How Art Impacts Life with the team behind DESTROYING DAVID

Tickets available via circletheatre.com

Q+A with Evan, Jason, and Amanda

We asked the team behind Destroying David about art that has impacted them in day to day life. Whether that is fine art in a museum, musical performances, to the titular David in Italy - we want to know what pieces have inspired them to keep making art.

Read below for the whole Q+A!

*May contain spoilers for the show!*

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David by Michelangelo

Have you seen the David in person?

EVAN: I have not. I feel like a bit of an imposter! The more I talk about the play to others the more I’m learning just how many people in my life have seen the David. Circle Theatre, I would graciously accept a trip to Florence.

JASON: Yes! I was 17. I have not seen it in person since, but it feels like yesterday. I can still picture every detail about the statue and the Galleria from that day.

AMANDA: I have NOT seen the David in person, unfortunately! Bucket list! I would love to take my parents someday, especially after experiencing this incredible production.

What is a piece of art that has moved you recently?

Cynthia Erivo performing "Alfie"

EVAN:

·       Cynthia Erivo performing “Alfie” as tribute to Dionne Warwick at The Kennedy Center Honors

·       The film Challengers

·       A tiktok of a fish swimming the opposite direction of its school, set to the poem “The Journey” by Mary Oliver

·       Always, always the work of clothing designer Emily Bode

·       The collaboration between performer Metta and director Camille Summers-Valli; music videos for “Van Gogh” and “Mama’s Eyes” 

·       The play Botticelli in the Fire by Jordan Tannahill, which explores Florence in the time leading up to The Bonfire of the Vanities. This play has gripped me since I first read it in 2019.

Mire Lee's Open Wound

JASON: My wife and daughter and I were in London over Christmas and went to the Tate Modern, which is fantastic. And there is an installation in the main foyer right now by Mire Lee called "Open Wound" that extends over 100 feet in the air and covers more than an entire football field. It’s impossible to describe so here’s a photo (taken from the internet... the ones on my phone didn't really come out well, and even this photo can't fully capture what it's like standing under and above the work). The scale is mind blowing. And the sculpture moves and makes noise. It's like a machine that's alive. When you walk in it literally takes your breath away.

Deep Ellum Dreaming - used with permission by artist Armando Sebastian

AMANDA: Recently, I had the great honor to see the art show called "Reclaiming My World" by artist Armando Sebastian at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center before it closed. There was one piece called "Deep Ellum Dreaming" that I must have looked at for at least 10 minutes straight. It was a painting of a young brown man in a bathtub surrounded by items that represent his identity; an American flag, photos of his foreign home, blue ribbon, flowers, a Mexican passport- all floating in the tub with him as he pressed a book of poems to his chest. Absolutely beautiful, meaningful, and mesmerizing. 

Is there a piece of art etched in your mind forever?

EVAN: Wicked broke my brain for good (sorry) when I first saw the national tour in New Orleans when I was around 12 years old. This is the moment, as Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers of Las Culturistas would say, “when I knew that culture was for me.”

Wicked First National Tour

Vir Heroicus Sublimis by Barnett Newman

JASON: There are too many. I love a lot of pieces by Mondrian, Miró, Rothko, and Lichtenstein. I like large works that use big, bold colors. But the ones that really stand out (other than the David!) are Da Vinci's The Last Supper and a painting at MoMA in NYC that I always spend time basking in when I visit. It's a painting by Barnett Newman from 1951 called "Vir Heroicus Sublimis." (Which translates from Latin to "Man, Heroic and Sublime"). It's a large red canvas about 8 feet high and over 17 feet long. When you stand in front of it, it just absorbs you in this shade of red you've never seen before, separated by thin lines of white, blue and maybe a shade of orange. I included a screen shot from the internet but the photo doesn't do it justice because of the scale.

The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci

I wish I had my own photo of The Last Supper (but they do not allow any photos there, not even without a flash). It's a mural on a wall of an old convent that’s been preserved. It’s not a museum with other works. So when you go that's the one and only thing you're there to see, it's the main event. The only event. And it’s not only large in scale and scope but it’s in a relatively small space so it occupies most of the room you're in. It's really an incredible experience that I'll always remember. I also love visiting the Storm King Art Center (we've been a few times). It's about an hour drive north of New York City and it's a collection of sculptures in a series of fields and woods. It's like walking in a park with art all around you.  

I think the common theme here is that I'm moved by art that is large and bigger than we are. I'm not only impressed and inspired by the effort and imagination of artists who think on that grand scale... I love how that kind of work makes me feel small in comparison… it somehow puts things in perspective. 

The Two Fridas, 1939, by. Frida Kahlo

AMANDA: "The Two Fridas" by Frida Kahlo. I was lucky enough to catch it in person with my dad when it came to the Dallas Museum of Art a couple years ago. It was enormous! It felt larger than life and the gravity of the painting in the center of the room was palpable. I had seen photos but nothing compares to seeing it in person. This painting is about conflicting identities and having your heart belong to two different worlds and is one that, as a Mexican American, I have always been drawn to. It has been a work of art that I use as inspiration throughout my life on several different projects and will be etched into my mind forever.