27 minute read
Arts & Culture
Former inmates tell ‘Stories from the Inside/Out’
“All that you touch You Change. All that you Change Changes you. The only last ing truth Is Change.” —Octavia E. Butler, “Parable of the Sower” Committed to the principle that “every human being has a story to tell,” TheatreWorkers Project has been fostering a powerful form of documentary theater since 1983 that helps current and former inmates tell their stories through writing, choreographed movement and music.
In partnership with the Francisco Homes, a residential re-entry program in South LA for men on parole from serving life sentences, TWP is presenting a new piece funded by grants from the California Arts Council, “Phoenix: Stories from the Inside/Out,” this Saturday at A Noise Within.
In contrast to the solo or verbatim brand of documentary theater popularized by Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-nominated actress/writer Anna Deavere Smith, who interviews hundreds of people and then portrays all the characters in her plays, “Phoenix: Stories from the Inside/Out” is a collaborative work delivered onstage by six formerly incarcerated men.
According to TWP creator Susan Franklin Tanner, the material was developed from poetry and prose five of the men composed over seven weeks of writing, exploration, and improvisational exercises. Their writing prompts included a quote from late Pasadena novelist Octavia Butler’s “Parable of the Sower” and a question: “What were you in the past and what have you become, and how did that happen?” Gradually, a theme emerged from their workshops of rebirth and change.
Volunteer Bonnie Banfield, an Iowa-based playwright, then fit all the men’s writings together in a narrative arc. One piece in particular gave the finished “Phoenix” script its title — about a participant’s decision to have a big phoenix tattooed on his back while he was behind bars, because the tattoos he’d entered prison with no longer represented who he was. Visual projections will augment the theme behind the men’s staged readings, as will a soundscape created by Dwight Krizman, a former San Quentin inmate who has continued performing with the Americana pop band he formed there, Quentin Blue.
“We never ask any participant with whom we work what crime they committed, how long they were incarcerated, what they did to get out. These things will often come out during the workshops, but we feel those pieces of information are their stories to tell,” Franklin Tanner explains. “We really work with the person who’s right in front of us in the room at that time, as who they are.
TheatreWorkers Project is dedicated to the belief that every single human being can create a work of art. We make it very clear at the beginning of the workshops … we are there to collaborate with them as artists and to uplift their artistry.”
If they provide a cautionary tale to audiences, especially youth (“A lot of these guys are saying, ‘That one bad decision, that split-second decision — if I had made a different decision, my life would have been different,’” Franklin Tanner notes), the project offers them cathartic healing. Franklin Tanner says one man she worked with previously at a Lancaster prison told her, “When I was doing this work, I got to feel human for a few moments every single week.”
A classically trained actress, Franklin Tanner first did a theater workshop in prison under the auspices of the now-defunct Living Stage Company in Washington, D.C., of which she was a member in her 20s.
“That really impacted my understanding of the importance of working with communities that had powerful stories to tell and that were isolated from the rest of the world,” she recalled.
Documentary theater was not a known form when she created TWP in 1983 and started taking writing workshops and plays into prisons. After arts programs were taken out of California prisons in the ’90s, TWP continued working in the community with unemployed steel workers, striking meat packers, ship builders and immigrant workers.
Franklin Tanner said she hadn’t worked much with formerly incarcerated individuals until TWP partnered with the nonprofit organization Dad’s Back Academy in 2016 and the Francisco Homes in 2017.
Most had served at least 20 years in prison — others 30 to 40 years — before their life sentences were commuted or they were granted parole. Some, she said, were given life sentences under the three-strikes law for offenses that would now be considered misdemeanors.
“I have found that somebody who has done so much work to be found suitable for parole is an incredibly self-actualized person — much more so than the typical person walking down the street,” Franklin Tanner said.
“Unless you’re in analysis for 20 years, how many people have to really mine the depths of their souls and their histories to come to terms with who they are, what they’ve done and where they want to be in the future?
“Phoenix: Stories from the Inside/Out” WHEN: 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, June 4
WHERE: A Noise Within’s John & Barbara Lawrence Hall, 3352 E. Foothill Boulevard, Pasadena COST: Tickets start at $5
INFO: 626-356-3100, anoisewithin.org, theatreworkersproject.org. Audience members must show proof of full vaccination (and, if over 18, photo ID), and masks are required.
Author and anthropologist Eric Lynxwiler has led MONA’s Neon Cruises tour for over 23 years.
Glendale’s MONA leads tour of LA’s neon cityscape By Luke Netzley Pasadena Weekly Deputy Editor
Neon has long played an important role in painting the image of Los Angeles as a bustling city with a thriving nightlife. As aesthetic dimensions while placing them firmly within the context of 20th century LA’s cultural history. From the classic movie marquees of the sun sets over the Pacific, iconic signs like Mel’s Drive-in and Hollywood and Vine illuminate the city with a neon glow that catches the eye and captivates the imagination.
For the past three decades, the Museum of Neon Art has led neon-focused tours across LA County. On May 14, the museum launched its new season of Neon Cruises that invites audiences atop a double-decker bus for an open-air night excursion from Downtown to Hollywood and back. The tours are led by author Eric Lynxwiler and will run until Sunday, Sept. 18.
“I love sharing Los Angeles with people,” Lynxwiler said. “I can’t tell you how much I adore this city. I’ve lived here all my life. … I can’t believe I’ve been doing (the tours) for all these years, but I wouldn’t change that. Part of me is a ham, part of me is a teacher, and it’s really just a lot of fun.”
The live narrated tour departs from Downtown LA and points out neon’s historic and the Downtown theater district and the glowing pagodas of Chinatown to the glittering lights of Hollywood, audiences will see both innovative electrical advertising as well as outstanding examples of contemporary art on this award-winning tour. Part historic tour, part stand-up comedy and fully a love letter to Los Angeles, this tour is crafted for locals who may have missed parts of the city’s history hidden in plain sight, as well as tourists who want an offbeat insider’s look into what makes the area glow. “I’m showing people a Los Angeles that they never knew existed,” Lynxwiler said. “A lot of people just don’t explore beyond their backyard, and they don’t see how many little Los Angeleses there are in this world. Dorothy Parker said that Los Angeles was 97 neighborhoods in search of a city, and I’m going to celebrate all 97 of those neighborhoods if I possibly can.” Though Lynxwiler’s wit and voluminous knowledge of the city remains constant, he has had to adapt the tour’s route over the years as the city’s signage continues to change. There have been several nights that he has driven a tour and begun introducing a neon sign only to turn the corner and find that it had disappeared.
In one instance, Lynxwiler led a tour that saw a sign removed in front of the audience. He stopped the bus and called an intermission to the tour so that he could find out why the sign, which said “Jesus saves” on the back of the United Artists Theatre, was being removed and how he could save it. It was never seen again.
“The city changes around us all the time,” Lynxwiler said. “It’s hard to picture Los Angeles without neon, just like it’s hard to picture Los Angeles without palm trees or automobiles. The city of LA grew up with cars in the heyday of neon in jazz-age America. It all happened at the exact same time. While Los Angeles was getting skyscrapers, we were growing up in an era of automobiles, neon and entertainment.”
In the 1920s, Downtown LA was booming with movie theaters that boasted enormous neon marquees. Businesses across the county utilized neon signage to attract visitors from both personal automobiles and the Red Car rail lines. Neon become a sign of modernity.
“Neon wasn’t born in darkness,” Lynxwiler explained. “We lived in the world of incandescent lights, but suddenly those incandescent lights became long strings of neon tubes that could be bent in absolutely any shape imaginable. Whatever you imagined could become a neon sign. It could be a beer pouring or an eagle flapping its wings. … The city of Los Angeles was suddenly getting color and animated motion and signage that was multistories tall.”
Even after the Second World War saw the city’s neon lights switched off for fear of attack, LA remained home to a plethora of historic signage and some of the tallest neon installments in the state.
“There was a long-standing myth that Los Angeles had the first neon sign in the United States and that it would stop traffic for blocks and blocks,” MONA Executive Director Corrie Siegel said. “That was disproven a couple years back by our board Secretary Dydia DeLyser and her partner, Paul Greenstein, but there’s still this lore and sheen about neon. … It speaks to the way that LA both represents itself and is represented to the outside world.”
The art and imagery of neon signage became an integral part of community identities across LA, including Chinatown, an area born from the destruction of LA’s original, organically grown community of Chinese Americans displaced to make way for Union Station. In Chinatown, neon became a way for the new generation of American-born Chinese residents to distinguish themselves from their mothers and fathers and visually express their presence in the community.
“It speaks to how something can be so real and so seated in identity but also can be all about the spectacular,” Siegel said. “Los Angeles is a place that is deeply embedded culturally and has so many diverse stories to tell.
“There’s this bad rap about LA having no history and that the reason why we can’t talk about history is nothing exists. But the signage is proof that there’s this continuation from the 1920s onward of this really rich history that’s not only just this textbook history, but it’s about communities across Los Angeles, what they’ve experienced, why these different areas are so vibrant, ever-changing and dynamic, and why they need to be preserved.”
Near the end of 20th century, cities across the United States began outlawing neon signs because many of them hadn’t been well maintained and were seen as symbols of decline. In the last few decades, though, Los Angeles has experienced a neon renaissance following initiatives like “Bring Back Broadway” that relit old neon signs.
“When I started this tour, I could drive down Broadway completely dark and people would say, ‘How disappointing it was to do a neon tour and not see any working neon,’” Lynxwiler described. “Now driving down Broadway, there are restored theater marquees and giant vertical signs that have been re-illuminated. … Broadway is looking fantastic to me. Little Tokyo is shining bright again. Hollywood is aglow.
“We’re seeing this move throughout a lot of the United States, this recognition that neon is historic and neon is something that cities want as an element of revitalization. Not only is it important to save the neon; it’s important to save the legacies, the businesses and the communities that were served by these businesses. Every neon sign is bent by hand, by a skilled craftsperson. It always comes back to this history of a person, of people.”
By riding through the illuminated city atop a double-decker bus, Lynxwiler hopes that audiences will be able to witness LA’s neon transformation for themselves and see the city from a new perspective as they pass signs at eye-level view.
“It’s hard for me to explain what it’s like when your perspective of Los Angeles changes, and I’m not just talking about a perspective change from being on the ground level of a sidewalk to being on top of a double-decker bus,” Lynxwiler said. “It’s also a mindset change. Suddenly you’re seeing Los Angeles in a new way, in a new light and taking notes of where to eat, where to drink, where to go and celebrate, where to explore.”
With the launch of its new Neon Cruises season, MONA seeks to transform the way Angelenos and tourists understand and celebrate the city, especially after two years of lockdowns and restricted travel.
“It’s so nice to board a bus and to realize you can travel in your own city and that those experiences will make you feel like you know it so much better and just have this renewed love for this place that most people only know a small sliver,” Siegel said. “This is a really nice way of coming back and reappreciating all that we have in this wonderful county.”
Neon Cruises WHERE: Downtown location disclosed after booking confirmation WHEN: 7 to 10:30 p.m. select days through Sunday, Sept. 18 COST: $65; $55 for MONA members INFO: store.neonmona.org/collections/neon-cruises
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit will headline the new Palomino Festival alongside Kacey Musgraves, Willie Nelson & Family and others.
Jason Isbell to headline 1st Palomino Festival
By Jordan Houston Pasadena Weekly Staff Writer
Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Jason Isbell said he’s excited for his upcoming performance at Goldenvoice’s first Palomino Festival on Saturday, July 9.
Isbell, who has won Grammys for Best Americana Album and Best American Roots Song, and the 400 Unit will be headlining the new alt-country festival at Brookside at the Rose Bowl, 1001 Rose Bowl Drive, alongside Kacey Musgraves and Willie Nelson & Family.
“I’m feeling good. I think it’s a great lineup and I’m looking forward to it,” the Alabama native said.
The Palomino Festival, backed by the team behind Stagecoach, adds to Southern California’s already eclectic music festival scene. It seeks to appeal to long-time country fans, brand new Americana lovers and everyone in between.
Fused with sounds of country, folk, pop and bluegrass, the lineup features industry talents like Orville Peck, Turnpike Troubadours, Old Crow Medicine Show and Charley Crockett.
Isbell, having built a reputation for his introspective and nuanced songwriting, said he prefers to refrain from pigeonholing his band’s musical style.
“I get distracted when I start trying to (define) the type of music I make,” he said. “I’m a singer-songwriter and the most important thing to me is writing songs. I think that is something I have in common with Kacey and Willie, and most of the other people on the bill. We focus on the songs first and everything else sort of follows.”
Longtime fans of Isbell, named Artist of the Year in 2015 by the Americana Music Association, might be pleasantly surprised by the band’s Pasadena gig, the singer and guitarist said.
“I think the audience might be surprised. It’s much more of a rock ‘n’ roll feel we put on,” Isbell said. “Our albums are a lot of writing. Somebody who hasn’t listened to
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my whole catalog – it’s soft, quiet music.”
Isbell and the 400 Unit is promoting its 2021 album “Georgia Blue,” which honors artists from Georgia.
Isbell during the 2020 presidential campaign pledged that if Joe Biden triumphed the Peach State’s election, he would record an album of songs by his favorite artists from there. A share of the proceeds would also be donated to non-profit progressive organizations.
The star-studded covers album is a 13-song set comprised of Southern rock jams, R&B classics, folk sounds and college rock hits. It includes tunes made famous by R.E.M., Otis Redding, the Black Crowes, James Brown, Cat Power, the Allman Brothers Band and others.
Artists Brandi Carlile, Béla Fleck, John Paul White of the Civil Wars and Adia Victoria are also featured guests on the LP.
But “Georgia Blue” isn’t the only album Isbell and the 400 Unit is celebrating.
“Reunions,” produced by Dave Cobb and includes contributions from David Crosby and Rival Sons singer Jay Buchanan, was first released in independent record stores in May 2020.
The album aimed at helping small businesses amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Isbell said.
“I put ‘Reunions’ out right in the middle of lockdown, so we couldn’t tour behind that,” he added. “Now, I feel like the touring we are doing is really the initial tour for the album because we spent so much time in the house, either playing to screens or doing those kinds of shows like Zoom and a few socially distanced shows.”
A “more production-savvy set that mixed introspective personal numbers with songs addressing larger political and social concerns,” “Reunions” is the fourth album Isbell has written and recorded since getting sober.
At least one theme is prevalent throughout the album, according to Isbell.
“A lot of the songs – I didn’t really set out with a goal other than just to write a set of good songs. Once I got started, I started to see some themes reemerge,” Isbell said. “One of the things that made itself pretty obvious to me was the presence of ghosts, and not in a mystical way, but in a way of people I used to be in contact with reemerging in my mind after some years.”
“A lot of situations I used to be in where I wasn’t working as a musician, and I normally was just hanging around rooms with my friends and playing songs — we would play each other what we were working on. A lot of those people who were sitting in these rooms with me are ghosts now — some of them have passed on, some aren’t in my life anymore. This is a way to reconnect.”
In the early 2000s, Isbell made a name for himself as a member of the Southern rock outfit the Drive-By Truckers. He left the band in 2007 to pursue a solo career, marked by Southern grit and raw and rootsy sounds.
He released his first solo album “Sirens of the Ditch” in 2007, a “bluesy, punk-infused lesson in guitar tones and Southern swagger.”
But Isbell’s knack for songwriting quickly dominated the stage after he publicly came to terms with his journey and dependence on alcohol and drugs. His first album after getting sober, 2013’s “Southeastern,” has been described as a major “critical and commercial” breakthrough in his career.
“The thing that makes me the happiest is when I write a song or just a line or lyric that says exactly how I feel,” Isbell said. “I think that the longer I go on writing songs the better I get at communicating – I don’t necessarily get better at writing hit songs or popular songs, I get better at communicating how I feel more accurately. That is what makes me feel the proudest.
“Sometimes it can make me feel worse because some of the things I’m writing about aren’t necessarily happy things. I think the catharsis comes from when I realize there are people out there who are similar to you and that’s the magic of it. It’s not necessarily in the writing of the songs, but when you see it resonates with people that have the same emotions and concerns.”
For his upcoming Pasadena performance, Isbell said he is most eager to perform once again in the presence of longtime country music legend Willie Nelson.
“I love Willie and any opportunity I get to be around him and see him play is very special to me,” Isbell said. “I’ve done quite a few shows with him in the past, and I think he’s one of probably the top 10 greatest songwriters that has ever lived. To even live in the world at the same time as somebody like Willie is a special thing.”
Isbell will also be joining Nelson’s rotating lineup for Willie Nelson’s 2022 Outlaw Music Festival Tour. The bill includes the ranks of ZZ Top, Larkin Poe, Steve Earle & The Dukes, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, the Avett Brothers and Gov’t Mule.
Palomino Festival WHEN: Noon to 11 p.m. Saturday, July 9. WHERE: Brookside at the Rose Bowl, 1001 Rose Bowl Drive, Pasadena COST: Tickets start at $179 INFO: palominopasadena.com
Renowned actress June Carryl serves as director. Ian Dicke is a composer and founder of Novel Music.
New operas explore ramifications of digital frontiers
Asummer opera festival will examine digital culture with two new works by Los Angeles composers.
Held at Boston Court Pasadena on Saturday, June 4, to Sunday, June 5, The Synchromy Opera Festival presents “The Double” by Vera Ivanova and “Roman” by Ian Dicke.
The two operas will stage back-to-back each day. The first is about 45 minutes long while the second is a little over an hour.
“The Double” is a reimagining of Dostoevsky’s classic novel of the same name. In it, Noth (short for nothing) believes his digital social profile is acting independently and trying to take over his life.
With a libretto by Sarah LaBrie, it is directed by Alexander Gedeon and music is provided by the Brightwork Ensemble, conducted by Marc Lowenstein.
“The idea is that on social media, we need to have an improved and successful image of ourselves,” Ivanova said.
Synchromy executive director Elizabeth Huston said in all the iterations of the story (there is also a movie based on it), the main protagonist feels invisible to the world, a pushover who can’t advance at work.
“When his double appears, this person is very charismatic and liked, though not particularly intelligent,” Huston said. “He gets big advancements, and it makes the main character feel more like he is nothing. It makes an interesting parallel to social media. What we’re putting on social media makes others feel like they’re nothing.”
“Roman” is a multimedia opera in two acts that questions the morality of designing intelligent machines to exhibit human behaviors while we expect humans to act in increasingly machine-like ways.
The central character is an AI assistant whose part is performed by a sung robotic voice and appears as a projection on a scrim. It is directed by June Carryl, and Thomas Buckley conducts the Koan Quartet. Dicke wrote the libretto and the music.
He came up with the idea when he acquired Google assistant for his home so his young children could become acclimated to this trend.
“At some point, I thought, ‘Why do I think this is inevitable that we have to move in this direction?’” Dicke said.
It is not meant to be a dark dystopia, but rather an exploration of what happens when technology is trained with humans’ values and foibles.
While the operas were developed independently, festival organizers and artists feel like they belong together and share commonalities in their themes.
“They are addressing aspects of our modern life that are really unique to the past 10 to 15 years,” Dicke said.
“They are kind of cautionary tales to contemplate these things. It’s a fascinating
Alexander Gedeon is an LA-based stage director for opera and musical theater.
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thing about being a composer today — all of the impulses of our daily life can turn into artistic expressions.”
The stories lend themselves to the genre of opera, even though many people think of it as an inaccessible artform. It’s something Synchromy is trying to combat with subject matter, tiered ticket pricing and pop-up events.
Both composers have contemporary approaches to their opera’s sounds. Ivanova describes the opera as being very post-modern, combining different, familiar styles from operatic stereotypes to ’70s musicals.
The central character of “Roman” is a virtual singer; Dicke thinks it is the first opera to have such a character. He spent a lot of time researching and looking for something with good English diction. The music is performed by a string quartet and a synthesizer.
“Roman” was inspired by pop ups and musical theater. Melodic pop songs allow the audience to connect with the music. However, he firmly wanted to tell the story through opera.
“Humans want to tell stories and that applies to composers,” Dicke said.
Huston said these two operas are great starting points for those who are new to the genre.
The stories are told by people of color and varied background.
They engage in community partnerships and hold pop-ups to connect with communities who might not typically attend operas. They are partnering with an organization that gives $5 tickets to teenagers for cultural events. They are reaching out to low-income housing organizations.
One pop-up featured a free screening of “The Double” film and that included free food. Huston said most attendees were unfamiliar with opera and when the movie ended, Synchromy performed a few snippets of the operas.
“One of Synchromy’s big goals is to let people know that art is for everyone regardless of their experience level or background,” Huston said. “These events are welcoming and open to anyone. Opera is not for snooty people in tuxedos. You don’t have to have been to an opera before. It is absolutely going to be a fun time regardless of your experience.”
Ivanova added, “Just come and enjoy beautiful contemporary music.”
Music Under the Stars fills Centennial Square
Pasadena Symphony and Pops is looking to make crowds sing and cut loose during its “Dancin’ in the Streets” concert on Saturday, June 4.
After the two-year pandemic hiatus, Music Under the Stars returns to Centennial Square, which closes for the free concert in the plaza in front of Pasadena City Hall.
Pasadena Symphony and Pops CEO Lora Unger called the casual event a long-standing tradition. Guests are invited to bring blankets, have picnics or rent low-back chairs from the symphony.
For families, the event offers food trucks and a Kids Corner with a musical instrument petting zoo, face painting and balloon animals.
Founded in 1928, Pasadena Symphony and Pops — which features musicians who work in film, television, recording and orchestral industries — will perform music from Broadway shows, film and pop culture, including songs from Pharrell Williams, Gloria Estefan, the films “West Side Story,” “The Greatest Showman” and “Goldfinger,” as well as the musicals “Chicago and “Hairspray.”
In honor of Judy Garland’s 100th and Barbra Streisand’s 80th birthday, the orchestra will perform music from them.
The Bob Baker Marionette Theater will perform before the event, while the concert will also spotlight the Donald Brinegar Singers and the JPL Chorus.
The orchestra is bringing in three special guests — Laura Dickinson, Matthew Johnson and Valarie Pettiford.
Dickinson is a multi-Grammy and Emmy Award-winning music producer and vocalist known for her work in “Watchmen,” “WandaVision,” “Disenchantment,” “League of Legends,” “Phineas and Ferb,” “Sofia the First,” “Elena of Avalor,” the two “Frozen” films, “The Little Mermaid Live!,” “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” “Lady and the Tramp” and “Mulan.”
She also appeared in the video for “Say Something” by Justin Timberlake and Chris Stapleton. A musical contractor for Michael Bublé, Dickinson has opened for Tony Bennett and Lyle Lovett.
Johnson is an actor, singer, dancer and musician who has performed with John Legend, Pharrell Williams, Jennifer Lopez, Childish Gambino and Stevie Wonder.
He developed as a musical theater artist at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, and he has arranged music for the Grammys, and performed at the Emmy and Billboard awards.
The artist has appeared in Dolly Parton’s film “Christmas on the Square” and has worked onstage or in the studio with Kelly Clarkson, Demi Lovato, Jennifer Hudson and Sam Smith.
Pettiford is an award-winning dancer, singer and actress who garnered a Tony nomination for her work in “Fosse.”
She has appeared on the TV shows and films “A Discovery of Witches,” “The Blacklist,” “Valor,” “Blackish,” “Bones,” “House of Payne,” “True Blood,” “Criminal Minds,” “Stomp the Yard,” “The Wiz,” “Senior Moment,” “Why Did I Get Married Too?,” “Being Mary Jane” and “Half and Half.”
Pettiford was the first African American actress to portray Velma Kelly in a West End revival of “Chicago.”
