>> JARED BOWEN: Welcome to Open Studio, WGBH's weekly spotlight on arts and culture from around the region and the nation.

I'm Jared Bowen.

Coming up on Open Studio, Boston's famed Hatch Shell is dazzling the winter sky.

>> I really tried to think about the Hatch Shell itself and think about its 80-year history.

And thinking about a bird's eye view on all of these incredible musicians playing in the shell.

>> BOWEN: Then ArtsEmerson charting theater's recovery.

>> I think this is a moment of change, Jared.

I think that people have seen themselves in a new light and many don't like what they've seen.

>> BOWEN: It's all now on Open Studio.

♪ ♪ First up, a team of artists have broken through this cold, pandemic winter to literally light up Boston's famed Hatch Shell-- normally the site of concerts on warm summer nights.

But for the next month, it'll have its own soundtrack and light show.

On a very cold January afternoon, a group of women is at work at Boston's Hatch Shell.

>> Okay, I think that makes sense.

>> BOWEN: In the dead of winter, the 80-year-old Art Deco landmark is, well, a shell of itself.

A far cry from the crowds who flock to the Charles River Esplanade every summer, when the amphitheater is home to concerts and, of course, the Boston Pops Fourth of July celebration.

(music playing) But now, for the first time in recent memory, the Hatch Shell will host a winter performance called Hatched, a show of music and illumination.

(music continues) >> It is so exciting to be working here.

I think it is a place that's so special in Boston.

It is beautiful.

>> BOWEN: Multimedia artist Maria Finkelmeier conceived the show, composing the music and designing the video projections that play nightly in 15-minute intervals.

(music playing) We met the team as they literally mapped out the projections square by Hatch Shell square.

>> When creating the work, I really tried to think about the Hatch Shell itself, and think about its 80-year history.

And thinking about a bird's eye view on all of these incredible musicians playing in the Shell, right?

What does it look like to see a violin bow, or a drum, or a marimba?

(music playing) And I wondered what those shapes would actually look like in the Shell.

So I really want you to feel like the Shell is making music for us, as opposed to us making music under the Shell.

(music playing with rhythmic clapping) >> BOWEN: A composer and percussionist who has branched out into the visual realms, Finkelmeier wrote the music, which her team of musicians recorded earlier this winter.

(violin playing) She wanted her composition to capture the sense of breaking through difficult times.

(violin continues) >> Really thinking about, what does it mean to break through?

What does it mean to, like, exude joy?

What is it going to feel like to hug my aunt I haven't seen in 18 months?

>> Upwards of half a million Americans are losing their lives through COVID-19-- we wanted something that was measured, somewhat somber at times, but also celebratory.

>> BOWEN: Michael Nichols is executive director of the Esplanade Association, a non-profit group celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

It works with the state to care for the park, and in recent years has shored up its mission to establish art on the Esplanade, like Hatched.

>> So we started thinking, "Wow, it's this dark expanse in the winter."

There's a real opportunity to bring light, beauty-- something of public interest to the Shell in the wintertime.

(music playing) >> BOWEN: Outside of Hatched, the Esplanade Association's public art program features a series of murals lining the park-- moments of joy for many people with barely anywhere else to go during the pandemic lockdown.

>> You actually can have this really tranquil experience of walking through the park and experiencing art, you know, as you go along the park.

>> BOWEN: Like the murals, Hatched can also be enjoyed with social distancing.

Visitors are invited to experience the performance from anywhere in the park by scanning QR codes and listening to its music on their phones.

>> I hope that people will pick a date in the next four weeks and put it on their calendar.

And I hope they will have anticipation.

Like, do you remember anticipation of going to something?!

Right?!

That looks good... >> BOWEN: What visitors won't hear, though, is the all-female-identifying team who led this effort, creating it in a matter of months, executing it deep into cold winter nights, and, as Maria Finkelmeier says, working free of male interference.

>> In the past, when working with a group of men in, in similar leadership roles, there's a lot of assumptions made about what I do.

>> BOWEN: Like what?

>> Like, they would assume that I was kind of in the background, or I didn't create the idea or the plan, or it didn't come from my brain, or I didn't figure out how to do it all.

And I think, for me, this is this really big emergence-- this is a hatching.

This is a breaking through something for all of us on the team, and we just want to create a moment of joy.

(music playing with rhythmic clapping) ♪ ♪ >> BOWEN: Next, ArtsEmerson is streaming its way through the first part of this year with shows like A Brimful of Asha, one of several upcoming productions.

Hilarious, it features a real-life mother and son in their real-life story about attempts to arrange his marriage.

>> What are you doing here?

>> Okay, keep it low.

>> No!

>> I'm going to...

Please!

>> I don't care!

What are you doing here?!

Why are you trapping me?

You wouldn't call me and tell me?

>> I didn't know anything.

>> What?

You just, you showed up with a bag on your head here, Mommy?

What the hell is going on?

>> Please... >> No, Mommy, I'm going downstairs right now.

I'm going to swear at the top of my lungs.

I'm going to tell them that this is (no audio), and that I had nothing to do with it, Mommy!

I don't want to marry these people!

>> No, you don't.

>> BOWEN: I recently spoke with the theater's executive director, David Howse, about A Brimful of Asha and more as he takes the reins of ArtsEmerson and sees a path to all of us seeing live theater again this year.

David Howse, thank you so much for being here, for actually being here.

And I just want to say for everybody who's watching, our crew here at GBH has been so careful for everything we see in our 12 feet of distance and things that we don't see to make sure that we can do this safely, but thank you for being here.

>> It's a pleasure to be here to talk with you in the flesh.

(chuckling) >> BOWEN: Well, let's talk about what you're doing right now.

You have sole leadership responsibilities now at ArtsEmerson, your longtime colleague-- if people have gone to ArtsEmerson, they know David Dower-- he's decamped to another job at the West Coast, on the West Coast.

Is this a nerve-racking time to be in this position or is it a fertile time?

>> I would say both-and, right?

So it is an incredibly challenging time for anyone trying to lead anything in this moment of pandemic.

You know, the, the disruption to business as usual, the disruption to our personal and both our professional lives, all comes into our lived experience.

And so that, in that sense, it's a challenge of how you predict when there's so much that's uncertain.

But the gift of the pandemic is that we have an opportunity of pause and, and reflecting to think about, what are the things that we hold dear that we want to bring through, and what are the things that we want to shift and change?

>> BOWEN: What do you see as the most substantial change coming out of this?

>> What I think is most substantial is the fact that we have learned that we can actually experience work onscreen or on the, in the digital platform that we never would have imagined.

>> He's mine!

He was mine!

>> So we've been able to pivot quite well to the digital platform, really supporting and investing in artists who are trying to imagine their work for this digital platform.

>> BOWEN: I know you've described this as a year of experimentation.

What does that mean?

What have you been doing?

>> There are a couple of things I mentioned earlier.

The digital, pivot to the digital platform is one area.

>> (speaking Chinese): >> What do people have the tolerance for?

What is the length of a show that people can actually sit through?

And that's going to inform how we're coming back into hopefully the fall, with this balance of both live and digital performing.

>> BOWEN: A question I'm frequently asked is, is when will we start to see everything that we're going through now reflected in the arts?

I used to think it was, it was a long time.

It was a long lag time, a long time of thinking and gestation before people could tackle it.

I'm not so sure that's the case now.

Do you think we'll see this immediately?

>> I think we will see it immediately.

But it's been happening and people will see it anew.

So this work-- artists have always been at the forefront of telling us who we are as a society.

They've always challenged us and put stories in front of us that just reveal who we are.

Now people will pay different kinds of attention to those artists who have often-- particularly artists of color, and often female artists, from the artists who have disabilities-- have been marginalized in a way that their voices weren't privileged.

And what we're seeing now is much more interest, a deeper curiosity about what stories need to evolve from those various communities.

(piano playing) Hopefully more mainstage theaters, more of our colleagues will be putting that work upfront, but not only putting the work upfront, but making the changes internally that reflect the urgency of now.

>> BOWEN: Well, you just used a key word there, which is, you hope they'll do that.

And I wonder, will this be sustained?

>> Well, you know, the pendulum swings in, in, you know, the way that we live as a society.

And I know that we've moved all the way in one direction.

It will eventually find its sort of equilibrium.

But my hope is that we will remember this moment and take it with us.

I think this is a moment of change, Jared.

I think that people have seen themselves in a new light and many don't like what they've seen.

And they're eager to attach, connect with experiences that help them understand how to do better and how to be better in the world.

>> BOWEN: You have a couple of great shows coming up.

Tell me about Julia, which is not for all audiences.

This is a very adult show.

>> Julia is a show for a mature audience.

It is a wonderful adaptation of August Strindberg's 19th-century classic Miss Julie.

The story is layered, it's complicated, the story that really navigates class and gender dominance.

>> BOWEN: And tell me about this other piece you have coming up that I've had the fortune to watch.

This is complete opposite end of the spectrum.

I'm not sure that I've laughed so much during the pandemic as when I watched A Brimful of Asha.

This is a mother and son-- real-life mother and son.

The mother is not an actor, which I think is stellar here.

>> Yes.

>> Then there's her uncle, who's the middleman of this whole thing.

Now, the middleman has actually become a profession in India of these people who make matches, and then they'll get a percentage of the dowry.

So this guy is a very serious dude.

He is in it to win it.

He is not messing around.

(audience laughter) >> It's very funny.

And it's a very human story that we've all experienced.

Ravi Jain is the artistic director of Why Not Theatre out of Canada, and he is in a very candid conversation with his mother, Asha.

And though they come from the same blood, they're mother and son, they come from two different worlds.

And we see this sort of culture clash, Ravi being of Indian descent, but born in Canada and raised in Canada, his mother, Asha, coming from India.

And so they sit at the table, and it's really a mother's hopes for the best for her son.

And she and her husband will go to any lengths to ensure that success.

So we, what we see... >> BOWEN: To get him married.

>> To get him married, that's right... >> BOWEN: To let your parents decide who you should marry.

>> But we've all been across the dinner table with family members who are trying to get us to go in the right direction-- their thoughts of what the right direction is.

But it's a real love affair between mother and son.

And it's just so delightful.

And as you say, happy, uplifting, very resonant story for our time.

>> BOWEN: Well, I love it, because as we probably also know, our parents don't have a filter at the dining room table, and she doesn't seem to have one here in front of a large audience, too.

It's great.

Before I let you go, I just have to ask.

In early January, Dr. Fauci said that he expects that audiences can return to theaters in productions, maybe with masks, but we can all gather again in the fall.

Is that something we can see happening with ArtsEmerson?

>> When he made that comment, I was very hopeful, but I'm wary and I'm still planning for it.

We have nothing but hope to hold onto.

And as long as we're following the rules, the guidelines, I think we'll make it back into the theater where we can once again experience the transformative power of coming together in a shared experience of art.

>> BOWEN: Well, thank you again so much for being here.

>> It's my pleasure.

♪ ♪ >> BOWEN: Audra McDonald as Blanche DuBois?

One of the greats taking on one of the great roles-- it's a highlight of Arts This Week.

♪ ♪ Write all you want, but sometimes it's a picture or even a cartoon that sends the message.

Sunday, see Who Counts?, a look at voter rights through political cartoons online at the Massachusetts Historical Society.

>> (shouting) >> BOWEN: Monday marks the premiere of The Misfits 60 years ago.

Arthur Miller's Western about aging cowboys was the twilight for its stars, too.

It was the final film for both Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable.

>> I don't feel that way about you, Gay.

>> BOWEN: Last summer, for the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the shows couldn't go on.

But they have gone to Audible.

>> I've gotta keep ahold of myself.

>> BOWEN: Wednesday, listen to A Streetcar Named Desire starring Audra McDonald.

>> Stella!

I couldn't stand that!

>> BOWEN: Thursday, visit the Cape Ann Museum for a special exhibition examining the legacy of Judith Sargent Murray, a Gloucester native who argued passionately for equality in the 1700s.

Step into nature as imagined by artist Susan Swinand Friday.

The Worcester Art Museum show presents the painter in all her creativity, curiosity, and even humor.

Next, if you'll admit to it, you might know John Waters from his films like Hairspray or Pink Flamingos.

Or, more recently, from his books.

But all along, he's been making museum-quality art-- as we find at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio.

♪ ♪ >> John Waters is someone who the Wexner Center's been friendly with since 1999.

He was here in his guise as a filmmaker.

I heard, I knew vaguely that he also was kind of venturing into the art world as a visual artist.

>> Yeah, a lot of my fans have no idea I do this, and I very purposely kept it separate.

♪ ♪ >> And he's very modest about the very kind of lowbrow, low-tech means of production.

And it's very much all about telling stories.

>> I'm, I'm trying to kind of discover all the stuff-- the insider jokes of what can go wrong in show business, the art world, and editing, and mistakes.

You know, I started by just taking pictures off the TV screen.

You can't get lower-tech than that.

♪ ♪ >> He's always said he's, he works from the aesthetic of a fan.

He only makes work about things he likes, but the things he likes are the things he makes, likes making fun of, which are movies, the art world, celebrities, gossip, things like that.

>> I do make fun of celebrity art.

I hate it, too.

Justin, who I met and like, and he drew on my mustache once when he was in London.

This is in L.A., people start getting facelifts when they're really young, and I try to imagine, "Why would you do that?"

'Cause they all just look like surprised aliens.

They don't look old, though.

Joan Rivers didn't look old.

She looked... bizarre, but she didn't look old.

But why would you want to look like that when you're 20?

That's, like, really scary, I think.

♪ ♪ The only mean-spirited one here at all is not that mean, is the one that just says "Starring Melissa Rivers."

Now, there has never been that shot.

That's made up.

Because that would mean she would have top billing, and that has not happened yet.

But I like to imagine that movie.

Sort of.

(chuckles) The scariest piece in the whole thing is called 9/11, but all it is, it's the shots of the most forgotten movies-- Dr. Dolittle 2, A Knight's Tale.

Those were the movies that were playing on the planes on 9/11, but they never got to even put them in, so they would've been seen.

So that's at least positive they weren't watching them.

So, that's what I'm always trying to do, to get you to look at something in a completely different way.

♪ ♪ The first thing I always do is, what would make me laugh?

>> His kind of breakthrough film was called Pink Flamingos.

And it was kind of notorious for how, what bad taste it was in.

And a couple of years ago, he, he gathered a group of children in Beverly Hills and did a table reading by children of the script of Pink Flamingos.

So that's in the show.

>> Well, there's one whole series I did called Marks, which is, when I was making a film called Pecker, I noticed that, every day in every movie, the crew puts down tape marks right before you do a shot, where the actor has to hit that to stay in focus.

You never see them in a movie, because the camera cuts off there.

So I, when everybody cleared the set, before we moved on, I saw them there and realized they were drawings, basically, that someone did for me without knowing.

So, I started photographing them.

So, they were movie stills that what was in it was the only thing that can't be in a movie still.

Can art be funny?

We all know contemporary art is witty, but can it be funny?

And I have a piece that sort of satirizes some museums, that when they have a collector that they're... what they lend, the piece is so valuable, they put an insurance tape on it.

So, if you get near it, it goes (buzzes) or something, you get too near it.

Well, mine squirts you in the face.

♪ ♪ There's one that says "contemporary art hates you."

It does.

It hates the right people.

"My kid should've done that."

Well, stupid, they should've, then, 'cause it just sold for eight million dollars-- who's the fool?

I'm seeing them hanging the show, and everybody has on gloves and stuff, moving this thing I had in my house that had been thrown in a closet.

(laughing): You know, so, I find that delightful.

I make fun of it with love, because I think it's great that it's somehow-- it's magic that that thing that I found at a thrift shop, I finally did it here.

It sold in a gallery and now it's in a museum?

That's a magic trick, but I, I'm proud and I planned it.

And I think the reason I do get away with it is 'cause I make fun of the things I like.

If you like my movies, you'll like this.

I mean, it's the same kind of humor, it's just a different way for me to tell stories, I think, hopefully.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> BOWEN: Artist Roy Lichtenstein knew how to get ahead.

A major figure in the Pop Art movement, he's also celebrated for his Modern Head sculptures.

Here we find one of the monumental pieces as it was installed on the campus of Ohio State University in Columbus before the pandemic.

♪ ♪ >> It's a little different than most other sculptures that we've done for the Lichtensteins.

It's about 31 feet tall.

Weighs in-- we believe it's going to be about 5,000 pounds.

♪ ♪ It's-- I mean, it's the most fun thing I've ever done.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> Roy Lichtenstein became first known as a pop artist.

And these pop artists came from the word popular artists, but they were using popular subject matter in a kind of a critique or an alternative to a very painterly style of Abstract Expressionism for the 1950s.

>> Well, Roy was a very dedicated artist.

I mean, he fell in love with art when he was a young boy.

And when it came time for him to go to university, he wanted to be able to study art.

And at that time, there were really only a handful of colleges where you could get a degree in art.

Studio art.

And Ohio State University was one of them.

>> Well, you know, we're proud to count Roy Lichtenstein as a double alumnus of the university.

Back in the '40s, he achieved both his bachelor's and master's degree here in fine arts, and was part of our teaching faculty for some time following that.

>> And Roy always held Ohio State University in high regard because of this experience he had here in the art school.

>> In more recent years, the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation has actually been looking for ways that they could continue to engage with the university.

And so, it's really through the foundation that we have this tremendous opportunity to actually be considered as the location for something as amazing as this Modern Head sculpture.

♪ ♪ >> The Modern Head sculpture, we figured we could build one.

To do a memorial, non-commercial cast of an edition that used to be of four.

We decided to make one more edition to it.

This is a posthumous edition.

And that it would be donated to the university in Roy's memory.

>> I mean, we wouldn't really dare make anything new.

(chuckling) In fact, we got the plans from the original producer of the piece.

And we worked with a fabricator that Roy had worked with on many of his pieces, Paul Amaral.

♪ ♪ >> We're in Rhode Island on the East Bay, just a little bit east of Downtown Providence, Rhode Island.

And we're ready to build the Lichtenstein sculpture.

This one had been built before by other fabricators.

That was the challenge, to build it from other people's drawings and design parameters.

The input information that I got was analog hand-drawn pieces from the early '80s.

So we had to correct all that stuff and get it right so that we could have complete faith in the computer file to produce a piece that is the shape that Roy intended.

Everybody started feeling really confident towards the end, when we started producing small-scale versions out of a water jet or a laser machine, and everything lined up and matched, and did what it was supposed to do.

>> The sculptures of Roy Lichtenstein are often thought of as very technical, almost scientific in nature.

And so when folks from the foundation came and walked across campus, they found this space in the North Campus area that actually aligns not only with where we're enhancing our arts district, but also provides this really amazing synergy with some of our science buildings, particularly Smith and McPherson labs.

>> Which actually is closer to Roy's personal interests.

Roy was an engineer.

He was a draftsman.

He worked in engineering companies.

He liked making mechanical things by himself, anyway.

>> I mean, the whole purpose of art is really to engage people in thinking about imagery, what it means.

So I'm curious.

I'll be very curious to see how the students at O.S.U.

deal with this.

What they wonder about it.

>> So I want to thank everyone in Ohio for making this as a good opportunity for us to have a work here that could be provocative for the tens of thousands of students who will be passing by it.

It's just a nice opportunity to maintain a relationship.

♪ ♪ >> BOWEN: And that is all for this edition of Open Studio.

Next week, we go birding with birdwatcher and illustrator David Allen Sibley.

Until then, I'm Jared Bowen, thanks for joining us.

And as always, you can visit us online at GBH.org/OpenStudio.

And you can follow us on Instagram and Twitter, @OpenStudioGBH.

♪ ♪