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[0:08] Laquita Mitchell: Welcome to Token Theatre Friends. I'm so happy to be talking to you today. Can we get started by having you talk a little bit about what Lesson Plan is?

[0:23] Laquita Mitchell: Thank you so much for having me, Jose. Again, my name is Laquita Mitchell, and I'm a part of On Site Opera's Lesson Plan. Lesson Plan is a piece that has been written by Rachel Peterson, and it's based on the Telemann opera, Der Schulmeister, I believe. It's basically some of the music from Telemann interspersed with the music that's written by Rachel Peterson. So she was working from two spaces. The story is about a wonderful operatic diva who is a bit unhappy, who comes to a school in the middle of nowhere, I guess, Middletown, Indiana, and gives a masterclass on voice and singing. I am the liberal arts administrator, and I am the facilitator, the person that helps to facilitate this virtual masterclass.

What turns out in the end is these two women getting to learn a bit about each other and getting to understand that there are reasons for people to stay in their hometowns, and there are reasons for people to leave. And they're both mutually respectable and okay. It's been a blast getting to know the music, and it's been absolutely wonderful to work with the entire staff: Bethany Blythe, our conductor, Jeff McDonald, obviously Eric Einhorn, who is the general director of On Site Opera. It's also been a bit of a learning curve for all of us because we are doing this opera via Zoom. The technology behind it requires a lot of patience because you are waiting for your pieces to be synced and making sure that everything is lining up.

It's rather daunting. One has to have a lot of patience, and I'm not always very patient. But it's been incredible to work in this sort of medium. I can imagine that when Eric Einhorn decided to do this online opera, he thought to himself that the online stuff is probably okay because everyone is coming out of quarantine. Everyone's going to shows, and that still is the case in New York City, obviously not as much. But I think that the Zoom opera is perfect, especially for this time now, unfortunately for our city that's still dealing with the surge of Omicron. So it's at home, and you just load it up, and you're able to watch this live opera at home.

[3:32] Laquita Mitchell: You have performed all over the world, and so it's like the grand temples of opera and the grand temples of music, so to speak. I wonder what's it like for you as a performer? You know, like when you go to the opera, you're often told to be quiet, to shh, you know, like you're here to bask in the glorious music. In Lesson Plan, for instance, there's an element of interactivity with the people who are going to be watching. So what's that like then for you as an opera singer?

[4:04] Laquita Mitchell: Well, I think it's actually a wonderful way to interact with the audience in a wonderful way. Energy is real, and you can feel the energy through any medium. When you're on stage singing in a symphony stage or an opera stage or in a church or at a big meeting or in a big hall, you can feel the energy from the audience. So for Lesson Plan, we obviously won't necessarily see everyone, but we can totally understand and vibe off of what energy we receive through the chat and things of that nature. I think it's going to be very interesting. Although it will not be the same as standing on a stage and emoting in front of a huge audience, I think it will be an exercise for myself and for my colleague, the great Stephanie Blythe.

It will be an exercise for us to constantly stay within ourselves, stay within the character, and bring what emotions and feelings that we have about the characters and the theme into focus. That's my job, and sometimes that's more difficult than just standing on stage when you have all this other grandness to sort of take up space. But I'm literally taking up this amount of space within the screen, so it's very concentrated.

[5:51] Laquita Mitchell: Right. It sounds like you have to, you know, I admire so much that opera singers have this quality of stillness that, you know, even though they're dying on stage and pouring literally their heart out, there's some element of being grounded in stillness. I'm assuming that, based on what you're saying, performing on Zoom adds an extra element where you have to be even stiller, right?

[6:12] Laquita Mitchell: Right. That's why it's so different when you're filming opera now in HD, or if you're filming something for television. Our movements on stage can have big gestures, but if you're filming for HD or something on television, the gestures are not that big. It's not that grand. Everything is a bit smaller; it's concentrated. It's about the eyes, it's about eye contact, and again, it's about the energy and the synergy that one feels with the other person in the other frame. It's been interesting to sort of get there. We're still trying to get there; we still have a few days until we open, but we're still getting there.

[7:02] Laquita Mitchell: I love that. I obviously could see a similarity between Lesson Plan and Master Class, which you've already done. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about ending up doing pieces that are almost spiritual sisters, let's call them.

[7:21] Laquita Mitchell: They are. They are. It totally is, and I actually told Eric this the first day of rehearsal. I remember walking into the first day of rehearsal with Tyne Daly and the now late Terrence McNally. They said, you know, we just want to let you know that if you ever feel that you need a break, you know, if you feel like you're really being piled upon and it's really getting tough for you because you're being badgered, you can walk away for a little bit. I looked at them and said, you have no idea what it means to actually be a singer, an opera singer in a true masterclass with a real diva. You know, like that or being in a coaching with real divas. I'm fine; I've heard worse, honestly. You sort of begin to develop this extra layer of thick skin, and I think that's what I am beginning to figure out with Lesson Plan versus Master Class.

Master Class being obviously about the great late Maria Callas and her classes at Juilliard. This obviously has sort of the same tinge, but Stephanie wanted to be very intentional about her character. She didn't want the character to just be mean for the sake of being mean, but that there was some sort of pathos behind why she says what she says or why she feels the way that she feels. Then you begin to have some empathy for the character, which we don't—well, I guess you can have a bit of empathy for the Maria Callas character in Master Class. Some people do, but some people just do not. For me, I have a soft heart, and I can see both sides. I think my character in Lesson Plan is able to show Stephanie's character that there isn't just one way to be happy.

There are a myriad of ways, and we need music not just on the great opera stages. We need music and great musicians in churches. Oh lord, do we need them in schools! We need musicians singing on the street corner. We need musicians for everything because we know that art is truly one of the great foundational arts and cultures, one of the great foundations that we as human beings need in order to express ourselves. I really believe that I hope people walk away feeling that they can be in the Midwest and still have a wonderful musical experience, and you can be in New York City and enjoy a wonderful musical experience.

[10:40] Jose: And yeah, that everyone is included within art. Everyone is included. And that is such a perfect timely message during the pandemic when, you know, so many people, for instance, had to leave the big metropolis, you know, like New York and Los Angeles and Sydney and London and go back to their hometowns and go back to their home countries, for instance. And there's we're still like in that sense, sorry, we're still in a sense some sort of limbo. And one of the things that I really admire about you and what you've done during the pandemic is that you almost immediately realized, okay, this shift happened. There's nothing we can do about it. And you almost immediately went the digital route and you started holding these beautiful conversations on your YouTube, which are available still for all of you to watch and take a listen.

And I wanted to hear a little bit more about how this transition happened. Was it something that was a no-brainer for you? Or did it take you, you know, a few weeks or a few days to figure out that you still wanted to find a way to do your art and talk about art, except not on a stage anymore?

[12:00] Laquita Mitchell: Yeah, I think it took me some time. I talked some things over with some friends. I talked things over with some of my younger friends who were far more technologically savvy than I was and, you know, went and bought a few high-tech pieces of equipment and decided that I was going to begin this education sort of talk thing about musicians and things of that nature on a Wednesday. And I remember the first two shows that I did and then the third show was when the George Floyd thing sort of happened and it just changed everything for me, as it did, you know, most of the United States and most of the world. So I felt like there were a lot of people who were hosting and doing things online and things of that nature, but I wanted to speak to the artists about their thoughts, about their feelings about this time.

And I believe during this time what ended up happening was the accessibility to people that we never thought we would have access to was far more available than we thought. So I have never met you before, but I'm quite sure that you and I have a few people that we know in common because the world is smaller than we think, especially the world and the arts. So the people that I've dreamt of all of my life, you know, I've always wanted to talk to them or speak to them about their lives and their careers. I realized that they were far more accessible than I had imagined. And everyone had the time.

[13:50] Laquita Mitchell: So, you know, I was actually thinking about this the other day, you know, I'm like, well, you know, I haven't been online in a long time because I've been busy and things have sort of changed for me. My life is going through some changes, and I'm thinking of interviewing our cats in maybe in the next few days because I think it will be interesting to see how things have changed thus far. And I want to know how it's changed for the composer. What does it feel like, you know, for the female composer? What does it feel like for a company head who's now tasked at being a change agent in this country and in the business? Because there aren't very many companies that are pushing to do out-of-the-box pieces.

What is it like for a conductor who does not live in the United States but is an American and is doing his or her own work? So, you know, I think I'm thinking about these things in my mind and I'm thinking that I might want to interview and ask questions because I know how I feel and I know how I feel as a person of color. I still feel that I'm in certain instances I'm still trying to grapple with so much of the change that's happened in our business. And I think although we on the other side, the artists, the people who are casting certain things, although we know what's right, the people with the money are the ones who still dictate what is seen and what is not seen.

[15:35] Laquita Mitchell: And it's very, very difficult to keep trying to push for diversity and equity when it's sort of tolerated and that's it. You know what I mean? And so you're finding yourself thinking, well, you just sort of want to be someplace where you're appreciated, not just tolerated, you know. And it's a constant struggle still to this day for artists of color to have to figure out where they actually belong. You know, I'm never going to question what I can bring to the table, but I do question sometimes if the people that I'm sitting next to actually really want me there. You know, I mean, that rings a thousand bells. So I hear you, yes, it's, uh, yeah, yeah, and that's in everything. That's, you know, it's in how you're interacting with via email, how you're interacting with board members.

It's how they say different things to you that you're like, look, that's sort of inappropriate still. Are we still saying that in 2022? Like, what are you talking about? You know, like it's still that sort of thing that, um, it still has not left. Obviously, you have talked in other interviews about how you during the pandemic you got to see yourself more as an artist teacher, and obviously this is very true based on the, you know, the panels that you've been hosting. But something that really captured my attention and something why I personally believe makes you a great teacher is that you're a constant student.

[17:28] Jose: One of my favorite things watching you in those panels that you host is watching you almost look like a child. You're talking to these people that you admire, and you're asking them questions, and in the process, you're learning from them. So, you know, other than this element of being a teacher, wouldn't you say that this period of, you know, this really strange time that we're living in has also made you a more engaged student of life?

[17:57] Laquita Mitchell: I agree. Absolutely. They say to teach is to learn twice. Like we are constantly learning, and that's why I love music. And that's why I love, you know, the elements of art that are just, I love it because we learn so much about other people, about other cultures, about, you know, where civilization began, and why, you know, things are said the way that they're said, and then it's transferred down to my grandmother who is a Black woman who speaks Spanish from Panama, you know, like why this person speaks this way or that way or this or that. I've always been curious, and one cannot be truly a lover of life if you're not curious. I don't care what it is that you're doing. If you are not curious, you are destined to live a mundane life, and that is okay.

But for me, I choose to be curious so that I can learn from my partners and my friends on stage, and I love working with people from other countries. I have sung in Russia, I don't know how many times, and every time I return, there's a group of people who are there who see that I'm performing and they're there and I see them, and the English is not that great, but we communicate and we have fun and we talk and we give each other gifts and we talk about things. And it's just, there isn't a city that I can go to that I don't have a friend because I've learned something. I've chosen to learn from them in whatever manner, you know, whatever it is, you know. Take me, show me where the culinary district is, and why do they cook with this and why do they do that? Or where the singers and what happened here back in the 60s during the civil rights movement, or, you know, what, you know, I'm constantly questioning and asking.

[20:05] Laquita Mitchell: I received news today that one of my college music history professors in music, and she was also, she taught one of the music ed courses that I took when I was in college. I got news today that she passed away. And the first thing that I thought about was the introduction to Western music because that's what she taught. And I had such a, um, such an interest, such a finite interest in what she was trying to explain to us. And I would always try to make correlations between what Bach wrote versus what a Stevie Wonder song might be. Like, what are the correlations? Who, how can that, um, how can I put that together in words so that I can understand what ABHM means or what this means or what that means? And, um, she was always open to hearing the comparison. She was always open to hearing what we had to say because obviously she was much older, and her table of contents, as you will, were different. And she just came up at a different kind.

[21:19] Laquita Mitchell: But music is always constantly changing and people are changing. So we have to respect that change and also be open to allowing that change to somehow maybe affect us in a positive way, you know. I wonder with the time that you've had over the past two years, you know, once that unfortunately performances started getting cancelled and everyone was sent home. I wonder if you ended up discovering new pieces to you at least that now you're obsessed with, and maybe new operas that now you want to do at some point.

[21:55] Laquita Mitchell: Yeah, um, there's I mean, there are there's so many operas that I've loved to do. Um I've not been asked to do them. I'm constantly getting asked to sing like new works or be a part of you know, these world premieres and things of that nature, and that's fine. Um I would like a few Puccini operas or two in a season, that would be nice, but it hasn't happened yet. Um, but I um am falling in love with songs by Alban Berg, B E R G. Um, I'm to perform them in a few months. And I'd always heard about them. I sort of heard them, but I never really studied them, and now I'm in the process of studying them. And I'm thinking to myself, this is probably some of the most amazing music I've I cannot believe how incredibly beautiful these pieces are.

So I'm so super duper excited to be working on that. Also, um as you know, I sing a tons of oratorio and concert sort of pieces so um I'll be singing a lot of that in March and April so I'll be doing Beethoven nine which I haven't done in a long time and I think the words um you know the ode to joy will mean something a bit different now to sing with your friends and to have nothing but respect for your brother and humanity um that will mean something different to me now you know after having experienced you know George Floyd's murder and January 6th and it just means so much now um those words having respect for your brother you know just put him on a mask so that the person next to you does not in any way in any fashion become ill maybe you know I was just reading that my Supreme Court justice you know uh um Judge Sotomayor is only calling in for her work because the justice that's sitting right next to her refuses to wear masks and she is one of our most celebrated Latina women and I am so infuriated by that because she suffers from diabetes and she doesn't want to become sick.

[24:29] Laquita Mitchell: But the person sitting next to her, Neil Gorsuch will not wear a mask. It's just the most amazing world that we're living in right now. And I'm hoping that somehow um the tide will change where one is not just consumed with self. I also think that the past two years, because of social media, because you know, everyone was separated from each other, everyone really became consumed with self and not necessarily consumed with all, you know. And um I've heard more talk from young singers about their brand and branding, you know, videos and posting and things of that nature, and I've not really heard anyone speak to me about reading the biography on Giuseppe Verdi or the biography on Josephine Baker or the biography on I don't know, Handel, or uh I've not heard any of I've not heard anyone speaking about it.

And that makes me so sad because there is so much more outside of social media that needs to be consumed. We are a look at sort of society now, so we're watching, constantly, watching, watching, watching. Um, and after a while watching the same things on Instagram, like I on and TikTok. Like I can't I cannot do that. Okay. Like I have to read something. I have to figure out what's going on with the world so that I can stay interconnected, so that I can be connected. And so um yeah I'm just I'm seriously I think the last two years have been eye-opening and very very helpful in a lot of ways but in a lot of ways it has drawn us even further apart. We have we're not coming together for the right reasons I don't think and I'm hoping that lesson plan as I turn back to lesson plan I'm hoping that lesson plan uh will bring people together to sing together.

You know one of the quotes at the end like everyone gets to sing in this opera. Like you get to tune in and you get to sing it's fun. I think it's great and I love singing next to people I wanted to ask you also um is Omar happening in May I mean fingers crossed it's not kind of weird.

[27:28] Laquita Mitchell: Fingers crossed fingers crossed uh we begin rehearsals on the second of May and I think we open at the ending of May into June so fingers crossed let's see what happens but I think I'm praying that things will be a bit um calmer at that time. And that's also a key you know once you get to actually perform that's a piece that I'm assuming a lot has changed in the way that you're approaching that piece as a performer and as a human being from you know before the pandemic when it was supposed to happen up to two years later, right?

[28:02] Laquita Mitchell: Yeah, I mean, the character of Julie in Omar is um it's a slave girl who was not born in uh in Africa. She was born in the United States. She was actually born into slavery. And so that's the only thing she's ever known. But she had a father who was Muslim. Which most West Africans that came to that part of the country, they were Muslim and then they were converted. So um she is she's she's one of those slaves that actually remembered what her father um said, how he behaved, um the attention that he paid to uh his eating and his food habits. So when she meets Omar and sees him with this and sees him and hears what you know how he's speaking and and see what he has on the top of his head, she realizes that this man is was actually what my father was, Muslim, you know.

And so um I think it's I hope that everyone can get to see it. And I'm I'm excited too because I'll be hearing all of this stuff for like the first time and we've just been workshopping and um there's been additional changes and things like that to the score. So we'll see how it all comes together. I haven't quite um I haven't thrown myself into the role yet. I'm still trying to figure some things out. Um I I'm the type of person that when I'm going into a role, I'm thinking about everything. Mannerism. How does you know, how does a person engage? Uh does she have a twitch? Does she have this? Is it you know, I'm constantly asking myself all of these questions so that I have something to bring to the table when it comes time for rehearsals because we don't really have a long rehearsal process.

Um it's rather quick actually for a new production. Normally new productions take about four and a half weeks to sort of mount, but w I don't even think we're doing that. I don't think we even have that much time. So I need to come to the table knowing something or having some sort of understanding of who the character is and how um I can release Laquita and allow Julie to come forward because I know how I would react in the tw in 2022, but that's not necessarily how Julie would act, you know, before the Civil War. So it's I'm hoping that it happens because it's been a long time coming okay.

[30:50] Laquita Mitchell: And before we get to see play Julie, people can see you play Robinetta in Lesson Plan. We like to invite our uh viewers and our listeners to uh attend the Zoom opera. Yes, please, please, please come. Um I believe it's Friday, 21st. Saturday, two shows, two o'clock and seven thirty, and then next weekend, the twenty eighth and twenty-ninth, two shows and the twenty-ninth. So um it's a it's not very long. It's about forty-five, fifteen minutes and it's so much fun. And I hope that you bring your children, your grandparents. You know, I hope that everyone can come and just be a part of it and to um to sing is to is to have joy, I really believe. So if you'd like to come, I implore you, just come. It's gonna be wonderful.

[31:45] Laquita Mitchell: Thank you so much Laquita it has been a real pleasure talking to you and I hope to see you around uh sometime soon.

[31:52] Laquita Mitchell: Absolutely Jose both thankful to be here. Thank you so much for having me.