Interview: Cole NeSmith, creative director of RISE & SHINE in Steinmetz Hall at Dr. Phillips Center

When a state-of-the-art venue like Dr. Phillips Center's Steinmetz Hall opens and hosts its first live performances, it is truly a special event. The excitement of experiencing a new space, and the thrill of seeing (and hearing) artists in that space is something that doesn't happen every day. That's why RISE & SHINE, a one-night-only performance on Friday, January 14th may just be the artistic event of the year. I caught up with Cole NeSmith - Orlando's own "experience curator, writer, musician, actor and speaker", Executive Director of the Creative City Project and the co-founder of The Memoir Agency who serves as the creative director for RISE & SHINE.

BWW: Cole it's great to meet you! To start maybe tell me a little about yourself and your background?

Cole NeSmith: Sure! I grew up as a musician and an actor and started producing content in the early 2000's when I was on the road with my four friends in a 15-passenger van playing dirty music venues. That expanded to the theatrical world and lots of different art forms including public art. In 2012, I started what is now called Immerse, which is a performing and interactive art fesitval that happens every October across ten city blocks of downtown Orlando. And so I get the honor and privelege to work with over 100 arts organizations across central Florida and beyond every year to bring that event to life. So it has been exciting to be part of this collaborative tapestry as well.

So I am excited to hear more about RISE & SHINE. There has been a bit of mystery and anticipation around the program. What can audiences expect? How would you describe the program?

It's a beautiful celebration of Orlando's creative spirit and artistic excellence bringing together more than 200 performers across all kinds of genres. We have a 55 person orchestra and an over 100 person choir, and those two entities are a combination of many arts organizations in the choral and orchestral world coming together. We have modern dance combined with projections, we have ballet, we have a cultural fusion section that brings together Afro-Caribbean dance, Mexican dance, Indian music, gospel, and Latin music. That's going to be a really high energy and spectaular moment. There's a moment in the show that brings together lots of Orlando's Folk and Indie artists that aren't traditionally performing in venues like Steinmetz Hall but are more akin to venues like Will's Pub or The Social. So it really is a fun opportunity to bring together all of the segments of Orlando's arts community and to celebrate who we are.

What can audiences who come to RISE & SHINE expect to experience in the new Steinmetz Hall?

We crafted the program to really highlight the hall as a whole. The show will open with an excerpt from "Firebird" which, by the way, sounded stunning in rehearsal. We put the choir on two of the balcony levels of the hall, so it really is a surround experience from a sonic standpoint and highlights the beauty of the room acoustically. One of our opera singers will be performing from one of those balconies as well. So we have tried to create some momnbts that really highlight the beauty of the hall itself.

How did you get involved in the program?

I was part of the creative team that brought to life a program called BEAUTIFUL TOGETHER which was just a couple weeks after the Pulse tragedy. It was a coming together of the community and an artistic response to that tragedy and a moment of togetherness in the Disney theatre at Dr. Phillips Center. So when we were talking about opening Steinmetz Hall, the center really wanted to highlight the artists who call Central Florida home. And even though there are two weeks of opening celebration, this first performance highlights these local artists and organizations. RISE & SHINE is truly a community celebration that has a spirit of joy and creativity. It was a huge honor to be part of BEAUTIFUL TOGETHER and to come back together with a really amazing creative team to produce this celebration has also been an honor.

Sounds like there's a lot of diverse, exciting things happening during RISE & SHINE. What are you looking forward to the most?

I love the moments that are going to surprise and delight our audience. There are a lot of moments that are going to be unexpected in this show, and I think I want to keep them that way! There are moments when the audience will see fusions of different art forms. As I mentioned briefly, our modern dancers are actually dancing in front of 9 x 12 foot projection surfaces that have animations on them that were created from the blueprints of Steinmetz Hall. That animation interacts with and coincides with their choreographed movement. So there are some really beautiful moments like that where we bring multiple genres of art together to create some new and unique fusions of performances.

Taking a step back, RISE & SHINE is all about celebrating the beauty and amazing art that can and will now be able to take place in the stunning Steinmetz Hall. What do you think the impact is going to be of having this amazing facility in our community?

It's a beautiful space and the hope is that it will be a wonderful place for our local and regional arts organizations to perform and will be a place where artists from all over the world will come and perform as well. Several members of the production team are from out of town and when they came into the hall for the first time they had this "wow" moment. And when our team heard the choir and orchestra performing in that space for the very first time, it was chill-inducing. It is really a stunning space.

Besides RISE & SHINE, of course, is there anything in particular you are looking forward to personally on the Steinmetz stage in the opening weeks?

I am really excited about the London Philharmonic and their performance with the Bach Festival Choir. I think it is going to be a beautiful program of classical music and I look forward to attending that as well.

After RISE & SHINE rises and shines, what's next for you?

I am excited about [The Memoir Agency And Creative City Project's] DRAGONS AND FAIRIES. It is a real elevation of what we birthed with DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE in Mead Gardens and it's great to continue our partnership with Leu Gardens. We are taking the audience on this ¾ mile long walking journey with live actors and this year we have added a lot of large scale lighting installations that are exciting. The animatronic dragons are truly breathtaking. And then another thing coming up in May is a performance we are doing with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra called THE SEASONS based around Vivaldi's Four Seasons. The twenty piece orchestra will be in the center of the room and the audience will be around them, with large scale projections and some surprise experiential elements as well.

RISE & SHINE performs at Steinmetz Hall on Friday, January 14th at 7:30 PM. To learn more about RISE & SHINE or to purchase tickets visit https://grandcelebration.drphillipscenter.com/ or call the Bill & Mary Darden Box Office at 407.358.6603. Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts is located at 445 South Magnolia Avenue, Orlando, FL 32801

To post a comment, you must register and login.