went straight up, and their oxytocin levels went up too, as another sort of hormonal measure of good will, good sense of health.

[Oxytocin is a hormone released by the pituitary gland. It plays roles in behavior that include social bonding, sexual activity, reproduction, childbirth, and the period after childbirth.]

Renée Fleming: My favorite is, postpartum depression is tremendously benefited by singing in a choir. I would never have — I wouldn’t have guessed that.

Narrator: Having even one risk factor . . . .

Jeffrey Brown: In fact, you know those advertisements for drugs we’re all bombarded with?

Narrator: [Clip from a television commercial] Ask your doctor or pharmacist if Paxlovid is right for you.

Jeffrey Brown: Renée Fleming has one she’d like to see.

Renée Fleming: Ask your doctor if music therapy is right for you.

(Laughter)

Jeffrey Brown: As a kind of prescription.

Renée Fleming: Exactly. Exactly.

(Crosstalk)

Dr. Francis Collins: The prescription. Why not?

Jeffrey Brown: Yes, but you have to — you’re saying it still has to be shown exactly in a scientific method . . .

Dr. Francis Collins: Yes.

Jeffrey Brown: . . . for a doctor to be willing to prescribe it.

Dr. Francis Collins: Sure. That’s our system, and I’m totally behind it. You need evidence that this actually isn’t just a nice thing; it actually improves outcomes.

I’m pretty convinced from the data we have that’s the case for various places, but let’s tighten that up. Let’s make it absolutely incontrovertible. And then you will have a better chance with the insurance companies saying OK, because that may save them money in the long run.

Man: [Instructor of a music therapy demonstration in a conference] Let’s listen to this melody line as it floats all the way up.

Jeffrey Brown: At this recent gathering and others, Fleming and Collins are advancing new findings through a variety of collaborations, including NIH Music and Health with 20 NIH institutes, the Kennedy Center’s Sound Health partnership, and the Renée Fleming Foundation.

Everything you’re talking about requires a kind of buy-in from your communities, the arts world and the science world. But is there still pushback?

Dr. Francis Collins: There’s a bit, but I think were getting some real momentum going. It doesn’t hurt that scientists are also musicians. At least, many of them are.

This workshop, we invited multiple leadership at NIH to come and take part, and they all said pretty much yes, and they went away saying, that was even more interesting than I thought.

Jeffrey Brown: A young person now goes to the music conservatory, you want them to study therapy, science, health?

Renée Fleming: Well, these would be divisions within a conservatory or university.

But there’s definite buy-in now. But when I started, people were saying exactly what you’re saying, is, well, we have too much to do already with what we’re doing, in terms of presenting, and we’re strapped, and the funding is difficult, et cetera, et cetera.

But I think pretty much everyone is on board now, because we’re community service providers. So, I think people who run performing arts organizations and conservatories are starting to see the benefit of it.

Jeffrey Brown: And these two don’t just talk about bringing their disciplines together. They have been known to give it literal form, as amateur musician Francis Collins accompanies science-fascinated Renée Fleming.

For the “PBS NewsHour,” I’m Jeffrey Brown at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

(Music [Fleming on stage singing with Collins accompanying on guitar and signing])

(Applause)

Amna Nawaz: And Fleming has edited a collection of essays from scientists, artists, and therapists called “Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness” [Penguin Publishing Group; publication date: 9 April 2024]. That’s due out this spring.

[I want to connect this NewsHour report on the benefits of music to anguished souls to some past posts on Rick On Theater that touch on the same or similar topics.  The first is “Theater: A Healing Art,” published on 3 September 2023, in which I examine the function of theater as a healing event for those who witness it and those who perform it.

[One example I gave of this phenomenon was a play, The Last Cyclist, written by a concentration camp inmate for his fellow prisoners.  In my report, posted on 2 and 5 September 2022, on the play which was reconstructed and staged and then filmed, I observed that it was, first, a healing force for the incarcerated Jews 80 years ago by reducing their dire circumstances to their farcical foundations.  Then it was a healing phenomenon for both the modern actors, mostly non-Jews, who performed the reconstruction and the modern audiences who saw it in the present day.

[A more contemporary play that was conceived as a healing event for the participants and the spectators was Last Out: Elegy of a Green Beret, a play about combat service in Afghanistan and its effects on the GI’s and their families on which I reported on 10 July 2023.

[On 28 August 2020, I ran “Yo-Yo Ma on the Artist’s Role in the Time of Covid-19,” a collection of articles on the famous cellist’s call for musicians and other artists “to take up a role in the struggle against the pandemic and its consequences.  He especially focused on the issues of raising the spirits of Americans who were struggling under the health threat and the psychological burdens of being confined to their homes.”  This lines up precisely with the work of Dr. Francis Collins with Renée Fleming, reported above.

[In his moe than 30-year career with PBS NewsHour, Brown’s served as co-anchor, studio moderator, and field reporter on a wide range of national and international issues, with work taking him around the country and to many parts of the globe. As arts correspondent, he’s profiled many of the world's leading writers, musicians, actors and other artists. Among his signature works at the NewsHour: a multi-year series, “Culture at Risk,” about threatened cultural heritage in the United States and abroad; the creation of the NewsHour’s online “Art Beat”; and hosting the monthly book club, “Now Read This,” a collaboration with the New York Times.

[As Senior Coordinating Producer of “Canvas,” Anne Davenport is the primary field producer of arts and culture pieces and oversees all coverage. She’s been leading “Canvas” since its beginning, collaborating with Chief Arts Correspondent Jeffrey Brown for most of her 21 years at PBS NewsHour as well as with others.] 

*  *  *  *
“HOW A HOUSTON MEDICAL CENTER IS
HARMONIZING HEALTH AND PERFORMING ARTS”
by Jeffrey Brown and Alison Thoet 

[Before the report on the use of music to reduce stress and distress, correspondent Jeffrey Brown covered the Houston collaboration between the health-care facilities and the performing arts institutions of the city.  The segment aired on PBS NewsHour on 2 October 2023 and is online at How a Houston medical center is harmonizing health and performing arts | PBS NewsHour.]

The Center For Performing Arts Medicine is an unusual partnership of a world-class hospital and world-class performing arts organizations. It was founded in 1992 with a focus on singers, but then something unexpected happened. Jeffrey Brown reports from Houston for our arts and culture series, CANVAS.

Amna Nawaz, “NewsHour” Co-Anchor: It’s an unusual partnership, a world-class hospital and world-class performing arts organizations, a model in the growing field that brings together health and the arts.

Jeffrey Brown reports from Houston for our ongoing series, Canvas.

Woman [Dr. Yin Yiu]: We’re just going to get a look at your throat and your vocal cords. Breathe in.

Jeffrey Brown: We’re up close and personal with 25-year-old opera singer Emily Treigle and her vocal cords. This is her instrument, requiring constant care and attention.

Emily Treigle, Houston Grand Opera: It’s not like I’m playing the Trumpet or piano, like, if something goes wrong, you can see it. You know, it’s all in here. So, you need the professional to be able to go in and make sure that everything is going well.

Jeffrey Brown: In July, after multiple tonsil infections, Treigle, a mezzo-soprano, had a tonsillectomy. All went well, and, this day, she was getting a checkup ahead of the Houston Grand Opera’s new season.

For someone in your position, what’s the problem? I mean, what’s the thing you have to deal with or worry about most with your voice?

Emily Treigle: The short answer is everything. The long answer is, it’s incredibly challenging to be in a career that there are so many variables attached to it.

And so our task as singers is to have such a good, solid technical foundation that we can defy whatever odds are thrown at us and just continue to be able to produce a really beautiful sound. And when it’s something that’s outside of our control, our technical realm, that’s when we end up back here and say, something is not working. Can we do a checkup and make sure that everything is where it’s supposed to be?

Dr. Yin Yiu, Houston Methodist Hospital: We really encourage our singers as vocal athletes.

Jeffrey Brown: Working with Treigle, Dr. Yin Yiu, a laryngologist at the Texas Voice Center at the Houston Methodist Hospital. As she puts it, she’s the T in the ENT [ear, nose, and throat].

She doesn’t sing herself, though some of her colleagues do, but she loves the challenge of caring for singers.

Dr. Yin Yiu: We think about athletes, right, and they have like this whole team of people that take care of them. And we don’t really think about performers.

So, singers, actors, people who do, like, use their voice in that capacity, we don’t think about them in that same way. But they can also have injuries, right? So, they can be performing and have different things happening. The vocal cords can get swollen. They can have vocal cord hemorrhage or bleed whenever. They’re singing. These are all things that can happen. And we get to be that team for them.

[The “swollen” vocal cords Dr. Yiu mentions may refer to laryngeal polyps or nodules, which can appear as swelling and can cause symptoms including hoarseness or breathiness, “rough” or “scratchy” voice, decreased pitch range, and vocal and bodily fatigue.  It was the condition with which singer-actress Julie Andrews was diagnosed in 1997—although she disputes the diagnosis—and as a result of the surgical treatment for which, she lost her magnificent singing voice.  

[Dr. Yiu has omitted from her list of vulnerable performers arguably the most susceptible to physical injury—though not usually to the throat: dancers.  These artists are brought up later in the report.]

Jeffrey Brown: The Texas Voice Center is part of the hospital’s highly unusual program, the Center for Performing Arts Medicine. Founded by Dr. Richard Stasney in 1992, it all began with a focus on singers, but then something unexpected happened.

Todd Frazier has led the center since 2012.

Todd Frazier, System Director, Center for Performing Arts Medicine: We started to get preachers, newscasters, classroom teachers, anyone that would associate their voice to what they do professionally.

[I would add to the list of potential professional subjects, lawyers, specifically litigators.  When I was an acting student and then a teacher of acting, along with the occasional priest or teacher, I saw a number of lawyers taking acting classes.]

And that’s when the hospital realized that, yes, there really is something special and unique here, and that’s unique to Houston as well.

Jeffrey Brown: The center then grew to support performing artists of all kinds from Houston’s thriving arts community, as well as from all over the country. Crucially, it also developed official relationships with several of Houston’s leading performance art groups.

Todd Frazier: There are a lot of unique health issues that show up in the arts community that deserve a home and deserve a place to be cared for.

Jeffrey Brown: Are you surprised that this is a thing now between the hospital and arts organizations?

Todd Frazier: I’m not surprised that its successful, because I am from the arts community [he’s a composer, trained at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, and the Juilliard School in New York City], and I really knew that the artists were yearning for a home and a sympathetic place that they would be understood.

But I am — have to be surprised that a major hospital would sort of take this on in a way that’s sort of unprecedented. They felt it fit with their values to be supporting the arts and culture within the community of Houston, which all the hospitals are in Houston. And the physicians really enjoyed being able to help these talented people making their lives and homes here in Houston.

Jeffrey Brown: One major partner, the Houston Ballet, which now has an on-site clinic, giving dancers like Kellen Hornbuckle daily access to athletic trainers and physical therapists.

[Readers may remember some years ago, professional and college athletes, football players in particular, were discovered taking dance classes to help them tone and coordinate their bodies.  I wonder if it’s still common.]

Dr. Kevin Varner, Houston Methodist Hospital: The types of injuries that ballet dancers get are very unique. It’s a very unique population. And while they are performing artists, they are incredible athletes.

Jeffrey Brown: Kevin Varner is the chairman of orthopedic surgery at Houston Methodist Orthopedic Sports Medicine.

Dr. Kevin Varner: It’s interesting to look at how things evolved over the last 15 or 20 years in terms of dancer health. And, remember, it’s a big team approach, right? So, you really need a hospital that wants to be a partner, because you need not just orthopedic surgery.

You need nutrition. You need cardiology. You need primary care sports medicine, so people that take care of the dancer as a whole [and] when you do that, it really does improve dancer health.

Jeffrey Brown: In this session, Hornbuckle received dry needling, cupping, massaging, and other treatments to alleviate pain in her legs and prevent serious injury.

[Dry needling is a treatment for pain and movement issues in which thin needles are inserted into or near trigger points to stimulate the muscles, causing them to contract or twitch. This helps relieve pain and improve the range of motion. Cupping is a traditional therapeutic treatment in which heated cupping glasses are applied to the skin, supposedly to draw blood towards the surface for relieving internal congestion or loosening and stimulating the muscles.]

The big idea, according to Houston Ballet executive director James Nelson, change from reactive to proactive care.

James Nelson, Executive Director, Houston Ballet: So, when I was dancing, we never had any on-site care. It was always, wait until you’re broken, then go to the doctor, then get it fixed.

At the end of the day, it’s a very short career. And so to be able to give an artist a year, two years, five years more of this precious time is such a gift. And I attribute a lot of that to this partnership with Methodist. You won’t find this kind of relationship in most ballet companies.

Jeffrey Brown: Back at the hospital, Frazier sees this kind of focus on the performing arts only growing in the future.

Todd Frazier: Many universities are starting arts and health certificates, music therapy degrees.

And even medical schools are looking at internships in artists health or how artists might be cared for to develop those skills. And it is growing.

Jeffrey Brown: Meanwhile, singer Emily Treigle is ready to go.

Your throat looks great. I mean, I saw it.

(Laughter)

Emily Treigle: Thank you. Who knew my tonsils were so big? I had no idea. But now that I don’t have them, I certainly notice their absence.

I’m very excited about this coming season and seeing how things change now that I don’t have this obstacle.

Jeffrey Brown: Treigle performs [as Meg Page] with the Houston Grand Opera later this month in Giuseppe Verdi’s “Falstaff” [27 October-10 November 2023].

For the “PBS NewsHour,” I’m Jeffrey Brown in Houston, Texas.

[Jeffrey Brown’s bio and credits are reported above. Alison Thoet is a writer and a “Canvas” associate producer and national affairs associate producer at PBS NewsHour.]