S1: It's time for KPBS Midday Edition. Today we introduce you to a Jimmy Award nominee , directors for the Old Globe Summer series , and the artist behind a new exhibit at the Oceanside Museum of Art. I'm Jade Hinzman with conversations that keep you informed , inspired , and make you think. We'll hear from one San Diego student who recently participated in the prestigious National High School Musical Theater Awards.
S2: I really am so grateful to have had this opportunity to be able to take in as much as I possibly could , and just learn as much as I could.
S1: Plus , a check on this summer Shakespeare comedies at the Old Globe , then the textile art of Dina Harris. That's ahead on Midday Edition. Each year , hundreds of thousands of high school students participate in regional competitions across the country to be the best in musical theater. Only about 110 of those students then go on to compete at the prestigious National High School Musical Theater Awards , also known as the Jimmies. I'm here with one student who actually just competed at the jimmies , which took place in New York last week. Bruno Dominguez is a recent graduate of Coronado School of the Arts. He joins me now to talk about his Jimmy Awards experience and his own musical theater journey. Bruno , welcome to midday. Hello.
S2: Hello.
S1: And so glad to have you here with us. Uh , first of all , congratulations. And going to the Jimmy's is a huge , huge accomplishment. And I imagine a pretty surreal experience. What was that like for you ? Yeah.
S2: So I mean it , like you said , it's an amazing experience. It was truly unbelievable. I learned so much , not just about the technical aspect of musical theater , but also about myself and about connections with other people and what I might want to do in the future. So I really am so grateful to have had this opportunity to be able to take in as much as I possibly could and just learn as much as I could. So it was it was a truly breathtaking experience.
S1: That's great. And remind us , how exactly do the do the Jimmy's work ? I know there's levels to this. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. So there's multiple kind of layers of auditions. Uh , the first couple days are used to prepare the students and the nominees for preliminary auditions , which took place a couple days after our arrival. And those auditions are basically to see which of the 110 nominees this year would pass on to the medley groups. And only 40 out of the 110 nominees got to be in those medley groups. And then after those medley groups , they were auditioned again to see who would be in the top four male and top four female nominees. And then during the actual Jimmy Awards on the day of the Jimmy Awards is when the winner , the male and female winners are decided. So there's kind of multiple layers and a lot going on , and it was a very , very tightly packed schedule over the course of ten days. But yeah , it was it was very well structured. And the team over at the Jimmy's did an amazing job at explaining everything to us and helping us move forward.
S1: Well , and I know you got to perform on an actual Broadway stage.
S2: It was such an amazing experience. I think any performer of any kind , it would be ecstatic to be able to perform on a Broadway stage. So stepping onto that stage , the Minskoff stage for the the first time was just so. I don't know. There's no word to describe it. It was it was truly amazing and breathtaking and , uh , stepping there and looking out into the , uh , the empty house. Um , just seeing those lights behind you is such a surreal experience , and I truly almost couldn't believe it. You know that I was on on a Broadway stage. It took me a while to to process it and say , whoa , I'm. I'm actually on Broadway. Um , so. Yeah , it was such an amazing thing.
S1: I can only imagine. Well , an important part of the Jimmy's experience , too , is working with people who are actually in the industry. You touched a bit on that earlier. I mean , talk to me more about that and what you learned there. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. So , uh , over the course of these , uh , ten days that we were over , uh , at the Jimmy's for Jimmy's week , we met so many different professionals that are currently in the industry , and it was really incredible to be able to interact with each and every one of them and learn about their lives and their thought processes and just their jobs even. So going into this experience , I was pretty much set on being , you know , a musical theater performer , because that's that's what I know. But being able to see all these different people with these different careers and everything was just so eye opening for me and being able to see that the musical theater community is just so much bigger than I ever could have possibly imagined.
S1: Yeah , well , take us a few steps back and talk about how you first qualified for the Jimmys. You competed at the Broadway San Diego Awards. Tell me about that experience and how it got you here. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. So I was like I said , I competed at the Broadway San Diego Awards. I was lucky enough to to win the awards , which I never really expected to. That was a very surreal experience. And that being in the Broadway , San Diego wards really prepared us for going to the Jimmy's. It is set and structured in a very similar way. It is very tightly packed with rehearsals and preparation and everything. So I'm really glad that I got to participate in the Broadway San Diego Awards. I was personally nominated for my role in my high school musicals cabaret , and I was nominated for the role of the Master of Ceremonies. So being there and being able to work further on my pieces for for the show that I've been working on for for months now was just so gratifying , and it was such a very nice experience to be able to work with professionals and to kind of discover more things that I never found previously and then go on to actually compete. And when the Broadway San Diego Awards just was really helpful for going to the Jimmys , but also really helpful for making connections and finding other people that have the same interest and passion as me.
S1: That's great. We actually have a snippet of your performance at the Broadway San Diego Awards. So here you are singing I Don't Care Much from the musical cabaret.
S3: You kiss me and every time warning fair , I don't care. This might be.
S1: A true professional there. Can you talk about what went into preparing for that performance and also what that role meant to you ? Yeah.
S2: So like I said , that was the master of ceremonies in cabaret. And it is such a powerful musical and role specifically. So preparing for that took quite a bit of time. I made sure to really do as much research as I possibly could. I watched multiple productions of cabaret over the years , and I took a little bit of inspiration from each of the actors. You know , Alan Cummings is one of my my favorite portrayals of this character. Um , Joel Grey was the originator of it and most recently , Eddie Redmayne on Broadway. So being able to look at all these past actors and take that inspiration and really help me prepare for this role and being at the Broadway San Diego Awards , we got a little bit of coaching as well. So those coaching sessions really helped me to discover as much of the character , and specifically that song as I possibly could. So it was a very , very rewarding to be able to portray that character and be able to show that to the masses and the audience. It's just a very powerful role , and I am so forever thankful and grateful that I got the opportunity to portray that and to really embody that. Yeah.
S1: Yeah.
S2: It is a very interesting role in that I am a part of the main story , but at the same time , I'm almost like this omnipotent presence just watching over the show and talking directly to the audience. My role never interacts with any other of the other characters. They only interact with the audience. So it's such a unique role and it's so , on a technical aspect , so interesting and fun to be able to play as an actor. And I know I don't just speak for myself. I know it's a lot of people's most favorite role or yeah , they wish they could play. And so that's why I'm so glad that I was able to play it. And this role specifically kind of takes the audience through this journey and kind of shows all these issues and problems with with the world specifically in , you know , a 1930s Berlin , which is where this musical is set. But also there are issues in the in the show that are reflected to this day. That is actually one of the reasons why my school decided to put on this show because of , you know , the current events that might be happening in politics and around the world , and being able to share that with the audience and kind of show these issues and say , this is what's going on , and we need you to realize that and pay attention to that is is one of the biggest motivators for me to be able to to do this role and to really put my all into it and be able to share that with the audience.
S1: Yeah , art is always a vehicle to to bring new perspectives to audiences for sure. All right. Well , let's dive more into your background in musical theater.
S2: She's been a singer most of her life , and being growing up , listening to her sing opera and going to her rehearsals with her is really what allowed me to discover the arts in the first place. So without her , and without having been around music my whole life , I don't think that I would be where I am today. So I think she is one of my main inspirations for being in the medium. And she's really the first one that kind of she , she kind of made me audition for this , this musical for Mary Poppins that she was directing musically. And I got the role , I got the role of Michael Banks , and that was my first ever musical theater role. And from there on , I discovered that I really love musical theater , and it's my biggest passion , and I want to keep pursuing it for the rest of my life. So it was pretty much thanks to her. That's how I got introduced to this , this art form.
S1: What a great foundation.
S2: And in Mexico there are a lot of different art styles. Well , as in any culture , of course , but I think music is extremely prevalent in the Mexican culture. Uh , there's folk music , there's more modern music. And so being from that culture that is so rich in the arts is very helpful for me. And , uh , one of the examples that I can give you most recently of how my culture helped me , with with my art is for cabaret. Um , one of the main issues talked about in the play is kind of the ignorance that the public might have towards certain issues , uh , political or otherwise. And so being able to take these things that are happening in the world right now , such as , um , immigration and undocumented people in the United States , uh , that is very close to home for me. And so being able to take that issue and kind of show it through my character and , and use it to my advantage to to be able to put myself in that headspace and that position to portray that. Um , and with the role is extremely helpful technically for me , but also , I think for the audience to be able to , to see those , uh , issues through through the art and be able to process them that way. So I think it is very important to take your culture and show it through your art form.
S1: Well , so what's next for you ? I hear you're going to Cal State Fullerton in the fall.
S2: So I am planning on attending , like you said , Cal State Fullerton for a BFA in musical theater. And , uh , I really plan on using this passion of mine and turning it into , you know , sure. Something profitable that I could maybe turn into a career , but mainly just so that I could kind of create this life , uh , based around the arts , because it's my favorite environment to be in and to be able to to do my passion as a career is an amazing opportunity that not many people have. So I really want to put everything that I can into pursuing this , uh , for , you know , maybe the rest of my life or maybe going a different route and maybe teaching musical theater. I'm also really I kind of have a passion for for teaching and tutoring. So , uh , we'll see what happens. But I definitely do want musical theater and theater to just be a big part of my life. So that's what I'm planning on pursuing and continuing to do.
S1: Yeah , well , I know we'll hear more from you. And again , congratulations. I've been speaking with Bruno Dominguez , Grammy Award nominee and incoming freshman at Cal State Fullerton. Bruno , thanks so much for joining me.
S2: Thank you so much for having me. It was an amazing experience. Thank you.
S1: Coming up , a 12 year old James Vasquez heard Shakespeare for the first time at the Old Globe's camp orbit.
S4: Not really understanding what was necessarily being said on stage , but hearing the musicality of it , hearing the rhythm , hearing the height of the language and the importance of the language struck something in me.
S1: Now he's directing the Globes. A Comedy of Errors will check in on this summer's Shakespeare comedies. When KPBS Midday Edition returns. Welcome back. You're listening to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman in San Diego. Summer means Shakespeare. Built 90 years ago , San Diego's Old Globe Theater was modeled after Shakespeare's Old Globe and London. It's since dedicated itself to producing the Bard's plays every summer , and this year there are a pair of comedies to enjoy Under the stars. KPBS arts reporter Beth Accomando speaks with the directors of the plays James Vazquez and Peter Francis James , who also goes by PFG. Take a listen.
S5: If you are directing All's Well That Ends Well here at the globe , and this has been labeled a problem play. And that term this year makes a little more sense to me in that I recently saw the Materialists , which is like a rom com but with some serious overtones. So I feel like is a problem play kind of a rom com that just brings in more serious issues.
S6: Well , to answer your question , very possibly , I don't think that's quite why this is called a problem play , although I think that is the effect of what happened. Really , I think the essence of it is that this is a first draft. This was never performed in his lifetime. He died in , I think , 1623. It was first performed in 1741. It just shows up in the complete works without any production history. So it's fundamentally a play about unrequited love , someone pursuing someone who does not want them.
S7: My imagination carries no favor in it. But Bertram's.
S6: And as I say , you probably don't write that play in the best year of your life. My sense is that Shakespeare wrote it , sort of got out what he was feeling , and then put it in a drawer. And by the time he came back to it , he was writing , you know , King Lear and Midsummer Night's Dream. And when do I want to look at this again ? The answer to which was no , I want to write the next one. I'm past that. So I think anyone who produces it is basically finishing the play. There are two characters in the play , for example , who are Lords F and G until you get to act four and they need names and then they become magically the brothers domain. So to me , it's just a very strong indication that he he was that early on where he's doing , you know , a Lord , a Lord , a lord , but he's keeping track of how many actors he's going to need. Maybe it's definitely the sense is that he's going to come back to it. So I think that's what renders it more a problem , and that he would have fleshed out the object of that affection , the the unrequited love , a bit more. I mean , basically what you're feeling when you're turned aside or ignored and you're usually not seeing the object of your affection clearly. Really , what you're dealing with is your own obsession , which is always present in Shakespeare as all of these people are , as I like to say , obsessed with being themselves , you know ? So this was a person who reworked his plays on his company , which is great , and he could imagine an actor speaking it. He knew who he was writing it for , you know ? So there was debt. He was a company writer in that way. He was writing on the his ensemble , on that group of actors. And so when he would take it into rehearsal and then performance and then another performance , he was changing stuff. And this is a it's very interesting because I think we really are looking at a first draft , and in that way it's just gold because you're seeing his mind not completely in that polished phase , but in the feverish writing phase , some of which is just brilliant and some of which you go , oh , he got confused , too. to , and that's reassuring to the rest of us mere mortals.
S5:
S6: That was certainly a part of it. I mean , several things attracted me to it. Once I was rereading it , Barry Edelstein , the artistic director , approached me about doing it. I said , really that play ? And he said , well , that's great. And I said , well , it's Shakespeare , you know , capable of greatness , we all know. But I had to go back and look. And then I really sort of felt I found what he was after , which was this sort of sense of us being siloed , being in our own movies. Do we ever , as I put it , do we ever really connect with anyone , or do we just collide in our willful pursuit of To our lives as individuals. Is there ever really a connection ? Or are there just collisions and compromises and coincidence ? But not really a communion. I think later on those plays are so much about communion , where you have that incredible sense of people truly reaching each other. But I think this was written in reaction to a time in his life when he wasn't feeling the connection , and acutely so that attracted. One of the things that really stood out to me was just how , I guess , we would put in our modern lexicon how feminist this play is. The role and empowerment of women is , is is just an incredibly strong theme throughout the play. And that was really fun to chase at this moment in time.
S5: And James , you have the task of tackling a play that is beloved and looked upon as this frantic , fast paced comedy and it does get produced a lot more than All's Well that Ends Well.
S4: This is actually , I want to say my fourth time working on Comedy of Errors. However , the first two times were 25 30 minute abbreviated versions with kids. And you know , the emphasis on those versions was really the wackiness of the misidentification and the confusion there. So it didn't really dive into a lot of the deeper story of the Comedy of Errors. So it was fun to sort of sit back and not only revisit it for myself and revisit the full version , not just these 25 minute versions that I had had worked on previously , but to really sort of get to relearn it myself and get to Discover how relevant it was to today. And I think one of the things that I love about Shakespeare , I love Shakespeare. I grew up loving Shakespeare. I saw my first Shakespeare productions on this stage , Paxton Whitehead as Richard II and Jack O'Brien's Midsummer Night's Dream. So to be directing Comedy of Errors out on this stage , and to be given the opportunity to give it a point of view that will hopefully attract younger audiences , will celebrate its relevancy and get my generation , our generation , excited about Shakespeare again. Maybe for the first time. I think this is one of the perfect shows to do it. It's silly. It's a fun night out under the stars , and as we're discovering , there are little nuggets in the story that are going to send people out thinking about what's going on in our world today. And I think that's pretty exciting that this guy who wrote this play Several hundred years ago , is able to still ground and land with our communities today.
S5: And what are some of those nuggets that you really wanted to kind of either dive into or just highlight a little bit ? Yeah.
S4: You know , we surprisingly , maybe not surprisingly , we're discovering a lot of comparisons in the story to what is going on with our borders right now in this country. We're discovering a lot of comparisons to just relationships and how people are interacting or not interacting with each other today , dealing with the possibility of infidelity within the story. So that has been fun to discover. Rediscover again the joy of it all , but discover the adult part of the story. The part that I think makes all of us in the audience at one point or another go , oh , I know that I understand that. I feel that in one way or another.
S5: Now , you recently did a Shakespeare play where you overlaid kind of an I Love Lucy sitcom vibe to it.
S4: My Merry Wives was set in 1950s. I just last week got home from opening a brand new 1980s jukebox musical. And so I thought , let's keep moving forward. Comedy of errors is inspired by the 1990s. It's set in the 1990s here on the West Coast , sort of a fun , not battle , but a rift between the Pacific Northwest and Southern California , and really celebrating all that great music from the 1990s. The music is really coming in and playing a big part , underscoring a lot of the big moments in the scenes throughout Comedy of errors.
S5: A lot of people have , like , a resistance to Shakespeare or a fear of Shakespeare , thinking , I'm not going to understand the language or I won't be able to follow it.
S6: There's also a fear among actors of performing it. And as I say , none of Shakespeare's actors thought of themselves as being Shakespearean. They were just actors who showed up to work that day. And , you know , Will had written his next one. And so we get to work on it. And he's such a force in our culture that he's been really elevated to this place where he seems unreachable. He wasn't that at all. James Baldwin wrote a beautiful thing about him. He said Shakespeare walked down the street and tried not to lie about what he saw. And there's that immediacy in Shakespeare , I think People say , well , I'll read the play and I say , don't read it. Don't read it before. No , it's not meant to be read. That would be like asking you to read a chemistry formula if you're not a chemist. Only actors are supposed to read it. You're just supposed to come and witness it and hear it , and within five minutes your ear will adjust. And I think that's often the joy in Shakespeare is that you hear a sentence and you think I do. Yes. I do understand exactly what was just said. And it's perfect. It's perfect. That's exactly how I feel about something like that. So I just say it's a it's a roll with it , you know , let the waves hit you. They're just the sound of the words does something. He's so good at it. There's a music there and there's a meaning there. And it is in English. You will get it. I find often people for whom English is not their first language have an easier time in Shakespeare , because he's precise in a way that we tend not to be in casual conversation. And I think that's Shakespeare. He could have written the great English novel he was writing at the same time as Cervantes was writing Don Quixote , but he chose this medium. He wanted you to witness his writing on the flesh and blood of human beings , and that's the way it should be done.
S5: And , James , you have worked with children , and I have found through the Student in Shakespeare Festival that sometimes kindergarteners are fearless in tackling the Bard.
S4: And the takeaway anytime I work with young artists is the joy and the play and the fearlessness of it. I think there's something in our brains when we're younger where we are not afraid of the what ifs , and we actually are willing to jump off the cliff for the possibility of it all. And as we get older , we start to go , oh , not , not not for me or I don't want to look dumb or I don't want to. And you know , kids don't lie. And I think that's really exciting when storytelling because they lead not only from a place of joy , but from a place of truth. And so you get these young artists up there who just jump off the cliff and support each other doing it. And as we get older , we start to pay attention to the fact that our buttons and our shirt may be buttoned on the wrong button , whereas kids , we laugh about that. Yeah. So , you know , I think there's power in our young artists and I think there's power in them learning the classics. And I think we've proven over and over that the classics continue to be relevant , and getting these young minds , putting their points of view on the classics is how they're going to stay alive. So if we can introduce kids and young artists to Shakespeare now and get them excited in 50 years , maybe he'll still be thriving the way we've always known him to thrive.
S5: And you yourself were introduced to Shakespeare here at the globe.
S4: I was at 12 years old. I came to a program called Camp Orbit. It was primarily for high school students and a community theater teacher called the globe and wrote letters on my behalf and said , take this kid. So they they took me when I was younger than everyone else , but it was where I needed to be. You come here and you're seeing it done in a first class fashion. You're hearing it done in a way that you hope everyone gets to hear it. And so at 12 , again , not really understanding what was necessarily being said on stage , but hearing the musicality of it , hearing the rhythm , hearing the height of the language and the importance of the language struck something in me and turned something on that I wanted to know more about. And so now , years later , to have directed what is going to be my second Shakespeare out on that stage where I saw my first Shakespeare's is a pretty exciting full circle. It doesn't get better , doesn't get better than that.
S5: All right. Well , I want to thank you both very much.
S4: Thank you.
S6: And thank you. It was a great interview. Thank you so much.
S1: That was Beth Accomando speaking with directors James Vasquez and Peter Francis. James. All is well. That Ends Well. Closes this Sunday. And A Comedy of Errors Ayres opens July 27th. Both plays are outdoors at the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre. Still ahead in this edition of Weekend Preview , a textile artist opens up her first ever solo exhibit.
S8: The exhibition is kind of just like embracing the unknown. The only way out of it is through it. And you know you can't control anything. You just have to get through it.
S1: KPBS Midday Edition is back after the break. You're listening to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman. For our weekend preview , we take a little look at a textile artist challenging us to really think about softness. Dena Harris just opened her first major solo exhibition at Oceanside Museum of Art. Harris works primarily with fiber and textiles , creating sculptural pieces using rug tufting techniques and a lot more. She recently sat down with KPBS arts reporter Julia Dixon Evans to discuss her art. Here's that conversation.
S9: So this exhibit is called The Space Between Texture Studies.
S8: To me , has a lot of different meanings. Um , I think the obvious one is like , well , maybe not obvious because we're on a phone call , but once you go to the exhibit , um , the obvious one is it's separated by a walkway. So there's two galleries. So there's a little bit of a space between the two sides. And on a personal level , I feel like I am in a space between where I was , where I'm going , where I want to be. And I think that even if I like , try to plan for my future , especially with this exhibit , I tried to plan for it a year in advance. Everything that could have gone wrong kind of did not to like sound negative. So I think it's also just like part of enjoying the space between where I am and not trying to control everything. And if you I faced like a lot of resistance to my progress , but I look at it , if I am facing resistance and I'm still like brave enough to push through , then I think I'm moving in the right direction. And I think it's just supposed to be like also ambiguous to the viewer. Like abstract art.
S9:
S8: I am a full time artist , so this is my full time job. I got a grant from the William Male Foundation , which was amazing. And then somehow that the checks were stolen , and then the whole group of people that the grantees got our checks and the check was postponed and held for my bank for like two weeks. So the progress I was trying to make , I ordered a new machine that was postponed. Just any type of progress I tried to make with productivity and like getting work done. I just felt like there was an obstacle in every corner. Um , I think I'm , like , forgetting things. There's just , like , so many things went wrong. Backing up a little bit. I had my meeting with the museum. August 14th of 2024. Before , um. And then August 17th last year , my new puppy started having seizures. So that was like an unforeseen thing that I had not planned for. Um , which kind of threw the exhibition off my radar until October when she passed. So it was just a lot , um , a lot. My partner's dad passed away , like , all within the span. And then he sent me a picture this morning of , like , we took our old puppy to the museum with us last year. So I have a picture with her on the steps , and we took our new puppy with us to the opening , um , this past weekend. And he sent me those pictures and he was just like , wow , what a difference a year makes. And everything that's happened in this past year , I just couldn't have ever foreseen. But the exhibition's kind of just like embracing the unknown. The only way out of it is through it. And you know you can't control anything. You just have to get through it.
S9: So softness is an important element in your art. There's like obvious implications there with the softness of yarn.
S8: As a black woman , I feel like I am a little bit misunderstood and perceived harder and harsher than I actually am. I have soft tattooed on my arm. I'm a sensitive Capricorn , so I think I just want to , with my art , reframe the way that black women and darker skinned black women specifically are maybe viewed by others. Also , I think embracing softness in whole , no matter if you're black or whatever is important , especially with everything that's going on in the world. Yeah.
S9:
S8: I think it's often looked at as like craft or especially fiber art , maybe like women's work. I think it's getting a lot more attention in 2025 and maybe 2024. Mhm. I would like to bridge the gap between accessibility and fine art. So I want people to like look at my work and recognize a familiar item like yarn. You can you make sweaters. You make socks out of it but they see it reimagined in a different way , so they don't feel as intimidated by going to like museums or visiting galleries. I didn't grow up in art spaces. I , um , I'm still working to feel totally comfortable in art spaces , and that's just probably like my own thing. But I would love to bridge that gap. And I think that's also what the space between kind of means to me , like bridging the gap between where I came from and people like me and going into like fine art and museum institutions. Mhm.
S9: Mhm. You mentioned some of the challenges that you've been facing.
S8: My brain moves really fast and I have to You get that energy out somehow ? I don't know. I think the motivation is definitely self-driven. Yeah , just I think just to create and whatever is inside of me. Get that out.
S1: That was Dena Harris speaking with KPBS arts reporter and podcast host Julia Dixon Evans , who joins me now. Hey , Julia.
S9: Hey , Jade. Thanks for having me.
S1: Always great to have you here. So , uh , Harris's approach sounds pretty interesting. Can you describe what her art actually looks like ? Yeah.
S9: So there's a range of these soft sculptures , as she calls them. Some are almost , like , really stringy tapestries made from yarn , and then others are more like stuffed textiles , like , there's a couple of oversized plush chains and they're suspended from the ceiling. She has some that are colorful rug tufting with these like , curious non-uniform edges and shapes , geometric patterns on them. It's just really beautiful and kind of disruptive. and the fact that there are these familiar , comforting textures , but they're seen in this , this like unexpected way and they're hung on the wall , but they literally look like you could just put them in your house and walk on them. It's not often that I see art that I actually want to use , and there's something to that. I think , like the idea of of softness and what Harris was saying about this intersection of traditional or domestic craft with contemporary art. Like in some ways , it's taking contemporary art off of its pedestal and making you just literally want to touch it. But this is a museum , so don't touch it.
S1: I don't know , that might be too tempting.
S9:
S1: All right. Well , let's take a look at what else is going on. You've got a few recommendations for art. Um , you can just sort of stumble upon this weekend. So tell me about that. Yeah.
S9: Yeah. So I'll start with a couple of visual art installations. And I really love art that you can see from the outside. Um , you don't have to make much of a plan. You don't have to buy a ticket. You don't even have to talk to anyone. The first one is a UC San Diego. They're Mandeville Art Gallery. They just put up this installation called Text Messages. It's on view on the exterior media mesh displays , like these giant screens that wrap around the front of the building. It's the work of three digital artists. Um , Maya mann has a piece called I'm Feeling Lucky at a glance , and it's a series of , like , astrological readings pulled from archived and indexed astrology texts. There's phrases like you are likely to expand hopes alongside little clip art style shapes and images. Uh , Winnie soon has erasable characters three , and that pulls censored words and phrases from China's social media that was extracted during the beginning of Covid 19. So between like December 2019 and February 27th , 2020 , and then finally Sasha Styles cursive binary. And this is generated text. It has , like the quintessential bright green on a black backdrop , but it's like handwritten scrawl. So these ones and zeros bit written in cursive. And that's meant to explore like the intersection of humans and machines. And these images will be on and running from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily now through September 27th. And then one more visual art display that you can see from the sidewalk is at Morta Studio in Golden Hill. This is like a storefront window display that Morta Studio curates , and right now is a series of paintings by Vanessa Rachel. It's called blush , and I really love her work the way that she uses Is grayscale and muted colors to somehow evoke so much richness. And that's on view day and night. It's on the corner of 25th and C Street in Golden Hill. Wow.
S1: Wow. Well , there's also an interesting contemporary dance performance this weekend. Tell us more about the morning after.
S9: Yeah , this is part of a series called Consequential Dances , and it's the brainchild of local choreographer and dancer Erika Buechner. It's all about indulgence. So the first was called Feast on This. It was in 2017 , and that one was about food. And then there was sauce about drinking in 2022. And this third installment is kind of exploring the consequences. So like the morning after all of that food and drink , it should be really fun. It's a team of choreographers and dancers that put this project together. Performances are going to be at Art Produce in North Park. They have a small amount of tickets , like 20 tickets per show that are available to sit inside , and those cost $25. But you can also just walk up to the sidewalk and watch it for free from outside. It has these like floor to ceiling windows in front. And those windows and the the reality of passersby are actually considered part of the performance. So don't feel guilty about just strolling up and watching. There are several shows throughout the evening on Saturday and Sunday , and it starts this weekend through July 13th.
S1: All right , well , the 4th of July is tomorrow , and the San Diego Symphony is actually commemorating the holiday with a fun spin on patriotic music at the Rady Shell. Yeah.
S9: Yeah. This is their 4th of July concert. It's called America in Song , and they have some vocalists joining the orchestra to perform , like a range of works of music that are quintessentially American. So from Gershwin to Bob Dylan. Louis Armstrong to Dolly Parton. And one major perk to getting tickets to the show is that right after the concert , you basically have front row seats to the big baby boom. So the concert is Friday starting at 730 , and then the fireworks should start at nine.
S1: Well , you can find details on these and more arts events on our website at pbs.org. I've been speaking with KPBS Arts reporter and host of our arts podcast , The Finest , Julia Dixon Evans. Julia , as always , thank you.
S9: Thank you. Jade. This was fun.
S1: 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.
