S1: It's time for Midday Edition on KPBS. Today's show is all about the art and culture you can find around town. I'm Jade Hindman with conversations that keep you informed , inspired , and engaged. Novelist Sandra Cisneros talks about her inspiration for writing ahead of the writers by the Sea Symposium at Point Loma Nazarene.
S2: Whatever we create with love , with no personal agenda , with no thought of ourselves always turns out well.
S1: Then we'll go backstage of the Broadway musical wicked , plus a preview of the new musical Three Summers of Lincoln. That's ahead on Midday Edition. Each year , esteemed writers come to San Diego for the annual Writer Symposium by the Sea at Point Loma Nazarene University. This year features Jesmyn Ward , Mitch Albom , and my next guest , Sandra Cisneros , who is celebrating 40 years since her first novel , the House on Mango Street , began captivating readers across the globe. The novel , now considered a classic , tells the story of 12 year old Esperanza Cordero as she navigates her identity growing up in a Latino neighborhood in Chicago. Sandra , welcome to Midday Edition.
S2: Hi there , Jade. Nice to meet you.
S1: Nice to meet you as well. And thanks for taking the time to talk with us today. So the theme of this year's symposium is Writing That Redeems.
S2: And then everything that's affecting women and especially and children and immigrants and people of color and , and people who don't have a lot of money. So that's certainly what I write about.
S1: And there's so much , so much change happening. But , you know , on your writing , your novel the House on Mango Street is celebrating its 40th anniversary.
S2: The opera. And that opera's premiering this summer at the Glimmer Glass Festival. So I if you would ask me that a couple of years ago , I would've said , oh , you know , I'm , I'm done talking about my first novel , but I'm so excited about it now because I've been working on it with composer Derek Bromell to transform it into a new genre. So we've taken the book , adapted it , added music and lyrics. I'm the librettist and it's exciting to be the age. I am 70 and starting a new exploration in a new direction with a book I wrote when I was in my 20s. So I'm I'm really excited about talking about this book in a way that I might not have been a couple of years ago.
S1: Now , you've said that you can't explain yourself without explaining your father.
S2: He was a father that understood me very well. And even though we had a lot of culture clashes , like , you know , he wanted a traditional life for me , he was worried about me all the time and wanted me to get married and , and , uh , you know , just have a comfortable life. And he saw me struggle as I wanted to become a writer. I didn't think about having family and children. I kept putting , putting it off. I thought I would have a family , children later , but I was more concerned about giving birth to books first and foremost. And I think that was scary for someone like my father , who , you know , had , uh , was raised in a traditional family where women , maybe they went to college , but , um , they hung up their degrees and didn't do anything with them. They were just educated moms in the world that he knew. And I think he , you know , he was worried because he had sent me to college. I didn't know this , thinking that I would marry a nice professional man and be taken care of. And , you know , I went to college and went through many decades of poverty , and he had raised us to escape poverty. So he couldn't understand why would she go to college and want to be poor. That was just didn't make any sense in the way that he looked at the world. But , um , I focused on my career , the way some people focus on their husbands career or on their children's. I focused on books more than anything. I made sure that I always had a job. I was a high school teacher. Many of the stories from House on Mango Street are gathered from my time teaching , uh , students who had dropped out of school and come back and , uh , I went from there to doing all kinds of jobs that , uh , took me across the country following the food supply. And eventually it would take , like , not immediately. House on Mango Street. Success was , you know , maybe ten years after I published it , ten years writing it , ten other ten years afterwards that it finally started to gain an audience. And it did something I didn't expect , and that is that it allowed me eventually to earn my living by my pen , which that wasn't in my plan. Mhm.
S3: Mhm.
S2: I'm still surprised , but I think the thing that house taught me that I share with all young people and people my age as well , is that whatever we create with love on behalf of those we love , siempre bonito , it'll always turn out well. Whatever we create with love , with no personal agenda , with no thought of ourselves always turns out well. And I think it has brought me. It has brought me riches better than fame and better. Better than , uh , earning my living from my pen. Which , of course , I appreciate , but it's brought me a great spiritual gifts , and that's why I share it with everyone I meet. Because that is the secret of the of the universe. And as far as I'm concerned , it's beautiful.
S1:
S2: I wrote it for the students I loved. And there's lots of teachers out there , uh , people who love their students. And , you know , we witness how difficult their lives are much more difficult than our own. And we do the work we do as educators , as writers , as artists , consumers with pure love. And it's not to gain anything. It's done with pure love. And sometimes we are planting seeds that will harvest a long time after. Maybe we've left that job or we've left that the planet we don't know. But I truly believe that its success is because it was created with pure love. On behalf of my students , without me thinking about awards or , uh , reprints or anything that would bring me attention , I was doing it with all my heart , uh , for the people I loved. And some of them were neighbors in my neighborhood. Some of them were my students. Some of them were relatives that become characters in the book. And I just did it , um , during a very crucial time in my life. And that's the 20s when you're a young woman and you're still becoming. And I knew that My father wanted one thing for me and society wanted something else for me , and people all were directing me into a way that I ought to be. But I followed my intuition. Uh , unfortunately , I have a very strong intuition , and it took me where I needed to go. And creating this book , which I can only , um , I can only say it put more and more Bureau. That's the secret. Mhm.
S3: Mhm.
S1: I mean yeah so much of what you do is out of love. So much of what you write is. So how did you discover your love of writing.
S2: Well I started writing because I was lonely and , uh , kind of misfit kid. I'm an only girl in a family of six boys , and I grew up in a very noisy house and a house where we couldn't afford to buy books. So we would go to the library every Saturday. And my mom took us to museums. I grew up in Chicago. Thankfully , there were public museums that were free at that time. On the day off that my father had off. My father was an upholsterer. My mom was a housewife with raising seven kids , and on weekends it was the library on Saturday and maybe the Grant Park to listen to opera. Maybe it was the Field Museum or the Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago. Uh , Shedd Aquarium , science and industry , all these museums that were free on Sundays when working class people had the day off. That made a big difference for a huge generation. And I was able to benefit from that. And , um , you know , I think that my mother and father , without realizing it , were nurturing us to be thinkers and to be artists and to supersede the schools that we could afford , because we always lived in the worst neighborhoods , neighborhoods with the lowest rent. And I answer the question , I can't remember the question.
S1: It was , how did you find your love of writing.
S2: Oh yeah , I love that. I think that there are many little girls in in communities that feel alone , even though they're living with nine people in one apartment. And that's that's how we were. We were all among tornadoes , as we say , we're all crowded and little spaces that were made for maybe three people and nine people were living there with one bathroom and three bedrooms , and we just had to make do. But I still felt , um , tremendously alone. And , you know , that's that's sometimes worse to feel alone when you're surrounded by people than to alone when you're alone. And I just felt only at home when I was in the park , talking to the trees , and when I was next to things of nature , like watching the clouds go by , or watching a sunset , or talking to a blade of grass or a daffodil. And if you ever could get a daffodil. But you know , my neighborhood , it was like , you know , sometimes we would go downtown and. And that was the beautiful park with all the flowers. And so that that nourished me and kept me going. And , and then I had this very rich interior life that I didn't share with anyone. I thought if I share it , maybe it'll take it away from me. So that was my secret life. Scribbling and spiral notebooks.
S1:
S2: Uh , I just didn't feel that I was comfortable with people. I was very shy. I don't think it was so much the area. Jade. I think that artists always feel like they don't fit in the world. I just feel that's part of the personality of an artist , don't you think ? Most artists. I think artists are artists because they they they can't express themselves in a social setting or they feel , um , like they were born in the wrong family , or that they just if they could express themselves that people don't understand them. And it's what draws them to create art. Uh , for me , you know , wasn't just having six brothers , but I did have friends in school. But I never shared the things I shared with my notebook and pen that that was something that was so special to me that I thought if anyone made fun of it or made fun of me , I. I would just be devastated. So I think it has more to do with the sensitivity and the intuitiveness of of everyone who's an artist.
S1: Yeah , well , your work explores this line between what it is to be American and Mexican. I think it is an experience. So many here in San Diego and in the San Diego Tijuana region can relate to.
S2: But his first language was always Spanish , and we spoke to him in Spanish. And my mother was a Mexican American born in the US , and her first language was English. So we spoke to her in English. And so I always grew up with the two cultures , and to me it's it's normal way of growing up , speaking two languages and visiting grandmother in another country and having relatives in Chicago who's just normal to me. Uh , it gave me another way of seeing it gave me another way of seeing myself and of always wanting to travel. It planted a seed in me of needing to travel to other countries as an adult to see the world from different perspectives. And I think my father , without knowing it , you know , he was a mama's boy. So he kept dragging us to visit his relatives in Mexico City when we could. But he gave us , without knowing it , a real sense of who we were as as the , uh , children of of a Mexican father. And , uh , you know , we we didn't believe any official version that someone would have given us that would have disabled us to look at Mexico with anything else except pride. Because we had been to Mexico , we spoke the language. We'd seen the pyramids. We traveled in Mexico. It gave us a firsthand knowledge of who we were. And of course , you know , living in the United States , our education was about the US. A different point of view and my English language , which of course , the language I write in. So both of these worlds , uh , coexisted for me. And until recently they did not seem like a conflict , only until this year that I'm , uh , now treading into territory where I feel , um , I have to be wiser than just a writer and be very astute about what's going on nationally in the United States as of January.
S1: Talk about that a bit more.
S2: And I think that that must be someone who's , uh , terribly frightened of of life and of growth and of learning because , you know , the more diverse the world is , uh , to me , the more , uh , you enriched you are , the more , uh , you are in a state of of of grace , the more you are in a state of nonviolence and of harmony. Wouldn't want that to me. That's what I'm striving for on the 70 years that I've been on the planet , to be more like the heroes that I'm reading about now. I've told stories , biography on my bedside , I have Gandhi's biography on my bedside. I have the essays of James Baldwin on my bedside. I mean , this is , uh , I want in the years that I have left on this planet to leave without fear. I don't want to be a person living in fear. And I think that the United States , since , uh , especially since Covid , we have not addressed where we are nationally as a people in a state of fear. And I think there's some confusion about how that fear can be dispelled. And I just think we're being guided in the wrong way. I can say that truthfully.
S1:
S2: If we create , if we're creating from a place without our ego , and if we can push our fear aside because that's what we have to do as artists , and that we can create and speak and think from , uh , our highest self. Now , some people who are spiritual might call that God. Some people that are atheists might call it your higher self. You know , everybody's on a different spiritual path , so whatever you want to call it. But I think it's , you know , we're capable of being , uh , the most brilliant human beings we can be. And when we don't have all the answers , that's why we need everybody's help. Everybody with different perspective. Because a lot of times I get asked questions when I'm speaking. I don't know the answer , but I'm old enough now to say , you know , I don't know. But if we ask everyone in this room , uh , I'm sure we could come up with solutions. So I think that that's something. That's Why I think it's important to have diversity y to have different points of view , different people from different ages , people from different perspective , so that we can come up with better solutions. To me , that that is the meaning of bringing people together. And I hope that when I when I come to San Diego , that I will be able to get better ideas than the ones I have by listening to your community , because I certainly feel like I need a huddle session with , uh , citizens everywhere , and I feel as if I cannot have all the answers by myself. But I know that if I open it up to listening to others , that we can find better solutions than I could by myself at my desk.
S1: Sandra Cisneros will be appearing at the 30th Annual Writers Symposium by the Sea on Thursday , February 27th at 6 p.m.. You can find more information on our website at pbs.org. Sandra , that is great advice. It was so nice to talk to you , I appreciate it.
S2: Thank you. Jade , I appreciate your giving me this forum.
S1: Coming up , KPBS printer fellow Elaine Alfaro takes us backstage to the national tour of wicked , which has finally landed in San Diego.
S4: Just from doing this show , we're able to bring it to so many more people. The more people we can bring this show to , the better , because it's for everybody.
S1: KPBS Midday Edition is back after the break. You can. You're listening to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman. The Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good have finally landed in San Diego. The national tour of wicked arrives hot off the heels of the blockbuster film adaptation that captivated fans in November. Gloria Penner Fellow Elaine Alfaro takes us backstage to meet the actor , bringing Elphaba to life. Take a listen.
S5: Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to your half hour call. At this performance , Lauren Samuels is still in Mexico and is still Elphaba.
S4: You can hear Carly.
S6: Augustine laugh as the intercom announces that she'll be playing Elphaba tonight. For those unfamiliar with the show , wicked tells the story before Dorothy drops into Oz. It reveals the truth behind the Wizards rule and the Emerald City's polished image.
UU: I'm high and defying gravity.
S6: At the heart of all of it is Elphaba , a social outcast who must conform to the lies or defy expectations.
S4: I feel like anybody who's ever felt different , or kind of like an outsider can relate to Elphaba so hard. I was always kind of a weird kid. Um , I had weird interests , and I also as a kid , I struggled with OCD and anxiety. Other kids would notice stuff like that , and they would call you out on it because kids have no filter. And so I always kind of felt like that weirdo off and in the corner of the class that nobody wanted to talk to.
S6: Those childhood experiences shape the alphabet that Augustine brings to the stage.
S4: You act out of that. But as a woman in my 30s now , I also very much connect to act two Elphaba because she's she grows up so much , she's true to herself. She'll give it to you straight. She won't sugarcoat anything.
S6: Augustine is one of three actors who could play Elphaba on any given night. There's the principal , the standby , and the understudy as the standby.
S4: I'm sort of the first line of defense , so I step into the role. So I'm. I'm doing the role all week on tour.
S6: Elphaba is the only character that has a standby role , but Augustine has grown close with a tight knit community of swing actors , performers who master multiple roles and step in whenever needed.
S4: I made it a priority to really make sure that I socialize as much as I can , and just having swings around to hang out with has been huge.
S6: With about 45 minutes until showtime , her co-stars voices drift through the dressing room doors as they warm up inside. Augustine undergoes with the cast calls getting green ified. It's the intricate makeup process that transforms her into Elphaba. She recalls the first time she saw herself in full costume.
S7: I was.
S4: In shock. I couldn't stop staring at myself. I took so many pictures. I sent them to my family. Um. And I did feel really beautiful. I felt gorgeous , and I do. Every time I get green , I'm like , man , I wish I were green.
S6: Her makeup supervisor tonight is Christina Tracy.
S8: I really think that the makeup is so important for the story because the designer , Joe delude when he was training me on the makeup , what he wanted was for the makeup to be so subtle that people kind of forgot that she was green as they started to fall in love with her , and that the real only difference between her and everybody else in the show is that she was just green.
S6: Tracy has worked with multiple alphabets over the years.
S8: Every person that plays alphabet has to do it their way because it's so hard. You can't you can't do this role if you don't do it your way. That's how I see it.
S6: The transformation from Augustine to Elphaba takes about 30 minutes. As the green makeup sets , she reflects on the impact of the film adaptation.
S4: I don't think it's really had an effect on how any of us interpret our roles , because that's kind of its own , its own world. Um , but it is something that's always kind of in the back of our minds. I just , I think about that all the time. All the young kids who are seeing the movie and are going to fall in love with the show. It's special.
S6: For her. Making theater accessible to those kids is just as important.
S4: I also love the fact that we get to do sensory performances in certain cities. So a sensory performance is for people with different disabilities , um , people that may be on the spectrum for people with , you know , all sorts of neurodiversity. I have seen just from doing this show , we're able to bring it to so many more people. The more people we can bring this show to , the better , because it's for everybody.
S6: And in a moment like this , that impact feels even greater.
S4: This show , I feel like no matter what year it is , you can be like , man , this is this is so timely. This is exactly what's happening right now. No matter what's happening in the world , it matters to me.
UU: So I hope you're happy. I gotta worry. So we've got to. We are done.
S1: That was KPBS Gloria Penner , fellow Elaine Alfaro. Wicked runs through March 2nd at the San Diego Civic Theatre. Tickets are going fast , but you might still have a chance to see it. Broadway San Diego is offering a daily lottery for $30 tickets. Coming up , Beth Accomando sits down with co lyricist and co choreographer Daniel J. Watts to talk about the new musical Three Summers of Lincoln , which explores the relationship between Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.
S9: This man was born a slave. He was not allowed to read and write and then became an international orator.
S1: Hear more when KPBS Midday Edition returns. You're listening to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman. A new musical from the La Jolla Playhouse looks at an important friendship that shaped the course of American history. The musical Three Summers of Lincoln takes us through three meetings between the president and famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass. KPBS arts reporter Beth Accomando spoke with co lyricist and co choreographer Daniel J. Watts about the play , which had its world premiere last night. Here's that conversation.
S10: Daniel , you are working on a production of Three Summers of Lincoln. So to start with , give us a little introduction to what this play is about.
S9: Three Summers of Lincoln takes place in the last three summers of Lincoln's life , where he visited the Soldiers Home. There was a soldier's house about three miles away from Washington , D.C. , and so for during the summers , to get away from the the swamp that is Washington , he would he and his wife and his family would go to the soldiers home , which was a place for indigent soldiers at the time. Over the course of these three summers , the Emancipation Proclamation becomes an idea first , an idea that then becomes written into law , and it shows us the course of the war by way of the different pressures that Lincoln was facing trying to end the war while also trying to abolish slavery. And it's these two ideas that he was trying to figure out how to make them one idea , which is he had to get creative and create the Emancipation Proclamation. So you have Frederick Douglass , who is kind of his antagonist , kind of going at him as the the activist who's trying to get the moderate lawyer to , to move more swiftly.
S10:
S9: I think like going in. I probably had the same amount of relative knowledge that everybody had. You know , I would say I had a little bit more I had a really , really great U.S. history teacher in high school who was I took a Civil War as an elective , and that was just her bread and butter. Interesting thing was that she was a her great great great grandfather fought for the Confederacy. So I also had a skewed version of the Civil War. But , um , afterwards , like , coming on to the project , we had Doris Kearns Goodwin , who wrote Team of Rivals and Leadership in Turbulent Times , reading that , uh , Frederick Douglass autobiography. Those things just kind of like , were the springboard to just go do all kinds of deep dives. Lincoln is , I think , I think it's true that Lincoln is the most written about person other than Jesus. So there's just so , so , so much material , you know , watch movies , all of us , the creative team collectively , like , just did a lot of research. And even as we keep writing , like , it's just a lot of like , what information can we find , you know , finding about , you know , the machine gun kind of coming into play via the Civil War. Uh , a man named Spencer walked into the white House during summer of 63 , I believe , and said , I got this new rifle for you. And it was it was a repeating rifle that could fire six , seven bullets at a time. And at the time , everyone was only using the one shot musket. So like this is almost how machine guns became a norm in the home by way of the Civil War. Like just little research like that. It was just always just very fascinating for us.
S10: And in doing that research , what did you find about Frederick Douglass ? Because I think he's far less known than Lincoln to most people.
S9: I mean , Frederick Douglass , like , is probably the biggest personification or the epitome of the American dream. The true. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. This man was born a slave. He was not allowed to read and write and then became an international orator. Right. He is. He is one. He is the linchpin. He's one of the the defining factors of what allowed the Emancipation Proclamation to happen by just pressuring Abraham Lincoln to do something. And I think that was important. Like he didn't have there were no luxuries afforded to him like he was a black man in America at a time when he was considered 3/5 of a man to becoming this the person that we're still talking about to this day , you know. So I think just really , really underscoring and digging into , you know , this man did it and he did it his way at a time where it was very difficult.
S10:
S9: Well , you know , what's really great about we realized really early on is that all of the characters , for the most part , are writers. You know , Abraham Lincoln is a writer. Frederick Douglass is a writer. Elizabeth Keckley , who was a seamstress and friend to Lincoln and friend to , um , Mary Todd. She wrote her own autobiography. Like everyone , William Slade , his valet , wrote his like , so we have their words to kind of pull from. Um , and I think what was important is to , you know , Lincoln and Douglas are kind of we said Lincoln is like potential energy and Frederick is is kinetic energy. And like , what happens when , uh , an immovable object comes in contact with an unstoppable force ? This is this is kind of the fodder for it , you know , so you have a person who doesn't really move. So his sound should be a little bit more , uh , maybe jagged or kind of , uh , staccato at times because he's trying to figure things out where you have someone else singing in a much more free or freer way. You know , that's Frederick. And just how do we play those two different sounds together ? Frederick has a little bit more of a contemporary sound. Lincoln lives in a more legit pocket from time to time like these. How do we just activate things that you can ? If you're just listening to it , you can tell the difference between these two individuals.
S10: And when you set their words to music. I mean , I assume some of the the lyrics are actually their words.
S9: You need it. You need to be elevated a little bit more. And that's where the music comes in. And then you get to a point where music doesn't even do it. And that's when you get to dance right where there's just there are no words. So this is the middle ground , which is the exciting place where you can add emotion and you have the music supporting that emotion , right ? Like music , chords , harmony , all these things support. It's a little bit manipulative. What we do is , you know , even by writing , like we're writing , because there's a certain thing , there were certain things that we want you to try and find. And then we get to the music. There's a certain way we want you to feel. So when those two things come together , when you do it right , you have the audience in the palm of your hand and you want to people come to to theatre to see themselves. Essentially , you're trying to find where do you fit in this landscape , in this community that's on stage. So we try to make sure that we also make these people as three dimensional as possible. Right. Hopefully you can have an end to everybody if we show enough facets. And music is a really , really beautiful way to help do that.
S10: And you also mentioned you worked on the choreography for this.
S9: And. You know. So there's a lot to play with. Nothing. Nothing sounds the same. While it all still sounds very cohesive , like it's still part of One Piece , but nothing sounds the same. So as a as a choreographer , me and my co choreographer John Ruah , it's fun to play with because we're not getting the same thing constantly. So we're constantly being inspired by something rhythmical or musical or chord wise , and it's fun. There's a telegraph. We decided to put the telegraph as a tap dancer. Two tap dancers actually represented the Telegraph over the course of the war , because the telegraph was a way and a means for communication , like it was a huge no one was really using the telegraph , and Lincoln used it religiously for war reports to send messages to get the casual reports , like all the stuff. So I thought , oh , this would be really interesting to use tap dance in a way that tap dance is always tap dance in a show like it's never. It's rarely representative of something else. So this was just an opportunity to play. It's things like that that really , I think helped through some of Lincoln stand alone , as it were.
S10:
S9: So there's a difference. Like , I grew up in North Carolina and like I said , I had my U.S. history teacher. She had the Confederate flag on the wall , the first national Confederate flag. And that history , like my mother is from South Carolina and South Carolina , had the Confederate flag at the state capitol until 2000 , you know , but that history is still very , very , very rich even in the 2020s , we're still trying to get these monuments down like it's a it's a very , very activated current history that has been highlighted , exacerbated by the by the current administration. Like we're telling a story about a time when when slavery was law and there was a secession in order to keep slavery as the law of the land. And there's currently an administration that is trying to go back to those times. So this play , this musical for a lot of us , isn't just a musical. It's still it's current day real life. And I actually think it's more interesting to try it out somewhere , whether that history doesn't exist. So specifically , this would be a very , very different musical if we started it in Richmond , Virginia , versus trying it out in La Jolla. So I think it'll be a good opportunity to get a barometer of the parts of America that don't necessarily didn't necessarily grow up with this history still kind of being so blatant.
S10: Describe the process of putting this together in the rehearsals and how you're working with the actors , because this is still kind of a work in progress , right ? I mean , there's still changes and things happening.
S9: It's so beautiful because , you know , this is we've done workshops and things , but this is literally our first time ever putting it on its feet , like all the elements. And like this thing that was just an idea that , you know , Joe Crystal and I were talking about and Chris Ashley , the director , you know , this thing has now manifested into to this , this , this miraculous thing with human beings walking around. So you have to take care of the piece. You have to take care of the people while also knowing that nothing is precious. Anything can get cut at any moment. You know , something could get reinserted at any moment while also knowing that there's a clock. Right ? And , you know , Leonardo da Vinci has a quote , you know , um , art is never finished. It's only abandoned. We're never going to finish it. We just have to. We just have to stop working on it. We get to a point. We were like , okay , we're satisfied with what we've done , and now we're just going to let it go and , and and be with the with the theater guys. So it's just been very both gratifying. It's hard , you know , it's hard material. It's not it's difficult subject matter. It's not it's not a frilly musical like we're talking about the abolition of slavery and the people who fought and died for that. But it's also it's funny , it's lively , it's it's liberating. There's a freedom within the music and within the space. And that's what we always encourage to to finally answer the question , we have to create a sense of freedom and liberation in the room. That's the only way to tell a story about freedom and liberation , is that all people can feel free to express and contribute and take ownership of the piece. Um , and I think that's a thing that we've , we've been trying to encourage and we must continue to encourage us to do it. But it's just been it's been me and Crystal cry every other day. Just the fact that people are saying , sing our words , sing our music. And John , you know , they're dancing our steps. It's just it's it's amazing.
UU: The Lord is of Lincoln. And his troops have only bled people close and the pressure and bask in our the rest. Let's dispatch this great pretender with the power of our praise.
S10: So how long has this process been ? You mentioned workshopping and getting it to this point. Yeah.
S9: Yeah. Joe , I believe , was commissioned in December of 2020 , and then he wrote an outline and reached out to me to help him with the lyrics in April of 2021. And then around around September of 2021 , we reached out to Crystal , and by March of 2022 , Crystal was on board. So really ? Yeah , I think since the officially since March of 2022 is when the three of us got together and since then , you know , now we're here. So it was very quick. Yeah. Musicals aren't really this quick to be on their feet.
S10:
S9: It's , um , there's I kind of want to give things away , but you have to , uh , we like to say this is not your typical Lincoln. It's not your mama's. Lincoln is what we say. And I said is made up of typeface blocks because , you know , these are writers. And the newspaper being a huge part of the way of people communicate , even with each other. You know , we have Twitter today , but back then , you know , you would write how you felt about somebody's policy or whatever , and then that person might read it in the newspaper and then write their own rebuttal in the , in the newspaper as well. So getting the word out , the messaging , you know , that's how we learned about the war. Newspapers telegraph all these different communication. Ways of communicating are very prevalent in the stage. It's this beautiful wooden floor. Looks like it looks like oak. And we're using a lot of lights and projections and a back LED wall that has the ability to do a lot of imaging and of movement and three dimensional shapes. It's really it's really beautiful. Like as we're still in the tech process and just watching like every scene is like , oh , I didn't know it , I don't know , I didn't know we could do that. You know , it's just it's just really fun to watch. Yeah. Derek McClain is the set designer and just beautiful work.
S10: And do you feel that people coming into the play need to know anything in advance ? Do they need to have some sort of sense of history , or are you going to be kind of filling in potential gaps ? Well.
S11:
S9: Yes and no. I mean , no , you don't need to know to know anything I say to to come to a musical and enjoy it. You know , that's our job is to fill in the gaps or at least catch you up. Um , that's the one thing about our show , is that it starts at day 430 of what was supposed to be only 90 days of war. When the South seceded , Lincoln said , okay , round up the troops. Hey , guys , it'll only take about three months max. He was wrong , obviously. So now we're picking up in the second summer , a year later , which is our first summer. That's where it starts in Mideast Reds. And we kind of like , catch you up with the heat and the tension of of what's going on in the Union. There's no southern perspective. It's all from the union Union side. And and it shows that even though everyone is on the same side , they don't necessarily have the same goals. And how do people who are on the same side get on the same page ? You know , it's not that there's conflict is how we navigate through the conflict. And I think that just is an important message to understand. That's what you need to know when you come in. Yeah. It's about it's about re-establishing union when the unions are when our own personal unions are fractured. And that's even the union of marriage. Mary Todd and Lincoln are having a little bit of issue. You know , the unions of relationship and friendship. Um , the unions between employer , employee , like , all these different roles that we play.
S1: Watts speaking with KPBS arts reporter Beth Accomando about the musical Three Summers of Lincoln running at the La Jolla Playhouse through March 30th. That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
