Hopscotch: An Opera For the 21st Century A Documentary Presented by KCETlink/Artbound

By Sheryl Aronson

On Monday evening, July 11^th, KCETLink  Media group, in partnership with avant-garde opera company, The Industry, hosted a screening event for KCET and LinkTV’s acclaimed arts and culture series ARTBOUND and the episode Hopscotch: An Opera for the 21^st Century at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.  Michael Riley, KCETLink’s President/CEO and The Industry’s Founder/Artistic Director Yuval Sharon were joined by the cast and crew, as well as actress Kate Walsh (Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, Fargo), actress/singer Suzanne Guzman and KCET’s SoCal CONNECTED anchor Val Zavala.

Hopscotch hit Los Angeles November, 2015.  It consisted of 6 composer’s music, 126 cast members, and 24 moving cars, zigzagging throughout Los Angeles.  As a ticket buyer, you entered one car and experienced one chapter of the story.  Then you’d switch cars again and again for 90 minutes.  Although the audience members experienced a multitude of songs and different actors playing the same main characters, a single story was being told.

Yuval Sharon, Founder & Artistic Director, The Industry commented to TheHollywood360 about creating this ambitious artistic venture.  “It’s one of those things now looking back, it’s hard to believe we actually pulled it off.  It was a project that seemed so impossible to actually do.  The way it started was I tried to imagine a project that was so ridiculous and crazy that we’d never be able to pull it off… what about the artists and audience members moving around in cars?  The idea really stuck with me because it seemed like an exciting opportunity to explore something so Angeleno… something about this particular city that we experience everyday… driving, our neighborhoods, our city at large through a windshield of a car… thinking about the freedom that provides, but also sometimes the limitations.”

“I wanted to create an opera that would be about that exploration.”-Yuval Sharon

When asked about how the structuring of such an unusual idea was formed, Sharon replied, “One of the key ideas from the beginning is we wanted to create a piece that was multi-dimensional and a multiplicity of voices.  It wouldn’t be about just one voice that would tie everything together, but would be about the cacophonous range of musical voices.  Every time you entered the car, it would be a new composer’s music…it was always the same story but with a different set of musicians, instrumentalists and singers, so every stop felt like a new musical beginning. The whole concept came about with conversations with six different LA base composers.  Some were a little more Senior and for some this was one of their first major projects.  The idea that we could represent that diversity of viewpoint is what LA is all about, and to reflect that with the diversity of musical styles and musical ideas.”

An example of one of the musical numbers that took place in one of the cars was told to me by Ray McNamara, who played the character of Jamison.  Ray performs around Los Angeles as a percussionist and also teaches percussion at Cal State Channel Islands.  “ In the limo I played the pitched wine glasses.  I met with the composer before there was even the musical piece, and we sat in the limo playing discovery.  We tried different things.  We hit the seats, we hit our bodies, we tried chanting things.  I started playing on the glasses and realized that if we poured different amounts of alcohol in the glasses, I could connect the whole melody of the piece by playing on nine different glasses.  As we would drive water would splash out so I would have to retune them.  My character was Jamison…he was a mad scientist.  During the car ride I would add water…change water and keep doing that in my ten -minute route.”

One of the goals for Yuval Sharon and The Industry was to create a body of work that seeks to reinvent the operatic form.  He talked further about his ideas pertaining to the future of opera. “Opera is central to the mission of my company, The Industry, and to think about opera in an expanded way.  I don’t see opera as just an antique art form, but as an emerging art form, which means the artists today are thinking in interdisciplinary ways, the cross pollination of the artistic different genres. That’s what opera has always been.  So opera has this new possibility to speak to a new audience, but if that’s the case, it needs to be in English.  It needs to be brand new pieces that speak to the way we view and experience the world today.”

KCETLink Media Group’s President/CEO, Michael Riley conveyed the importance of Hopscotch and why the station wanted to make a documentary. “KCET is about celebrating arts and culture in Southern California.  Now, with Hopscotch, we’re so thrilled to air it and celebrate the rise of arts and culture here in our city.  It’s such a Renaissance time in LA, an exciting time where so much is happening here.  We’re thrilled to chronicle that and I think Hopscotch as an opera really defines what we’re trying to do.”

Actress Kate Walsh was thrilled to be seeing the documentary film Hopscotch. She has worked with KCET in many different capacities over the years.” I’m really excited about seeing Hopscotch…I know that the actors and the musicians went all over downtown and all these other places.  I love KCET’s ability to bring quality programming to audiences.  They are an amazing studio.  I did a “Get out to vote campaign” with them this year.  I’m super excited to be a part of anything they’re a part of.  Public access means having good content and good quality for everyone, especially in this day and age when you have to buy so much content.  KCET is giving us free and quality content, and that’s essential.”

Summing up the evening on the red carpet, Yuval Sharon expressed his appreciation to KCET’s continued support of The Industry’s creative projects.

“It took a whole documentary to explain what our project was.  It honors our work so greatly.  I really appreciate KCET for giving us such enormous amount of time.  Juan Devis, who was the producer at KCET said, ‘I really want to make a documentary on this project because I want more people to experience it beyond the audience that did get to see Hopscotch last Fall.’   The opera had sold out and had gotten so much press and attention.  But Juan was really interested in capturing the essence of the piece so more people could be inspired but what it was … we are really grateful for that.”

Next Tuesday, July 19^th, KCET will air Hopscotch: An Opera For the 21^st Century, at 9 p.m. in Southern California and 9 p.m. on ET/PT on Link TV Nationwide.

(Direc TV 375 and DISH NETWORK 9410)