FDA authorizes first COVID booster for children ages 5 to 11

S1: The FDA approved boosters for 5 to 11 year olds.
S2: They expanded their emergency use authorization to allow boosters for children ages five through 11 years old.
S1: I'm Jade Hindman with Maureen CAVANAUGH. This is KPBS Midday Edition.
S3:
S1: And a valley center woman convicted of murdering her husband is now free and her conviction set aside. Plus , a look behind the production mud row. That's ahead on Midday Edition. Yesterday , the Food and Drug Administration authorized a COVID 19 booster for kids ages five through 11 years old. The authorization covers children in that age group who have received their initial series of the Pfizer Biontech vaccine at least five months ago. The news comes as case numbers are increasing again nationwide , as well as here in California , raising alarms that we may be on the cusp of yet another coronavirus surge. Here to talk more about the latest news is KPBS health reporter Matt Hoffman. Matt , welcome back to Midday Edition.
S2: Great to be here with you , Jane.
S1:
S2: Now , we knew that this was something that was coming , but the FDA is just sort of one part here. They authorized it. They checked the safety. They looked at 400 different kids and they said flat out that the benefits of a vaccine outweigh any risks.
S1: You spoke with the medical director of infectious diseases from Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego.
S2: He said that they're seeing more sick kids coming in. He also notes that some of those kids that are being hospitalized because of COVID , they're largely those that don't are there , that are not vaccinated or those who are not eligible. So that even kids that are under five where there's no vaccine available yet. But there's a lot you know , generally even the FDA says , you know , we know that COVID generally impacts younger kids less , but there's still impacts and there's still kids that are going to the hospital. There still have been reported deaths. And then we have this whole idea of long COVID and there's so much that we don't know about that yet. They're still doing studies on it. And so it's something that they're definitely paying attention to.
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S2: I mean , the total percentage. So population , the county estimates there's about 310,000 kids ages between five and 11 and under half. About 43% of those have gotten at least one dose of vaccine. Now , that's pretty low compared to every other age group. I mean , 12 to 17 years old , 83% , 18 to 29 years old , 76%. And then we get to 90% as we move up. So definitely lagging behind. And that's something that's been a challenge for for health care officials is to vaccinate some of the youngest kids. And we asked three children's hospital , you know , why ? Why do you think that is ? And they said , we don't know. They think it might be a combination of some misinformation , but also maybe just the general notion that kids don't get a sick.
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S2: And , you know , with those 5 to 11 already , you know , not having a huge uptake in the initial vaccines , will there be a demand for for these boosters ? Keep in mind , parents have to , you know , authorize these boosters for kids. You know , we still have to wait for the CDC to give their recommendations here. But Rady Children's says that they're , you know , pending. If that happens later this week , early next week , they're going to be ready to move as early as next Tuesday to start delivering these boosters. So people are ready to go.
S1: And as you just mentioned , there is another body that needs to sign off on this before it takes effect , and that is the CDC.
S2: And so we could have an announcement. Sometimes they move very , very quickly. So we could have an announcement later this week. But I've also heard maybe early next week. So it should be coming within the next few days , either just before the weekend or just after the weekend.
S1: The last group who aren't able to get the coronavirus vaccine is Kids under five. The FDA said vaccines for them may become available as early as June.
S2: And we've heard this from doctors because we know that that the COVID impacts younger kids less. So if they're going to put out a vaccine for younger people , they have to make sure that that vaccine is incredibly safe. And we saw in this recent FDA trial with the boosters , 5 to 11 , they looked at about 400 kids. You know , some of the symptoms that they saw were like redness or some pain swelling around the injection site , some headaches , typical stuff that you might see with the flu shot. So they really have to evaluate the data here. And we know that trials are underway for kids under five , but it's really unclear when this could happen. But we know we're hearing from medical professionals that that's sort of like the last chink in the chain , so to speak.
S1: There are signals that a new surge may be upon us. Just yesterday , state officials announced. The coronavirus test positivity rate reached 5% for the first time since February , and case numbers are increasing rapidly in other parts of the country.
S2: You know , we were averaging for a while , you know , 200 cases a day , 300 cases a day. But in the last couple of weeks , you know , we've seen that increase , you know , averaging about 600 cases a day. Even about a week ago , we had 1200 cases and we had 940 daily cases. So the numbers are increasing. And I will note , too , when we try to look at the scope of the problem , you know , sometimes you might be talking with your friends or some family members. They tested positive. A lot of times they're taking at home tests. So these are not official PCR tests where you go out , they send it to a lab so they're not being counted in these totals. So officials are definitely keeping that in mind that , you know , while we have these official numbers , there's a lot of people that are doing these at home tests , especially now that you can order more. The Biden administration announced that. So it's harder to grab a scope of what the problem is. But we know that cases are increasing here , definitely nowhere near where we were with our last winter surge , but there are some slight increases.
S1: What about hospitalizations ? Are they on the rise as well ? Slightly.
S2: I mean , so , you know , we were we had , you know , more than a thousand people hospitalized during our winter surge. And as it stands right now in San Diego County , we have 120 COVID 19 related hospitalizations. So a pretty low number there now. It has increased a little bit. You know , the 14 day average was about 108 people hospitalized. It's up to 120 now. Same thing with ICU seeing a slight increase of about five people on average over the last couple of weeks. So some slight increases. But I will say to , you know , something we've known throughout the whole pandemic that hospitalizations are sort of like a lagging indicator. You know , you get sick and then , you know , maybe you have the illness for a few days and then you go to the hospital. So if we are going to see maybe an increase in hospitalizations , we might not see that right away where it correlates to two cases.
S1: I have been speaking with KPBS health reporter Matt Hoffman. Matt , thank you so much for joining us.
S2: Thanks , Jake.
S4: The COVID pandemic may change the way large buildings are designed in California and elsewhere. KPBS environment reporter Eric Anderson says most large buildings were designed to save power , not clean up air that may be carrying viruses.
S5: There's a huge metal grate just outside the UCSD Computer Science and Engineering Building. It's as long and wide as a Greyhound bus. In fact , bus would probably fit in the concrete room under the great air from outside. Rajesh Gupta is a computer science and engineering professor at the school.
S3: So pretty much every large building will have an impact like this.
S5: Outside air is drawn into the basement and pulled through a wall of filters , as filters are good enough to make sure the air pumped into the building is relatively clean.
S3: And this is a supply side. This will be the friend typing air into the whole building.
S5: Gupta's colleague , Charles Johnson , is in charge of the school's heating and AC systems. He says the fans are at the heart of this building's air delivery system. They're powerful enough to push massive amounts of air through the four story structure. They're blowing 45,000 cubic feet a minute. So 180,000 cubic feet a minute.
S2: Of air coming in here.
S5: And keeping this system running is crucial because , as Gupta points out , the building's windows don't open.
S2: So they're designed to recirculate air because that's the only way that's the main way you save energy.
S5: But there's a catch to saving energy. Recirculating that air can also push virus tainted aerosols around the inside of a building , and that could increase infection rates. It's something researchers in New York City noticed in their tall buildings early in the pandemic. So Gupta and his UCSD colleagues began looking at how to change air circulation patterns in buildings and even rooms.
S2: I can actually control every single room in this building.
S5: With a simple command on a laptop. Shoehorn food can change the entire building's airflow or just the airflow in an individual classroom. Fans can be powered up to circulate more air when people are detected and less air. When rooms are empty.
S2: They can send a very simple request to our server.
S5: The building's computer brain uses carbon dioxide sensors to detect when people are in a room. So building managers don't have to constantly check them. The whole system is designed to minimize exposure to a virus like COVID.
S3: But we spend 91% of our time indoors , and the air that we breathe indoors is often far worse.
S5: Kim Prather is an atmospheric chemist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She says the infected airborne particles can build up in an enclosed space like invisible and odorless secondhand smoke. But making complicated or costly changes to a building's existing heating and cooling system might not be enough.
S3: It does do some , it filters some. But when you've got a virus that's this infectious , you don't have to breathe very much of it in. So it's not enough by itself.
S5: Prather says masking remains a crucial strategy to fight the spread of COVID. She says another strategy involves a do it yourself tool. It's called a Corsi Rosenthal box that's an ordinary box fan on top of four highly rated furnace filters. It can clean 90% of the air in a room in just 15 minutes. And it doesn't cost hundreds of dollars like some commercial HEPA filters.
S3: They actually outperform EPA's , which is something I've grown to appreciate during the pandemic. They're faster. They pump so much more air , so much more quickly.
S5: The homemade boxes also circulate a room's air , eliminating pockets of infected aerosols. The devices have caught the eye of Rajesh Gupta. He puts his hand on a Corsi Rosenthal box , sitting in a common area of a UCSD computer lab.
S3: It cleans up the air much more.
S2: Inexpensively because all you have to do is find by the foil. Filters.
S3: Filters.
S2: And put a $20 fan.
S3: On it.
S5: The pop up filters are more cost efficient than spending hundreds of thousands of dollars upgrading a building's air filtration system. But they are a stopgap solution. Eventually , Gupta says , building design will have to adapt to better protect people from airborne viruses like COVID. Eric Anderson , KPBS News.
S4: Joining me is Dr. Kim Prather , atmospheric chemist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. And Kim , welcome to the program.
S3: Thank you. Thank you. Nice being here.
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S3: Many of us have been yelling for over two years. It's in the air. You know , we still you still to this day , walk in and see bottles of hand sanitizer and people , you know , wiping down shopping carts with no masks. And so , yeah , it's been it's been really frustrating. I am we are starting to see a little bit a little bit of a sign that people are getting it in the right places. But it's it's been a slow go.
S4:
S3: So outdoors is much safer. We know that you breathe out and it just dilutes into this vast volume of air. And so the concentrations never get that high indoor. Somebody breathes out , you know , they're infectious and they're just they don't know they're infectious. That's been one really tricky part about this. They just produce aerosols , these things that come out of your mouth and float and build up in a room , poorly ventilated spaces , very much like cigarette smoke. And so , you know , just envision being across the room from a cigarette smoker , you know , first you see kind of it coming out , then you smell and then the room's hazy , right ? We can't see this virus the same , but it behaves almost exactly the same.
S4: And not everyone's health improves just by opening up the windows , you know , because let's say in underserved neighborhoods , the air outside may be bad , too.
S3: This is a huge environmental justice issue , you know , that I've been trying to tell people because , you know , a lot of times people will just you know , the answer is just open the window. Right. And you're right. There is you know , there are people that live right near freeways and there is a socioeconomic issue to this. Right. They've been breathing the worst air of their whole lives. And so just opening the window to bring in fresh air isn't possible for a large fraction of the population.
S4: People have thought that they needed expensive HEPA air filtration systems for prevention , but the Corsi Rosenthal box we just heard about it actually does a better job.
S3: It really does. You know , I've grown to appreciate this box more than , you know , I mean , because I actually know both Rich Corsi and Jim Rosenthal. I've worked with them a lot on this issue. And , you know , it's it actually is like , you know , a 10th the cost. So it's accessible to everyone. And a lot of people are actually building them and donating them to people that can't afford them. But you can build one for less and less than $100. You know , there's studies showing you can reduce the amount of aerosols , which is what the virus is in. You can reduce them by as much as like 90% in 15 minutes with these boxes. And so , you know , they reduce smoke , they reduce pollution , you know , dander , all the allergens , they take everything out. And very quickly.
S4: You know , these boxes are , as you say , getting very popular. There are several videos showing you how to put a box together.
S3: And what happens is they pull the air , they suck the air in , it's passing through those filters and those four filters and the fan is sucking , drawing it in , and the virus gets stuck on those filters. And so then the air , the air is filtered , air goes back into the room and mixes in the room. And so , you know , the filters , we usually say they need to be changed about every six months. So it's kind of basically taping another four filters together again at that point.
S4: You know , there's a feeling among many people that the worst of the pandemic is over and maybe we don't have to take precautions like this anymore.
S3: First of all , I don't think it's unfortunately over. And second of all , you know , if you clean indoor air , you know , for this virus , you're cleaning out influenza. I mean , we just sort of have come to accept that every you know , every winter we're going to get you know , we're going to get the flu right multiple times. It doesn't have to be that way. And so there's just many like basically what we've come to realize , there's been a paradigm shift. I just published a paper in Science Review basically saying all these respiratory viruses have a significant airborne component that has been ignored. We've been you know , the medical field has been largely focused on what we call droplet dogma. They assume that these big the spray comes out and drops to the ground and all that. And so they focused on that. But but it's in the air. All of these viruses are in the air. And so to me , like , forward thinking is , you know , we need to clean indoor air. We need to reduce the amount of infection. People don't need to be sick all the time. There is a fix. Once you acknowledge it's in the air , it's completely fixable. So , like , why do we put up with breathing dirty air ? You know , I use the analogy that we don't put up with drinking dirty water. Right. If we see discolored water , we don't put it in our bodies yet. We are okay with breathing , you know , a hundred times more air a day and exposing ourselves , just breathing the pathogens right into our lungs. It just it just doesn't make any sense.
S4: I've been speaking with Dr. Kim Prather , atmospheric chemist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. And Kim , thank you so much for speaking with us.
S3: Thank you for having me.
S4: This is KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Maureen CAVANAUGH with Jade Heineman. It was a case that grabbed headlines more than 20 years ago. Jane Doe , critic of Valley Center , was convicted of murdering her husband , Robert , in their home and dumping his body on the road a short distance away. Prosecutors claim they had a mountain of forensic evidence from the murder scene and a money motive. Jane Doe critic steadfastly claimed she was innocent. Now , after a series of appeals , one conviction set aside an audit finding sloppy work by the San Diego Crime Lab and intervention from an Innocence Project and preparations for a new trial. This week , the San Diego County District Attorney's Office announced it would not retry Jane Doe critic. She is now free after spending 20 years in prison. And Jane Doe critic joins me now. Jane , welcome to the program.
S3: Thank you. Thank you for exposing a lot of what goes on within our so-called fair criminal justice system.
S4: Well , this announcement from prosecutors Monday that there would be no new trial. It was very sudden there was a jury pool already being assembled.
S3: My legal team , Paula mitchell with Loyola Project for the Innocence and Michael Lucchese , who was also joining in pro-bono , had both said they would not be surprised that at the final hour the DA's office would drop the case. And that's exactly what happened. So , of course , I was not not completely surprised , but incredibly relieved that. You know , I don't have to face another trial.
S4: You mentioned your attorneys. And so your case was taken up by the Project for the Innocent at Loyola Law School.
S3: Absolutely everything. They jumped in on my case in late 2015 after I had won a motion for more DNA testing. Some DNA testing had been done at my original trial and conviction , but. Not not enough DNA testing , for instance , they never tested DNA under my husband's fingernails. And he had clear defensive wounds. They never tested the murder weapon , even though we asked. So I want emotion after a new law came out. I want emotion in 2015 to have those things tested. And both of those pieces of evidence showed excluded me and showed male DNA present on the murder weapon and under my think my husband's fingernails. So Loyola helped me. They took an intensive look into all of the forensics originally used to convict me and found just incredible errors , malfeasance , inaccurate representations , and on and on. And they were able to take all of that information piece by piece and give it back to the days and say , look , here's here's your case. The D.A. is back in 2020 , overturned my original trial based on false forensics , and then 90 days later elected to retry me again , even though I've already spent 20 years in prison.
S4: And we know that an audit found security issues and testing errors at the crime lab earlier this year.
S3: And I believe the real answer to that is the fact that San Diego County , now the DA's office , has had to. Thanks to the investigation by Loyola Law School , Project for the Innocent has had to put out , what , two Brady letters on two ? Forensics people involved. In my case , an a Brady letter basically tells the criminal justice community that this person's. Reliability of their results. Perhaps their integrity in testifying is no longer to be relied upon. And that's looking backward at the all of the cases that those two forensic people were involved in. And any cases going forward , in each case , those two forensics people are now retired.
S4: Now , Jane , we received a statement from the San Diego district attorney's office about their decision not to retry your case. And let me read just a part of it to you. The district attorney's office is ethically bound to only proceed with trial if we believe the admissible evidence is sufficient to convince all 12 jurors that the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. We have concluded we can no longer ethically proceed with the prosecution of this defendant because the evidence is now insufficient to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Now , one thing that statement does not say is that you are innocent of this murder.
S3: I think generally the statements similar to what was put out in my case are carefully worded , somewhat vague and non-specific in order to. That preserves their. I don't know their perceived integrity.
S4:
S3: Yes , that that. It's very clear that I'm innocent. If you had if you looked at all the forensic evidence , no reasonable person could come to any conclusion except that I'm innocent and that many , many. Avenues that the DA's office had back in 2000 and have had since 2020 when my conviction was overturned. There were many other options for them to pursue in terms of investigation , and they have steadfastly chose not to.
S4:
S3: You know , they there were four witnesses that saw my husband out jogging the day after the prosecution said he was murdered in our bedroom. All of those witnesses were discounted , pushed aside , not interviewed initially. And there are other things that have come out in that immediate area with a series of violent attacks on people , one a month before , less than a month before my husband was killed , and two more right after he was killed , some of them completely provoked by one particular person and not investigated in terms of what happened to my husband. My husband went out for jogging and never returned. And who actually attacked him ? In my mind , it had to be two people anyway. Because how can you ? Bludgeon someone and strangle them at the same time , which is what their own coroner's report said. These incidents happen to happen simultaneously. So it's physically impossible for one person to do that anyway. It had to be two people.
S4:
S3: Having spent 20 years in prison , I have learned so much about what's wrong with the criminal justice system. What's wrong with the prison system ? What needs to be done so that we have a fair and equitable criminal justice system. I can tell you clearly we don't have that now. And I wish everyone , particularly prosecutors , would pursue truth and justice as vehemently as they and as zealously as they try and uphold the conviction in an effort to be right.
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S3: And I'm going to continue the work that I do. I've done an awful lot of advocacy work from when I was behind bars and have continued with the California Coalition for Women Prisoners , the D.A. Accountability Coalition , Cure , California , and a couple of other things. I'm going to continue that work. It seems more important than ever that society is able to really look at how important it is , who we put in , and judges who we put in as district attorneys , that they are people who are going to pursue truth and justice as opposed to a overly zealous maintenance of a wrongful conviction.
S4: Jane Bartek , thank you so much for taking the time and speaking with us. We appreciate it.
S3: Thank you.
S1: Bank to work day returns tomorrow in San Diego for the first time in three years. The annual event , organized by the San Diego Association of Governments , also known as SANDAG , has been happening for nearly 30 years during bike month in May this year , as more people start to head back to the office for work , they are encouraged to try bicycling as an alternative form of transportation. Joining me now to talk about Bike to Work Day is Antoinette Meyer , SANDAG director of Regional Planning. Antoinette , welcome. Hi.
S3: Hi. Good morning. Thank you , Jane.
S1:
S3: Bike to Work Day is a really good opportunity for people who've never biked before because we have so much encouragement , so many other riders that are out there that can help people with having a good first experience.
S1: We're talking about Bike to Work Day and working to encourage more people to try it , but there are some safety concerns out there in terms of bike paths versus protected bike lanes.
S3: But people who don't have a lot of experience riding aren't as comfortable in a lane that's just divided from traffic with paint. So that's why SANDAG is building a lot of protected bike ways across the region so that the everyday rider can feel safe and can feel comfortable riding their bike around the beautiful San Diego region.
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S3: Certainly during the pandemic , we saw a lot more people out and about riding their bikes. And as we build more safe bicycle infrastructure throughout San Diego County , we see a lot more people out there taking advantage of it.
S1: And tell us a bit about tomorrow's event.
S3: And all of the pit stops will offer riders free T-shirts if they've registered for the event. That's important. You have to register for the event , and then there's snacks and refreshments , and some of the pit stops have live music , yoga classes , special themes. It's a lot of fun. So there's a pit stop map that's also on our website , and you can take a look and map out a route that will work for you.
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S3: And even if you're working from home , it doesn't mean that you can't start your day with a bike ride before you return to your home office and log in for the day , a bike with your kids to school , go out for some exercise in the morning , bike anywhere , really.
S1: As more people are encouraged to bike to and from work if it's possible.
S3: So we have built 22 miles of new bikeways so far in the San Diego region , and there are 20 new SANDAG bike projects that are currently under construction and we'll be opening another 11 miles of bikeways before the end of 2022. So lots of new bike infrastructure that's safe for people throughout the region. And we actually have our new hot off the press bike map that has all of the bikeways across the county in the map. So it's a great tool for people to use to plan out a route to work or just for fun or tomorrow for a bike to work day. So you can pick up that bike map at any one of the pit stops. And we also have it available online.
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S3: We have our regional bike plan and we're constructing all of our early action projects now. But the goal is to really create those safe connections across the entire county , whether you're going north to south or east to west. There will be eventually protected bike paths that make all of those connections. And you can learn more about the regional bike plan on the SANDAG website.
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S3: Way up north. We've got the inland rail trail , but there are great bikeways throughout the county that you can find in the new bike map.
S1:
S3: And our bike map actually includes some basic safety tips on , you know , signaling and how to ride safely in traffic. And then , of course. A San Diego County Bike Coalition. One of our great partners for Bike to Work Day offers classes for new riders so you can learn how to ride in traffic , learn all of the safety tips , how to signal. So there's a lot of information out there for folks just learning how to ride.
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S3:
S1: I've been speaking with Antoinette Meyer , SANDAG , Director of Regional Planning. Antoinette , thank you very much for joining us.
S3: Thank you. I appreciate it. Have you bike to work that you.
S4: This is KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Maureen CAVANAUGH with Jade Hyneman. Mud Row is a work by playwright Dominique Morris. So about two different generations of sisters , one set in the 1960s and another in the present day , both living in the same house. Director Delicia Turner , Sonnenberg and actor Marti Goebel joined KPBS arts editor and producer Julia Dickson Evans to discuss the production. And here's their conversation. Delicious.
S6: Delicious. Let's start with the story Dominique Morrison is telling with the script and the way she is as one home and two generations of sisters.
S3: And it's beautifully written. The language is gorgeous and the relationships are really rich.
S6: And I want to zoom out a little bit to this year , which this play is of.
S3: So early sixties. And what protest signs demanding to be served. Right. That's the social movement that she is dealing with. And in the present , the undercurrent of what we're dealing with socially is gentrification and neighborhood change.
S6:
S3: That's my favorite kind of theater , like an intimate story , an intimate human story told against a broad backdrop. And in this particular case , the broad backdrop is social change in America , the history of this particular neighborhood. Mike Rowe with an added bonus for me of sisterhood and family as we deal with these two sets of sisters and how they love and disappoint each other. And one of the things that comes up for me a lot with the play is this idea of how hard it is to forgive those closest to you. And the the breathtaking journey of forgiveness.
S6: Marty , you play raging at one of the present time sisters. What kind of women are these four sisters ? Can you tell us a little bit about them. For.
S3: For.
S7: Both sets of sisters ? We have a palpable desire to move forward and to be comfortable in their home and also out in the world. And the way that those two sets navigate their individual desires and emotional needs is crisply detailed and articulated in this play.
S6: We have a short scene we can listen to where Rege-Jean and Da'Vonne , who's played by Randall McCormick , are discussing this house.
S7:
S3:
S7: I can't imagine we get more than 100,000.
S5: Some homes over here going for 240.
S2: I looked it up.
S7: These walls , old floors , the amount of work needed in the living room alone may make more sense to just knock it down and build a new one. I don't know.
S2: How you can say that with such. Detachment.
S7: Detachment. I am.
S3: Detached , not in blood of. Legacy.
S2: Legacy. You still have shreds of your self here. Don't undermine that.
S7: This place doesn't even smell familiar.
S2: It's been a while since memory.
S7: Something like nostalgia should be tugging at me right now. But all I feel is cold and distance. Mighty.
S6: Mighty. What is raging , grappling with in this moment.
S7: She's grappling with an incredibly unhappy childhood and the presentation of love that she got from her grandmother , which did not present as love. It presented as hardness. So to walk into this home that she hasn't been in in five years is soul shaking for her.
S6: So this is a play that is set on a street in West Chester , Pennsylvania. So it's a story that's already specifically rooted in a place.
S7: Constantly struck by the absence of porch culture , which is something that in many communities but for me universally in the African-American community , which is we would sit out and watch the children play and watch people get their hair done and be hot or be cool or be cold and the comings and goings of family or friends into particular homes. And I think one thing that we are definitely losing with gentrification and as we move forward in modern times is the notion of sitting on the porch and relating to your neighbors because they become an extended family or community. And I think that is addressed in a in a very loose way in the play. But it will resonate very richly with , I think , some of the older generations.
S6: Until this year. This is one of several times in recent months that you have directed a primarily black cast in a story by a black playwright on a San Diego stage. Here , Modrovich has written. In 2019 , there was the brand new 1222 oceanfront. There was the garden and also Trouble in Mind , which was written almost 70 years ago.
S3: Not only that , but the kinds of stories that all those plays you listed are so different from each other. The kind of recognition that there is more than one black story , for example. Marty spoke a little earlier about the universality. And I , I think another thing that all audiences will take away from this place is that sense of family and all families deal with conflict and the conflicts in this family. Some of them will be very resonant with the audience. This play spoke to me. I mean , it's to me in terms of its heart and its overall themes about change both externally and internally within the family and in the world and also within self. Those themes are also universal.
S7: Can I piggyback on on this ? This is actually in 20 years of work as an artist that works internationally. This is literally the second play in 20 years that I have been in with an all black cast and a black director. It doesn't happen that often , and I would sure love to see it occur more. So the specificity of this production is sadly applicable to American theater , and we do need to see more of that.
S4: That was actor Marty Goble and director Delicia Turner. Sonnenberg speaking with KPBS arts editor and producer Julia Dixon Evans. Mud Row opens at Cygnet Theatre with low cost previews starting tonight. Opening night is this Saturday. It's on stage through June 19th.