((PKG)) KIDWELL SISTERS
((TRT: 07:44))
((Topic Banner: Kidwell Sisters))
((Reporter: Anna Nelson))
((Camera: Vladimir Badikov))
((Editor: Natalia Latukhina))
((Adapted by: Philip Alexiou))
((Map: New York City, New York))
((Main characters: 2 female))
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Lauren Kidwell
Professional Actor and Street Performer))
When we came back to the city and we decided to go out and sing, it was supposed to only be something that like, you know, we'll do this until we can find another job. We never, in a million years, thought that it would be as successful as we had, that this could be our only job, that this could be something that would sustain us. First it felt like, okay, you know, I'm going to go sing on the street. You know, like I guess this is like what desperate feels like, you know.
((Music/Courtesy: “Sisters”/SME))
((NATS: Singing))
((Hannah Kidwell
Professional Actor and Street Performer))
Go ahead.
((Lauren Kidwell
Professional Actor and Street Performer))
I'm Lauren Kidwell. I am 33. I've been in the city, in New York City for about five or six years. This is my sister.
((Hannah Kidwell
Professional Actor and Street Performer))
Hi, I'm Hannah Kidwell. I've been in the city for about a year now. And through that year, I've been singing on the street with my big sister, Lauren.
((NATS: Singing))
((Lauren Kidwell
Professional Actor and Street Performer))
It just kind of came out of necessity because we needed to pay our bills and we knew we wanted to keep singing.
((Music/Courtesy: “Bei Mir Mistu Sheine”/UMG))
We're both professional actors normally and, but the theater, you know, industry was completely shut down. There was just no work. We just kind of decided to go out there and sing on the street and sing the songs that we love, songs that we both grew up on, which was like songs from the 1920s to the 1960s.
((NATS: Singing))
((Music/Courtesy: “But Not For Me””/UMG))
((Lauren Kidwell
Professional Actor and Street Performer))
((Courtesy: Lauren Kidwell))
We grew up kind of poor in the suburbs of Los Angeles and, ((Courtesy: Lauren Kidwell))
but our family was like we are very tight-knit family.
((Courtesy: Lauren Kidwell))
We have two other sisters who also sing just like this,
((Courtesy: Lauren Kidwell))
but they're back in California. Our dad is a musician.
And because both my parents grew up listening to their parents sing opera that was a big part of their lives. And so, I think they wanted to instill in us the kind of love of music.
((Music/Courtesy: "Dream a Little Dream of Me" / SME))
And because we couldn't really afford voice lessons, my mom and dad always like had us listen to the classicals, to the operas, to the musicals, like people who could sing, who had huge like legit [legitimate] voices. My sisters and I were like in college when we took o ur first voice lessons, but we learned how to sing by like emulating Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday thrown in there as well.
((NATS: Singing))
((Music/Courtesy: "I can’t Get Started"/UMG))
((Hannah Kidwell
Professional Actor and Street Performer))
Personally, I trained for four years in classical singing and opera. I received a few awards. I won the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions in Los Angeles.
I think the thing about the business that we're in is that you can be…one year, you could be winning awards. You can be at the top of your career. It's that thing where you're like you feel like you're pulling back on an arrow and then you feel like you're going to be shoot out, but then the arrow drops out of your bow. And so, one day, you could be winning an award. One day, you could be singing on the street. And I think we have a background of, you know, winning grand opera awards, doing national tours. But we also have a background of being very poor.
((Lauren Kidwell
Professional Actor and Street Performer))
I got my undergrad [undergraduate] degree in directing. I thought I was going to go be a director and direct Broadway shows and, you know, live my career that way. And then after I graduated undergrad, someone heard me sing and they're like, “No, you need to get back in a performance.
((Courtesy: “Climb Every Mountain”/Concord Music Publishing LLC/RiverCenter for the Performing Arts))
That's absolutely something you need to do.” So, I went and got my master's degree in musical theater from Boston Conservatory. And then,
((Courtesy: Lauren Kidwell))
I actually pursued a career in acting and musical theater. So, I've done like the national tour of Sound of Music. I've done, you know, regional work here and there, all over.
((Lauren Kidwell
Professional Actor and Street Performer))
You can answer that.
((Hannah Kidwell
Professional Actor and Street Performer))
We're not twins. She's my older sister. She's eight years older than me. And I get it though. We all, we look the same.
((Lauren Kidwell
Professional Actor and Street Performer))
I’m always like, “Yes, we are twins.” I’m nearly 10 years older than her. I’ve always loved the compliment.
((Hannah Kidwell
Professional Actor and Street Performer))
But the twin question, I’m offended when people are like…
((Lauren Kidwell
Professional Actor and Street Performer))
She’s my baby sister.
((Hannah Kidwell
Professional Actor and Street Performer))
And Lauren's a leader and it just kind of works for us, for sure.
((Lauren Kidwell
Professional Actor and Street Performer))
Yeah.
((Hannah Kidwell
Professional Actor and Street Performer))
She's not like a tyrant.
((Lauren Kidwell
Professional Actor and Street Performer))
Thank you.
((NATS: Singing))
((Music/Courtesy: "Non, je ne regrette rien/Believe Music-WMG))
((Hannah Kidwell
Professional Actor and Street Performer))
There's a line in the biopic about Edith Piaf [French singer] and she's out singing on the street. Edith Piaf was, you know, one of the first buskers. And she was out in the street singing, and her friend is standing next to her and her friend says, “I’m going to leave. I’m bored.” And she goes, “Well, when you're here, when there's two people, it feels like a show. When it's just myself, I feel like I'm begging.” And that's absolutely the case for us too. When there's two people, even when she's sitting on the side, it's nice to know that people can associate her with me and go and speak to her about what we do.
((NATS: Singing))
((Music/Courtesy: "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”/UMG))
((Lauren Kidwell
Professional Actor and Street Performer))
The reason why we dress the way we do and why we sing the songs we do, because, you know, we can come out there in like, you know, shorts and t-shirts and sneakers, and sing the same songs, and I don't think there would be the same reaction.
((Music/Courtesy: "Happy Days Are Here Again”/SME))
In fact, I was reading something that in the 1940s, red lipstick became like synonymous with women of that time period. And it was about during World War Two, women wanted to appear that they like weren't, that they were strong, and it was a very British thing and a very American thing. And so, red lipstick was a way to show people that you're like, “No, I'm tough.” So, we love putting on the red lipstick.
((Lauren Kidwell
Professional Actor and Street Performer))
There's something about nostalgia and something about that genre of music
((Music/Courtesy: “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”/UMG/Stree of Sound/YouTube))
in that time period, that really just evokes something. It just like it reminds them of a grandparent or like of a time in New York City and being able to share something really special with people. They felt their city, which they loved, was on lockdown and would never breathe again. To be able to be a part of the experience of New York was something so profoundly important that it just blew all of our fears out of the water. And it's been so consistent.
((NATS: Singing))
((Music/Courtesy: “Dream a Little Dream of Me"/SME))
((Lauren Kidwell
Professional Actor and Street Performer))
If you danced to your, you know, on your first dance at your wedding to that song, and then you just happen to be like going to get groceries and you hear that song again.
((NATS: Singing))
((Hannah Kidwell
Professional Actor and Street Performer))
I sing the song New York, New York, and it took me a while to want to sing that song just because it's corny and it's the song that kind of everybody knows, you know. I finally put it on the list, and I said, “I'm going to do it. And then if New Yorkers think it's stupid, then I'll stop.” But literally, every single time you hear that dun, dun, dun, dun, duh, people's faces light up and they start singing along with the music and…
((NATS: Singing))
((Music/Courtesy: “Theme from New York, New York"/UMG)) Lauren Kidwell
Professional Actor and Street Performer))
New York is tough, but it makes tough people, and I think that's what's so wonderful about it, bec ause it either spits you up and chews you up and spits you out and, you know, you end up leaving. But if you can, you know, dig your heels in, New York will make you a better person.
((Lauren Kidwell
Professional Actor and Street Performer))
I mean, we, the short answer is, did Broadway call us up or have us any response on Broadway? No. However, being on 17th and Broadway, we always say that we sing on Broadway, you know, because, you know, we're not lying. So many people come up to us and they're like, “Have you been on Broadway? Are you going on Broadway? Are you going to be on Broadway? Where can I see you?” You know. So, you know, we're waiting for that call. That would be amazing.
((Music/Courtesy: “Happy Days Are Here Again”/SME))
((NATS: Singing))
