If all the Spoleto and Piccolo Spoleto Festivals did was
provide us with entertaining ephemeral moments it would be enough. Moments of joy, harmony, insight or
beauty: enough. Strengthen our economy with tourist dollars: enough.
Fill our streets with more colorful and artistic visitors hauling
musical instruments, painting in the parks, leaping onto stages: enough. It would be enough to spend an
evening out, see a great show, enjoy ourselves and go home to soon forget it
all. Many of life’s best moments are
this fleeting. But sometimes there’s
more. Sometimes the festivals rock our
world.
It could be
a glimpse at art’s cutting edge. In 1988
my children and I emerged from a piano lesson at the College of Charleston Caribbean procession
that led the entire audience to dance in the streets.
In 2012 when
Theater Company 1927 performed “The Animals and Children Took to the Streets”,
it was a revelation for Lila Trussler.
“It was an entirely different art form than I had ever seen. There were so many different things going on
at once. It seemed brand new.” It was dark, edgy, innovative, creepy and
unique. Anne Birdseye was captivated by
the 2008 “Monkey: Journey to the West”
that combined a circus of cartoons, acrobats, Chinese music and a tribe of
monkeys flying among bamboo poles. Not the kinds of thing you can see every
weekend in Charleston
but exactly what the festivals bring to our doorstep. “It was very engaging. I like things that are so different, that you
wouldn’t otherwise be able to see,” said Anne. Long time Charleston improv impresario Greg Tavares said, "I have so many memories from Piccolo over the years. The one that sticks with me is the first time I saw The Cody Rivers Show at
Piccolo Fringe. They are a two person sketch/physical comedy duo we have had
come a couple times. Their work changes how I saw comedy and what I thought was
possible."
Then there’s the star power. Like many Charleston women, I’ve delighted in
extemporaneous hugs from Charles Wadsworth.
I became embarrassingly tongue-tied upon being introduced to Jean Yves
Thibaudet. I once mustered my courage to
approach Gian Carlo Menotti in a parking garage, tell him he was my hero and
that I’d studied his opera “Amahl” in grade school. Barry Goldsmith
who was the director of arts instruction for Charleston County Schools for many
years said, “For me, the most exciting part of Spoleto was, because of my
position with the school district, getting to know Gian Carlo Menotti….I
admired him and could not have imagined I would one day work with him to develop
programs for students.”
Twenty
years ago Corday Rice was playing the recorder and became transfixed by a
Renaissance opera record she nearly wore out until she learned to play the
motifs. She and her mother Beth went to
that opera and then to many more in a yearly mother-daughter tradition that
they cherish. Our son Philip and his friend Derek Cribb still talk about the
Latin band Bio Ritmo they saw twenty years ago at a Piccolo Finale. “It was monumental,” Philip recalls “A whole
new musical language.” They both grew up
to be professional musicians. The
festivals have given our children the foundations to build their artistic
lives.
Most of all
it’s the transcendent moments that grab our hearts. These we remember most. “I was at a Chamber Music performance several
years ago, and Charles Wadsworth was introducing the piece about to be played,”
Nancye Starnes recalls. “He told us that the composer was very much in love but
restricted by her family from moving ahead with the relationship. So, he wrote
a chamber piece to express his love. As I sat there listening to the work, I
could feel, actually physically feel, his desire, his agony at not being able
to be with her, how heartbroken he was. Tears were streaming down my cheeks.
I've not had such a reaction to a composition since.........but since I'm still
attending the Chamber series--there's always hope!”
Have fun,
be entertained. That’s enough. But art can change lives. It’s happening right now, right here in Charleston .
If You Go:
