Artists & Communities Host Site: Step by Step, Inc.
659 Big Ugly Creek Road
Harts, WV 25524
E-mail: WVDreamers@aol.com

Millennium Artist:
Lawrence Siegel
Composer
New Hampshire
E-mail: Larilea@monad.net

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Recognizing the natural lyricism of everyday conversation, artist Lawrence Siegel has built a reputation for capturing the patterns and cadences of the spoken word in his musical compositions.

During his Artists & Communities residency with Step by Step, Inc. in Harts, West Virginia, Siegel used family histories, local legends, and personal narratives to create a new musical work, "Bridge of Dreams." Drawing on the rich traditions of the Appalachian region, the 'folk opera' was premiered mid-September 2000 at the inaugural Bridge of Dreams Festival in Harts.

Over the past decade, Siegel has developed "The Verbatim Project," fashioning a series of performance pieces that combine lyrics based on the spoken word with a range of vernacular musical styles. Since 1994, he has taught his "Verbatim" method in universities across the Midwest as well as created new works in settings as diverse as elementary schools, churches, community centers, and the New Hampshire State Legislature.

Siegel explains his methodology, saying, "these Verbatim Projects have been experiential, empowering, inclusive, and fun; they have built community at the same time as they have explored its boundaries…..Above all….I seek to help articulate the particular of that place: the human issues, the environmental concerns, the historical and anecdotal record which has brought you, and us, to here and now."

While in West Virginia, Siegel mounted workshops through the Atenville and Ferrellsburg Elementary Schools, Harts High School, and Big Ugly Community Center. Participants ranged in age from 10 to 80, bringing a variety of experiences and perspectives to the project. Sharing reminiscences and observations of community life, they experimented with different ways of presenting their stories - singing the words instead of speaking them, or altering their speaking rhythms. Siegel then facilitated the combining of lyrics and melody, thus documenting in song many heritage practices otherwise in danger of being lost.

Nightly staging of "Bridge of Dreams" provided a focus for the Bridge of Dreams Festival, a 3-day celebration of traditional Appalachian mountain culture. Community residents from throughout the region enjoyed quilting contests, a rabbit hunt, arts and crafts displays, chess and checkers play-offs, square dancing, a deer head mounting contest, and continuous music performances by local and internationally known artists such Ira Bernstein, Pete Sutherland, Ethel Caffie-Austin, and Elaine Purkey.

MILLENNIUM ARTIST BIO

Lawrence Siegel is a composer, performer, theater artist, and creator of the 'Verbatim Project' whose "Village Store Verbatim" has been aired nationally through New Hampshire Public Television. He is also an artist-in-residence with many communities and ensembles, including the American Boychoir.