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[STEADY PERCUSSIVE SOUNDS]

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[PERFORMER SINGING]

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[RAUL DE NIEVES][br]I remember moving to New York

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and coming here to The Kitchen[br]to see a production,

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and now our work is being mounted here.

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["New York Close Up"]

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It's not a dream anymore!

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[COLIN SELF] This is our first time ever [br]making a real opera.

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["Raúl de Nieves and Colin Self Harmonize"]

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[SCREAMING IN UNISON]

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[DE NIEVES] I play the dog.

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[SELF] I'm the old woman.

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[DE NIEVES] And the old woman is the wisest.

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[SELF LAUGHS]

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[DE NIEVES] She is.

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[SELF] I don't know, I think the dog might[br]be the wisest.

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[DE NIEVES] Well the dog and the old woman are[br]the same person actually, so...

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[SELF] But they are the same person.

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[DE NIEVES][br]--Or maybe it's like I give you my hand or something.

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--Like what if we never touch hands or something?

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--We're so far away from one another.

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[MOANING IN UNISON]

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[DE NIEVES][br]--I think that's really good.

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[SELF][br]--Yeah.

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[BOTH LAUGH]

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[DE NIEVES][br]--You're so crazy

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[SELF][br]--That's cool.

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--You and I having this really still interaction...

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[DE NIEVES] Colin and I met while we were[br]both asked to play a show.

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[SELF] I think I had just moved to New York,

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and I remember that I was trying to find[br]a sense of community or place.

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[BOTH SCREAM]

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[DE NIEVES] I had recently migrated from Mexico[br]to America,

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and music was the first escape[br]of my everyday reality.

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This is when I was starting my band, Haribo.

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We were kind of creating more of[br]a noise soundscape to this performance.

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Colin had performed before us.

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I just remember seeing him thrashing around.

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[SELF] It was just one of those things[br]of watching someone perform and being like,

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"Oh my gosh, we are from the same universe!"

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[DE NIEVES] It's never been me, me, me, me,[br]me, you know--

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it's always been me and you.

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[SELF] Us, us, us, us, us, us, us, us.

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[DE NIEVES] My friends teach me how to give,[br]how to receive.

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Without the little help each one of us gives[br]one another,

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it would actually be very hard to sustain[br]a normal life.

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[DE NIEVES][br]--It's real!

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My friends are my guidance.

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[SELF][br]--Why don't we get into a circle.

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[PERFORMERS SINGING]

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The majority of the people who've joined

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have been a part of this ongoing choir practice[br]that I've been leading.

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[SELF SINGING][br]--Letting it warm up the room.

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I started just thinking about what does it mean[br]to gather people together to sing?

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What can come from that?

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It felt really powerful in a way that[br]I wasn't anticipating.

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[DE NIEVES] Personal experiences really helped[br]shape the work.

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In Mexico, we didn't really have much[br]exposure to contemporary art.

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So I always looked up to the performers I[br]saw on the street,

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portraying these characters through [br]costume and props

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and spontaneous street performance.

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Performance really opened up a[br]void for me to experiment with art.

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The sets and the costumes[br]were made from pretty much nothing.

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We always wanted this grand set of doors.

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Through the help of non-for-profit organizations,[br]like Materials for the Arts,

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we were able to acquire all the gems.

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Everything else was just[br]a labor of love.

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[SELF] "The Fool" itself is a characterization[br]of learning--

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that this practice of discovery,

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by the time they finish their journey,[br]are back where they began.

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[AUDIENCE APPLAUDS]

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[STRING AND VOCAL PERFORMANCE INTENSIFIES]

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[DE NIEVES] Every character on stage is [br]the fool

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including the child, the mother,

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the fools that are hidden in the background,

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the old woman and dog.

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[YELLING]

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Essentially,[br]each character sees something different.

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And that's why at the end

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the dog comes back[br]and speaks to this old woman

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to remind her that[br]she has had all this wisdom within herself.

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[PERFORMERS SINGING]