Blindspot Collective Sings ‘Human Anthems’ Amid Pandemic Grief

Speaker 1: 00:00 The human toll of the pandemic goes beyond statistics and charts. For many families, their worlds have been completely devastated by laws. One local theater company is turning their memories and stories into original songs to honor. And eulogize lives lost during the pandemic here's KPBS arts editor and producer Julia Dickson Evans. With the story Speaker 2: 00:23 Spot collective, a San Diego based theater company has made a name for themselves in recent years with inclusive site specific works, including being featured in the LA Jolla playhouses without walls festival. This summer they've launched refractions, which is a project that creates human anthems, original songs written to honor lives lost during the pandemic. The first song blind-spot produced honored the memory of Juliet Davis. Her son, TAVI McNeil told Davis his story to songwriters, Brian, Barbara and Kendrick dial, who wrote mama's going to work it out Speaker 1: 01:10 [inaudible] Speaker 2: 01:11 Well, that pandemic has sidelined blind spots, operations. In many ways, artistic director, Blake McCarty said it has also created a sort of intersection of the values, the company stripes. Speaker 1: 01:22 She had challenges, performing artists to really reimagine what it is. Theater can look like. Speaker 2: 01:29 They've also long been interested in telling true first person documentary style stories, verbatim theater or documentary theater is a specific form of nonfiction, drama, and playwriting that involves conducting interviews and transforming them into script. During the pandemic, when family is affected by losses or sickness become statistics, blindspot wanted to put those skills to work and honor victims by telling their story. Speaker 1: 01:56 Every piece of dialogue is something that is, it is real and authentic from an interview source. And so every character is based specifically on a real person and their true and real experiences Speaker 2: 02:21 Calling from stories and interviews helps humanize and memorialize something bigger than just one person. Speaker 1: 02:28 Documentaries are not truth. They are still someone's perspective. The ability to actually like embrace someone's reality without making that reality sort of monolithic in any way. Speaker 2: 02:40 Shelina Hafner one of the artists leading the project said storytelling is critical while communities are struggling with grief, but it's a role that she and many other performers are missing right now with stages shuttered. At least for me, our job is to create empathy and it's to tell stories. Um, and a lot of us right now, aren't doing Speaker 1: 03:08 The fact that all of these Speaker 2: 03:12 Numbers that were flooded with on television and we're losing the, the individual Speaker 1: 03:19 In this moment. Yeah. Speaker 2: 03:20 You know, we see like 300 new cases yesterday and we think, Oh, that's a lot. You know, and people get, I think that we're losing who those people are. The group pairs, grieving families with songwriters and performers to produce original music with lyrics taken directly from the interviews and conversations with levels Speaker 1: 03:42 Two way here. I missed the sound of your voice. Every echo of your wisdom, sing songs of your song. Saving me from myself. I know he's still watching me. Speaker 2: 03:51 They first gathered stories from families using one-on-one interviews. It's a way to get to know a person beyond the statistics, the things they loved, their catchphrases and what the friends and family remember about them. They also ask what kind of music the person liked and the types of music the family listens to together in the absence of public funerals. This process parallels the human need to eulogize their loved ones. When these songs are shared, they put a face and a story to the human toll of the planet. Speaker 1: 04:20 Do you still feel you still live? You still, still, still love you. Speaker 2: 04:32 TAVI McNeil said his mother Juliet had raised him with music and loved music during her life. The song was exactly what it needed to be. Speaker 1: 05:01 That was KPBS arts editor, Julia Dickson Evans blind spot collective is still gathering stories from families who wish to honor loved ones. You can find out how to get involved@kpbs.org.