Bodhi Tree Concerts Brings 'All Is Calm' Back To Veterans Museum

Speaker 1: 00:00 Bodhi tree concerts, returns to the veterans museum to stage all his comm, which looks to the Christmas truce of 1914 KPBS arts reporter Beth Huck Amando previews the show with Bodhi tree co-founders, Walter and Diana do Mel Diana, to start with, can you give us a little background on what the Christmas truce of 1914 was all about? When we had the allied forces and we had the Germans and there is this plot of land in the middle, no man's land, and it wasn't very far. There was very little distance and the soldiers could actually call over to one another and say hello or you know, joke at one another. They could hear people coughing and laughing and, and so at Christmas time they take it upon themselves to start this unsanctioned truce and it starts with a song. It starts with the Germans singing a song. I'm still an OCT and the British soldiers want to be a part of it. And so they call back. And then ultimately it comes with them coming out of their trenches and singing songs together in different languages and exchanging gifts and even playing a game of soccer. So it's a pretty great story to tell about enemies or sworn enemies or that. And they find that they're so much alike and way more like than they ever thought. Speaker 2: 01:21 Oh, I have caught the select little potty together led by my eyes and Torian voice. I'm going to take up positions in our trenches where we are closest to the enemy about 80 yards. And from 10:00 PM onwards we are going to give the enemy every conceivable Saul Speaker 1: 01:42 in Bodhi tree concerts has a unique mission statement. Remind listeners what that is. Um, Bodhi tree concerts performs intentional acts of kindness through music. And what that means is that we hire exclusively local artists, but then we take profits from each concert and donate them to a different charity. And to date we've hired hundreds of local artists and donated a $30,000 to different charities. Walter, this isn't gonna be the first time you're singing a roll in all his calm Bodhi tree concerts partnered with San Diego opera last year to perform the show. So what do you feel the differences between the space you performed in for San Diego opera and now going to the veterans museum? Speaker 3: 02:20 Uh, well last year with San Diego opera taking the lead of the production, it was at the Balbo theater, which was a lovely theater, um, much smaller than the civic theater, but still a, uh, a theater, um, 1200 seats I think. And so we will be returning to our venue for the first two productions of the veterans museum. Much more intimate space, uh, holds 150 200 people only, uh, the artists will be feet from the first row of audience. So you will be right there in the trenches with the, uh, the soldiers as we perform the piece. So, uh, it's, it's a very immediate performance venue and there's, uh, an emotional connection to the audience, which we as artists also have to be mindful of because we see their reactions literally right in front of us. And for you as a performer, what's it like being that close to the audience? Speaker 3: 03:11 Does that enhance your performance? Well, when you see a 80 something year old vet start to choke up in the middle of ode Lang zine, you do have to check a certain amount of your, uh, uh, own emotion at the door realizing that it's the piece is serving its purpose. You know, it's, it's, uh, it's working, but you can't go down that rabbit hole or you would have to leave the state yourself. So there's a balance of wanting that to happen and see that emotional journey that the audience is taking, but then stepping out of it enough so that you can stay a controlled actor yourself. And let's hear a little of that song from the production last December. Speaker 4: 04:00 [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] uh, uh, Speaker 1: 04:18 Diana, you staged all is calm at the veterans museum a few years ago. What appeals to you about that venue? Well, it's really special museum and if you haven't been there, I highly recommend it. It's lovingly cared for and it also has a local lens. It's the stories and, and pieces of artifacts that come from local families and local veterans and it's lovingly cared for and they're, um, they have changing, changing pieces throughout the years and they should be some world war one artifacts happening and it's also run by veterans and most of them are volunteers and it's really touching to be there and they welcome us with open arms every year. Walter, what can people expect from this? It's not exactly an opera, so what do you call it? Speaker 3: 05:04 Uh, I think the word that got bandied around was a choral opera. Uh, so it is full of songs. It is full of letters that are read actual speeches and notes and interviews of the day from 1914 a letter sent home from the troops to their loved ones as well as actual news footage and coverage from, from the day. Winston Churchill has a line in their actual military missives that are quoted throughout the play. Um, so it, it swings back and forth from having sung solos and curl numbers with actual, uh, words and stories from that time Speaker 1: 05:45 and then returning to it in different times in different venues. Do you discover new things? Speaker 3: 05:49 It's funny that you asked that. Absolutely. I mean, this is the fourth year that we're involved with bringing this really powerful piece to San Diego and every year I feel like we come to it a new and speeches that we have done four times feel so differently because there's a, maybe a slight difference of the other actors you're singing with. Maybe we've decided to change one, um, accent from hybrid dish to a commoner. And so just the subtlest change of the attrical values makes it feel like a very fresh piece every year. Speaker 1: 06:25 Diana, in bringing it back, do you feel that it plays differently in our current political context? Yes, absolutely. Because the news of the day is pretty rough. And we look to these soldiers who were sworn enemies. They were killing each other and they could find a common humanity. And they found it through singing, through music. And for us as individuals and us as an organization, as Bodhi tree concerts, is what we're founded on, finding enlightenment and understanding through music. And I think it brings some peace to us and hopefully to our audiences and to our artists involved as well, and reminds us that we're not alone, that we, we're alike. We're the same. I want to thank you both for coming into the KPBS studio. Thank you, Beth. Thanks. And let's go out with silent night from the San Diego opera coproduction with Bodhi tree concerts from last year. Speaker 4: 07:31 [inaudible] Speaker 1: 07:31 Bodhi tree concerts. All is calm. Opens Friday at the veterans museum and then it moves to the village church on November 23rd for one performance. Speaker 4: 07:48 [inaudible].