Latest / philly has heART / new heaven new earth feat. Playwright Rayne and Percussionist Karen Smith

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new heaven new earth feat. Playwright Rayne and Percussionist Karen Smith · philly has heART

0:13
Welcome to season two of Philly Has Heart. It
0:18
has been an amazing accomplishment to be with
0:22
you through the first season. You've seen us
0:25
grow, you've seen us change, and you've seen
0:28
the community come together in ways that we've
0:31
never thought imaginable. Season two will bring
0:35
brand new guests, brand new branding, and a website
0:40
refresh. You'll be able to immerse yourselves
0:44
into Philadelphia and the art scene more than
0:48
ever before as we share new stories, new events,
0:55
and greater access to the Philadelphia art world.
0:59
We can't wait to share this next chapter of our
1:03
lives with you. Bonjour, Robert. What did you
1:12
get into last weekend? Hey, Lucinda. Labor Day
1:16
weekend, you know? Not doing any labor, I can
1:20
tell you that. Yeah. Went to the beach. Finally
1:24
got a good like beach weekend in. It was absolutely
1:27
beautiful. Crossed the bridge, went to Jersey,
1:30
hung out, went out to dinner, you know, got some
1:33
beach days in, got a little sun. It was nice.
1:36
It was nice. How about yourself? What'd you get
1:39
into? Being the last weekend of summer before
1:43
school started, the family visited from Paris
1:48
to Provence. French painting at the Barnes, the
1:51
exhibition of Monet, Cezanne, Van Gogh, and others.
1:55
My favorite, Matisse. On the exhibit's last day,
1:59
and then we ate brunch at the Garden Restaurant.
2:03
Oh, you love that. Do you remember, Robert, when
2:08
you and I had brunch at Garden Restaurant? Yes.
2:13
I think 2017. And it was your first time meeting
2:18
my husband. And it was my first time meeting
2:22
John. Yes. Any news about Calder while you were
2:28
there? I saw it and I pointed it out to my husband.
2:34
Really? Yeah, but no, like there was no promotion
2:38
at the Barnes about. You know what? No, no. No
2:43
promotion at the Barnes about the opening. We
2:46
only saw it, of course, because they have excellent
2:49
marketing as far as the construction. Right.
2:54
Fencing. It was something that my husband was
2:57
like, huh, what is that? And I was like, so glad
3:00
you asked. And I broke it down for him. Okay,
3:04
moving on. We said goodbye to Boom Exhibition
3:08
at the PMA. And we also visited the Contemporary
3:12
Wing. And we went to the Brand by Editions Innovation
3:15
in Screen Printing Exhibition as well. Wow. And
3:19
then we ate lunch at Stir. Oh, nice. Yeah. Okay,
3:26
what else did we do? Monday. Monday. Our marketing
3:32
consultant Becca and I went to New Heaven, New
3:36
Earth. And it's being billed as a developmental
3:40
staged reading. But nevertheless, it's entertaining.
3:44
And I think that really speaks to the dynamic
3:47
between the playwright and the script and the
3:50
actors and the director and the percussionist.
3:53
And it just so happens that we have the former
3:57
most and the latter most with us on the podcast.
4:01
Robert, shall we get to the conversation? On
4:04
to the conversation. Greetings. This is Robert
4:20
Marsh, and you're listening to Philly Has Heart
4:22
podcast. In this podcast, we sit down with artists.
4:26
gallerists, educators, curators, and other creatives
4:30
who comprise the Philadelphia art world to discuss
4:33
upcoming performances, exhibits, and other events
4:36
and initiatives that are not to be missed. The
4:40
art scene in Philadelphia is so rich that it
4:42
can seem daunting. Consider this your weekend
4:45
cultural recommendation. With me always is my
4:48
producer, Lucinda Dyerland. Hey, hey, hey. And
4:52
today we have Rain and Karen Smith. of New Heaven,
4:57
New Earth. Thank you so much for being here today.
5:00
Yeah, thank you for having us. New Heaven and
5:03
New Earth will be featured at Fringe Festival.
5:06
But we want to first start maybe with you, Karen,
5:10
about your origin story and how you fell into
5:14
your art. I'm happy to say this year I turned
5:16
65. So I've been doing this for some time now.
5:21
And I think I've been making a living from it
5:24
for the last almost 15 years, like solely as
5:27
an artist. But I'm going to say from being a
5:29
shy kid, I'm going to say it was theater and
5:32
music that kind of brought me out of my shyness.
5:36
So I gravitated to the music part maybe by five
5:39
or six years old. And then the theater part came
5:42
by the time I turned 10, 11 years old. I love
5:46
characters. I love creating characters. I love
5:48
imitating characters. I love drawing characters,
5:52
you know. So I think for me, it really helped
5:55
with my growth as a person. And then later an
6:00
artist that came later. I started in New York
6:03
and Philadelphia opened their arms somewhere
6:05
along the line to help me with, you know, really
6:08
haunting my craft and embracing it all because.
6:12
I had a teacher tell me one time, you know, I
6:14
was in this acting class, and he said, after
6:17
I did my little scene, he said, well, what is
6:20
it that you really want to do? I said, acting.
6:22
That's what I want to do. He said, but, you know,
6:24
it can be anything. You should learn everything
6:27
because you don't know what's going to take you
6:29
through the door and keep you there. Right. So
6:32
I was like, oh, he doesn't know what he's talking
6:34
about. He don't know me. But, you know, I hear
6:39
those words every day, and I thank him every
6:40
day because he's long gone, but I thank him every
6:43
day for that because it was all the things. It
6:45
was the percussion. It was the writing. It was
6:47
directing. It was working behind the scene. It
6:50
was selling tickets, learning marketing, all
6:52
the stuff that it takes that really kept me coming
6:55
through many doors and being able to make a living
6:57
as a full -time artist. So it wasn't just the
6:59
percussion. It wasn't just. My ability to act
7:03
or lie real quickly. It was all of it. It started
7:09
very early. Wow. Rain, how about yourself? Yeah,
7:12
oh my gosh. My origin story. I actually started
7:16
as a poet and I went to... The Neighborhood School,
7:20
which was John M. Patterson Elementary. And the
7:23
first poem I ever wrote was featured at John
7:26
Hines Wildlife Refuge. Oh, yeah? Yeah, and I
7:30
remember putting, I think it was a dandelion.
7:33
I adhered it to a piece of paper. My teacher,
7:36
Miss DW, Donna White. Shout out to Miss Donna
7:39
White. I skipped kindergarten, so I was way,
7:42
way, way underdeveloped coming into first grade.
7:44
Crybaby, everything. And she told me to write
7:47
this poem, and it was picked. And she was like,
7:49
I think you should consider taking up the arts.
7:53
And I was first grade probably with tears in
7:54
my eyes. Like, I don't know what you're talking
7:56
about. What does that mean? Shortly thereafter,
7:59
you know, a child's memory could have been the
8:01
next day. It could have been a month from then.
8:03
But she sat my parents down and she said, you
8:06
need to get Ange out of the school. Here's a
8:08
school that is brand new, sort of brand new,
8:10
Philadelphia Performing Arts Charter School.
8:12
It's a lottery system. I know Ange has a... Young
8:16
sister, shout out to my sister. She actually
8:19
got in the lottery. I did not. My mother took
8:23
that poem from the Tinicum, stormed it to PPax's
8:27
office with me and my sister and said, you need
8:29
to admit Angela because this is where they need
8:32
to be. And I was there. Wow. I was really, really
8:36
grateful to have mentors. And I'm feeling...
8:39
emotional, even just thinking about it. Mentors
8:42
really steward my path as an artist and believe
8:44
in me really early on. At PPACS, I actually started
8:49
with vocal music. I was a vocal music major.
8:51
I was in the choir, got into musical theater,
8:53
did a bunch of professional productions as a
8:57
young, young kid. Quickly realized that musical
9:00
theater world is not something that I wanted
9:02
to invest too much time in. But I kept writing.
9:07
I kept, you know, being a poet and writing spoken
9:10
word. And then spoken word as a gateway drug
9:13
into what we call like straight theater. Yeah.
9:15
So plays. I wrote my first play in an afterschool
9:18
program. It was about an alien foreign exchange
9:20
student who didn't want to leave earth and go
9:23
back to her home planet. I love it. Yeah. Out
9:26
of, out of orbit. I have it. It's on my Google
9:28
drive. Yeah. It was amazing. And again, my afterschool
9:32
teachers were like, put this play up. So my,
9:35
my artistic journey really started really, really
9:38
early on. And I think. Either because it didn't
9:41
dawn on me that I could do anything else or I'm
9:44
too afraid to try anything else. I just like
9:47
continued being an artist. And it's always been
9:49
a second language for me. And, you know, writing,
9:53
music, dance. I also dance ballet and I was a
9:57
cheerleader for a while, too. And so it was just
9:59
like a lot. I like using my body as an instrument
10:02
and my interiority as an instrument to tell stories.
10:05
I just turned 28. which is wild. Now I am. Yeah.
10:13
And because I like born and raised in Southwest
10:16
Philadelphia and have lived all over the city
10:19
since, you know, moving out of my parents' home.
10:22
But a lot of my mentors and teachers have now
10:25
become my colleagues and friends, which is such
10:28
a unique experience as like a Philly native who
10:31
has stuck with the arts for so, so long. Yeah,
10:34
even Karen. I remember the first time I met Karen
10:37
was on a project that got canceled right before
10:40
the pandemic. And I was meeting her for the first
10:44
time in Germantown. And I was living in Germantown
10:46
at the time. I was like, who is this dynamic,
10:49
wonderful artist? I hope that I get to work with
10:51
them at some point. I was an assistant director
10:54
on the project. So, you know, very green in the
10:57
directing world at that time. And then the project
11:00
got canceled and I got... promoted to be the
11:02
playwright on the project in its next iteration
11:04
and that was one of the most beautiful experiences
11:07
it's called germantown place pericles yeah and
11:11
then so karen my favorite yeah yeah i designed
11:14
the t -shirt i was just doing laundry the other
11:16
day and i got the t -shirt i was like i made
11:19
this um yeah it is like thinking fondly on our
11:25
relationship, Karen, but also all of the people
11:27
that I've been able to, have really been able
11:30
to see me grow and watch me grow into my artistic
11:33
voice, which I will forever be doing. I've made
11:36
peace with that and sharpened and refined my
11:38
craft. Shakespeare and Clark Park produced Germantown
11:41
Place Cleric. plays Pericles under its old leadership
11:44
with Kitson O 'Neill and I was friends with Kitson
11:46
and I'm friends with Seamus McCarty who gave
11:48
me this uh you know friends you know oh yeah
11:51
and like exactly and the people that that believe
11:54
in you and give you a chance even when you don't
11:57
know what the chance will entail you know you
12:00
just have an idea and a passion and a spark and
12:02
they're like yes and and I've been really really
12:05
really fortunate to have so many yes ands in
12:07
my life So we get to see New Heaven, New Earth,
12:12
thanks to Fringe Festival this year. Can you
12:14
let us know a little bit about New Heaven, New
12:18
Earth? For sure. And what people and our audience
12:20
can expect. New Heaven, New Earth was born out
12:23
of... This curiosity that I had about the amount
12:27
of black Cleopatras that I knew growing up and
12:30
this really like sensitive topic to folks, especially
12:33
outside of the black community that comment on
12:35
the black community a lot about like Afrocentrism
12:38
and the idea of civilization starting in Egypt
12:42
with black people, with dark skinned people.
12:45
take you know modern race relations out of the
12:48
language like who built the pyramids the question
12:51
of that so it came out of a curiosity of like
12:53
I know I know four black Cleopatros through my
12:56
life like women femmes that are were named Cleopatros
12:59
by their mother who are black and I didn't think
13:03
it was such a contentious thing until I you know
13:06
got an Africana studies degree and and started
13:10
to read up on what Afrocentrism actually And,
13:13
you know, that's a big, big umbrella. And there's
13:15
many, many schools of thought that fall underneath
13:17
of it. And I was really interested in why we
13:22
like to remember Cleopatra a very specific way
13:25
in different communities and what it means to,
13:29
like, have a historical figure that has been
13:32
fictionalized so many times in so many different
13:35
eras of history, Shakespeare. Part of why it's
13:40
called New Heaven, New Earth is because that
13:42
itself is anachronistic. There is no Christianity
13:45
in ancient Egypt. And so, yeah, I wanted to investigate
13:50
Cleopatra. the black conceptualization of her.
13:55
And I also wanted to investigate identity at
13:59
large and how in this new iteration of the play,
14:03
how class and the promise and the illusion and
14:07
the myth of upper mobility, how that can really
14:10
shape how a person lives their life. And also
14:15
Cleopatra is still a black woman in this iteration
14:18
of the play, but what we owe. to the people whose
14:22
shoulders we're standing on, to our ancestors.
14:25
And so I sat down literally about this time last
14:28
year with Seamus at Shakespeare and Clark Park,
14:30
and I said, I know you're a Shakespeare company.
14:33
I want to adapt Antony and Cleopatra. I want
14:38
to make it black. At the time, I was very interested
14:41
in the black Cleopatra and the white Mark Antony
14:44
and what that says in the context of a love story.
14:50
And he was like, yeah, sure, whatever, do it.
14:52
And also, since this is a commission for Shakespeare
14:55
in Clark Park, can you keep a lot of the language
14:57
of Shakespeare? And I immediately bristled against
15:01
that because, you know, the kind of playwright
15:03
that I am, I want to be able to like reinvent
15:05
a text, but a commission is a commission. And
15:08
if you're writing for a company, you have certain,
15:10
you know, guidelines. And I really was like,
15:13
for a while, I did a lot of research on ancient
15:15
Egypt. all the histories surrounding Cleopatra
15:19
and the Roman Republic that then becomes the
15:21
Roman Empire after the fall of ancient Egypt.
15:24
And so I spent a lot, a long, long time just
15:27
like in like researcher brain, in scholar brain.
15:31
And then at the end of November, Seamus was like,
15:35
hey, remember you need to have a reading of something,
15:38
a table read in December. I was like, oh my God.
15:40
And I just like threw 20 pages together, just
15:43
like, you know, all of my feelings. And it was
15:48
a very different play in December than it became
15:51
in April. And part of it was trying to find a
15:55
way to tell the story that is an ancient story
15:59
and trying to find the resonances of it today,
16:03
what the fall of empire means. And it's such
16:05
a hot button thing that is like... top of mind
16:09
for me all the time but so from december to even
16:12
april i was like finding what this play was and
16:15
what this play meant and what shakespeare's language
16:18
had to do with it and when theater we came around
16:22
in april we sold out we oversold our house at
16:25
um our one night showing and it was the first
16:28
time that i ever heard the script and at that
16:31
time i it was about 40 to 35 % Shakespeare's
16:36
language. And I completely rewrote, blew open
16:38
the ending in certain aspects of it. I added
16:40
a soothsaying crocodile and Karen Smith. And,
16:45
you know, it's all star cast of actors who are
16:48
just like individually just amazing in their
16:51
own right. And Seamus is a very, very great director.
16:54
And so it was sort of kismet. And I also knew
16:59
that the audience reaction to it, it was really
17:01
overwhelmingly beautiful. And after that night,
17:05
I was like, man, it sucks that everyone loves
17:07
this so much because I'm going to rewrite it
17:09
so, so much. The terms of my commission are over.
17:13
And so I applied to Cannonball, who is also a
17:18
co -producer for these readings, and they're
17:22
Philadelphia Theatre Company's text and dramaturgy
17:25
cohort. part of that cohort's purpose is to develop
17:29
the text and the dramaturgy of a new work. And
17:33
so getting into that, I was like, yeah, this
17:35
is my space. This is my lab. I get to go back
17:38
in the lab and completely blow open what this
17:41
world is. And I did it. And I was just saying
17:45
off the mic that... About two weeks ago, I realized
17:49
what the play was, and I premiered the synopsis
17:53
to both myself and another press organization
17:55
the day after I figured that out. And it was
17:59
exhilarating. So I can talk about it more now,
18:02
but I feel like I've been talking for a while,
18:03
like what the synopsis of this new play is. This
18:06
production features live music, obviously. And
18:09
can you tell us a little bit about that and how...
18:12
the original piece had music at all and how that
18:17
has maybe changed as the play has also changed.
18:22
Well, I'm interested, Karen, in you talking about
18:25
your experience. There was music. There was a
18:27
lot of music in the last iteration of it, just
18:29
like from inside of your body, your spirit, what
18:32
the drums in this piece meant to you then, because
18:35
I think that's something that's consistent in
18:37
this draft. I'm one of those musicians or I'm
18:41
going to say artists. I don't know if it's considered
18:43
just a musician that likes to create ambience,
18:47
mood, feeling. And it's not just even about reading
18:51
a script. It's about seeing them do it. And then
18:54
it's coming from each actor and what they add
18:58
to the piece and what the director is looking
19:00
for. So I'm kind of like, you know, trying to
19:02
feel all that. Maybe it is a drum, maybe it's
19:05
a bell, maybe it's a shaker, maybe it's a combination
19:09
of a few things at the same time. It's a feeling
19:12
that happens. What happens with that sometimes
19:15
is that it's not always the same feeling that
19:19
happens on each show. So maybe where you had
19:21
a bell this time, you have something else. You
19:24
know, because I hear something different. Sometimes
19:28
it's the audience, too, once you put an audience
19:30
in. Every audience is different. Yeah, yeah,
19:32
yeah. So if you leave it up to me, anything is
19:35
possible. Yeah. It's good. But it sets the mood.
19:41
You know, it fills in the blank. It fills whatever's
19:44
not there. That's what the music does for me.
19:47
as opposed to a score. If it's a score, this
19:50
is the time for that, this is the time for that.
19:52
But sometimes, even the director was like, you
19:55
know what, go for it. Because he kept saying,
19:58
put it there, put something there. Then he was
20:00
like, ah, go for it. Go with your judgment. There's
20:04
trust is there. Yeah, trust is there. It's like,
20:06
okay, all right. Because as soon as you say that,
20:10
all bets are off because I'm going to go for
20:14
it. And so far I've been successful because...
20:17
I've worked with Rain before on other projects,
20:20
and I love that. And I love challenging things
20:24
that I don't normally work with. I shy away from
20:27
things that are a little bit more challenging,
20:30
like the language of Shakespeare. For me, especially
20:33
as a kid, I was like, what? Me too. But the stories
20:36
were just like, okay. Right. So if I focus on
20:40
the story as opposed to just word for word. You
20:43
know, I can get the story from just the feeling
20:45
from the presentation. Right. And I've been able
20:49
to do other Shakespeare pieces, you know, because
20:52
I always hold on to this one little thing that
20:54
happened along my journey as a young, you know,
20:57
aspiring actor, because I heard it might have
21:00
been Lou Gossett said. He got the officer and
21:04
the gentleman and it wasn't written as a black
21:06
character. So he went to the audition and got
21:08
it because they loved his audition. But it originally
21:11
was not written for a black character. So I said,
21:13
I'm going to use that as a role model and I'm
21:16
just going to go in and do whatever I see as
21:19
far as auditioning. So one day I went to the
21:22
New York Shakespeare Company and auditioned for
21:27
something. Because I said, you know, I can read.
21:30
Right. Yeah. So they're going to give me sides
21:33
anyway. Yeah. And I don't know if it was how
21:37
bad I was or they just were not ready for whatever.
21:41
But nobody said anything after I was done. They
21:45
just like looked at each other. I looked at them
21:47
and I guess it's time to go. Oh, God. That's
21:52
all that happened. I know everybody just froze.
21:55
They're like, what? We don't even know what to
21:57
say. I didn't know what to say. But you found
22:00
your way on stage. At the end of the day, you
22:03
found your way on stage. And honestly, sorry,
22:06
I don't want to cut you off. But like, honestly,
22:08
that story is exactly why I wanted Karen. Like,
22:12
I know the story, but like, just like that kind
22:15
of dissonance with, because I also struggle,
22:18
even still, like I've done Shakespeare and it
22:21
takes me a long time to. beat by beat understand
22:25
it and then to act it perform it it's really
22:27
hard and there is definitely like a barrier if
22:30
you're not exposed to certain texts certain kinds
22:33
of trainings certain kinds of teachers like that
22:35
is already there's already racism and classism
22:38
and all of that baked into it I knew once something
22:41
that I knew like even sitting down a year ago
22:44
with Seamus was like Karen Smith's gonna be a
22:46
part of this piece I knew that Karen's improvisational
22:50
drumming is specifically inspiring to me because
22:55
to me as a playwright you are the heartbeat of
22:58
the motherland you are and in this iteration
23:02
and even in the past iteration of the play you
23:05
are so tied to Cleopatra's journey into embracing
23:09
who she is as an African queen and you really
23:13
feel that Karen and I work together. Not a lot,
23:16
but more often now than I've always tried to
23:20
like rope her into things. She understands my
23:22
voice. Like the text isn't a barrier to me and
23:25
to her, like when she's working with it. And
23:28
I think there's real magic in that. And she's
23:30
a really great listener too. And part of what
23:33
is exciting for me as a theater maker is like,
23:35
I love improvised moments. I think that, I think,
23:38
I think that's the stuff. That's, that's what
23:40
makes. theater alive there's this great um playwright
23:45
and theater theorist um called jordan tannahill
23:48
you might know him from prince faggot it just
23:50
got uh extended his play in new york and i haven't
23:54
seen it yet but in his manifesto theater of the
23:56
unimpressed he talks about a moment on stage
23:59
where an actor messes up and there's a danger
24:02
in that moment and the audience leans forward
24:05
for the first time and they were bored the whole
24:07
play and then in this moment like whoa what's
24:11
gonna happen right and like you know and like
24:14
something that like completely broke the facade
24:19
and like the play that he was talking about was
24:21
like naturalism right so like you're supposed
24:24
to feel like these are real people when but then
24:26
the mistake happens i forget what it was maybe
24:29
a light fixture falls or something something
24:30
dramatic and everyone's like And in that moment
24:33
of the ensemble going, what do we do next? Was
24:36
the moment where he, as an audience member, took
24:38
a breath in and leaned forward. I was like, what's
24:41
going to happen? And so it's kind of like a cheat
24:43
code to have Karen and like as an improv and
24:46
just not even in your improvised drumming, but
24:48
just like how you. feel your way into a piece.
24:51
It's a cheat code to like have an audience lean
24:53
forward. And so this, like the synopsis, the
24:56
elevator pitch, let's see how short I can get
24:59
this. The previous iteration had no contemporary
25:03
contextualization. It was anachronistic for sure.
25:07
It was still telling the story of Shakespeare's
25:10
Antony and Cleopatra, but infused with my spin
25:13
on things and then a deconstruction of the ending.
25:16
I completely abandoned his ending. This iteration,
25:20
Cleopatra 2025 is named Cleopatra. She is a black
25:25
woman living in the world in Philadelphia. She
25:28
is trying to climb the ladder of her father's.
25:31
very moneyed nonprofit called A Greater Promise.
25:35
And this Greater Promise is a organization that
25:39
helps disenfranchised youth have access to leadership
25:44
opportunities in the world. So they get people
25:48
into private schools, they get people into high
25:50
performing universities, all of that. And Cleopatra
25:54
is trying to climb her way up the ladder. While
25:58
this is happening, her mother is trying to divorce
26:01
her father and is of a different class now because
26:04
of the divorce proceedings. So Cleopatra feels
26:06
like she has to save her mother and she wants
26:10
to get closer to her. So she's reading Shakespeare's
26:13
Antony and Cleopatra to finally, for the first
26:15
time, unpack why her mother named her Cleopatra.
26:18
So as the play progresses, we meet the characters
26:22
of Shakespeare's play, but in... the contemporary
26:25
contextualization. Antony is Anthony, who is
26:28
Cleopatra's lover in the contemporary world,
26:31
who also just got a promotion over her, despite
26:34
being the founder's daughter. And Obarvis, who
26:39
is in Shakespeare's play as Antony's right -hand
26:42
man, works the front desk at A Greater Promise
26:44
and is trying to inch his way up the ladder as
26:47
well. is a shapeshifter, like he accuses Cleopatra
26:52
of being in identity. And there's a lot of conflict
26:55
there. And Octavia in the play. It was a figure
26:59
in history who was a real person and that Shakespeare
27:03
iterates on is a V in the contemporary contextualization
27:08
and is Cleopatra's intern. And there is a conflict
27:12
that happens that jumpstarts the war that happens
27:15
in the contemporary world and then also in the
27:18
Shakespeare world. As Cleopatra 2025 finishes
27:23
the play, she reads it in two days and there's
27:25
really funny. There's a really great reason for
27:28
it. Why would she read all these historical texts
27:32
when she could just pick up a play and figure
27:33
it out for herself? She's a very sadiddy black
27:36
woman. She's an AKA. She's really trying to dissociate
27:41
as much as possible from anything that people
27:43
could use against her. Not unlike Cleopatra in
27:47
history who obfuscated her identity on purpose
27:49
for political gain and social gain. So there's
27:52
a nice parallel there. Cleopatra finishes the
27:56
play and she starts to see the people in her
27:58
life through the action of the play. And her
28:00
mother is also a soothsayer who is also a crocodile
28:05
who is also a homeless woman who haunts a Greater
28:09
Promises national headquarters in the heart of
28:13
the city. Shakespeare's language is infused.
28:16
in this version it is really exciting and sexy
28:20
and there's that contemporary container which
28:22
makes it very very exciting and i've been writing
28:25
you know since since i had this aha moment and
28:28
and it's like this is what the play is i've been
28:31
writing like a like a fiend for the last two
28:33
weeks we'll see how far i get by friday this
28:36
is again a developmental reading and i am so
28:40
excited for what y 'all will experience on Friday
28:43
as a cast in the rehearsal and what the audiences
28:46
will experience, especially you listen to it
28:48
on the first. Yeah. And the 16th, it's going
28:51
to be crazy. Cool. I think. And I, I'm so excited
28:55
about it. I'm so excited about it. Yeah. Yeah.
28:59
The first one. Yeah, the first one, you know,
29:02
it was very, like, it was very, in my opinion,
29:05
it was very safe. It was a well -made play that
29:08
folks really, really resonated with. And you
29:11
get some Shakespeare in there and folks, you
29:13
know, stand on their feet, especially the audiences
29:16
that enjoy Shakespeare, the audiences that are
29:19
Shakespeare and Clark Park's audiences and, you
29:22
know, loved ones. It was a very warm audience
29:24
and many strangers, too. But I, you know, maybe
29:28
I'm... A little bit of a contrarian here, but
29:32
I'm always trying to push myself out of safety
29:35
and push myself out of tradition and how I've
29:40
learned the rules. I want to break them. And
29:42
I feel like this draft gets closer. It's more
29:45
personal, first of all. The relationship with
29:49
Cleopatra and her mother. My mother is the strongest
29:53
figure in my life and is the reason why I'm here
29:56
in so many ways. And I wanted to, you know. really
29:59
honor uh maternal relationship and in in you
30:04
know on stage especially a black maternal relationship
30:06
and so it's personal and i and i feel really
30:10
connected to everyone that i'm writing about
30:11
in the world in the worlds of these play of this
30:14
play oh that's wonderful the aha moment that
30:17
i had two weeks ago was like i just gotta tell
30:20
the story that makes my heart cleave open yes
30:25
and As soon as I gave myself permission for that,
30:29
as soon as I, like, you know, stopped worrying
30:32
about what the Shakespeare enthusiasts would
30:35
think and stopped worrying about the specific
30:39
audience that usually a commission entails, and
30:42
as soon as I gave myself permission, this poured
30:47
out of me. And something that, you know... And
30:51
something that I'm also inspired by, I want to
30:53
do more of my narrative playwriting work is like,
30:55
I don't want to leave audiences with questions.
30:57
I want to have like a point of view and have
31:00
them either agree, disagree somewhere in between
31:03
and, you know, have that latch, have that, have
31:06
them think about it when they go to sleep at
31:08
night. That's what I want. And so that's what
31:10
I'm going to try to do with this play. And, you
31:12
know, it is a developmental process. So if you
31:15
want to. yell at me after the show like this
31:17
was how dare you i want that um i actually do
31:22
like it's no no jest um because i made you feel
31:26
something yeah i don't want you to think i'm
31:27
clever i don't want you to think that you know
31:30
i wow you really know your history you really
31:33
know your shakespeare that is like the worst
31:34
kind of feedback someone could give me yeah i
31:37
want someone to come up to me and say i you know
31:40
i wept i laughed I hated it. Like strong emotions
31:47
makes me feel like I'm doing something right.
31:49
Where can our audience find you either online
31:53
or in real life? Oh, in real life here in Philadelphia?
31:59
No. Online, my IG is karensmithdrums, and I have
32:04
a website, which is karensmithdrums .com. You
32:08
can find me probably walking the streets of Center
32:11
City in West Philadelphia, soon to be Germantown
32:14
again. I'm very tall. Yeah, I'm coming on back.
32:18
I'm just going to reach out to you this week,
32:20
actually, to get a coffee. But, yeah, you can
32:23
also find me. You can Google. me. The name my
32:26
mother gave me is Angela Bay, B -E -Y. And so
32:29
a lot comes up, pictures of me from high school.
32:34
My pen name is Rain. So you can look up Rain
32:37
Bay and it's spelled R -A -Y -N -E -B -E -Y.
32:41
I also have a website. I do AngelaBay .com. My
32:45
Instagram is TallBlackCreative, at TallBlackCreative.
32:49
And I also have another Instagram specifically
32:51
for my writing. And it's R -A -Y -N -E, the playwright.
32:56
Yep, that's me. Yeah, Lucinda just pulled it
32:58
up. I'm pretty visible, which is part of why
33:01
I have a pen name now and it's Rain, so I can
33:04
hide a little bit. But yeah. Well, thank you
33:09
both for your time today. We're going to close
33:11
out with a little rapid fire questions. Rapid
33:13
fire. They're going to be like quick little ones.
33:16
If you could describe the Philly art scene in
33:19
one word. Creative. Vibrant. Cheese steaks with
33:24
whiz or without? Without. Vegan. It's fine. It's
33:31
fine. Favorite Philadelphia neighborhood? West.
33:37
Yes, West. Favorite Philadelphia performance
33:41
artist that people are sleeping on? Karen Smith.
33:47
Definitely someone we're still sleeping on, Karen
33:49
Smith. You're just so central to my artistic
33:55
world. It would also be Karen Smith. Let me think
33:57
about this. Taj Rauk. Yeah. Go see his performance,
34:03
The Infringe. He's in my cohort. He's amazing.
34:05
Love it. If you could have seen any theater production
34:09
in its original iteration, what would it be?
34:14
I've seen so many, but I would have loved to
34:16
have seen, because I'm a big fan of West Side
34:18
Story. So I've never seen the original other
34:21
than the movie, but I would have loved to have
34:23
seen the original play. Pippin with Ben Vereen.
34:26
Okay. That's my favorite musical. Favorite beverage
34:31
of the moment to round us out. Favorite beverage.
34:35
You know what? I had something today at this
34:37
new restaurant that I went to in West Philly
34:40
called Out West. On 52nd Street. They had avocado
34:46
lemonade. And I was like, I never thought avocado
34:49
was lemonade. But it was so good. Shout out to
34:53
Mohammed, who's the owner. Wow. Avocado lemonade.
34:57
I've been on a lemonade mixed drink, too, this
35:01
summer. Lemonade and cold brew. Oh. Yeah. Because
35:04
I'm not a coffee person. I'm a little quirky
35:07
and I will do, I did this today. I did a double
35:11
shot of espresso from Dunkin' Donuts, which is
35:14
just like sludge. Don't drink that. And I chased
35:18
it with lemonade. So I will do the hot espresso
35:22
shot. I will just throw it back and it'll be
35:25
so hot and scald my throat and it's terrible.
35:28
And then I will chase it with lemonade. And so
35:31
I saw at the Green Line in West Philly that you
35:35
could do like a lemonade cold brew. And I was
35:37
like, is that a serious thing? The barista was
35:40
like, yeah, people get it all the time. And I
35:42
had that and it changed my life. All right. It's
35:44
just more caffeine than an Arnold Palmer because
35:46
I'm a tea person. I'm a tea person through and
35:48
through. Well, thank you both so much for spending
35:51
your time with us today. Thank you for having
35:53
us. And everyone, check out New Heaven, New Earth
35:56
at French Festival. The production. I don't think
36:16
enough can be said about Karen's percussion.
36:23
Right? How was that? Like how was just knowing
36:29
that like a lot of what she's doing is kind of
36:33
off the cuff? Uh -huh. The cast is sitting in
36:38
a row across the stage. and they are reading
36:42
from bound scripts and she has a script in front
36:48
of her as well so she's following along with
36:51
the story as it is written and you know a lot
36:58
has to go like i can't imagine the focus that
37:01
has to go into that and following a live performance
37:05
and kind of giving a reaction to it yeah but
37:11
I didn't even count the number of instruments
37:14
she had up there. She had a drum. She had another
37:20
drum beneath the chair she was sitting on. There
37:25
was, you know, the rain stick? Oh, yeah. I love
37:29
a good rain stick. A rain stick. At one point,
37:33
it looked like she had a... handful of like wooden
37:38
beads or something of that effect okay and she
37:42
just would like kind of kind of roll them together
37:47
her contribution was just had such an impact
37:53
and it was fun to watch too right because you
37:57
know knowing what i know from our conversation
38:01
i can only imagine Like, I mean, I mentioned
38:06
the focus earlier, but just what was going through
38:11
her head as the story was unfolding. So if people
38:15
want to see New Heaven, New Earth. We're going
38:18
to tell you a little bit about that later. We're
38:21
going to go through what's going on in September
38:24
chronologically. Awesome. Because Fringe Festival
38:28
is going on. Fringe Festival is going on and
38:31
we're going to touch on that a little bit more.
38:33
This Friday, first Friday in Old City, our best
38:37
bet cannot miss it is the Philadelphia Love Group
38:40
show at the Jane Gallery. Dominique Samarco,
38:44
who joined us on the podcast two weeks ago, is
38:46
one of the featured artists. And to top it off,
38:49
the Jane Gallery will be celebrating their one
38:52
year anniversary. So congratulations to Allison
38:56
and her team. We will be there IRL to toast her.
39:03
We told you before, we're telling you again.
39:06
September 11th, join Philly Has Heart along with
39:10
the young friends of the Philadelphia Ballet
39:12
as we team up with Bridget Meyer Gallery. Bridget
39:16
Meyer is showing work from DC -based artist Alan
39:21
Bentley. He has a new exhibition titled Flight.
39:24
Join us at 6 p .m. september 11th there's a bind
39:28
your own book workshop at brook lanier fine art
39:31
gallery on friday september 12th and going back
39:37
to fringe fest robert how much do you know about
39:42
fringe fest uh fringe fest is an annual festival
39:47
that happens each year in philadelphia bringing
39:49
together some of our great local artists that
39:55
would seem to be somewhat on the fringe. But
39:59
Robert, did you know that the first fringe festival
40:01
was in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1947? What? Scotland?
40:08
Yes, it has since expanded globally. And did
40:14
you know that the first Philadelphia Fringe Fest
40:17
was in 1997? No way. I love it. I'm just serving
40:24
up some more nuggets. The annual French Festival
40:26
features more than 1 ,000 performances by national,
40:32
international, and Philadelphia -based artists
40:34
of all disciplines. And then for one month, these
40:38
innovators fill public and private spaces across
40:42
the city with nonstop wild creativity for audiences
40:46
of more than 40 ,000. A little bit more. about
40:51
some specifics on that. The second and last New
40:56
Heaven, New Earth Fringe Fest developmental stage
41:00
reading is on September 16th, and we were advised
41:03
by Rain that there will be further development
41:06
on the script between last night and then. All
41:11
right, Robert, take us home. What else do we
41:13
got? The Young Friends Season Kickoff, hosted
41:17
by the Philadelphia Orchestra. the Philadelphia
41:20
Chamber of Music Society, Opera Philadelphia,
41:22
and Philadelphia Ballet will happen on September
41:25
24th at 5 .30 at Curtain Call at the Kimmel Center
41:29
Plaza. That's on the first floor? I believe so.
41:33
I think there was just too many people last year
41:36
to put it on the balcony again, so we've moved
41:39
to a larger space. So be sure to stop by, say
41:43
hello, and find out a little bit about the Young
41:46
Friends seasons that are going to happen this
41:48
year. Philadelphia Ballet's opening weekend gala
41:52
that will happen Saturday, October 11th, 2025.
41:58
Tickets are available now. The performance is
42:01
at 6 p .m. that night, showing both Carmen and
42:06
Bolero. The gala itself will be at the Bellevue
42:10
this year. Newly renovated. She got a glow up.
42:16
She got a glow up. And with that, Philly has
42:19
heart. F. Mary Kell, genre edition, comedy, tragedy,
42:38
musical. Merry Comedy. Oh, nice. Kill Musical.
42:46
Okay. Fuck Tragedy.