(lively music) (mouse click) (keyboard typing) (mouse click) (lively music) (mouse click) (lively music) On this episode of Scenic Stops & Stories, Our dancers are going to get the opportunity to experience the music and the history and the folklore of Sandia.

Before we start diving into some of the dance techniques.

Sinclair has a unique place in the national STEM Guitar field because we are the production center for those kits.

But first, join us for a look inside Bowling Green State Universitys Department of Theatre and Film, in our special series, “Behind the Scenes, Art Across Ohio”.

(upbeat music) - The shows that we've been working on in the scene shop all semester long started off with a show called "John Proctor is the Villain."

It took place in a classroom setting.

The second show that we did was an opera called "Cendrillon," and it is the Cinderella story, but told in a little bit more modern way.

And then the final show that we did this semester was the musical "Heathers."

(upbeat music) My name is Kelly Mangan.

I am a scenic designer, scenic artist, and prop coordinator in the Department of Theater and Film.

(upbeat music) Before you start designing for a show, you kind of have to become the director in your head too.

You have to know the script backwards and forwards.

I don't sketch as my first ideas.

I start cutting apart little pieces of paper and gluing them together.

For "Cendrillon," we talked about the fact that the entrance from outside into the living room was really, really important for everybody that came to the house, so I put that up on a series of platforms so that all of the audience could see what was going on.

This is the first floor of the Wolfe Center.

This hallway houses the scene shop and the costume shop.

We'll start here with the scene shop where we build all of the scenery for all of the shows.

(lively music) We usually try to have about a month and a half of really dedicated build time for each of the shows.

We don't always get that.

Sometimes we have to build a show in a month.

Sometimes we get two months to build a show.

A lot of times we're overlapping.

We might be building three different shows in each of the shops.

The students do almost all of the work in the scene shop.

The shop foreman and the technical director are there to make sure that it's done right and safely, but the students are hands-on all of the time.

We don't have any problems with students cutting the wood, measuring the wood, looking at the drawings.

They all know how to read floor plans and elevations of the work that we're gonna do so that they can know how to build their own cut lists, they know the tools that are appropriate for those cuts.

Then after it's built, it all has to be put back together so that we can sort of test fit it.

Then it all comes back apart again and gets laid down on the floor to be painted.

(lively music) In the back of the scene shop, we've got a dedicated paint room where we can use that space to mix paint, do samples, and basically prep for all of the stuff that we have to do for scenic art for a show.

(upbeat music) When you're painting, especially like wood grain, it's funny because if the director walks in and you're only half done, most of the time you'll get this comment of, "Is that what it's gonna look like?"

Because a base coat for wood is really ugly.

It's bright, it's not what you expect it to be.

That big brush that can do that blend doesn't get into all of the nooks and crannies, and so you have to get out smaller brushes.

And the process is not always pretty.

You have to trust that there are steps that you follow.

You put your base coat down.

Well even before that, you have to put another base coat down because we reuse flats all the time.

And so I might be painting on a flat that one of them is blue and the other one is yellow and the other one is purple.

I have to get that back to sort of a general color.

And so I base coat usually with white or cream, and then I'll start with the bottom coat of the art finish.

(hammer pounding) (upbeat music) In this costume shop, costumes is not just what you think of in terms of a garment.

It's like it's hair, it's makeup, it's jewelry, it's shoes, it's hats, it's all of that stuff that is about the actor and what they wear.

Students will build in the costume shop as much as they do in the scene shop.

They get their hands on all of the stuff that we do.

The students will pull garments that we have in stock and hem and do the alterations.

(rhythmic music) Tech Week is actually the most, I think, exciting part of all of it.

We get to see all of the planning that we've done for weeks and weeks and weeks come to fruition.

- This is standby for light cue 15, sound cue C.

- Plus it's perfect for right now.

We're reading "The Crucible" in class.

- [Group] Yellow leather, red leather, yellow leather, red leather, yellow leather.

(cast member singing indistinctly) - [Kelly] And then opening night is the little bittersweet because it's on its own.

It's like sending a kid out the door to go to kindergarten.

It's like you got no more control.

What's cool is listening to the audience and listening to the cast and the crew after the show talk about how proud they were.

They say you shouldn't go home whistling the scenery because it's not about the scenery, it's not about the costumes, it's not about any of those things individually.

It's about how it comes together for the whole show.

(Singing in Manding language) Sometimes once a week or once a month.

Specifically in Mali, in West Africa.

And people will go and the griots will show up and they will sing the praises of your family.

It's a communal event.

So it's very lively.

(Singing in Manding language) (orchestral music ) (rhythmic music) We are here at the Pivot Center for Art, Music, Dance and Expression.

Tonight we are starting a premiere piece called Sandia of the Blood.

Company members know nothing about this piece.

Some of them may know a little bit if they've done some of our international travel voyages to West Africa.

But tonight, our dancers are going to get the opportunity to experience the music and the history and the folklore of Sandia.

Before we start diving into some of the dance techniques.

(Speaking Manding) Our musical director Weedie Braimah has gone to Mali numerous times and he's like an encyclopedia when it comes to music, when it comes to folklore.

So he's going to be diving into the music.

The dancers have to learn the rhythms.

The musicians have to learn the rhythms.

Everybody learns the songs.

(group singing) My main job is to focus on how this music elevates them as artists, and also how the way that it elevates the audience.

We're preparing for a new piece.

It's a traditional folkloric piece that comes from Mali by way of the ethnic group, of the Manding called Sandia.

The word Sandia means New Year, But it's done in honor of griots, which are the oral historians.

And the word for griot in the Manding language is djeli.

Thats spelled d,j,e,l,i They're the ones to maintain the history, to maintain and knowledge, maintain the culture, maintain the preservation of narrative that's created within certain villages and certain areas.

(Singing in Manding language) Sometimes once a week or once a month.

Specifically in Mali, in West Africa.

And people will go and the griots will show up and they will sing the praises of your family.

It's a communal event.

So it's very lively.

My main goals for them to at least understand the timing of the music and how it goes, the way the song fits in to the music, and how the understanding the groove of the music.

One, two, three.

(Singing in Manding language) They're going to get the history.

They're going to get the folklore.

They're going to get the musical foundations of Sandia.

They're going to learn the rhythms because that enhances their ability to dance it with happiness.

With Jubilee, You see the, difference?

The word Djapo itself means together.

And that's part of our mission, bringing individuals together to learn about the art, music, dance, history and folklore of Africa and throughout the diaspora.

If you want to learn about a people, if you want to learn about a culture, dive into the art.

It is almost there.

I promise you.

If you could touch the floor just that one on that first one... (rhythmic music) Oh my goodness, we've made so much progress.

Our musical director has actually completed the orchestration of the music.

So I have actually created the village.

You know, as we talked about before, Sandia is an event with families and people who live, you know, in a compound or within the same area.

So what I'm doing now is creating that celebratory village.

Im recreating that space.

(rhythmic music) We're still kind of working through it in placement.

I haven't really placed individuals yet.

I'm just still in that place where I'm seeing where people, how they feel with the movement that has been given to them so that we have all the choreography thats set.

So now it's just kind of like moving through space to see where those final moments will be.

My philosophy is no paper and pencil.

I want you to feel the music.

I want you to feel the song, understand the context and the foundational elements of the song, and capture that.

And through practice, it just happens and we get it.

(rhythmic music) I have to perform this for Dance Africa in Chicago.

I don't feel under the gun at all.

It's looking good.

It's just being able to bring the energy and to be able to show that for audiences, because that's my goal, is to make audiences feel something.

(rhythmic music) We are complete.

It is a finished piece.

I'm so excited.

Like it's really finished.

The music has its voice.

The dancers understand it has implemented what they've learned into their body, and the song is now understood and the intent of what the song and the dance represents, the music represents, is now connected.

(Singing in Manding language) (rhythmic music) What I want people to take away from this and the artists to take away from this is the beauty of longevity, tradition and speech.

bcause the job of griot is to be able to speak and maintain.

(rhythmic music) (Singing in Manding language) I want them to take away a piece of history, a piece of Africa.

We've lost so much.

So if you can get a piece of happiness, a piece of history, a piece of folklore, then we've done our jobs.

(rhythmic music) (music) Soldering and joining the electronics components is another major phase of the project.

Joining the body and the neck together, and then populating the body with all the hardware would be next after that.

And then finally stringing the instrument up and doing the final setup and intonation to actually get it to translate from looking like a guitar, to playing and functioning as a guitar should.

(orchestra) (music) STEM Guitar is a program that started out as a National Science Foundation grant that allows us as a team to teach teachers how to use the electric guitar as a vehicle to teach STEM topics to high school, and middle school, and even elementary school students.

It allows us to take the knowledge that we teach to the teachers during the week of this training, and they could take it back to their school and use the kits that are produced here at Sinclair that are really high-quality kits.

So there's science, technology, engineering, mathematics, there's physics, there's so much stuff that can be kind of derived from this program.

We're not here to train luthiers.

We're trying to get a sophomore in Bozeman, Montana, to understand that Mrs.

Johnsons fifth-grade geometry class has merit.

There's- theres two components to the program.

There's an academic component that was funded under a National Science Foundation grant, and that was the development of the curriculum.

And the curriculum can be scaled from middle school, high school, uh, community colleges, as well as up to universities just depending on what it is that the students are studying.

The STEM Guitar Lab was formulated in order to supply guitar kits to the classes that are running those.

Sinclair has a unique place in the national STEM Guitar field because we are the production center for those kits.

We use the same curriculum to teach the class, but we have the additional responsibility of making the kits and shipping them out all across the country.

(music) STEM Guitar has shipped guitar kits to 48 states.

I think the only two states that we haven't hit yet is North and South Dakota.

They've even shipped some of the guitar kits overseas.

We sell kits to schools all over the United States, including Pago Pago, American Samoa, Canada.

Our kits have gone down to Medellín, Colombia, for outreach programs.

So without the Sinclair Guitar Lab, there would be no STEM Guitar.

Here at the woodshop part of our- of our facility, it's just old fashioned woodworking, to be honest.

We will get a truckload of raw lumber.

And we take those pieces, and we'll cut them into what we call “billets.” And they're different lengths for different parts.

So if I'm building bodies, I will cut that board down into 22-inch-long pieces, and well stack ‘em on the rack.

When that's complete, then well start to assemble a body.

And we'll pull pieces off of the rack, and then we will plane them to thickness.

And then we will joint those, which is; we will trim an edge so that it's at a 90-degree angle to the face that we just made, so that when we glue them together, they're glued together at a 90-degree angle, and you get a nice flat board.

Those pieces are glued together, we'll come back the next day, we take those pieces out.

We will plane them to thickness again.

We will then sand them to a specific thickness.

And then well put those in a stack.

Theyll go over to the CNC lab across campus.

(CNC buzzing) From the builders standpoint, and in a workshop like this, the very first thing they'll do is they will pick their bodies, and their necks, and their- their fretboards, which is the playing surface on the front of the neck.

Shaping the guitar bodies would be second.

Attaching the fretboard to the neck, and shaping the neck, and getting the frets installed is another major milestone.

(sanding) Getting the body all smoothed out, and getting a clear finish applied to it to seal it and protect it, is another major task.

(music) Soldering and joining the electronics components is another major phase of the project.

Joining the body and the neck together, and then populating the body with all the hardware would be next after that.

And then finally stringing the instrument up and doing the final setup and intonation to actually get it to translate from looking like a guitar, to playing and functioning as a guitar should.

I like to pick that up at the end when it's all done and to kind of give it a test drive and see how it plays.

(electric guitar playing) (record scratch) A lot of individuals think that, and that's a common misconception in the engineering field- in any field, that you must know how to use something or play something.

In this case, playing guitar.

A lot of individuals think that you must know how to do that in order to build it.

A common, uh, analogy that I like to use is; the individuals that build the space shuttle.

They don't know how to fly the space shuttle.

But they can put the space shuttle together.

The STEM Guitar Project is highly accessible at all levels.

And in terms of requisite academic knowledge well take all comers.

So wherever you are, there are ways to make connections.

And so I wouldn't say you have to have had Physics 101 in order to be able to be successful at this course.

And that's the great thing about STEM Guitar, is it's scalable.

So whatever your audience is, you can take the materials that we provide and the process that we're showing and then make connections that are relevant to the students by saying, “here's an example in the guitar of X, Y, Z topic that we need to cover in class this week.” (music) If youre talking about math, science, social studies, we as educators have guidelines that we need to make sure students are, you know, hitting those guidelines at the end of the year, but students have a hard time seeing those- those goals and those aspirations that they need.

So it allowed me to build my other classes around this one model to make sure that students are understanding what they're learning.

When you see a student strum a guitar for the very first time that they built, like, you couldn't wipe the smile off their face with a, you know, with a fire hydrant.

Its just so amazing.

I think we try to tell people that come through the program that play guitar is, play with as many people as you can.

Get plugged in to where you can.

If you move to a new town and you can play guitar, you can find friends really quick.

If you can fix a guitar, you can find friends double quick.

We're about 15 to 17 years into the project.

The goal here is to continue to teach teachers, no matter whether we're grant funded or not.

We want to allow people to keep this thing rolling and going down the line, because it's such a great thing.

It's not just in Ohio, so if you're watching this from California or Florida, there's trainings potentially near you that you can come and take a part of.

I like knowing that my sphere of influence is larger than the small school that Im at.

I like seeing the pride on people's faces when they complete at this week here at Sinclair, as well as the students in my own classroom.

And in terms of the actual guitar process itself, I really like all the quieter aspects of it, like the fret work and working on the necks and everything to get the guitar to go from looking like an instrument to actually working like one.

(Doug playing guitar) Cool.

Building a guitar is not- it's not an everyday thing.

Its not- I don't want to say it's not simple, but if you pay attention, if you ask questions, then you'll be okay.

Every class at the end of the day, if you walk in with 10 fingers, you walk out with 10 fingers, it's a good day.

(door slams) (lively music)