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Blue Hill Troupe Member Nancy Morgan Interviews Francisco Núñez

October 3rd 2002

Q: As you know, the Blue Hill Troupe does two plays a year – a big Gilbert & Sullivan show in the spring and a smaller Broadway-type musical in the fall – and the proceeds of these shows benefit a single charity from many that apply. How did the Young People’s Chorus decide to apply to be the Troupe’s charity this year?

A: That’s a very funny story. I actually said, “don’t bother.” I told Renee [Danger-James, Operations Director of YPC] not to do it. She went ahead and she convinced me to try. I said, “it’s a far-fetched idea: look at the people who are on the list – Children’s Aid Society – it’s a $60 million not-for-profit. We’re a small fledgling organization.” Anyway, she convinced me, working with board members J. B. Harrison and Frank Harvey. (Frank couldn’t stop talking about the Troupe at board meetings even before we applied for the grant!) And when after that we received notice that we were one of the four finalists, we all looked at each other and we said, “What?!”

Q: What will the sponsorship enable the Young People’s Chorus to do?

A: We’ve asked that the sponsorship help with our partner school program. In the schools that we go after, the parents are not necessarily proactively involved. We go in there and we audition an entire grade – several hundred children. We talk with the teachers and then together we select 30 children that we see would have the capacity or potential to possibly join the YPC. We now have to convince the parents. We give them a full scholarship, we provide transportation, and we get the parents free tickets to come to the concerts – bring the entire family. It changes them. Right now we have 50 active children. It took us hundreds and hundreds to get them, because of thirty that I choose, maybe six stay until the end of the year. With the money we’re getting, we’ll also be able to get a program manager that would help us.

Q: Where are these partner schools located?

A: Right now we have three very active schools. One is C.S. 200 in the polo grounds of East Harlem that is deemed the most violent elementary school in NYC. We have thirty children from there. The other schools are P.S. 310 in the Bronx, and a Catholic School, St. Francis of Chantel, also in the Bronx. We are hoping to expand and go to Queens and Chinatown as well. We have fifty children now and we hope to go to 100.

Q: What do you think of the Troupe, a group of people that spends its free time singing, acting, hammering sets, and frequently partying until all hours of the night?

A: What do I think of them? How do I join?!
I’ll be very honest. . . The reason I went into music education is that the idea that a person who’s a businessman or doctor or lawyer spends his free time creating art or music – just creating in some capacity – it actually changes the personality of a person. In the Blue Hill Troupe all these people are participating in a very large group. Instead of going out and bowling – which is good, too – it really changes them. I think it’s amazing that they can do it. They really understand this important part of life.

Q: I was at the Troupe’s fall meeting and like everyone else in the room, was really blown away by what the young people did that night. I was moved to hear your students sing so beautifully.

A: Keep in mind that we had just met for that week and we just came together – it was the beginning of the year.

Q: Yes. It was amazing. I was so excited to see them so involved and engaged. We have already benefited from our partnership with you. What if anything do you hope the chorus will gain from us?
A: Well I myself grew up in Washington Heights in a poor family and never heard of Gilbert & Sullivan or knew of this community. I think 80% of our children come from the same place. The exposure to Gilbert & Sullivan, but more importantly, the exposure to this community – exposure to seeing adults coming together and creating something on their own time and then whatever benefits come out give it to the community – that’s a role model in itself. And I want the children to be involved more than just to buy a ticket and come to the show. I’m hoping somehow that friendships or community building within the Troupe can happen. It makes a huge impression.
Gilbert & Sullivan to an urban child is another status. It represents another part of society that an urban child will never be part of – they think. But by bringing our groups closer together, it will allow them to think, “Hey, maybe I can be a Trouper one day.” To a Trouper, it’s just another Trouper, but to a child, it’s crossing, journeying, into a whole different part of society. It’s esteem building and confidence building. So being part of a group that is embracing you and applauding you – like when we were applauded by you – the effect that it has on the children, they can’t express it yet. They don’t know what’s going on. But it’s so strong that it’s changed them. In the back of their heads they say, “I want to be the person sitting down, applauding for children when I grow up.”

Q: Thank you. That’s wonderful. Is there anything else that you wanted to say?

A: Thank you very much for choosing us. This is going to change the Young People’s Chorus.

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