- [Narrator] Production of Applause, an Ideastream Public Media is made possible by the John P. Murphy Foundation, The Kulas Foundation, and by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - [David] Coming up, Ohio's first Spanish-speaking theater company is feeling quite at home inside its new space.

Plus, an underground tunnel beneath a Civil War monument opens to the public.

And Columbus musicians are taking pride in themselves and their music.

(upbeat music) Welcome back to Applause.

I'm Ideastream Public Media's David C. Barnett.

Cleveland's LatinUs Theater Company began in 2018 as Ohio's first Spanish-language theater troop.

Today, it's thriving inside the Pivot Center along West 25th Street with its own black box theater space.

(latin music) - LatinUs Theater Company started in 2018 when, you know, myself and another group of people got together and, you know, decided to finally make our own company, Latino Hispanic Company Theater in Cleveland.

And, you know, we were talking, we said, well it's gonna be the first one, a hundred percent Latino, you know, in, in Ohio actually.

- This theater is in the heart of a very predominantly Latino community.

You know, this has been known as a lot of things, but it's always been home to a large Puerto Rican, Caribbean population.

And so, you know, to have a theater right here in like the middle of all of that, it's been awesome, you know because the people that come here, it's really cool when you can give them a show in their language.

(speaking Spanish) - So we started doing really, I think one show per year.

We have been growing up and now, we are doing three shows per season.

And we have our big show on September, October.

This is when we celebrate the month of the Hispanic heritage.

And the symbol of actors, you know, varies and, but stable I would say maybe, we are four or five actors, but it's kind of hard to find people that speak Spanish because all our shows are in Spanish.

- I'm graduated from the High School of Art in Havana, Cuba.

I'm Cuban.

And when Sandal called me, I was in my native town in Cienfuegos and he said, I'm inviting you to come over to Cleveland to act in a play.

And I asked in the winter?

It's gonna be cold.

He say, yeah, well.

- I'm a professor at Ken State University in the Department of Mathematics, and I did theater for a while as a young man back in Venezuela where I grew up.

And when the opportunity came up, and Monica asked me to participate.

When I get the chance, I like to participate, and it's a lot of fun.

- Rick Foran, who is the owner of the Pivot Center, he was very gracious and invited us to the space.

In the radio, we were having this interview by a program for NPR.

It was made on the Happy Dog Restaurant.

And in there they asked me what Latinos needed, really, to continue growing.

And I said, "Well, we need our own space because right now, we are just going all over Cleveland and it's very hard to be a traveling company and moving everything, set and people and everything that is needed to a different places, different colleges where we were presenting."

So Rick Foran heard that interview on the radio and the next day he offered me the space of the Black Box Theater here in the building on the first floor.

It had been a bunch of people helping us, you know, giving the support, believing in our work, giving us the money, the foundation, Cleveland Foundation, Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, a couple other mores that have been adding to our list to be able to have our dream come true.

- You see a lot of American people coming to see the show, using the caption, the subtitles.

And I'm happy about that, because in Miami it's more, in my experience, it's more separated.

It's not like this.

I see a lot of American coming to see the show which is very nice.

And of course, Latin people.

- Here in the middle of a neighborhood that is a very well established neighborhood with many Puerto Rican people and people from other parts of Latin America, the public that we get is very diverse.

So we get many people that are professionals that have come from anywhere in Latin America, but we also get people from the community.

And so far it's been a great experience.

- This play that we are showing right now, Gloria, is not what we used to present.

We like to bring classical theater from our Latin America and even from Spain that have, you know, a theme that have a purpose, that have in between lines, something to tell about our story about, you know South American countries that have suffering from this government who have been ruling like dictator.

They have been dictators and how people have suffered.

- So far we have I think the 11 plays that we have done and, we have been in this space, the Black Box, during the last two years, you know, so and then slowly, you know, as the company keep growing, I start learning that there were things that were complicated for us to keep up, you know.

- Even though, you know, it is a small theater, we have a small budget compared with other theaters and we are really new, five years only.

We pay everybody.

We pay the actors, we pay the technicians, we pay everybody.

- I'm not an actor.

I'm a gastroenterologist, you know so they needed one actor to play a small role.

That is the one that I accepted to take, you know.

This is my first time as you say, and most likely it's gonna be the last one.

But I really enjoyed being with this fantastic group of actors.

You know, I learned a lot from the director, from the team, you know, so, it was fun to be in the other side of a play.

(latin music plays) - [David C. Barnett] From West 25th Street, we head over to Public Square.

The Soldiers and Sailors Monument is a prominent fixture in downtown Cleveland.

While open to visitors year round, one area of the monument is only available to explore during its annual tunnel tours.

- Hi, my name is Greg Palumbo.

I am the executive director of the Cuyahoga County Soldiers and Sailors Monument.

We are a monument to civil war veterans.

We were dedicated July 4th, 1894, almost 30 years after the Civil War.

(mysterious music) Underneath the monument we have tunnels.

(mysterious music) People often ask us, are they connected to other tunnels?

Where can I go to with those tunnels?

What were they used for?

Why are they there?

We open the tunnels once a year and we call those our tunnel tours.

I think why people really like the tunnels is it's first, something you don't get to see all the time.

The tunnels were actually built in the construction of the monument and they only go around the base of the monument.

So follow me, it's very tight.

So this is the entrance to the tunnels.

As you come through, you'll see low archways.

Gotta make sure that we duck.

As we come through, we've run into our first statue.

So this is the statue on our east side, the artillery statue.

We have two types of tunnels that run underneath the monument.

Under the outside, that we have tunnels that hold up the decking, and they're made of archways and walls.

So we have walls and then the arch holds up every seam of the big stone slabs that make up our, what we we call the upper esplanade.

So we have those that make these concentric circles around the outside of the monument.

And then we have, what's called, we call our inner tunnels.

And they're made of barrel vaults, of that's a Roman style vault that is an archway, that pushes onto a thin wall that pushes onto the next archway.

And that holds up everything we see on the inside of the monument.

This is the side of the statuary which if you went to pace it off, is a lot larger than the statue itself.

It's holding up not only the statue, but the edge of the decking next to the statue.

(mysterious music) So we get a lot of those questions.

Was it part of the Underground Railroad?

No, the Underground Railroad was during the Civil War and we were built about 30 years after.

There's also all kinds of ghost stories that we've never really been able to have anything that would relate to that.

This is one of the mysteries in the tunnel.

This is the ladder to nowhere.

It may have been used during the construction of the monument before the decking was actually put on so that guys could get up and down from this point.

It also may have been used instead of our steps which we feel were added a little bit later.

It is rusting away slowly, but we're not really sure.

If you can tell us why it's there, we'd love to know.

So that's a lot of the intrigue as to getting down in there to see something that people don't normally get to see.

A lot of those different myths or legends, those are the things that draw people in.

And then we hope that they'll learn a little bit about the engineering of the monument and a little bit about what we're here to honor, which are our men on the walls.

(mysterious music) - [David C. Barnett] If you'd like to head underground yourself, this year's tunnel tours take place April 29th and 30th.

In the heart of downtown Canton, inspiration and creativity flow freely among these talented artists.

On the next Applause, visit Silo Arts Studio, a collective, providing artistic opportunities for adults with disabilities.

Plus, Ukrainian artistry is celebrating the Easter season in an exhibit of exquisite eggs in Tremont.

And a longtime friend of the Cleveland Orchestra, returns to perform a French masterpiece by Claude Debussy.

All this and more, on the next round of Applause.

(orchestral music) Licking county artist Deborah Joyce Dawson, has been described as someone who paints the looser side of realism.

From her own backyard, to halfway around the world, she loves to paint outside as a plein air artist.

(upbeat music) - Being a plein air artist for me means, taking my equipment outside, and observing light falling en forme.

First of all, you gotta learn your gear, and then you gotta keep it packed up and ready to go.

And then when the mood strikes, or even if the mood doesn't strike, it's in your car.

You go or you might walk out in your backyard and you get it all out and you observe the light that's falling en forme is what it is for me.

That's why I do it.

I'm primarily an oil painter, since I was 11 years old, but I love drawing.

So all types of drawing, and all different drawing media.

I love working from the figure.

I like working from primarily from life.

I hate painting from photos, but I do do it.

It's a necessity at times.

And I have my sketchbook with me all the time.

I have watercolors in my purse and when I have a chance they're out and I'm drawing people and bars or in restaurants.

When I was young, there was a guy on TV named John Gnagy.

He was a charcoal artist and on Saturday mornings, you could watch him create a drawing.

And I went to my local Woolworths, saved up my allowance, and bought his charcoal set and I started to draw on charcoal.

And then when I got to be 11, I asked Santa Claus for oil paints and miraculously they came.

I have some friends that like to travel and so we get together and we'll go to France or we'll go to England or we'll go to other places and paint.

My local landscape has changed so much that I have to go further and further to find things.

But I do like trying to capture old barns and things that are disappearing and they're rapidly disappearing in my area.

And Wolf Kahn said that was America's Cathedral and I do believe he is right.

(upbeat music) This is a series of stuff based on the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland.

I've painted there three times and these two works were created at the Cliffs of Moher this summer.

I did this eight by ten, plein air sketch at eight o'clock in the morning.

And then I went to put my equipment away, and I turned around and I saw that and I said, "I'm gonna try that."

So I tried that and I wasn't that happy with it.

But instead I looked back after doing that, I looked back at that and I saw a totally different quality of light falling on the cliff.

So I'm an average sketchbook person so, there's the sketch for that little painting.

And this is the second sketch I did at 10:00 AM.

So I painted that for about an hour and a half, starting at eight o'clock.

And now here's the sketch with a different light and sky condition.

And then we probably went away and had coffee and I said well I just wanna see them one more time, before I leave.

And so I came back and the light had dramatically changed.

I started this little sketch at 1:45 in the afternoon and now the sun, it's facing west, so the sun was now on the other side and threw everything into darkness.

So I started drawing this at 1:45 and I ended at 2:10.

I made some notes knowing that I was seeing colors that the camera was never gonna pick up.

I just made some field notes here.

And then last night I printed out a photograph of that same quality of light.

The values are pretty much the same as the drawing but the color is nowhere representative of what I wrote down for my colors.

So this morning I thought, you know I'm just gonna pull out my little watercolors there and see if I can put down some color that I marked and see if what it looks like as a painting before I would ever maybe try to do that in oil, especially on a big painting.

(relaxing music) When I work, I just feel better inside.

There must be something in here that's trying to come out that I can express.

Doesn't mean I'm calm when I'm doing it, you know.

But it's making the journey from just getting out there and then deciding what to paint.

- [David C. Barnett] We've just been painting outside.

How about some outdoor music making?

In the heart of the state capitol, beats the sound of the Columbus Pride bands, which are as much about friendship as they are about musicianship.

It's a diverse group of players ranging from folks with music degrees, to others who haven't picked up an instrument since high school.

- I'm Robert Davis, I am the artistic director of the Columbus Pride Bands.

We're an LGBTQ+ organization but our members are all colors and stripes and types and belief systems.

And that's one of the things that makes the group really wonderful.

And it brings a lot of people in who might consider us over a maybe similar community band elsewhere in Columbus.

- I'm Jacob Lowry and I've been in Columbus Pride Bands for going on seven years now.

It's unlike any community I've ever had because we've all dealt with different hard times the ups and downs, we have different interests, backgrounds, and it's just like, it's a whole other world of like networking, potential friendships, family and it's, I just really, I have a hard time putting into words just like how much I love this band.

It's a really big deal for me because I mean I grew up in a very small town.

I didn't come out until I went away to college.

- The anti-bullying mission of the Columbus Pride Bands is one of our big ideas, if you will, for the group.

You know, the group is is of course a community band but being an LGBTQ+ centered organization, bullying has been such a struggle for members of the LGBTQ+ community for ages.

And several years ago as that came more to the forefront of the national discourse on kindness and LGBTQ safety in schools and in general public, the group really took that on as something that we care about and want to play a role in helping combat bullying.

- The ribbons for me in a way are a very exciting way to welcome new members.

I'm a co-section leader for the low brass and getting to give those ribbons out to the new members is a new way of saying, hey you're here with us, we're family.

We're here for you no matter what.

- Having like the little ribbon is so nice because it makes it such a safe space because frankly I am a lesbian who went to high school in the middle of the Georgia Bible Belt and I was the only out person at my school and it was really, really rough.

Like I did get bullied quite a lot just for being out and comfortable with myself.

- Our motto is uplifting our community through music and we really try to do that.

We uplift our own community from within the band with the music that we play and by just getting to make music together which is such a wonderful experience in and of itself.

We perform around the community, whether it's in queer spaces or not around Columbus because we want to be available to the Columbus and central Ohio community as a broad space as well.

You have thousands of high school band kids that are members of fantastic music programs throughout the state and throughout the country.

And many of them need a way and place to continue playing without, necessarily, being a professional musician.

And I think community bands all around the country provide that for people.

Band is inherently a welcoming place.

You'll see that in any band room around the country, which is really great.

So I think the musical mission of the group as an avenue for our folks to continue doing that is really important.

And then also the queer identity of the group creates a different sense of community within the band as a part of the LGBTQ+ community.

And community is what it's all about.

(band music) - When I first started with the band, like I was 20, 21.

I had just moved up to Columbus.

I didn't really know anybody besides like a couple of people.

It was just so nice because I am not the most outgoing person there.

I'm not really good at making friends 'cause I like tend to just like stay in my own little bubble.

So I'm not really comfortable with getting out there.

So it was kind of like a built in like immediate like family, like friend group out of the gate and they were all super welcoming.

- So, my fiance and soon-to-be husband is actually, sorry, is actually in the band as well.

And we met in 2018 after a concert and we found out we shared a lot of common interests and lo and behold, here we are.

- I think that's the biggest thing is, is that this it is a band, but it's so much more than just that to the folks who are in the group.

And we hope that our audience sees that by the way we play together by the way we socialize together and the camaraderie that we have.

- If you haven't played an instrument in over 15 years, we won't judge you.

Come join us, you'll learn and grow with us because a lot of us are in that same boat.

So we're just a pretty fun group of people.

(xylophone plays) - [David C. Barnett] Growing up in Geauga County, Melanie May became a big fan of country crooners like Loretta Lynn, Vince Gill, and Dolly Parton.

Her grandma gave her a guitar she taught herself how to play and soon, May started writing songs emulating her country music heroes.

A few years ago Melanie May stopped by our Idea Center Studios to perform music from her album Reckless.

♪ If you were raised like me, you got a little long ♪ ♪ Growin' in your cut-off jeans ♪ ♪ Drink straight from the bottle ♪ ♪ Got a red hangin' out of your mouth ♪ ♪ I grew up and be air free ♪ ♪ I got a little drunk when I was sixteen ♪ ♪ About to introduce a dyin' breed ♪ ♪ Kick up country ♪ ♪ Raise 'em up, shoot that shot ♪ ♪ Live a little Hank from what you're wrought, oh ♪ ♪ So giddy up, take a little hell, yeah ♪ ♪ We ain't lettin' you inside me ♪ ♪ These words are what I bleed ♪ ♪ Get on your feet and help me ♪ ♪ Kick up country ♪ (guitar solo) ♪ I work more than a 9-to-5 ♪ ♪ Burnin' a candle at both ends to stay alive ♪ ♪ Just to put food on the table and pay the rent ♪ ♪ It's alright if you unwind, a little coke ♪ ♪ With a Jack and old moonshine ♪ ♪ 'Cause you bust your ass to play that catch, yeah ♪ ♪ Kick up country ♪ ♪ Raise 'em up, shoot that shot ♪ ♪ Live a little Hank from what you've wrought, oh ♪ ♪ Giddy up, take a little hell, yeah ♪ ♪ We ain't lettin' you inside me ♪ ♪ These words are what I bleed ♪ ♪ Get on your feet and help me ♪ ♪ Kick up country ♪ (guitar solo) ♪ Raise 'em up, shoot that shot ♪ ♪ Live a little Hank from what you've wrought, oh ♪ ♪ Giddy up, take a little hell, yeah ♪ - [David C. Barnett] You can watch Melanie May's appearance on Applause Performances in its entirety by logging onto the PBS app.

Thanks for watching.

We hope you enjoyed our show.

I'm Ideastream Public Media's David C. Barnett inviting you to pay us another visit for the next round of applause.

(guitar playing) (guitar playing ends) (outro music) - Production of Applause on Ideastream Public Media is made possible by the John P. Murphy Foundation, the Kulas Foundation, and by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.