Arts Alive San Antonio

While visual and performing arts venues remain closed, arts organizations are coming up with more ideas on how to reach their audiences and help the artists who have lost income due to cancellations.

Just last week, we told you about San Antonio Airport’s project designed to help local musicians with a series of performances from their homes, with shows happening every day in April. And now, an even broader relief program is being organized by several entities: Texas Public Radio, the Luminaria Artist Foundation, NOWCastSA and the Lonesome Rose club, whose owner is country singer Garret T. Capps, the man who conceived the entire undertaking.

The idea is to organize a telethon of performances and gallery tours to benefit the Corona Arts Relief Program. Earlier this year, Luminaria and the City of San Antonio created a fund with the same goal of helping struggling artists whose performances and exhibits had been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The fund helped 45 individuals but quickly ran out of money, said Luminaria’s executive director Kathy Armstrong. The city is not involved with the new project dubbed VIVA San Antonio! and scheduled for May 9.

At present, artists who would like to participate in the telethon are invited to submit videos of their work – in dance, music, theater, visual disciplines, spoken word, comedy, etc. – to Texas Public Radio by May 1. To apply go to https://forms.gle/gYyVqo9Gjs3aFhQe9. Video submissions should be a minimum of 90 seconds and a maximum of 15 minutes.

The telethon will be streamed on www.tpr.org, Facebook Live and YouTube. Donations are expected. The event will be hosted by Capps from the Lonesome Rose.

The focus is slightly different this time, said Armstrong. Financial assistance will be given first to economically disadvantaged artists. Of course, how much gets collected depends on the generosity of the viewers.

And here’s something that may help some artists in the recording of their videos. Charlotte-Anne Lucas, the executive director of NOWCastSA and a tech wiz, kind of promised to quickly put together a list of tips on “how not to make your video suck.” Look for it in the next few days on NOWCastSA.com.

Applications for funding should not be submitted until after the VIVA San Antonio! Event.

Opera San Antonio, whose much anticipated production of “Rigoletto” had to be cancelled, has started its own relief fund for all the artists who will not get paid, including the singers, musicians and behind-the scenes staff. OSA is still a young organization that only recently named a permanent leadership team, so it is counting on opera fans – and all music lovers – to donate to the fund. That can be as little as $25 to…, well, that’s up to you. www.operasa.org

In the meantime, general & artistic director E. Loren Meeker has launched a number of initiatives to keep opera in your life. Every Friday at noon you can watch “Beyond the Production,” a conversation series with artists who create opera productions. Tomorrow’s segment will feature San Antonio native Rene Barbera.  https://www.facebook.com/OperaSanAntonio/

To enjoy some excellent live performances, you can subscribe to OSA’s newsletter or, again, catch them on Facebook. We recently listened to Bill McMurray sing the moving “Bring Him Home” song from “Les Mis.”  (More about Opera San Antonio coming soon)

There’s good news for lovers of mariachi music as well. Some members of the top performing ensemble, the Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan, are now offering online private lessons to mariachi musicians and aspiring musicians. The lessons are mostly in Spanish. To see the list of musicians offering lessons go to www.mariachimusic.com/blog/ where you can also find other mariachi-related news.

The Public Theater of San Antonio “is thrilled to announce” its own new classes for kids and adults, all virtual, of course. The youth classes cover topics such as musical theater dance technique, costume design, acting technique and audition preparation. In addition, there will be programs for adults, including Meet the Artist events, the first of which will be a conversation with David Nanny, who is the theater arts supervisor for NISD. You can also visit with the Public’s staff, starting with CEO/artistic director George Green.

The Encore Lounge will be busy, too. Appearing Friday will be Emily Villareal, a mezzo-soprano singer who was cast in the Public’s production of “Bright Star” that had to be canceled. On Saturday it’s the turn of Tregoney Shepard, a New York-based performer who has appeared in many famous shows. On Sunday, the Lounge will feature Gabe Carlton, also a seasoned musical theater performer.

Some events are free, some have a charge and some will accept donations. To see the list of offerings go to www.thepublicsa.org/bypublicdemand

Adult classes will be offered by the Woodlawn Theater, too, starting May 4. You will be able to choose between jazz, tap, intro to dance and musical theater repertoire. They know dancing at this place! All classes offered via Zoom. Registration begins April 24.

We’ll leave you now with a great video from “On Your Feet,” the show the Woodlawn was about to open just when the ban on large gatherings was announced. The company put a lot of effort and energy into it. Here’s the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2SuDwP8m50