♪ opening music ♪ ♪ <Beryl Dakers> Hello, I'm Beryl Dakers.

Welcome to Palmetto Scene.

Today, we're here in Charleston, the Holy City, home to the world renowned Spoleto Festival USA.

In this episode, we'll take a peek at what makes this great festival event tick, but first, let's meet a Charleston resident, whose attempt to fathom more about her family's genealogy led to revealing insights about Charleston's domestic slave market.

♪ <Margaret Seidler> I was never interested in history, never interested in genealogy my entire life, and it wasn't until I was 65 years old here in Charleston that I learned something about my family and the study of it has become a passion and a mission for me.

This research was really started by my revisiting an old DNA test.

There was a message on the DNA website from a cousin, and there was a small picture of the cousin and the cousin had a brown face, and she goes, "Hi, I'm your DNA cousin."

The reaction that I had was I don't think I ever felt as strongly a drive to do something for another human being, and so I promised Trish Williams that night on the phone, that I had some information that my grandmother had written down in 19 back in the family Bible that I had gotten in 1883, and hadn't looked at and that I would use that research to help her find her ancestors and our connection.

So I was actually excited to find out that I had some DNA that was of African, and all that excitement went away on Easter morning 2018 when I had used my grandmother's papers that she had handwritten, and I used the Google Search feature, and found my fifth great grandfather, and there was a synopsis about him, and it said he was a very wealthy merchant here in Charleston, and that he had brought hundreds and hundreds of Africans over in the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

His name was John Torrans, I found that not only had John Torrans been in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, but the next two generations closer to present time had been in the slave trade as well.

They were in the domestic slave trade.

So they were not taking Africans off ships.

They were selling people in the city.

They were selling people on the plantations up and down the South Carolina coast.

>> What it revealed about her genealogy is very significant because of what it says about the city of Charleston and the current, as well as historical population, and what it says and what was so surprising to her was that she had ancestors that were themselves deeply immersed in the system of slavery, slave trading, in particular, and this was something that she had absolutely no idea about, and I think that says a lot because in so many ways, the system of slavery touched so many lives of people who historically resided here in Charleston, and the wealth accumulated by those people during the period of the slave era have continued to be passed down generationally, all the way down to the present.

<Margaret> So I don't believe that the domestic slave trade was really as well known as many may believe.

What I realized in the research was that this family by the name of Payne, P-A-Y-N-E owned a couple of buildings on Broad Street right near East Bay, and to learn that people were being auctioned off on the corner of East Bay and Broad, of course, we know the Exchange building, but then to find out as I did newspaper ad research, which is extensive, I found out that human beings were being held and sold inside the buildings on Broad Street in these auctioneers' offices.

I've documented 1100 ads and I've documented over 9200 human beings, that my family, my fourth great grandfather and his sons actually brokered the sale of, and as I got into it, I realized that this story has never been told.

This is truly history lost.

<Dr.

Powers> The domestic slave trade is a way of reallocating labor geographically, and Charleston will become a center, a hub in the domestic slave trade, in which people were, in fact transferred further south and west from here, and that meant, of course, also, that there was a whole series of entrepreneurs here in the city of Charleston, that comprised a web of handlers and financiers and brokers, who...essentially dealt in, they trafficked in the sale of people.

<Margaret> What I have learned about this system called human slavery is it is an economic system, and it is a very powerful economic system that is also chaotic.

...So what William Payne and his sons were doing was they were trying to make the people who were for sale to look as highly valuable as possible.

They'd say warranted good character, a good worker, this skill patroon, which is a person that knows the rivers and the creeks, a good seamstress, a great cook.

They were marketing people for the highest value.

<Dr.

Powers> There were slave auctions that occurred in a number of places in the city.

They tended to be held in the lower part of the city, in what today we know as the historic district, but there were multiple places where these auctions occurred, and one was able to see this kind of trafficking in human beings literally on the streets of the city, almost until the eve of the American Civil War.

<Margaret> The business of slavery was pervasive.

It was everywhere in this historic area.

People were being sold, not just in businesses or on the on Ryan's Mart.

Ryan's Mart was really later in the 1850s, where that became predominant, but when people could be sold on the street, they were being sold on the streets.

I've got an ad where someone was sold on the corner of Broad and King.

People were being sold out of people's kitchens.

People were being sold in people's front yards.

They were being sold wherever they could find a business spot.

It was not just centralized.

It was...

It was everywhere.

<Dr.

Powers>> Ryan's Slave Mart becomes particularly important in order to sanitize the image of the city, then passes this ordinance which, which removes these sales from clear public view and confines them to more obscure locations and areas beyond public view.

Ryan's Mart, the Old Slave Mart, as it came to be known, was one of those important places.

<Margaret> I know many people told me you can't change the past.

What I do know is that I can change what we learn about the past and what we know about the past and what we discussed about the past and to do it in a way that isn't trying to make someone feel guilty because we didn't do it, and I think there's a potential to be more honest with each other and understand each others, what it's like to be in somebody else's shoes today, based on their ancestors' experiences.

<Beryl> Now, let's take a behind the scenes look at one of America's premier international performing arts festivals.

The Spoleto Festival USA is going strong coming out of the pandemic.

They have a new general director and a continued commitment to celebrating excellence through the arts.

♪ >> The few weeks before the Spoleto Festival gets started before audience members walk through the doors, we look like ants scurrying all over Charleston.

♪ You will see trucks.

You will see vans.

You will see crew members running around Charleston.

We have theaters to set up.

The Cistern Yard behind me looks like a beautiful park most of the year.

We turn it into a theater with lights, chairs, sound equipment and it takes a huge crew to make that happen.

There's a lot of work that's involved.

We work usually 8 or 9 in the morning till sometimes eleven or twelve at night.

Last night, I was actually here until midnight.

We were focusing all the lights to make sure the artists look great and this is just one venue.

♪ ♪ >> Many shows come with a full physical production.

The shows that we produce specifically the operas, typically do not, so we then have the entire planning phase of the creation of the opera, which can be anywhere from two, including logistics and carpentry and maybe some lighting, to up to seven or eight, which includes costumes, which includes wigs, which includes automation, which includes more scenery, so it's just kind of a sliding scale, depending on the scale of the festival itself.

♪ upbeat music ♪ <Becca> This season, we have four venues, which is a little bit reduced, thanks to COVID, but we're making it happen.

We have crews at the Cistern on the College of Charleston campus.

We have a crew working at the newly renamed Festival Hall, down on Main Street.

We have a crew at the Dock Street Theatre, which happens to be my favorite venue in the city, and we have a crew working at the brand new venue for Spoleto this year, River's Green, which is where the dance companies will be performing.

Rivers Green is a theater we are building, absolutely from scratch.

It is normally a park, behind the library on the College of Charleston campus, and we are building the stage.

We are building the lights.

We are building the sound, where nothing used to exist before.

<Mike> Rivers Green, which is one of our outdoor venues, this year, and that's actually what he's working on behind us, which is some of the final brick facades of the stage that we're building over there.

Ultimately, Nigel wanted something that sort of was more impressive than just some troughs sticking out of the ground, right.

He wanted something that looks a little more substantial, but also that was at the quality that our audience expects, right.

We could have very easily done what many of the other festivals in town do, which is do, the sort of, like least expensive option.

He wanted to make sure that he was investing in the sort of experience of the aesthetic quality of what we're going for.

>> What we need here for what we do, for what it does is that we need a portfolio of it.

We need them to be different from one another, so you don't feel if you go from one to another that you're just going to another dark space, another place with a preceding arch.

<Mike> We then hired a set designer, a stage designer to sort of help sculpt what the architecture might look like of that stage typically we're inside of a venue and we're designing the little set that goes inside of that venue.

In this case, we were designing the entire venue, right.

So, we had to deal with the audience riser system and we had to engineer how we were going to achieve that.

There's actually a fountain under the stage at Rivers Green that we're not allowed to touch, so we had to engineer a system that was built up and cantilevered over the fountains, so that we don't harm the fountain, with a fully you know functioning stage on top of it.

♪ The goal is for our audience ultimately to have the best, you know, experience that they can have and a lot of that comes down to very like small psychological things, like comfort level, right.

If they're sitting in a venue and it's just a bunch of scaffolding and a bunch of metal sticking out of the ground, it can feel a little brutal one might say, right, but when we're creating sort of like a warmth that they can sort of forget themselves inside of, it really gives them the opportunity to focus on what's happening on stage, as opposed to being distracted by all the things that seemingly shouldn't be around about them at the time.

♪ <Becca> For the Cistern Yard, for instance.

Behind me, you'll see the stage that we set up on top of the historic Cistern, but our backdrop, the reason that we do shows here is Randolph Hall.

It is a beautiful building here on the College of Charleston campus, and we light it to be the backdrop for our jazz shows and for our bands.

That is the reason people come to this yard to see shows and to hear the music here in this venue, and we light it so it looks stunning at night, and that's also the reason, we don't do shows until 9 PM.

So, the lights show beautifully on that building.

We put the stage right in front of it.

We set up the lights and sound, and it's the most stunning backdrop that we can think of in the entire city to do our concerts here.

When jazz companies or bands come to perform, they usually bring some of their instruments with them, like especially if they've got a favorite Stratocaster or a Fender guitar, they will bring those with them, but we provide them with pianos.

We have a great relationship with a music company here in town, called Fox Music, and we also bring in Steinway pianos from New York.

We take care of all the pianos.

We have them delivered to the stage.

We have them tuned multiple times a day, and then we leave them here on the stage at night.

We cover them.

We tarp them and they stay as long as they need to on this stage, and then the next day, we come out, we uncover them.

We have them tuned again, multiple times a day, so they were always here, and always ready for the artists whenever we need them, and then when they're done, we move them to the next venue.

So, pianos get moved all around town, all day long.

You'll see trucks all in the streets, moving pianos from one venue to the next.

I've worked with hundreds of opera singers, and dozens and dozens of dance companies.

So many of them have told us that these venues here in Charleston are some of their favorites.

The newly redesigned Gaillard Center is this gorgeous space now with beautiful acoustics.

They can sing in that space all day long.

♪ The Dock Street Theater is such a beautiful, intimate space to sing in.

The outside is stunning with the wrought iron railings.

The inside, just is the most beautiful, quaint setting for any performance you'd ever want to watch.

<Nigel> Geoff Nuttall, who runs the Chamber music program, has said relatively often that he gets more of an audience here in 17 days than he might get for the rest of the year.

A single program, which is repeated three times might get an audience of 1500.

For chamber music, that's not typical.

♪ <Mike> Nicole Taney who is our Director of Artistic Planning and Operations, largely sculpts the program for the festival and picks the shows that you know they want to bring in.

Nigel Redden, of course, our General Director has a heavy hand in that and basically has all the veto power that he wants, and then once they've sort of crafted what they want the festival to look like then it comes to us, for sort of a technical review and then we start moving into the more sort of nuts and bolts of everything.

<Nigel> Sometimes you invite an artist and they say no, and then you keep going.

One, I was really eager to preserve production, that you remember, Salome, the play, and I wanted to do it, and the director said, "Oh yes.

Well, I think "we can work this out.

", and then he stopped returning my phone calls.

I called and left messages and so I went to Dublin and sat on the doorstep, and figured that he would have to walk over me and so he, because I sat on the doorstep, he bought the play.

<Mike> There is a significant investment and aesthetic in sort of standard quality, right.

There is no - there's never been a moment where I've heard anyone say, "Ehh, that's good enough.

There's always, "Can we do better?

Can we try a little harder," but it's a constant dialogue about budget, right, because we're always working against what we can afford.

It's always been a, "We can't afford that.

Let's figure out how "to afford that, and let's put the work in to see if we can engineer out the costs "another way, so that we can achieve "what we ultimately want to achieve "from the aesthetic side of things."

<Nigel> You fall because you didn't risk enough.

You didn't push the envelope hard enough, and you didn't put enough on stage and so the audience...thinks "This is not worth doing."

Well, the artists think it's not worth doing, or the staff thinks it's not worth doing, or the critics think it's not worth doing, and so it's a risk if you don't push, and you don't push as hard as you can.

<Becca> Most of us only get to see each other once a year.

For this seven weeks, we come together and we truly are a family.

The crews that work together generally work together only at the Spoleto Festival and then once the festival is over, we go back to our home towns.

We go off to other jobs.

So, that first day that we all got to see each other, there have been a lot of hugs, a lot of vaccinated hugs, but a lot of hugs and it was incredible.

It was incredible to be able to do what we love to do, and to do it as a family, because Spoleto really is a family.

<Nigel> What Spoleto has done is to stretch people's taste, and allow people to explore their taste.

We still can challenge audiences.

I think we do still challenge audiences.

And I think we will continue.

I hope we will continue to challenge audiences.

♪ <Beryl> Mena Mark Hanna, welcome aboard.

>> Thank you.

<Beryl> Why so much excitement around this year's Spoleto Festival USA?

<Mena Mark Hanna> Well, this is our first festival, since 2019.

It's our first full festival since 2019.

In 2020, the festival was canceled because of the pandemic, and in 2021, it was pared back, and this year, we're coming out and having a full celebration of life and humanity through 120 Plus performances in 17 days, that go from Opera, to dance, theater, amplified music, jazz, choral music.

It really is a celebration of everything that it means to be alive.

It's an exciting festival.

<Beryl> So what's the big challenge for you then?

Since this will be your very first festival as general director?

<Mena Mark Hanna> Oh...I don't know how to answer that question.

I like, I've got a two year old and a three week old at home.

So I think, challenges in a way are kind of understanding the stress points of the organization, because this is such a time delimited organization with the festival, with all the organizational resources being poured into these 17 days, but also my own sort of stress points and understanding -- understanding how I work within this heightened period of excitement, and how I bounce back through all of these different art forms and talk about them and express them and how we could put them together in future years.

So, I'm someone who loves the festival format, because it's so compressed within these within this period of time.

It's like almost having a full year's worth of events within this period of time, and I think that's, that provides for like such a nimble and thoughtful way of expressing art.

>> So let's talk about some of those events.

What are the highlights?

And if there are any low lights, low lights too.

(laughing) <Mena Mark Hanna> High lights, I mean, I think, we'd have to say, Omar.

So, Omar, of course, is the opera by Rhiannon, Giddens and Michael Abels that will be premiered by the Spoleto Festival and was commissioned by the Spoleto Festival based on the life of Omar ibn Said who is a West African man, enslaved and sold into bondage at Gadsden's Wharf here in Charleston in the 19th century, and this is a piece that was supposed to be premiered in 2020, and has sort of, you know, there's there have been all of these pieces during the pandemic that have just kind of been held in stasis, and this is a piece that I think has almost benefited from the last two convulsive years, the pandemic, this...cry and urgency for social justice in this country, because Omar in 2022, is a completely different meaning than Omar in 2020, and that's something that we're embracing.

That's something that we understand, and because of that, we were able to kind of curate out and around Omar.

<Beryl> And now more behind the scenes with Desiree and Bradley.

♪ classical music ♪ <Desiree> Thanks, Beryl.

I'm here with Bradley Fuller from South Carolina public radio.

He'll be broadcasting the Spoleto Festival live from Charleston this month.

So, Bradley, tell us a little bit about South Carolina Public Radio's role in the Spoleto Festival.

<Bradley> The main thing we do is focus on the Chamber Music Series.

This is a really intensive and really remarkable lineup of concerts, 11 different programs, each one of which is performed three different times.

So, we're there recording all of these, going to the artists, asking them, you know, which performance did you like the best so that we can capture those programs on audio, share them with the South Carolina Public Radio audience, and also send them to nationally syndicated programs like performance today, so that people all across the United States can hear just what's happening at Spoleto Festival USA.

So that chamber series is kind of the main focus of our efforts, and we even will be in the third floor of Dock Street theater, broadcasting live from there, Sonatas and Soundscapes , the show I host and produce.

We'll be coming out live from the Dock Street Theater there, as well.

So that's the main focus, but we also interview some of the musicians, share that kind of perspective they have and you know, do some features on other aspects of the festival as well because it's not just chamber music, but orchestral performances and jazz and opera and choral and you name it.

I mean, so much music there.

<Desiree> Are there any performances or maybe any artists that you are excited to go see or anybody that you're looking forward to?

<Bradley> You know, it's almost an embarrassment of riches with Spoleto Festival, so much to choose from.

Probably a little bit biased given our focus, but I do love the chamber music series, Dock Street theater really just offers this kind of up close and personal experience of the music.

It's not a massive venue.

It's an older venue, you know, medium, small, but you really just get to be right up there next to the musicians, and you really get a sense of how chamber music is the music of friends.

That's what it's called, and with the energy of the performers, obviously, their technical skills are way up there.

They wouldn't be there, if they weren't, but their interpretation is just amazing, too, and then Geoff Nuttall, who's the artistic director brings so much fun and energy to it.

I mean, you'll be laughing in between pieces, and then 5 - 10 minutes later, and some slow passage of a quartet, just feeling all the emotions too of a different kind.

So, chamber music is always one of my favorite things about the festival.

<Desiree> Is there anything that you hope that they experience or take away from your broadcasts in Charleston?

<Bradley> Gosh, I mean, you know, there's really so much to enjoy and to experience, but specifically with the Chamber broadcasts, but they can just get a sense of the personal connection, the warmth of it.

The beauty in this art form and you know, just be moved by the music in some way.

I don't know how that might look like it'll differ person to person, and the same piece might mean one thing to one person and a totally different thing to another, but the quality of audio that we strive for, you know, I think that really is the next best thing to being there in person.

It's really true to the actual sound of being there in Dock Street Theater, and otherwise, just getting some more perspective on what all Spoleto Festival is doing.

I mean, there are these new works like Omar, and there are those very time trusted, or I guess, time honored, timeless classics, kind of like Beethoven's Symphony Number nine, the Choral Symphony, I'm also excited for that.

If people just get a sense of the excitement of the festival, and also get to hear some of the great music from it.

I think we will have done our jobs.

>> Thank you so much.

I really appreciate it.

I know I'm going to appreciate hearing it, and I know your listeners from Sonatas and Soundscapes and everyone across the state is going to be very happy to hear that Charleston concerts.

<Bradley> Awesome.

Thanks, Desiree.

<Beryl> Lots of excitement at Spoleto, USA.

For more stories about our state and more details on those stories you've just seen.

Do visit our website at PalmettoScene.org.

And of course don't forget to follow us on social media, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, @SCETV #Palmetto Scene For all of us here at ETV and Palmetto Scene.

I'm Beryl Dakers.

Stay well, and thanks for watching.

♪ closing music ♪ ♪