The summer season has officially arrived in central Ohio.
Along with the regularly high temperatures, there is plenty of creative heat moving through the local arts community.
For this week's edition of All Sides Weekend: Arts and Culture, join Classical 101 Morning Host Christopher Purdy and his guests for a preview of arts and cultural events happening around central Ohio.
Host:
- Christopher Purdy, Classical 101 Morning host
Guests:
- Jabari Johnson, actor in “Othello,” Actors' Theatre of Columbus
- Orlay Alonso, pianist/artistic director, Music at St. Mary
Transcript
This transcript is generated with AI. To ensure its accuracy, review the audio file.
Christopher Purdy: Good morning, I'm Christopher Purdy, delighted to welcome you all to today's edition of All Sides Weekend, where we talk about the arts and culture in central Ohio, which is my way of saying it's what's going on. It's telling people what you can go and see and hear and experience throughout the summer here in our listening area. And I have two people who are at the center of all kinds of wonderful activities, concerts, theater, and they are Orlai Alonzo. Who was a pianist, he is an impresario, he is the artistic director and music director at Music at St. Mary's, that gorgeous church in German Village.
And in his spare time, he is about to play Carnegie Hall, which we will talk about as the process of the show. And I am pleased to welcome, I believe, a debutante, at least with me on the show, Giovanni Johnson is an actor, a videographer, and a photographer. Jabari is about to take the title role in a very daunting work. I don't think it's gonna trouble him at all, but it intimidates me, Shakespeare's "Othello," which he will perform with the Actors Theater of Columbus in Schiller Park, opening July 16th.
Welcome, gentlemen. One of the things I wanted to talk about as we spend our time together this morning is what it is to be a creative artist and basing yourself in Columbus, Ohio. People might think Columbus, Ohio. Oh my god, you know what? There's nothing happening there Well, we're gonna prove that wrong. We've proved I've been proving that wrong for 40 years by talking to people Jabari Johnson You're about to start working on "Othello," but you just finished something with the Contemporary Theater of Ohio. Yeah
Jabari Johnson: That's right. I just finished "Primary Trust," as you said, was the Contemporary Theater of Ohio. It was a great show. Also one of a very major lead role. It was very fun to do because it was very different. It is, it is like this almost neurological kind of show about getting into the headspace of someone that's trying to find community.
And it spoke a lot to me because there were moments that I could relate to and I put that into Myself into a lot of that role Whereas like a lot shows and a lot different theaters that I do It's very much using the fictional and and trying to make something human out of that and that role and that show It was very very intimate and very human and very vulnerable from the get so it was a lot like, okay I know this is, I know what this feels like, how do I make sure the audience like wants to and like follow my like narrative, my my story so it was very different.
Purdy: That relates a bit to a question I'm curious where Javari stops and the character begins.
Johnson: Mm-hmm.
Purdy: How do you work that out? I mean, do you leave Jabari in the parking lot, you get out of your car, you go into the theater and you become somebody else?
Johnson: Yeah, oh yeah, especially depending on the roles. For Primary Trust's last show, the previous one, that one blended so much that I had to constantly find myself like, well wait a minute, am I putting a bit too much of myself in here? Like I have to remember, this is not me per se, it is a different person, so they may have different ideas of how to react and how to operate on a daily basis. Uh, so it was a bit of like, okay, I have to kind of check in with myself and know that I'm presenting a role, but also make sure to give a little myself in there. Whereas with "Othello," it is a drastically different person, different persona.
Purdy: Longer, too.
Johnson: Yes, yes, much longer, much denser text. And so that already helps with the splitting my mind of like who I am and what I'm going to do. And on top of that, you have to, or I have to like really present and have a different way of showing, presenting myself, which will also make it so that, okay, before I enter the stage, I am no longer me, I am Othello.
Purdy: Jabari Johnson is here. He is an actor, videographer, and photographer. We're going to talk more about the new production of "Othello" with Actors Theater. We'll talk about Actors' Theater. And opportunities to be a performing artist or an artist living in central Ohio. Orlay Alonzo is here, he is a pianist, he is an impresario. He is a member of the WOSU family. We have done radio projects together. And he is just off the plane from Miami because he wanted to come and be on the show I told you to wait for goodness sake but here you god bless you here you are
Orlay Alonzo: I love you too much to miss this opportunity to be with you and to share the wonderful moments we always share, so thank you for having me back and I've missed our time together especially from Musica Cubana, our show.
Purdy: We have to talk about that off mic and bring it, but anyway, I want to, first of all, what is going to happen in your life on the 12th of July?
Alonzo: Just a little concert at Carnegie Hall with my brother, with the Alonso Brothers duo. We're doing our debut and of course, what do you think we're doing? Celebrating America at 250. Who isn't celebrating America at 250 this year? And it's going to be a trip from Havana to New York in a sense because as you know, we moved from Cuba to New York City to study in the city.
Purdy: How old were you when you moved? I was 15. When you left Cuba? When I left Cuba.
Alonzo: And we, our goal was my parents were... Adamant that we said, we're going to New York because the whole point of moving to this country is to go study in New York, the American dream, so to speak.
Purdy: Was it hard to leave Cuba? Of course, it was very, very hard. How did that happen? How did that happen? I probably should ask your parents. You definitely should. We came out as political refugees.
Alonzo: And then America welcomed us with open arms. I could go to school day one from being in the state. So I did, I went to LaGuardia High School. So of course, it's a nice full circle to go back to New York now and play in the same neighborhood that we grew up and went to school. We're playing "West Side Story," "Mambo" from "West Side Story."
So that's the area where it was created and it was happening. So Leonard Bernstein will celebrate him at the Carnegie concert. Which is a double celebration because we have become Steinway artists. So then we finally get to have the pianos from Steinway come to Carnegie Hall and be played for us. Too bad that the old Carnegie Hall is, the connection is not from Steinway.
Remember the old Steinway, you could put the piano under the streets and go across and it would be the piano from the old Steinway Hall to the new one. So now you can't do that. It's in a different location. But we're very, very happy to have that happen. And we have so much support from even our local Ohio community, because we have about 22 Ohioans that are coming with us to New York to celebrate this huge milestone for us.
Purdy: I figured there'd be a bus or a plane. Oh, it's a plane full. You have quite, Orlai Alonzo does not play to empty houses and certainly not in central Ohio, neither does Jabari Johnson. I happen to know that for a fact. Since you brought it up, I was going to wait and do this later, but let's do it now. Let's hear the "Mambo" from "West Side Story" by Leonard Bernstein, we're going to hear the whole thing.
Why not? With Orlay Alonzo and his brother, Orlando Alonzo at the piano, a preview of their concert being given in Carnegie Hall Weill Recital Hall. On July 12th. I always leave in the applause, you're not supposed to but I don't care, I always leave in applause. "Mambo" from "West Side Story," music by Leonard Bernstein played by Orlai Alonzo and his brother Orlando Alonzo, two brothers, two pianos.
They are going to be in concert at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall on the 12th of July. They have played several programs here in Central they will play more. Orly plays everything. Orlando, your brother, has recently been making a kind of a specialty of Bach and doing a lot of really stunning performances of the "Well-Tempered Clavier."
Alonzo: I mean, I remember him playing that when we were young, learning, starting to learn the "Preludes and Fugues." So imagine sleeping on a bed next to where the piano is, and your brother is starting to learn all those pieces. So to me, the growth and the development of all those piece, they're all within me just from having heard that growing up. But the maturity that it takes to grow and play 24 Preludes and Fugues by memory is quite an achievement. Is probably.
Purdy: There's probably nothing you probably are never done learning that I mean you're 80 years old You're still trying to figure it out and try to try to play which I think is part of what one grows it was an artist tell me a bit we're gonna I'm gonna come back after the break and talk in more detail, but just You are you have been three years. I think correct me if I'm wrong at St. Mary's in German Village correct you are you know you you play at the masses you are the music director there But you have a concert series
Alonzo: We have the Music at St. Mary concert series that our dear friend Mark Voris founded. So we're very happy to continue the tradition. It's on its sixth year coming up now. So we are happy to have survived five years during COVID, during everything that it started and it has grown so much over the years. The community has really welcomed us and has really started participating on everything that we're doing.
So we were starting to feel the support of the German village community the downtown community, and all of our Saint Mary family is really getting very involved, which I love. And that's the beauty of being the music director at a church and also having that be your host home. The new priest at Saint Mary has been very, very welcoming, because you never know. We have to be a good, good collaboration, good company to do everything beautifully.
So we have been doing an amazing job at making the community work, adding as many children's concerts as we can with the beautiful Columbus International Children's Choir with our dear friend Tatiana Kats. This year, I was approached by the Columbus Children's Choir too. Which is good. Yep, they're coming to play with us. So anytime that we can get a beautiful space where we can music and spirituality to connect and give people a space to just. Be themselves and enjoy the beauty of music, it's one battle.
Purdy: I'll tell you one quick story before we take a quick break and that is that about six years ago Mark Voris you mentioned who started the series called me up on the phone I didn't know him well and said I want to start a concert series downtown and I said you are out of your mind you are crazy and lo and behold he thank God didn't listen to me and went ahead and did it and there you are today running this concert series at And we're going to talk more about that when we come back from a quick break. Don't go away. This is All Sides Weekend on 89.7 WOSU.
We are back All Sides Weekend we're talking about arts and culture in central Ohio I'm Christopher Purdy Jabari Johnson is an actor videographer and photographer he is about to take the title role in Shakespeare's "Othello" with the Actors Theater of Columbus in Schiller Park and Orlai Alonzo pianist impresario star about to play in New York he's played New York before but this is Carnegie Hall this is kind of a big deal. So Jabari, let's talk more about "Othello," and first of all, is this your first time working with Actors Theater, and what is Actors' Theater?
Johnson: No, actually, this would be my, oh my gosh, my fifth time. I would say it's been a little while. Actors Theater of Columbus is a company and it's located in German Village. They perform in Schiller Park. They've been around for, oh, my gosh. I should know the exact year, but I'm pretty sure it's been. It's a long time. Yeah, 40?
I've been to some of them, yeah. Yeah, and so they always been performing their seasons in the park, in the summer series. Typically... Shakespeare oriented they occasionally like have their shows that are not that in within the season But the highlight is to have like either half or predominantly Shakespeare shows That said yeah, it's been they were my first professional show in Columbus yeah years ago when I was 16. I did "The Scarlet Pimpernel" way back when yeah, and yeah, its amazing to do because it's like such a big community thing because you get to perform in the park.
You get to see the camps that they put on as well because usually their final show is at the beginning of every show in the Park. So it's a lot of like teaching, educating and sharing the arts with a lot of people from all different walks of life and I enjoy it so much.
Purdy: Javari, were you born in Columbus? Are you from the area?
Johnson: I am not, no, I am, I have like almost a collection of different states I've lived in, but I say I have the most time spent in Georgia, so I say, I'm from there prior to coming to Columbus.
Purdy: And where, did you train formally? Where did you train?
Johnson: Yeah, I had a lot of camps at the Alliance Theater in Georgia and then Oglethorpe, Shakespeare.
Purdy: Now, tell me about "Othello." I mean, what's to say? It's a long role, it's a demanding role. It's got to be an emotional drain and there are a lot of words.
Johnson: Yes, yes. To everything you just said. It is a big challenge to take on, which makes it all the more exciting to me. It's really a very dense show where you're having a lot of emotional driven characters, especially, especially Othello, where there is a lot this manipulation and doubts between Othello and Iago as like the the main antagonist of the show so it is emotionally taxing especially in the latter half where it's just this the deterioration of the character that you see in real time happen so it's very fun to trying to discover more and more about like what the role is learning the text and how how deep it goes like there's just so much depth in the wording so I'm having an amazing time with my cast and crew in it.
Purdy: How long did it take you to memorize?
Johnson: I am still. I'm still going through it. Oh, yeah. Oh, you're right. Yeah. So it's coming along. It's just one of those things where I typically don't have too much issue with memorization because I am so good at finding out what each, like down to the word, what they're trying to say and why they're saying in a certain way.
With Shakespeare, you have to, for me anyway, I have to figure out the text, the verbatim text. But then also like get a really strong understanding of what each stanza means because I want to make sure that it is understandable for the audience and the only way to do that is to fully know the understanding of the inflection and all of this of every word.
Purdy: And you know how the play ends and we know how to we know we know how to play ends but you don't as Othello as a character. Yeah.
Johnson: Yeah, and that's another thing I always keep in mind with my with my roles and even in like writing as well you Even though you've read the whole story you can you have to make sure that you are Still under the pretense of like this is the character learning things in real time You don't want to be too preemptive about like what's happening and how you're feeling so yeah, that's a really good point
Purdy: "Othello" in production with the Actors Theater of Columbus opens on July 16th starring Jabari Johnson Leading a wonderful company. The acting quality is quite high. The production values also are quite high I've seen a number of their shows. So I'm looking forward to this one. Let me ask both of you and Orlay Alonzo Let me start with you When you're playing Either in chamber music, which I've heard you do or concerti, which ever do or as a soloist. What do you? Need or what do you hope to get from the audience?
Alonzo: I mean, in any of the arts, I would agree with Jabari, it's all communication. It is all a dialog between you and your audience. If you play for yourself, you already lost the battle because you have to play for the room, you have play, and the more mature we become as artists, the more we can actually gage that audience, the more can feel whether we've got them, whether we lost them.
That's why we never perform any piece the same way ever. Because it's always a give and take between the audience and you. The beauty of the space too. The acoustics, if you're playing outdoors, then you gotta project more. If the dogs are barking and the airplanes are going above you, which I do love the outdoor.
Purdy: You get that a lot, yes. All the time.
Alonzo: Then you do, things acquire a character of their own that only can happen in that place and that's the beauty of why we're doing this live, that we can really feel. That audience but it's all communication for me is if I can have a dialog with that person one of them I can make cry then it works I always tell all my friends when you go on stage make me cry and I will you have succeeded in anything so communication communication communication is You
Purdy: You were born with that. Some people, you know, I don't know how you can learn, you can learn it to an extent, but you have to be born with an ability. You are. I suspect you are too. But I mean, I'm really sort of drawing people to you, no matter what, whatever, what play you're doing. It's almost, it's not irrelevant, but really it's, you know, it, it it's a vehicle. So when you program a concert, when you choose the you're going to play. Um, are you like a DJ and like at this point, you know, at 8:30, I want them to feel this way. And at 9:30, I want him to feel something else. Is that fair?
Alonzo: 100% correct. We are our own DJs in modern world in that sense because for me, sometimes depending on what the venue is, so if you're going just for, we always think the traditional way of, oh, a classical concert should start chronologically, you know, Baroque first, then you go into your classical and then romantic. That model does not exist anymore, which used to be the traditional way where we would do our. You know, school concerts and our doctoral dissertation concert style things.
Now it's first you grab your audience, first get them in, sweep them in. So you play something Spanish with flair and something fire dance style, an encore almost when you start. Then once they are with you already, then you bring them down to the more complex musical styles. So then you can throw them in a Bach Toccata or a Bach. Very deep fugue that would be almost impossible to do.
Purdy: It's intricate, very intricate. You've got to pay attention to that.
Alonzo: Exactly. And then on the way, you still have to create that sort of architecture of the program, so that that way you do get your audience to have a beautiful trip through space and time, right? So we have to become a musical building, so to speak, through time, rather than worry about, oh, this piece is beautiful, they're gonna love it. No, no, you have to design the whole musical journey.
For them, and the more programmatic music we get, the more stories, as you were saying with acting, the more story you can put behind the piece, the more you can decipher, this is a story I'm trying to tell you, whether the piece is related to it or not, it doesn't matter as long as you feel that that is the emotional character that you're embodying, then you can communicate that. But yes, there's a methods to our madness in that sense to get the audiences happy, and then. You can continue to do encores as long as they keep clapping. And if they stop you, then you stop.
Purdy: You go home. Well, now both of you were born somewhere else and spent formative years somewhere else. But I don't know, Jabari, how long have you lived in this area?
Johnson: I've been here since 2009. So, yeah, what is it? Like, nearly 20 years, yeah. What keeps you here?
Purdy: What keeps you living in Columbus?
Johnson: Community, yeah, at this point, it's hard to, it's too hard to leave because it's, I love how much I know the place. I love much connection and growth I have with everyone around me. And it's just not something I can give up lightly. And I want to also just develop and grow onto that. So I look for opportunities to continue to work with others in this space in order to just like give other people who are coming in as well. Sense of like what we do and who we are and that way they'll enjoy it as much as I do.
Purdy: What, I'm going to ask both of you to really kind of expound on this. What is it then to, particularly as a young man, which, of course, everybody in the world is younger than I am. But the two guys in this room with me are quite young, very much younger. As a young men, as an actor, what kind of a life can you make in Columbus, Ohio, and work at your craft and work at the profession, keep working, make a living?
Johnson: Yeah, I mean, there's so many opportunities. Like there's, for starters, there's like all these different companies when it comes to the theater side of things. You have like Actors Theater of Columbus, Contemporary Theater of Ohio, like I was talking about with "Primary Trust," Available Light Theater, one of my favorites, because it's also just very, yeah, such rich material that they perform and put on an original as well. So it's like, there are so many avenues to find.
That way you're you have something creative to still continue in your life And I think that's the biggest reason why it's like you should come here for that because there is that Sense of community that's really tight-knit and it is interwoven I would say with a lot of film work as well because there's film work you see a little bit. Yeah A little bit, yeah, yeah.
Purdy: Talk about that, I'm not familiar so much with it. Yeah.
Johnson: Yeah, I mean there is Film Columbus like an organization and and what they do is just like put on festivals and make sure to highlight people that are making shorts or documentaries and things like that and a lot of times They will like kind of like a Venn diagram. They'll cross over with theater people Because they already have experience performing and and having this creative side And so I really like to see that kind of collaboration and I want to help foster it and make it grow more.
And so that's the biggest thing I'm trying to work with, like with different mutual friends and connections to make sure they know like, okay, we're here for you and we want to do that. And we have this mutual like understanding of like what this is and we should just continue to grow it together.
Purdy: You probably are at a point now in your career where you can hold your hand out to somebody else who's coming along and say, join the community here. Oh yeah. Come on, come on. Yes. Be on stage with us. Let's work.
Johnson: It's so bizarre to hearing like people ask for my advice because it's like and it's because I certainly have like opinions and and advice and like life experience I can share but it's kind of funny doing that at the same time because I just From my perspective. I remember when I like first started and I can almost still just see myself from that very get and so Even though there's been like a plethora of experience between that time I'm still like, oh yeah, I'm learning things as well. I'm learn things at the same time as you are. So I can tell you how I've dealt with and how I related what I know to this new information that I'm getting. And then from there I'm like, oh yeah I guess you haven't experienced this yet, or X, Y, and Z. And then I'll tell them what that's like.
Purdy: Orley Alonso, I think you came here to go to grad school, is that correct?
Alonzo: You here? I came, well, family brought me here, and then once you come to Ohio and you don't know anybody, it has taken a decade to get to become part of this city, which is amazing. Like you were saying, it's hard to find your way when you first get here, but once you do every step possible to get acquainted with what is happening here, the life of Columbus, Ohio, Then I've grown to love it because as a New Yorker, of course, who doesn't miss the New York live and the excitement and the hustle bustle of every day in New York? But once you, I said once in Rome, do as the Romans do so, of of course. I got my doctorate at Ohio State, which then full circle, then I could become a professor there.
Purdy: You did indeed, yes. While my piano teacher was on sabbatical, Stephen Glaser.
Alonzo: So that is wonderful to be able to go from the student to the teacher in this hometown. And be the one who is asking for help and then be the able to give help. But what I always tell even all my students, how do you survive in this town? First, you have to be willing to die in any town in the sense of you can, the American dream is always you can do anything you want, you can be everything that you want. And the Cuban way is not that because you know you have to hone in to whatever your craft is.
The world is not your oyster in every angle of life. It's only in those that you're actually good at and that can offer something good. So once you have decided, you know what, this is the life that I want, the life of an artist, which is very, very difficult. Once you choose that, then you make those opportunities... so collaboration is the name of the game. How do you work with institutions? So then you teach, Capital, OSU, Otterbein, Ohio Wesleyan, then, you get the connections there.
Then you want to perform, then you continue to do your gigs as you did when you were young, but the old way of performing live does not exist anymore where you used to be in a practice room, practice and go out there and perform and the opportunities would be there. Those don't exist anymore. You have to go make those opportunities, go collaborate with people that have been established here or that are up and coming. So that's my goal. So having that Music at St. Mary, have the ProArte come. Have ProMusica come. They are the established names that have been here with Stephen Caracciolo. And Dave.
Purdy: And they bring people with them.
Alonzo: With them and then you bring the new people like the Callisto String Quartet that just got back to Columbus and then you say come we have venues for you to play because the music that you're making should be heard by everybody and then as you get to know all the different people and accompany different choirs you get to work with the Larry Griffins with the Tatiana Kats of Columbus Ohio so it's all collaboration I get to do with students when I was Antoine T I'm sorry. At Ohio State. We were both studying at the same time he was doing conducting as I was doing piano. And now on November 8th, I get to play with him at "Nights in the Gardens of Spain" at McConnell with the Worthington Chamber Orchestra.
Purdy: I'm writing this down. Okay, November. I think I knew that but yeah, so it's
Alonzo: Yeah, so it's really fun to be able to come full circle with the
Purdy: I was going to ask you, we have to take another break in a minute, but for people who can't go to New York on July 12th, when can we hear Orlai Alonso play again? Well, you can hear me any...
Alonzo: Saturday and Sunday at St. Mary playing the big organ there, but Sundays at four, Music at St. Mary, the concert series, almost every month or every other month, we will have concerts at 4 p.m. So...
Purdy: It's a nice time of day to do that. Yes. It's lovely.
Alonzo: And they can come hear you too, because you're our MC at many of those concerts, which we love your insight, all of the knowledge of the music. No, no, no. So we'll have plenty of concerts coming up and this season from 10 to 14 concerts a season that we do and we keep it busy, busy, because you know, from Village Lights to any choral concerts with Stephen Caracciolo that does three of his concerts at St. Mary, we love having all the music that we can. Gift to the city.
Purdy: Well, between the two of you, there's so much going on and so much to do and so to experience. We're gonna review everything in our lesson final segment. We're going to take a break right now and come right back.
We are back, I'm Christopher Purdy, this is All Sides Weekend on 89.7 NPR News talking with Jabari Johnson, who was an actor, videographer and photographer, and Orlai Alonzo, who is a pianist and impresario, and we've been talking about what it is to be an artist, to be a creative person living in central Ohio, and at least these two are very enthusiastic and talk about salesmen if people are listening on our live stream and you're somewhere else you may want to think about coming here if you want to be an actor or a creative person or a musician. I want to make sure I want go back to Jabari for a bit and review that you are taking the title role in Shakespeare's "Othello" with Actors Theater in Schiller Park opening July 16th through August 9th. Doesn't like extended weekend shows Friday 77. That's right
Johnson: That's right. So it runs Thursday through Sunday at eight Every day of the week weather permitted. We will be out there rain or light or light rain or shine I say if it is too heavier than that we might have to unfortunately cancel but you can look for us there all the time
Purdy: The website is Actors Theater, one word with an R-E, theater, actorstheater.org, if you'd like to get some more information about that. Can you bring picnics? What's the... Oh, yeah. Oh, my gosh.
Johnson: That's- oh sorry, what'd you say?
Purdy: What's the etiquette? The etiquette-
Johnson: The etiquette, yeah, you definitely bring food, bring snacks, you can even bring pets and everything and sit out in the lawn and enjoy the show. There's going to be food there, Tasty Dog always is there to provide hot dogs and different meals and snacks that you can buy. And yeah, it's just having a good time and bringing people you enjoy.
Purdy: And Orley Alonzo, people want to come to your concerts at St. Mary's, how do they find out more?
Alonzo: Musicatstmary.com. So that's where we put all of our information or on Facebook, Instagram, we're everywhere.
Purdy: Social media everywhere. You have the Pro Arte Chorale of Columbus, of Ohio, Pro Arte of Ohio which is a wonderful professional choir. They do two or three concerts a year.
Alonzo: Three concerts a year with us, which we love having them, they're amazing.
Purdy: The Columbus International Children's Choir with Tatiana Kats. You are playing some chamber music and some concerts I believe as well.
Alonzo: Correct, with our Callisto Quartet, which is the quartet in residency for us, because we love them. And yeah, we continue to do as many collaborations as we can with the local community and with the Worthington Chamber Orchestra, with all of these great artists that we have here in Columbus. The more collaboration, the more wonderful the result it is here in this melting part.
Purdy: And I want to make sure people understand that you and your brother Orlando Alonzo are appearing together at Carnegie Hall on the 12th of July, I believe presented by the Cuban American Cultural Organization.
Alonzo: The Cuban Cultural Center of New York, and by Carnegie Hall, because this one is part of Carnegie Hall Presents as part of their celebration of the 250th anniversary. They wanted to include the Americas too, which we were very happy to hear that they were doing that. So it didn't mean America, just North America, but it meant from Canada all the way to Punta Arenas in Chile. All the way down. What are you playing?
So we'll be playing a lot of Cuban music, of course, the arrangements that we have grown to love and have asked and commissioned for us to have. We did our opening season here, Carnegie Bound, so we gave Columbus, Ohio a little preview of- That was-
Purdy: Ohio State a few months ago
Alonzo: Yep, exactly. So we gave them a little preview of what we were doing. So, we'll do the famous classics of "Mambo No. 5," you'll get some Tito Puente, "Oye Como Va," so to get the Latin flair. But we will also include music by Manuel Valera, original compositions that honor Bebo Valdés and the traditional Cuban music. But, we also get Timo Andres, who's very hot up-and-coming composer, Julia Grad, very young.
That has done "The Shy and the Mighty," and we're doing "Nightjunt," one of his pieces. Beautiful music, and his programmatic notes are a stroll at night by yourself or with a friend, meaning you pick who you're walking on at night street in New York City doing that. So we're paying tribute to American composers and composers from Latin America that have grown up in the States. So Jorge Gómez, Adonis González. So we get all of this great Latin Guillerme Bernstein, too, his last name is Bernstein. So funny enough, so that he'll have a Brazilian Choros. So we got to do a little of Brazil, a little bit of Latin American flair, and then main course is Cuban, of course, because that's where we are.
Purdy: What is "Los Delirios de Rosita?" What is that?
Alonzo: Rosita's Delights, so "Los Delirios de Rosita" are, it's a beautiful four-hand composition. So this is supposed to be played one piano, four hands, even though my brother and I, when we play our concerts, two pianos, four-hands. This is by Ignacio Cervantes, one of the old traditional Cuban music how, when it started coming from the music of the streets, coming, being adapted to classical music. So very much like, in America "Rhapsody in Blue" style getting jazz into the mainstream this is the the Cuban Gershwin so to speak
Purdy: We're going to hear it right now. I want you to say the title "Los Delirios de Rosita." That was Orlai Alonzo with his brother Orlando Alonzo at one piano at this performance. But when your concerts always have two big pianos and you sit like 10 yards from each other and the coordination is extraordinary. I mean, when you are with her, I know you and your brother are very close, but can rehearsals be like contentious? That's the point of art. Oh, f-
Alonzo: Oh, of course, you're always fighting and you're always making up because that is part of the process. We learn through blood and tears and sweat to make sure that we get, we come across on the other side with maturity, with all that we want to say, and that really the audience can be part of what we're trying to say and what we are trying to communicate, which is give fully ourselves to all of you out there. So. Thank you for listening out there and for listening to all of our concerts that we do.
Purdy: And I just wrote this down and you should too out there in Radioland. November 8th with the Worthington Chamber Orchestra and the wonderful Antoine Clark. I'm a big fan of his since he was a baby. I mean but he's not a baby anymore but he is a very, very talented conductor. You are playing "The Nights in the Gardens of Spain" with him, is that right? Yes, exactly. The man will defy I yes
Alonzo: Oh, I'm sure we'll get some goodies there, exactly, so it'll be wonderful to continue.
Purdy: Write that down. Now, Jabari, I want to ask you a little bit about casting. I notice in the looking at the cast list for "Othello," in which you were taking the title role, I thought Iago, who was the second lead. I mean, you can't do the show without Iago. I believe it's being played by a woman.
Johnson: That's right. Yeah, Christina Yoho will talk to me. Yeah, no. So it is it is Christina. Yoho, we'll still the role will still be presenting man. So Iago, as the the dynamic hasn't changed, it is just yes.
Purdy: It'd be interesting if it did though, but go ahead.
Johnson: Yeah, and it's just because Yoho has this mesmerizing performance and there is no one that can play this intriguing and manipulative character than Christine Yoho because she has a lot of experience with movement work and then also comedy as well, which I think is important when you're playing something dramatic sometimes. The same way you see like a lot of movies. Where a comedy writer is making a horror movie because they understand with comedy You'd still need these kind of beats to to fully grasp what makes people uncomfortable What makes people like understand or like dislike dislike the villain?
Purdy: We have to understand why Othello keeps Iago around so long. There's an attraction there. There is. I mean, there's that when you play two, that's exactly right. Which is kind of hard to come by. You got it or you ain't. I'm looking at two who got it, but you know. But yeah, so you have that, they just did, Actors Theater just did a "Taming of the Shrew" a few weeks ago. I believe that was an all-female cast. That's right, yeah, exactly. When that is prepared when the director and the people are sitting down in the rehearsal room and deciding to do it that way What do you think motivates him to try it like that?
Johnson: Honestly, I think it's just to have a new take on, on a material that's been done countless times. And I think, especially with "Taming of the Shrew," because it is, at its core, it's a very misogynistic story.
Purdy: Oh, God, yes.
Johnson: Yeah, you know? And so it is this chance to kind of reclaim the story and narrative and give it a twist that gives it a more contemporary contextual understanding. So it's fascinating to watch and and see how you can mold the story in a way that is More I don't want to say appropriate because it's just it's a new take on it. It's a different way to do it
Purdy: Therefore, it can illuminate parts of the text you may have missed the first time around, which, Shakespeare, you always miss something. I mean, the first 10 times around, you miss something, it's like Bach, I mean you're never done. Right, you constantly learn new things. Now, when you and Iago are rehearsing, no matter who plays the role, the two parts are very much dependent on one another. It's a real duet, the two of them, for the extent of the, and of the audience. Because the audience knows the story loads Iago right away, but Othello does not eat loads Iago I don't ski ever load Iago except to me the last two sec the last joke very very very yes
Johnson: Uh, yeah.
Purdy: So what do you need from the actor doing that role when you are playing Othello?
Johnson: Oh, mostly trust. It is a big, it is important to fully trust your partner with that role because it is heavy material and it's also just having this connection and relationship that needs to read on stage. And I think the best way for that to read is to have already some kind of dynamic that is recognizable. For instance, like me and Christina Yoho, this will be our third show together. Really? Okay. Yeah, so we've done two shows prior, both with Actors Theater of Columbus, "Beowulf and the Bard" in 2018 or 2019, and then "A Tale of Two Cities" in 2021. And so it was, doing those shows already made it, so we had a good understanding like, oh yeah, this is how we act and how we relate to each other. And we're hoping that that will translate when we're on the stage together again, this time as, you know, uh... Misunderstood rivals like I'm seeing Iago as a friend and then slowly understanding
Purdy: Very slowly, very gradually. I think what keeps the audience as riveted is the progression from trust, friendship, love, if you will, to complete destruction. If you did sell out with no cuts, you'd be there for five hours. It's a long.
Johnson: I tell people that.
Purdy: So I mean, I know different productions make do different performing editions of it. And I think that's probably the director's decision. Exactly. What might be excised? Because really, I mean in Shakespeare's day, everybody was drunk and everybody was, you know, running around. This is our chance. They didn't they didn't sit and pay attention like we do today. So it's a bit it's going to be performed at Actors Theater, which is what's up. There's something there now, I think, is there. Yes.
Johnson: Yes, "Peter and the Starcatcher" is playing right now that'll run until the week before we open. So Whatever that math will be okay, like early July a land
Purdy: But "Othello" opens July 16th and runs until August 9th. The website for tickets and information, one stop shopping there, the actorstheater.org and you can go in performances outdoors in Schiller Park bring a little bug spray bring up bring wine bring Picnics that's right and bring comfortable chairs Orlay Alonzo you can Hear in the really beautiful setting of St. Mary church, which is actually exquisite To come in there on a Sunday afternoon and hear what you've planned in that series for the 12 or 13 weeks that you're doing that per season is a great joy and I have seen a lot of people I've seen very very crowded churches for your concerts with the Columbus International Children's Choir and Pro Arte of Ohio and Stephen Caracciolo and yourself and your brother and chamber music so no reason to sit at home and be bored of a Sunday afternoon The website, once again, is...
Alonzo: Musicatstmary.com.
Purdy: Music at St. Mary's and you are going to Carnegie Hall on July 12th and you're going to come back from Carnegie Hall and you'll come back on the show and tell us all about it.
Alonzo: Ooh, that's wonderful. I'm always happy to be here. It's always a pleasure to share a great time with you and all of the guests that you always bring. It's an amazing experience. Thank you for welcoming me into the WOSU family.
Purdy: And thank you for flying back from Miami just to do this show. I appreciate that very much. I wouldn't. I told you I'd appreciate it. You probably drove. Never mind. Okay. Thank you Jabari Johnson. I look forward to "Othello." Thank you very much, Orlay Alonzo as always. God bless you for New York. Come back and tell us all about it again. Thank you Chris Johnston who makes radio for us here at WOSU. Thank you to Marcus Charleston, our producer. I'm Christopher Purdy, this has been All Sides Weekend on 89.7 NPR News.