Personal Background and Inspiration

• Speaker grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana where spectacle was part of daily life
• Mardi Gras preparations: community members knit beads into dresses, stirred gumbo, shaped chicken wire into carriages
• Parade day: adults transformed into mermaids, alligators, kings, queens; teachers became peacocks
• Regular pageantry beyond Mardi Gras: Sunday church services, Christmas pageants with real sheep, LSU football games
  • LSU crowd stomp registered as official earthquake on Richter scale
• Became theater director at age 8, believing spectacles were profound community experiences

Historical Context of Spectacle

• Pageantry and spectacle are ancient, universal human experiences
• Religious ritual and carnival provided ancestors with joy and group bonding necessary for survival
• Modern question: what do spectacles mean when interconnectedness less visible and technology offers isolation

The Odyssey Production in San Diego

• 2011 production at Old Globe Theater with 181 cast members from across San Diego
• Chose The Odyssey as epic journey home story large enough for all to find themselves within
• Community integration approach: Gospel choir as goddess Athena, salsa dancers creating Circe's lair, high school drum line for archery contest
• Modeled after medieval passion plays where bakers did Last Supper, butchers did crucifixion

Unexpected Transformative Results

• Initial goal was beauty, but results exceeded expectations
• Participants overcame fear and self-doubt in imaginary process
• Real-life impacts observed:
  • Students performed better in school
  • Elders experienced health benefits: better blood flow, increased mobility
  • Homeless man in early 50s got steady job for first time in adult life, still employed 10 years later
  • His explanation: show reminded him he had value and others were counting on him

Public Works Program Launch

• 2012: Public Theater in New York provided home for expanding work
• Program brings together diverse community members from across NYC
• Participants include: children, senior citizens, domestic workers, military veterans, formerly incarcerated individuals, Broadway stars
• Creates 200-person pageants annually at the Park

Winter's Tale Production Breakdown

• 107 Community Ensemble members (ages 2-92)
• 34 choir singers
• 16 bonga dancers
• 12 ballerinas
• 7 Sesame Street characters
• 6 stilt walkers
• 5 Broadway actors
• 4 capoeiristas
• 3 Park Rangers
• 2 Chinese Lions
• 1 bear puppet
• 1 Big Bird

National Expansion Initiative

• July 18: 18 cities and towns across America simultaneously premiere large-scale public artwork
• Theme: "No Place Like Home"
• Local artists partner with municipalities and community health centers
• Goal: demonstrate what's possible when arts belong to everybody

Scientific Research and Health Benefits

• Linguistic anthropologist tracked Public Works impact over many years
• World Health Organization analyzed 3,000 studies on arts and health relationship
• Findings: Arts interventions significantly reduce ill health, promote good health, manage/treat disease
• Simple activities provide benefits: joining choir, visiting museum, weekly drawing class

Personal Observations from 20 Years of Theater Direction

• Venues: prisons, shelters, Broadway
• Seniors recovered from strokes/surgery faster than doctors predicted
• Children with autism diagnoses (told higher education impossible) thrived in college and graduated
• Homeless Philadelphia man with severe AIDS complications left hospital bed to dance in Don Quixote production

Social Impact and Connection

• Loneliness now epidemic globally
• Growing belief people have nothing in common with those of different political/religious views tears social fabric
• Participating in something bigger than yourself working toward shared good restores connection
• In imagination realm, behind feathers and sequins, Divine spark in every human being becomes visible
• Quote from sociologist Émile Durkheim: "They find a remedy because they seek it together"

Musical Performance

• Broadway Legend Brian Stokes Mitchell and Todd Almond performed "The Impossible Dream" from Man of La Mancha
• Performance demonstrated the power of live artistic collaboration