UCSB’s Arts and Lectures educate, entertain and inspire.
The title for a recent event was FIRST PERSON: SEEING AMERICA; Ensemble Galilei with Actors Bill Pullman and Lily Knight. This was pretty vague on what the experience would be. The topic “first person” had to do with personal letters, speeches and essays by individuals written in the time frame from the civil war through the depression.
The Ensemble Galilei was composed of 2 fiddles, harp, percussion, and wind instrument. They played on stage along with the actors and a large screen. The screen featured photographs from The Metropolitan Museum of Art that reflected the topics in the narration.
The narrators Bill Pullman and Lily Knight acted out or read the first person accounts of specific events in this historical time frame. Pullman, with his gravely voice lent itself to Western tales and to President Lincoln’s words.
Live performance is always better than what you can find on the TV.