After spending 82 hours on the streets of downtown Orlando, Peter Murphy went straight into shooting a video broadcast of Orlando Live. The show began at 10 pm at the City Arts Factory. Cameras were set up in the hallway entry. There was the frantic activity of getting ready with time running out. Wires snaked everywhere in the hallway. Singer, songwriter, Britt Daley who was setup right outside the entry gave a live performance. Peter looked tired, his eyes glassy, but he lit up once the cameras started rolling.
His first interview was with Hannah Miller. Hannah is a puppeteer and she had several of the puppets she made for an upcoming show titled “Gift of the Magi.” One puppet hung from a light. A stagehand was concerned the light might topple with the added weight, but Hannah assured her that the puppet was extremely light. The conversation quickly turned from the world of entertainment to the experiences Peter had on the streets of Orlando. He discovered that Hannah volunteered for an organization called iDignity, which finds identification papers for the poor. Without IDs it is impossible to get a job. The organization’s mission is so simple and yet empowering, allowing people to take control of their lives.
Hannah had wonderful ideas about how to revitalize downtown by allowing street performers to work and improving the downtown culture through art. The only big business downtown at night now seems to be the sale of alcohol. Just then a gaggle of college girls started yelling and screaming because they saw the cameras. As Hannah walked back to her car, some jerk snatched a puppet out of her arms ripping it in the process. When she got to the parking lot space she had paid for, she found her car had been towed. She spent the rest of the night trying to find her car and extricate it from the impound lot all the way out by the airport. The towing pirates even made her wait an additional 40 minutes before they showed up to the lot. Rather than holding a grudge, she had this to say, “I’m going out of my way every time I leave my house for the next week to be super, super nice to everybody. I think Orlando needs it.”
