The second character who appears on the Spare A Dime stage is The Merchant, owner of a local Five & Dime (the dollar stores of their day).  The concept of dimestores, or variety stores as they were later called, originated with Woolworth's in the late 19th century.  Prior to the Woolworth brothers' success, no one believed that having an entire store selling only low-cost goods could be a sustainable model.  By the 1930s, over a dozen major dimestore retailers thrived the U.S., in addition to numerous "mom and pop" operations, like that of our Spare A Dime singer.  Much of the storyline of the performance takes place around her dimestore.

The Merchant's story is a combination of two real-life tales close to COSACOSA Director and Spare A Dime composer Kimberly Niemela's heart, that of a corner store owner near to our North Philadelphia Healing Garden (where we often purchase supplies and snacks), and that of her own maternal grandmother who ran a corner grocery store during the Great Depression.  Ironically, in the late 1930s, her grandmother's store became the local headquarters for the WPA, both because it was a central community location, and it had a little something extra that was hard to find at the time:  a telephone.

In Spare A Dime's first act,  The Merchant character sings Pocket of Blues, a song that tells the story of the stock market crash and its aftermath, and how we are all financially interconnected (whether we like it or not).  The title of the song functions as a double metaphor -- for an empty wallet and for those folks who are perceived, at first, as societal "takers."  The Merchant herself is funny and forthright about dispensing advice as well as merchandise, and she may use some sight gags in order to make her point to the audience.  In the second half of the cycle, The Merchant sings Change in the Making,  a poignant duet celebrating new-found love...ah, but of whom or of what?  You'll have to get tickets to our PIFA 13 performance to find out!

Tomorrow's character post?  The Builder!

We'll start our Spare A Dime character posts with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt -- especially appropriate since today is his birthday (his 131st)! 

FDR looms large in Spare A Dime, as it was his executive order that created the Works Progress Administration on May 6, 1935 -- our moment in time for PIFA 2013.  As we've previously discussed, when FDR first took office in 1933, unemployment was at 25%.  Millions of jobless, homeless people wandered from place to place looking for work.  The WPA was the signature program of the New Deal and the largest work program the nation has every seen.  In the midst of the Great Depression, the WPA created jobs for over 8 million Americans.

In COSACOSA's Spare A Dime, our FDR sings two songs with lyrics based on President Roosevelt's iconic speeches.  The first song of the cycle, Life Turns on a Dime, builds upon FDR's first inaugural address (the "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" speech) and sets out the major philosophy of the performance.  The second song, Step Up for a Better Tomorrow, announcing the creation of the WPA (right before intermission), pulls from "We Have Only Just Begun to Fight," FDR's address at Madison Square Garden. In the second act of Spare A Dime, as the WPA puts the rest of our players back to work, FDR cameos with our Chorus of Liberty to deliver snippets of fireside chat inspiration; he also reprises Life Turns on a Dime at the end of the show.

Tomorrow's character post?  The Merchant!

Over the past year, our call for community stories about the Great Depression and the Great Recession brought together people of all ages to share experiences of financial hardship.  Our youth, artists, and staff collected interviews, written tales, and photographs from folks over the city and across the region. We'd particularly like to thank neighbors in Philadelphia's Fairhill, Nicetown-Tioga, Passyunk Square, and South Philadelphia communities, as well as residents of Opportunities Tower and White Horse Village for their participation in our project storytelling.

Within most COSACOSA's constituent communities, the effects of the economic downturn are particularly pronounced.  Cross-generational storytelling of perseverance and of overcoming obstacles unites our young people with their elders in working for the advancement of Philadelphia's neighborhoods.

Beginning tomorrow, we'll be profiling each of the Spare A Dime characters -- who they are, in what stories they originated -- and what songs they'll be singing!

The word biscuit essentially means “baked twice."  Usually you can identify a biscuit by the fact that it is dense, floury, and does not contain yeast.  A cheap alternative to bread, biscuits were an economically favorable food during the Great Depression.  The buttermilk variety originated in Appalachia, where they were referred to as cathead biscuits.  Cathead biscuits were larger than today’s standard size and were usually served with sawmill gravy, a complete meal unto themselves.

Ingredients
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoon unsalted butter, very cold
1 cup buttermilk

Directions
1.  Preheat oven to 450°F.
2.  Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, or in a food processor.
3.  Cut butter into chunks and cut into the flour until it resembles course meal. If using a food processor, just pulse a few times until this consistency is achieved.
4.  Add the buttermilk and mix JUST until combined. If it appears on the dry side, add a bit more buttermilk. It should be very wet.
5.  Turn the dough out onto a floured board.
6.  Gently, gently PAT (do NOT roll with a rolling pin) the dough out until it's about 1/2" thick. Fold the dough about 5 times, gently press the dough down to a 1 inch thick.
7.  Use a round cutter to cut into rounds.
8.  Place the biscuits on a cookie sheet- if you like soft sides, put them touching each other.
If you like"crusty" sides, put them about 1 inch apart- these will not rise as high as the biscuits put close together.
9.  Bake for about 10-12 minutes- the biscuits will be a beautiful light golden brown on top and  
bottom.

P.S.: The key to real biscuits is not in the ingredients, but in the handling of the dough. The dough must be handled as little as possible or you will have tough biscuits. Food processors produce superior biscuits, because the ingredients stay colder and there's less chance of over mixing. You also must pat the dough out with your hands, lightly.  Rolling with a rolling pin is a guaranteed way to over-stimulate the gluten, resulting in a tougher biscuit.

P.P.S.: You can make these biscuits, cut them, put them on cookie sheets and freeze them for up to a month. When you want fresh biscuits, simply place them frozen on the cookie sheet and bake at 450°F for about 20 minutes.

What happened this week in 1935?
"The March of Time" newsreels debuted in movie theaters.

On February 1, 1935, the first film episode of "The March of Time" debuted at the Capitol Theatre in New York City.  This series of innovative shorts combined authentic footage with dramatization to tell the news of the day.  As a companion program to the radio series of the same name, these theatrical newsreels the eventually served as the news outlet for more than 200 million people per month in 9,000 movie houses.

Louis de Rochemont, the director of short films for Fox Movietone News, first pitched the idea of "pictorial journalism" to Roy Larsen, President of TIME Magazine.  The goal was to create a short news film each month which depicted stories similar to those found in TIME or LIFE Magazines.  Each short was crafted as a story, with a beginning, middle, and end to allow audiences to better understand and feel as if they were actually where the news was taking place. Each storyline was further elucidated by narrator Westbrook Van Voohris, ending the tale with his signature line, "Time marches on!" This structure differed greatly from other newsreels of the time, which were typically low-budget and created without journalistic staff.

Our multimedia song cycle mise en scène includes animations, photographs, large scale paintings, and a guest appearance by a giant dime.  Setting the stage proved a bit complex, especially with only limited rigging available because of the age of the house. 

Our first draft of the set (currently in production) includes a central rear projection screen onto which Gerardo McGarity-Alegrett's animations of Steve Teare's paintings will appear. Joining them will be Great Recession photographs created by COSACOSA community members based on historical images from the WPA's Federal Project Number One.  New Liberty dime images and WPAesque posters created by Bok Tech students with COSACOSA staff also appear on screen and in an exhibition at the theater entrance.  The students also are working on a giant Liberty Dime that will set the stage from the House floor!

Surrounding the central screen are stylized torches illuminating Liberty dimes, representing the interplay of rights and responsibilities -- freedom and fairness -- and how, in the words of one of Spare A Dime's songs, "Our fate's bound inextricably / in justice and in liberty. / Rise or fall, we'll always be / together, indivisibly."

In the coming weeks, we'll be posting interviews with each of the participating visual artists, musicians, and vocalists.  Meanwhile, next week we'll start exploring the back story for each of the Spare A Dime characters!

FDR's iconic 1936 Madison Square Garden speech (the basis of one of our Spare A Dime songs, a bit of which we quoted yesterday) and President Obama's 2nd inaugural address were made for each other!  Here's our mash-up:

FDR: Tonight I call the roll -- the roll of honor... written on it are the names of millions who never had a chance...for whom opportunity had become a will-o'-the-wisp.  Written there in large letters are the names of countless other Americans of all parties and all faiths -- Americans who had eyes to see and hearts to understand, whose consciences were burdened because too many of their fellows were burdened, who looked on these things 4 years ago and said, "This can be changed. We will change it."

BHO: Together we resolve that a great nation must care for the vulnerable and protect its people from life’s worst hazards and misfortune...we must be a source of hope to the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the victims of prejudice -- not out of mere charity, but because peace in our time requires the constant advance of those principles that our common creed describes: tolerance and opportunity, human dignity and justice.

FDR: "Peace on earth, good will toward men:"  democracy must cling to that message... It is that which makes it possible for government to persuade those who are mentally prepared to fight each other to go on instead, to work for and to sacrifice for each other...  Above our political forums, above our market places stand the altars of our faith -- altars on which burn the fires of devotion that maintain all that is best in us and all that is best in our Nation.

BHO: We the people declare today that the most evident of truth is that all of us are created equal -- that is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls and Selma and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.

FDR: That is why we need to say with the Prophet: "What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God."  That is why the recovery we seek, the recovery we are winning, is more than economic. In it are included justice and love and humility, not for ourselves as individuals alone, but for our Nation.  That is the road to peace.

BHO: You and I, as citizens, have the power to set this country’s course. You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time, not only with the votes we cast, but the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideas.  Let us each of us now embrace with solemn duty, and awesome joy, what is our lasting birthright. With common effort and common purpose, with passion and dedication, let us answer the call of history and carry into an uncertain future that precious light of freedom.

Image below: The Statue of Liberty's "light of freedom" on display during Philadelphia's Centennial Exhibition.

Earlier this week we posted about the symbols on the front of the Winged Liberty dime, the 10 cent coin in circulation during the Great Depression.  The symbolism on the reverse also resonates deeply with the Spare A Dime project and our city neighborhoods.  The same motifs even appear in the architecture of our performance venue, the WPA-built Bok Tech Theater!

The central image on the flipside of Winged Liberty is a bundle of sticks tied together.  Called a fasces, this ancient Etruscan symbol was common in the Roman Republic.  Fasces represent "strength in unity," i.e., many bound together are stronger than one alone.  Such strength in unity is a main theme in the Spare A Dime project, as well as being a core value of COSACOSA and our constituent communities.

At the center of the bundle is an ax, representing both the preparedness and power of those united.  An olive branch encircles the fasces, emphasizing the importance of tempering power with peace.  To quote FDR, "I should like to have it said of my first Administration that, in it, the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match... That is why the recovery we seek, the recovery we are winning, is more than economic.  In it are included justice and love and humility, not for ourselves as individuals alone, but for our Nation. That is the road to peace."

Images (from top): Fasces that surround the Bok Tech stage are a central image on the back of the Winged Liberty dime.

The PIFA press preview was a smashing success today at the Merriam Theater!  Partner organizations from all around the city -- and from various and sundry moments in time -- joined in celebrating the festival and the timeless nature of art. 

The COSACOSA staff members' playful take on Spare A Dime imagery included Winged Liberty Dime fascinators combined with Works Progress Administration posters...and Spare A Dime T-shirts, of course!

Check out our pictures from the event on COSACOSA's Facebook page and on the PIFA Facebook page, too!
Where will you #timetravel2?

Spare A Dime celebrates American ideals of freedom and fairness, and we're using the symbology of the Liberty Dime (in circulation during the Great Depression) to make our point.   At left, Bok seniors work on a giant dime which will be part of the set.  Designed by COSACOSA artists with Bok Tech students, this twirling Liberty image will accompany Spare A Dime's "Chorus of Liberty" each time they enter the stage.

The Winged Liberty Head dime was in circulation from 1916 to 1945, the last in a series of Liberty images that adorned dimes from the founding of the nation.  Because of the small wings attached to Lady Liberty's hat,  this coin often is mistakenly called the Mercury Dime (after the speedy winged messenger of Greco-Roman mythology).  However, the wings on this coin have a more poetic meaning: liberty of thought, the backbone of all other freedoms.  To quote Benjamin Franklin,  "Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as publick Liberty, without Freedom of Speech."  Indeed, Liberty's headdress is a Phrygian cap, worn in ancient Rome by emancipated slaves as a symbol of their freedom. 

The Winged Liberty Head dime design was created by Adolph A. Weinman.  Made of 90% silver (with 10% cooper added for longevity in circulation), these dimes had serrated edges to assure that no one would try to shave any silver off the coin.

When, after being elected to four terms as President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt died in office in 1945, Congress passed legislation to replace Liberty's image with his.  The dime was the perfect coin to honor FDR. He had founded the March of Dimes (originally known as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis) to raise money for polio research and to aid individuals and families afflicted by the disease.

The flipside of this coin also has some wonderful symbols that resonate with our Spare A Dime themes (and the design of the theater space).  We'll explore them in another post.