artloft is brought to you by the friends of South Florida [Music] PBS art Loft it's the pulse of what's happening in the Arts across South Florida in this episode we meet in historic organization supporting the Next Generation of artists and performers we meet opera singer and educator Lauren Frick and learn how the Florida Grand Opera is meeting the future and we connect with lesbian thespians a theater company creating community in [Music] Broward The National Society of arts and letters has been around for decades its Mission helping cultivate America's Next Generation of great artists and performers Here We join the organization's Florida Chapter for a competition day around the time of World War II the morale in the country was a little bit down um we were just coming out of the war and there was a group of very influential women who got together and they wanted to bolster the spirit of the country and they felt that a a society was only as good as the art that it produces this group of influential women they started the society that would take Young Artists and Mentor them um have competitions and scholarships and get them at the very beginning of their career and help Boer their career you know they they brought in experts to work to do master classes they brought in people that could you know help financially support them and that's exactly what we're doing to this day the Florida chapter's been around since 19 1981 and we Encompass the entire state today you're going to have a wonderful opportunity to see an in-person competition they compete against each other they win Financial prizes and and they get in our hearts and our souls and they we stick with them you know we we follow them and we help them in any way that we can everything that we make goes back into the students we do not have any paid staff at all it's purely volunteer and we don't spend money on anything really but the students what nsal does is it attracts very talented students from the high school level and through college and we really provide a platform for them to be able to share their talents and also afterwards as they win scholarships with nsal or they win competitions then we also provide mentorship ship and that mentorship has enabled a number of our recipients to go on and to reach a professional [Music] level in order to be able to provide this type of support to these talented young people um we do have an annual gala where we appeal to the public to support these same students the star makers Awards is almost magical because this is our Showcase of the finest talent that you have for these students and young professionals and the wonderful thing about it it does take so much work to continue an organization of our sort but when you go to the star makers Awards Gala and you see these students perform hear them then everything comes alive and the full meaning of what nsal is showcased and so I would say the really heart of star makers Awards is being able to see and hear those young people because that often is what will stay with people to encourage them to come back again and also to support us during the year it's different than it was years ago Young Artists used to be uh very nervous and a lot dependent on it now I think with social media constantly being on our cell phones we're connected so much more that there's less nerves and more I'm here and I and I want to win and uh this is this is my big chance and I'm going to advertise this all over social media and you're going to know exactly what I'm doing every minute so they are a little more confident than they were years ago that's what I'm noticing this particular competition there's classwork judged classwork each one of them come in with a number on the front a cloth number and the judges will judge them on their form on their technicality how they fit in and there's always that oomph factor that uh a dancer has some dancers are just very technical and they can get a 10 but they don't have that other factor of the confidence and so that's where it starts that's an hour uh or an hour and a half of uh jured classwork then they do ballet variation and National sets up about 10 that they pick um they send in their music and it's about a minute and a half and and they do their ballet variation and then the next one is contemporary which is interesting why we call it a dance competition rather than a ballet competition and so they can make up their own contemporary they can choreograph their own uh they take it from somewhere else it's it's very uh free form and it's wonderful and it shows a different side of the dancer and also they're judged on that and then at the end the judges added up and the one who gets the score getss $22,000 from this competition last year one of our scholarship students won a place at the Royal Ballet naen Sierra has turned out to be one of if not the most prominent Sopranos in the world she was asked to sing at the opening of notredam she has been all over the world and naen Siara started her career by winning a competition at the national societ of arts and letters and we are so so proud of her well let's talk about Megan Hilty for instance she won a competition and she's starred in Wicked Shirley mlan we're going back won a competition Jesse Norman the the great vocal artist won competition it's a great opportunity because it's can start everything in your career they invited me again to come in and be a judge for the this because of my dance background I've never been on the jury before and I found it to be a very honest competition and uh something that gives the students an opportunity to be in front of people and perform their variations and take their classes and uh gives them a little bit more self-confidence and for when they go out into the professional world when I think about I can imagine what it's like for a young person to have the opportunity to do this in front of us and I'm thinking about them and how they what they're doing is uh really important in their lives and uh I'm glad I'm here to experience with them and I'm going to do the best I can I'm not overly a fan of competitions when it comes to ballet because we're all competing with ourselves to be better balentin my boss the great George balentin and John's boss for a while too used to to say what are you saving it for dear when we did it this way as opposed to this way so I think that's the validity of a competition like this because these young talented gifted kids are competing against themselves at the end of the day not one another and something like this gives them that kind of nervous inspiration to do great don't give up you'll find your calling where where you fit within the World of Dance keep your mind open it may not be Classical Ballet there are many Avenues um what was important to me was to be in ballet my teacher used to be a team player wherever you land and uh believe in yourself in a healthy way and know that the good news is you're never as good as you will be tomorrow um and not uh take it too personally if you have a good day or not so good day because that's normal that's life we dance people oh yeah we're our hardest critics of ourselves I try to write little notes of encouragement or what could have been done better I I would just say if I have to be honest you're just you're an artist are you an artist are you someone is that this is what you're supposed to do well then that's your answer you'll find your place in that art form regardless the energies are set up for you I applaud them for using classwork as part of what is being adjudicated as opposed to Just One Dance or solo that they practiced for weeks or months for that matter the technical aspect is so important because they are students they are they haven't started started their professional careers yet so we need to see how they train how they function how they think how they pick up movement as well as class prepares them for being able to dance so it it's duy serves that warms them up ready for their dance competition as well as the judges get to see them working individually on in a classroom I just want to thank them certainly for for keeping this organization alive regionally and then going to National so that the it's not even just an important thing for each dancer that competes and especially the winner that gets a prize but I think it's so important that the National Society of arts and letters is making it known within communities that it's important to support the Arts we can't do it without support and so really it's like National Society of arts and letters are a cheerleader for the Arts God bless him my name is Jac lineing I'm from Miami Florida and I train at Hollywood Ballet Academy I just entered this competition I thought it'd be a great opportunity to get uh in front of judges get feedback and yeah it was just so much fun I've never been in front of such amazing people before I felt really comfortable in the studio and it was more of like a atmosphere I'm used to with the mirrors and everything everything so yeah I just felt like I just try to think of it as a normal ballet class and then just doing my variation in contemporary the Nationals are in May so they have two months to to get together I'm absolutely certain that one of the judges will uh speak to them the winner and say why don't you come to this studio and we'll we'll work with you why do we do this to to with young people mainly because so many of us who are in the business uh I happen to be in the business and the judges are in the business we never retire what we do is it's a giving back that's what it is it's our responsibility to give back these are children well young adults that professionally want to pursue their discipline whether it's opera singing whe whether it's a musical theater whether it's literature it's it's the excitement of the students that come in and that is really why we do this you know we we love to see how excited they are we love to see students that love the [Music] Arts opera singer and arts worker Lauren Frick shares her love of the Florida Grand Opera and explains why she thinks the fgo's future is Like a Phoenix Rising my name is Lauren Frick and I am an oper singer as well as being the Director of Education and social entrepreneurship here at Florida Grand Opera I pretty much Encompass all of the programming that that hits people from babies all the way up um outside of the theater um and even inside of it um getting them involved with why is Opera important to them how can we cultivate new audiences how can we um excite them about what they're going to see make it relevant to their lives um and make it something that they are excited to be a part [Music] of if I can get a kid there one time I can usually hook them in to be like this is cool this is kind of interesting this is I want to learn more about it we have our middle school and high school programs our biggest program is called hope which is having an opera performance experience and that's when we bring students from Miami day County and have them watch the final dress rehearsal of our production hello and welcome we're so excited to have you all here with us tonight this is always a highlight of our season to have all these students come together to take part in the Opera 80% % of our students that are coming are coming for the first time so it's it's a new experience all around for many of them so we sort of break it down a little bit what to expect when you go and um and what is the the show about who are these characters and and I found that when you kind of give them that knowledge ahead of time they they're almost like rooting for or against some of the characters and they really get into um into the storyline it was very exciting it very eventful how flute did all of the it it tracked out the princess it also helped the bread the bread catcher but the thing that was most surprising is how the queen was the bad guy but not the actual demon that they thought it was the demon was just trying to help but the queen was actually the villain of the story I would most definitely see another Opera can you understand her okay my bad I'm sorry I loved how they were singing I love the colors as well the background really like caught my attention as well I really liked it it was beautiful it was very awesome and like you know the feeling was great just experiencing it and watching it like I felt refreshed I loved it [Music] what I do as an artist really feeds what I do as an administrator and what I do as an administrator has fed so much of my artistic journey in the last five years because it's just the information that I've gained through that role has has made me not only appreciate but just just have this sense of like I understand what the other people around me are doing and why they're doing it and how how much of a a a cost in terms of uh financial and energy and people and resources that it takes to make that happen I know that person you know has worked you know 17 hours to make to make sure these lights were focused correctly I know this person went to this party and this party and this party to make sure that all these people came to the Opera and that they're hopefully going to be donors to the Opera so it's really great to just be able to bring that knowledge to the table I think it's so important in 2025 for people to um to understand and to know why Opera is important in their life how did I get into Opera I I don't know the exact moment it happened it just was this little rock that you know started rolling down the hill and then all of a sudden it became this big thing and now it's where it's at I found an amazing um older woman her name was Mrs weeks and she really oh my God she's no longer with us but she really kind of embraced me in a way that I she met me where I was and she never pushed me to like do more than I was ready for and the more I started to do it the more I was like okay I like this there's something cool there there's something different there's these languages that I didn't have any exposure to before there's these these Melodies and and really diving into the operas you start to realize just like how complex and how much drama and how much story and character there was this is don't say a word from dead man walking it was a movie a book so it's a it's um a true based on a true story um of this nun who meets a prisoner on death row and kind of goes through that story with with him all the way to the end um and this song is the mother of that person on death row that little boy [Music] [Music] [Music] no goodbyes now look I'm still smile [Music] I was at the New World School of the Arts teaching there as a voice adjunct um for about 5 years and um then we had Co so we were teaching online so it was a little bit more flexible and so I had more time and I said you know I want to be around Opera I want to experience everything that goes into it and so so let's go to the Opera and see what's going on there and they had an opening at in the box office it had nothing to do with being on stage in that moment but it really taught me so much about like the people that are coming to the Opera that why they're coming to the Opera um what's important to them in in that decision that they make to pay for a ticket this team right now we're we're in such a uh this sort of Phoenix Rising stage our fearless leader Maria todoro says she that we're an 83-year-old startup right now because we're this hisory we're this company that has so much history I mean paparotti made his de his us debut with us we're the oldest performing arts company in Florida one of the oldest in the country and yet we're in this place where we're sort of Shifting things and making things better so that we can continue to have another 83 years and Beyond [Music] [Applause] [Music] finding community Through the Arts that's part of the why behind the Wilton Manners Theater Company lesbian thespians let's get to know them I'm Carol wartenberg I'm the founder and artistic director of the lesbian thespians when I retired um I had an opportunity to start up a theater troop and I thought well why not can't be that hard let's do it reminds me of the old days of Mickey Rooney when he used to say to all the kids in his Mickey Rooney Bunch let's do a play and they all would just make a play so that's how we started out and over time we've grown and grown and grown with lots of talent lots of people that are are really excellent directors actors dancers singers and all of that kind of thing we we've just been very very fortunate and I've learned so much and now I have people that are so much more talented than me what what did I say I have no ego in this except for to put on the very best production for lesbian thespians and for our audiences we're so excited to have you here today this is a world old premiere of the boxes we keep um it was written by Ann Valentino she won our play contest last year and we're producing her play this year we're just so thrilled to be part of of helping our community grow and get better and better welcome thank you we're really about providing women with opportunities to perform we also are looking at having a spoken word group and we just want to give women opportunities to to follow the Arts that maybe they didn't have Once Upon a Time so it's really exciting and we have emerging playwrights we have emerging directors we have emerging actors and we're so excited to be providing women with these opportunities to be able to get on stage and perform in front of their peers in fact one of the actors said it's the first time that she's been able to be in a lesbian play in front of lesbians and and and how much that meant to her as far as her gender identity and her sexual identity and and that kind of thing that she was so excited about that opportunity we've had transgender women perform with us we have cisgendered women we of course have lesbian and bisexual women um and we've actually had men in some of our performances so you know we really try to um be as diverse as we can and to be as inclusive as we can and this and these how do I look now lesbian thesbian is about bringing the lesbian Community together or those who identify with being a lesbian or those who are allies to the lesbian Community to be able to perform in the Arts tell our stories engage the community and highlight how brilliant we are from day to day with just everyday life issues you bite your serpent like tongue my serpent like tongue it allows for anyone to come and sit and hear stories hear funny stories yes it starts out with us inviting our friends our families but then we share with our neighbors we share with strangers and say guess what there's a lesbian thesbian company because there's always been a a play on those words anyway and people find it engaging and like I want to come check that out the inmates have control of your Sil listen lesbian thespians is it means new to me CU this is the first uh show I'm actually working with lesbian thespians before and really when I came in and when we started talking and I got to talk with Carol the founder who is just amazing she loves everything she gets to do and she's wonderful it's it's inclusivity she goes out of her way her and her board they go out of their way to include as many new people as possible people who maybe don't do theater as much people who do theater all the time they love love love everything so I think lesbian thespians is kind of trying to include everything everyone get everyone to have new experiences different experiences and different people and ideas and it's just it's a creative web it's it's very creative you know I'm cool like that I see I have met so many amazing people and heard so many incredible stories and I'm really excited to be supporting a brand new production this is the result of the winner of a playwriting contest so it's very cool to be among the first people to ever see this play and it's been really exciting and really fun being part of it motivational speaker the fact is there's a lot of people here tonight that I have never seen before in the community never and it's nice that people are coming out to support it it's great because it brings in new people all the time and because it's so supportive of women in the community and that's incredibly important to me you know there was a period where the L didn't mean much in the in the gay community there was a period where it started with the gay and lesbian community and over time just through activism that L became first it became the number one thing it did not put men second but it created a space for us to be included and inclusive of other identities as well coming to Florida with lesbian lesbians has opened up my whole world of being more free before we just had to look up to Ellen and Rosie but now we are looking up to organizations such as ours you know that help us to blend with each other and just have fun and communicate and just party with each other really and truly artloft is on Instagram at artloft SFL tag us on your art Adventures find full episodes segments and more at artloft SFL dorg and on YouTube at South Florida PBS [Music] artloft is brought to you by the friends of South Florida PBS [Music]