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PHOTO COURTESY OF LUCAS SMIRALDO

GIVING VOICE. Wrick Wolff, seen here at A Marathon for Peace event at the Center for Spiritual Living two years ago, teamed up with Lucas Smiraldo to create the music for the Voice of the Americas project.

Lending a voice

Performance gives perspectives on modern-day America

By Ben Miller

The last decade has had a big impact on local poet and playwright Lucas Smiraldo. From events like 9/11 and the war in Iraq, Smiraldo has had a lot to write about. And coming to Theatre on the Square May 2, his words will be put on stage in a form that is a little bit different than your usual poetry reading.

Smiraldo has teamed up with local composer Wrick Wolff to develop a show that features music and spoken word performances together in order to tell a story of what has happened in the United States over the last 10 years.

“It’s part theater, it’s part symphony,” Smiraldo said. “I think it’s really different from what people are used to seeing in a theater.”

The performance, called Voice of the Americas, highlights key events that have happened in this country from a number of different viewpoints. For example, one piece features someone speaking in the role of Malcolm X and looking at the 21st century through his eyes.

Smiraldo wrote all of the poetry but local actors and friends will perform it.

“They’ve all agreed to work on this and I can see that they have completely owned their pieces and their performances,” Smiraldo said about the cast. “It’s a labor of love on their behalf.”

Originally, the idea started out as a CD. Wolff and Smiraldo teamed up to develop the music and spoken word pieces together into a CD with funding from the Tacoma Arts Commission.

“It was pretty unique,” Wolff said. “I had my doubts on whether I could successfully do it at all – it was a strange sort of marriage.”

As a requirement to receive funding from the Tacoma Arts Commission, Smiraldo had to agree to perform the content of the CD to the public at least once, so he reached out to the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts to do it. Smiraldo is the associate director of education and outreach at the Broadway Center, which manages Theatre on the Square.

“Voice of the Americas is a very different perspective,” Smiraldo said. “You can expect a diverse cast of people presenting a performance that feels like music and poetry and packs a wallop. It is certain to inspire conversation, maybe some disagreement and most importantly an open dialogue – you’ll leave there having a hard time forgetting what you’ve just seen.”

The performance will be separated into four movements, like a symphony. The first one takes you back to just before September 11, 2001. The second one revolves around issues about the current war in Iraq. The third one is about migration and features eulogies of people lost, while the final one reflects on possibilities, hope and resiliency.

“I think it’s incredible, I think it’s a very unique kind of combination,” Wolff said. “They’re very active and has a lot of internal rhyming. For me it was natural to be able to find music that would compliment such musical poetry.”

Smiraldo thinks that what the audiences will be witness to is something different in the world of spoken word performances. “It’s such a new experience and we’re just scratching the surface on what a theater and spoken word performance can be,” he said.

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