Nicole Iannaconne: Head of Lighting at Dallas Theater Center

Speaker 1 (00:13):

This is art in the raw. I’m your host Anne Kelly. Today’s guest is Nicole Iannaconne she’s the head of lighting at the Dallas theater center. Thanks for joining us today, Nicole.

Speaker 2 (00:24):

Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:26):

And where are you today?

Speaker 2 (00:28):

Uh, I’m actually in Arlington. I, I am about 30 miles south of Dallas. Uh, but you know, commuting’s not bad in Texas. It’s all flat.

Speaker 1 (00:37):

no mountains to drive up. No,

Speaker 2 (00:42):

Speaker 1 (00:43):

So Nicole and I met in, I think 1999.

Speaker 2 (00:48):

That’s correct. September of 99.

Speaker 1 (00:51):

Yeah. So college of Santa Fe, we were, we were in art school. You were, was your degree specifically lighting design theater. What, what

Speaker 2 (01:00):

Was actually awesome thing about the college of Santa Fe is I kind of designed my own degree that I, uh, I have a BA in technical theater with an emphasis in lighting.

Speaker 1 (01:09):

Cool, cool. Well, we were super lucky, lucky to go there when we did, cause it’s gone through a lot of weird changes and actually no longer exists. Um, yeah, but around, it started in the like 18, I don’t know, 50 I 18 something or other, yeah,

Speaker 2 (01:28):

It was 18 something or other with the brothers that started, you know, the colleges said FA way, way back in the day and yeah, I guess it got a good hundred year ish run

Speaker 1 (01:37):

So we got to take advantage of that and, and you, and you have continued to work in that field for

Speaker 2 (01:44):

Graduated in 2003. So I’ve been 17 years in professional lighting,

Speaker 1 (01:49):

Been in the bay area for a while. Mm-hmm

Speaker 2 (01:52):

That’s true. I, I lived out in Oakland, uh, and I worked in Walnut Creek at their, um, the Leer center for the performing arts for quite some time.

Speaker 1 (02:01):

And then you moved to Texas where you’re originally from mm-hmm

Speaker 2 (02:07):

That’s true. I, I, I moved back here to work at the, at T performing arts center. And now I work for the Dallas theater center, which is one of the resident clients of the, at T performing art center.

Speaker 1 (02:17):

Right. We were talking about that earlier. There’s kind of multiple theaters that you might use and

Speaker 2 (02:24):

Yeah, yeah. We were working about five different venues, I guess, most of which are at the at and T performing our center. Primarily we work in the Wiley and their Potter space, but they also have a studio space in that building. And then across the streets, the Winspire opera house, which we did one show at at one point. And then next to that is our, the outdoor venue called Straus at Strau artist square. And, uh, uh, we did a show back, I don’t know, three years ago now where we did this sort of walking tour of the arts district with Electra, the Greek drama. And, uh, we’re looking at doing potentially a concert out there this season.

Speaker 1 (02:59):

So have you been able to use the, the outdoor performance area? Uh,

Speaker 2 (03:05):

Research? There is an outdoor, it’s not like an amphitheater, but it’s similar to that. And that it’s like a Raed lawn, uh, with a stage. Uh, we used it once for a show, uh, a few years ago and we’re, we’re hoping to use it this year. So it’s been, there’s been a lot of folks who have booked out there and various other things. So like fingers crossed will do a concert in December there.

Speaker 1 (03:29):

Cool. Yeah. I mean, things are kinda having to move out outdoors.

Speaker 2 (03:33):

Yeah. And the nice thing about Texas is even in December, it’s not that cold.

Speaker 1 (03:37):

Right, right. That is definitely helpful. So I’ve again known you since 1999, but I don’t think I’ve ever actually, or I don’t remember the story of how you actually got into theater where that interest kind of originally developed from I’ve had that conversation. I, I don’t remember. I don’t

Speaker 2 (04:01):

Know that we have like I started in theater in high school. I mean, you know, in high school, most people do a little bit of everything. I decided that was what I wanted to try to do for a living. So I, I applied to a bunch of different schools and I got into the college of Santa Fe and my original plan was to be a scenic designer. Um, but the car met at like 7:00 AM and the lighting people met at 6:00 PM. So I went to a lighting call cause I didn’t wanna wake up at 7:00 AM and kinda fell in love with it after that it’s like painting, but with light, so you don’t make a mess, you just have to play with electricity.

Speaker 1 (04:41):

Had the photography department been like that. I, I would’ve made the same decision because right. I’m not a

Speaker 2 (04:47):

Morning person, not a morning person at 18

Speaker 1 (04:50):

Anybody has noticed most of the art and the raw episodes. Uh, it is dark. Um, right. Well, I mean, that’s kind similar to, to my story and, and I just fell in love with photography and art in high school. And there was just kind of no other direction that I was, I was gonna go in later and also found the college of Santa Fe and, and met you. And we lived together for, for

Speaker 2 (05:17):

Years. That’s true. You were my favorite roommate. well, thank

Speaker 1 (05:21):

You. So, so before we get into what’s going on now, I was reminiscing earlier about, do you remember the art show we collaborated on? I called it a night of art and music. Yes,

Speaker 2 (05:36):

Yes. I do

Speaker 1 (05:37):

Remember that. Yeah. And, and that’s back when I was working at the restaurant and, and that was a crazy production we put on, I, I rented a warehouse, I got 10 artists, including Nicole. She was showing some paintings mm-hmm to put together this, this art show. And, and Nicole also did all of the lighting. That’s true. It was, this

Speaker 2 (06:01):

Was my first time doing lighting for art and it was really fun and I got to learn lots of stuff about,

Speaker 1 (06:05):

And that was wild. I mean, it was one night only we made professional cards. There was, there was music, um, all of that. So I was thinking kind of earlier of, of, um, I mean maybe the show is just kind of a continuation of that in, in the, in the digital

Speaker 2 (06:24):

Part, maybe. So

Speaker 1 (06:27):

So thank you for, for doing the lighting for that. That, that was amazing. Of course, its kinda wild. We had to get all of the art in and out in a pretty short, you had some crazy

Speaker 2 (06:39):

Short time, like I feel like we only had 48 hours for the whole thing.

Speaker 1 (06:42):

Yeah, I . I think so.

Speaker 2 (06:46):

So, and I remember like power math was insane cuz there was no power there and trying to figure out how to make anything look decent slash you know, have a band play and all of that. Like it was, it was crazy

Speaker 1 (06:59):

And you might have gotten a little bit electrocuted by or zapped by something. I don’t know.

Speaker 2 (07:06):

I don’t remember that. That’s not a good thing if I don’t remember that it’s possible. I know I’ve been shocked a few times in my life. Thankfully I’m still here, so not badly, but It could have been one of em, I remember an extension ladder that I had to like put up to the top of the like ceiling and like that two story room to like access one of the only circuits in the building

Speaker 1 (07:34):

At love Santa Fe construction. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:36):

Yeah. And I, I like used beam club to hang like these source BOS that I borrowed from somebody so that we could like shine it at the art and it was, yeah, it was, it was nuts

Speaker 1 (07:46):

so that was the early two thousands and, and we’re still doing it. So curious

Speaker 2 (07:52):

To that, cheers

Speaker 1 (07:53):

To that so I think Western civilization was a class that we both are required to, to take at the college of Santa Fe, which sometimes was more exciting than others. Um, but I was, I was kind of brushing up on my theater effects earlier. The, the origin of theater just goes back so far and I mean, that doesn’t necessarily be,

Speaker 2 (08:16):

Has been humans. We’ve been performing for each other.

Speaker 1 (08:19):

You. Yeah. And, and so that’s, I mean, as, as much as I’ve kind of known that every time I’ve done a show and say I’m looking up, uh, fountains or acrylic paint or, or, or, or just painting anything like that, it or tattooing, it just goes back that far. So theater is not any different. The, the origin of about you relates, um, to the God Diane, ISIS, who is the God of fertility and wine. Yep. So don’t remember that from Western SI, but think it’s kind of cool now. So in 2020, that sounded really serious in 2020, it it’s been a little challenging or, or current times have really kind of modified, well, I mean everything, but also with the theater, you haven’t been able to really?

Speaker 2 (09:12):

Yeah. Theater’s been hit pretty hard. Like you said, every been hit hard, but like mm-hmm, much of the live events industry is shut down still. Like there, I, I, I couldn’t give you actual statistics, but ballpark, 90% of people who work in the live arts are still outta hard is shut down till may, maybe even the fall. Like it’s, um, it’s crazy. There’s a lot happening and people are trying, like, we’re trying to forge ways to do something, you know, just to, just to stay alive.

Speaker 1 (09:42):

So one of the things you’re working on right now is, uh, you’re doing the Christmas Carol, an ad adaptation anyways of it. That’s gonna stream.

Speaker 2 (09:54):

That’s true. Yeah. We’re so, so we’re doing, it’s called, I’m gonna try and get this right. It’s called into the bleak. Mid-winter a Christmas Carol for our times. Uh . Which is yes. An adaptation of, you know, the original Christmas Carol that’s, uh, our artistic director’s actually writing right now. Uh it’s, it’s mostly, but you know, with any original work, you’re tweaking it through tech. Um, so yeah, we’re working on that. It’s gonna feature like our acting company, all of the department heads within the theater are gonna be designing their various, you know, departments basically. So I’m, I’m acting as the lighting designer for this show, our costume directors functioning as the costume designer, you know, that kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (10:38):

This will probably be airing actually closer to the time when people can buy tickets. How, how would people go about that? Or do you know that now

Speaker 2 (10:50):

We can, tickets will be available through our website, uh, which is the Dallas theater center.org. It’s gonna, we’re only streaming it. We’re actually not able to have audiences due to current restrictions and everything. So we’re, we’re setting up a filmed version of this in the theater. This is new for a lot of us I have worked in theater most of my adult life and have only done like tiny bits with film. So it’s gonna be interesting. We’ll film it week of Thanksgiving. Um, and then it’ll go into post-production the like, after the holiday and we’ll, we’ll be releasing it to stream starting at the beginning of September and it’ll stream all the way through Christmas, probably new year’s

Speaker 1 (11:31):

And we’ll put the description of how to buy the tickets and all of that in the description of this video. So you can check that out there. So, I mean, that’s, that’s just kind of an interesting thing. And on one level it’s, it’s less accessible because you can’t go and actually sit in the audience, but on another level, for example, I can go

Speaker 2 (11:55):

It’s true. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:56):

I wouldn’t have been able, unlikely that I would’ve been able to, to attend.

Speaker 2 (12:02):

No. Had you happened to have been visiting maybe or whatever, you know, that’s the only way any of my friends see the work I do generally. I mean, that’s like one of the amazing things about live art is it’s a shared live experience and that’s what you’re missing. But at the same time, that means my friends all over the country can check out the work that I’m doing.

Speaker 1 (12:22):

Yeah. I mean, we just gotta keep it alive somehow some way mm-hmm so, yeah. I mean, maybe that’ll just change every, I mean, theater, so many things in moving forward, maybe. Yeah. There will be the, the live performance, but also that streaming

Speaker 2 (12:39):

Yeah. Simultaneously it could be being streamed, a live performance, you know, that could be great. Yeah. Although my video guy, he’s not gonna like me saying those words out loud.

Speaker 1 (12:51):

Right. Video guy. I don’t know him personally. So he, he can’t it’s

Speaker 2 (12:57):

Okay.

Speaker 1 (12:59):

He can be mad at me. Uh you’re kind of in the planning phase of that at this point. Right. Have you started?

Speaker 2 (13:06):

Yeah. I mean, we’re, we’re in the planning slash pre prep. Like we know it’s happening. Like I’ve designed a plot, you know, I have a light plot that I’ve been into my staff slash myself as the master electrician, which I can’t wait to have the lighting designer, master electrician battle between myself and tech. That’s gonna be great. yeah. So my staff has like, basically started prep work on the show where you, you know, you break down the light plot, decide where all the lights are getting plugged into, you know, organize things as best you can to have a smooth load in process. Cause, uh, a week from Monday, we load in for the first time in seven months, which I’m pretty excited about

Speaker 1 (13:42):

that that must feel good. I was kind of brushing up earlier and I ran into a bit of information that I wasn’t familiar with going back, back back, they used to build the theaters based they would do outside theaters and they would build them east to west to make use of the, the natural light. So that is true. you’ve definitely come a long way with that. Like you would’ve had to. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:09):

We actually have one of the buildings we perform in it’s called the Kaleta Humphreys theater. It was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and, and there are windows in the house that are designed for optimal lighting at certain times, so that the light would hit the stage. Like it’s, you know, that’s, that’s definitely the original thing from way back in the day, but it, it has followed it followed through even, I guess, or that building 60 years old. So, you know, into the late fifties, early sixties, that idea was still around in some ways that

Speaker 1 (14:36):

That’s really cool. So do they do performances in that? I mean, do they still take advantage of that?

Speaker 2 (14:42):

No, we keep those windows tightly shut during performances.

Speaker 1 (14:48):

Not that I have any sway, but one day I would love to see that happen. I would, I would

Speaker 2 (14:52):

Too, actually I really think that would be a neat thing to implement. The problem usually is, is cuz most shows happen at eight o’clock, seven 30, it’s already dark. Right. But you know, it would be cool to like plan a show like on the weekends or something to go with the sunset to sort of have that work through your show as the sunset and hit the stage beautifully with the, you know, why not,

Speaker 1 (15:12):

Maybe it could be a streaming thing, right? Yeah. I mean, I, I, that’s a good idea. I would drive to Dallas to see that. Right. quite sure. And then there was a time period where they were actually using candles and candle LARAs. Yep. And, but I guess there was an issue with the, the patrons getting burned by wax and

Speaker 2 (15:34):

I have heard that. I think it also might have had to, you know, started a few theater fires

Speaker 1 (15:42):

right, right. I would, I mean, I would imagine. Yeah. If I,

Speaker 2 (15:46):

If I remember right from theater history, they had Footlights on the edge of the stage that were candles with reflect behind them. And that’s like where the term foot light came from is cuz there’s lights at your feet.

Speaker 1 (15:57):

Oh, cool. Cool. So we’ve gone from daylight to candles to possibly L E D if you have ’em and mm-hmm lasers, maybe

Speaker 2 (16:13):

We don’t generally employ a lot of lasers in the theater, but

Speaker 1 (16:16):

Yeah. you could,

Speaker 2 (16:18):

We could they’re out there.

Speaker 1 (16:20):

so, um, you did, you guys did one other streaming production.

Speaker 2 (16:26):

We did right before everything, you know, shut down and the, you know, the world changed, uh, we were in the middle of mounting American mariachi. Uh, so we were like, we were at dress rehearsal when we were told we were gonna have to shut down. So we, we basically filmed our dress rehearsal and streamed that yeah,

Speaker 1 (16:49):

That was kind of surprise. Whereas

Speaker 2 (16:50):

Yeah, it was a surprise. Like, I mean, I can’t like that week is a blur because it was so insane. Like everything was just like, nobody knew what was going on. We knew we were shutting down, we weren’t gonna be able to do a show, but we were trying to figure something out and we got something out and it was actually great. Like the, the folks who, who filmed that for us did a beautiful job. And I, uh, like it was, it was reasonably successful. Like a lot of people were excited about it and I, I don’t know how the sales went that unfortunately, like that’s not my job to keep track of that, but I think we sold out fairly well. I, I mean, I don’t know if sold out is the right word, but we sold fairly well. Mm-hmm mm-hmm yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:33):

Um, and did I know I had friends that like, you know, I had a friend in Washington who was like, who streamed it and texted me to tell me how much she loved it. And I had family in New York that streamed it. So, you know, that’s, that was something that obviously, like you said before, you know, doesn’t generally happen with theater you’re you’re far away. People don’t get to see that stuff. So that was kind of a highlight of, even though everything was terrible and crazy, it was like, oh, well we got to at least give a little piece of our art out there to the world.

Speaker 1 (18:00):

Right. And so this time around it’s actually being planned as such. So yeah, that, that maybe a little less hectic and, and crazy

Speaker 2 (18:10):

Yeah. Fingers crossed. It will be

Speaker 1 (18:13):

Speaker 2 (18:13):

No, I think

Speaker 1 (18:15):

Fine. Crazy is not a surprise.

Speaker 2 (18:17):

Yeah. It’s not a surprise. We’re planning for it while it is new for us. Like we’re trying to figure out as much as we can on the front end. And you know, one thing you can say about most folks who work in life re we’re, like we’re comfortable dealing with things changing at the last second and working under stress. So we’ll be fine.

Speaker 1 (18:36):

Right. And you had mentioned, um, when I was asking about your technical title at this point in time, over time, you’ve had different titles and that’s kind of changed just based upon what’s going on now. So it, in the normal world, what, like all of the things that you do, it’s

Speaker 2 (18:53):

Quite, uh, in the normal world. So I’m the head of lighting for the Dallas theater center, which basically means like I function as like the lighting supervisor and the master electrician. Uh, so like I deal with coordinating with the, we, we hire in lighting designers normally, you know, we hire them mean actually from all over the world. Um, I’ve worked with a number of amazing people throughout my time at the Dallas theater center. And, uh, I do, like, I basically coordinate with them on the front end, uh, you know, help them work within our budgetary constraints, you know, slash realize their vision cuz you know, they’re, they’re coming in and they want the world and come up with crazy ideas. And then I figure out how to implement said crazy ideas and hopefully we make some beautiful art together.

Speaker 1 (19:39):

So yeah. I mean that’s one of the things that I think is beautiful about theater is just the collaborative aspect of it. Just within our thinking.

Speaker 2 (19:50):

We, we are a collabo bunch, you know, like you can’t you and I actually think there’s like a line from the Christmas Carol that we usually do. That’s a, that’s a, no man is an island. You know, you can’t, you can’t do anything by yourself basically. And theaters definitely has that and it’s all the way we operate you. Can’t there, you know, a one person show isn’t a one person show, it still takes probably 10 to put that up.

Speaker 1 (20:13):

right. Yeah. Which is interesting with the different mediums. I mean, so many mediums are kind of a solitary thing, true others, not, not so much or, or you can make them collaborative even if they are kind of solitary.

Speaker 2 (20:26):

That is also true. Yeah. I mean, while painting might be generally something you do by yourself to do a mural with, you know, a dozen people can be equally as powerful and amazing.

Speaker 1 (20:37):

So I don’t wanna put you on the spot, but do you still paint?

Speaker 2 (20:40):

I do. um, actually, yeah. Then, uh, I don’t paint as often as I’d like to, um, last work I did was, uh, painting of the Brooklyn bridge when everything was going crazy with New York, that’s where I’m originally from. And I just, like, I felt like I needed to show a little love to my original hometown. And I did like, you know, a sort of me style with lots of weird detail painting of the Brooklyn bridge that I gave to my cousin for her, uh, very late wedding present. I think I was about seven months late. Well,

Speaker 1 (21:12):

But it was a very thoughtful gift. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:15):

Yeah. She tells me she loves it. She’s either nice enough to me to tell me she loves it or she really loves it.

Speaker 1 (21:22):

Well, somewhere around here I have the card from art and the raw that has your painting on that was on plywood. Was it on plywood?

Speaker 2 (21:32):

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:33):

That’s great. Like, I, I will never forget that painting. I love that painting.

Speaker 2 (21:37):

I still have it, it hangs in my bedroom I, I have one of yours in the background. You

Speaker 1 (21:42):

Can see it. Actually. I was no noticing that. I was like,

Speaker 2 (21:46):

I didn’t think of that until like at some point we started and I was like, oh yeah, that’s Anne’s painting by our Ann’s photograph by me.

Speaker 1 (21:52):

yeah. I made that like right after, um, right after college, cuz I didn’t have, I was like one of my first digital pieces. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:01):

Speaker 1 (22:02):

Darkroom anymore. And yeah, the whole photo world is just like, yeah. I mean, speaking of going from like using natural light to candles to

Speaker 2 (22:13):

Yeah. photo world and lighting world has some parallels there for sure.

Speaker 1 (22:18):

Yeah. I mean so many artistic mediums. I mean even painting just different types of paint. Um, mm-hmm it’s all connected. I keep for real. Do you wanna show that video that

Speaker 2 (22:30):

Sure. This is uh, one of my, uh, amazing staff members made this as a sort of, uh, introduction to team lighting at the Dallas theater center.

Speaker 3 (23:09):

Hello you?

Speaker 1 (23:41):

Oh,

Speaker 2 (23:42):

That was great. Yeah. I love that so much that that’s Jessica, she did a fabulous job with that.

Speaker 1 (23:48):

shouted to Jessica don’t know her, but that was amazing. Are there any, um, Instagram photos you wanna share from the Dallas theater center that, um,

Speaker 2 (24:04):

We had some good ones from the red alert, uh, restart campaign that we did.

Speaker 1 (24:08):

Um, right. Yeah. So that, that was something I was seeing on. Hold on. So, you know,

Speaker 2 (24:17):

But if I remember correctly on September 1st, uh, live performance venues all over the country, lit their buildings up in red, uh, to try and draw attention to the fact that we need help right. That our industry is struggling right now. Yeah. So that’s, that’s the Wiley theater that’s uh, so Aaron Johansen, the lighting supervisor, uh, at APAC actually did the inside. And then I did the outside from the wind spear across the street. Uh, it rained that night, which was unfortunate. Like it was like terrible Texas storm because, uh, we probably could have done so much more. We did our best trying to, you know, light things safely with it being pouring rain. Uh, but yeah, so that’s the Wiley theater. That’s where the Dallas theater center does a lot of their productions, um, lit up and red to hopefully draw attention to the fact that we need some help. You, you know, I’m talking about, you know, extend PUA and uh, it was hashtag red alert, restart. Um,

Speaker 1 (25:13):

So yeah, and I was definitely seeing a lot of that on social media. And even though I initially didn’t necessarily understand what the message was. It was, it was effective. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:26):

I mean there was, I, I forget how many cities have participated now, but it was a ton of cities participated with a ton of buildings and a ton of companies like, and people were like, you know, most of these folks were outta work. They were doing this on volunteer bases to draw attention to what’s going on

Speaker 1 (25:40):

With us. So yeah, we, I mean, we’ve gotta keep these things alive and I, I can’t wait to, to stream. the version of Carol

Speaker 2 (25:50):

In the bleak mid winter.

Speaker 1 (25:51):

Speaker 2 (25:54):

Yes’, it’s be good. I’m excited about it. I don’t know. Uh, I’m nervous about it. I, uh, haven’t done full lighting designs in a little while, so, uh that’s right though. You know, I think, uh, we’re gonna try, we’re gonna try and make some art and give it out to the people. Cause that’s what you do as in theater.

Speaker 1 (26:12):

Right. it’s just a different thing. So the surprise question. Oh no surprise. if you could time travel to any point in time ever, where would that be?

Speaker 2 (26:30):

Past end future? Like I, you know, anytime ever

Speaker 1 (26:33):

Mm-hmm

Speaker 2 (26:34):

Yep. I mean, I think I’d wanna see what the futures, like, I think I’d wanna jump like 10,000 years from now and see if we’re still

Speaker 1 (26:40):

Around. You had to go back in time.

Speaker 2 (26:44):

I mean, that’s a tough call. I mean the default theater person answer is obviously go see Shakespeare, but I don’t know if that’s real. I think I might wanna like go check it on like the French court and the 18 hundreds and see what kind of crazy things they’re up to.

Speaker 1 (26:58):

Yeah. I mean, maybe you can Bo around for a little bit, so you can go. I

Speaker 2 (27:01):

Mean, if I had Tarus options, I just see everything.

Speaker 1 (27:05):

Right.

Speaker 2 (27:06):

I’d totally be one of Dr. Who’s companions. I mean, if that

Speaker 1 (27:11):

feel like we’re all feeling a little bit like time travelers recently where we’re like on zoom and we’re bopping around through different time zones and

Speaker 2 (27:19):

Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s a weird reality we’re in, in that regard where, you know, or and time in some ways was last stall meeting. Like I used to be one of those guys where people would say, oh, time flies. And I’d be like, no, it doesn’t. I remember yesterday and 10 years ago. And like the last seven months I’m like, was that last week? Or was that four years ago? I don’t know.

Speaker 1 (27:39):

Is it summer? Or

Speaker 2 (27:42):

Like, I, you know, it looked at the calendar. I was like it’s wow.

Speaker 1 (27:48):

Yeah,

Speaker 2 (27:50):

I dunno. That’s new for me. That might be something everybody has always felt, but that’s new for me for time to fly and freeze at the same time.

Speaker 1 (27:57):

Yeah. No, no. I’ve, I, I, that sounds really weird, but uh, I I’ve kind of experienced a similar thing. Right. doesn’t really make sense, but I’ve heard other people say it. So I guess, I guess it’s a thing

Speaker 2 (28:11):

You’re in a zoom meeting that’s supposed to end in 15 minutes, but yet it feels like yesterday at the same time.

Speaker 1 (28:19):

You used to live in New Mexico. Yes I did. What, what is the food you the most? I mean, I think

Speaker 2 (28:28):

I don’t miss it because I can now buy it. I’m in Corman’s havens green chili the most. And since the shutdown is one of the good things about shutdown is they have started shipping out of state.

Speaker 1 (28:42):

I’ve been telling people that yeah.

Speaker 2 (28:44):

Awesome. Get like, I I’ve gotten like three times now. Believe it or not. In six months I have gotten six pints of horseman safe and green chili

Speaker 1 (28:54):

So you were doing okay. Yeah, I’m

Speaker 2 (28:56):

Doing all right with that. I had some this morning. It was delicious. awesome.

Speaker 1 (29:01):

But, but like, if there was like a dish from New Mexico, like between angel Illa

Speaker 2 (29:10):

I’m Awas run JS girl

Speaker 1 (29:13):

So you could kind of do that up yourself with the eggs and

Speaker 2 (29:17):

That’s true. Although I do miss those stuff towards stuff, stuff, soap, PIs, that Tia Sophias did like that. Oh my God. Those are good.

Speaker 1 (29:26):

so very important.

Speaker 2 (29:28):

It’s true.

Speaker 1 (29:31):

And then these days, your favorite movie, do you have a favorite movie?

Speaker 2 (29:35):

Oh gosh. I’ve never been good at picking favorites for films or television. Like I, to like, I can’t even think of the last great movie I’ve watched cuz Josh and I have kind of been just rewatching stuff lately

Speaker 1 (29:48):

and actually, uh, that’s something I found everybody’s kind of rewatching things. So yeah. I’m

Speaker 2 (29:53):

Rewatching stranger things right now, which is an amazing show. I love that show. We just hit season three, which is season one and two are for now threes. Good. But I, I, not my favorite. I’m excited for season four though.

Speaker 1 (30:08):

Okay. So yeah, I need to go back to that because I watched season one and I think I got distracted in season two and really they’re already on season four.

Speaker 2 (30:17):

Well, I think because of COVID they got shut down. I am heard enough that I read this, uh, they got shut down in the middle of filming season four. Um, and they have resumed recently under very stringent protocols and they should be able to release it in July of 21,

Speaker 1 (30:34):

But I’m still behind and you’re

Speaker 2 (30:36):

Still behind, but you have time to catch up is what I’m saying. Like you’ve got a solid nine months to watch a couple seasons

Speaker 1 (30:44):

I can do that. no, that that’s, that’s an amazing show. Um, I’m just always kind of interested in other sort of mediums or, or just forms of, um, art, you know, art, music, television, or like what are they interested in? And I think recently just in terms of, um, the just weird pandemic times, I know I’ve been just revisiting everything. Yeah. So, so

Speaker 2 (31:14):

How about, I’d say that’s absolutely true. I’ve delved into some new artists, like, but like, or at least new for me, they’re not super new out there. Like, uh, I love Lizzo. I think she’s amazing listening to a bunch of Alicia keys, new stuff, cuz she’s also amazing. But yeah, I also find myself like just like letting my phone, shuffle all of the music on there and like listening to my whole collection, you know, like at random that’s kind of fun

Speaker 1 (31:39):

oh yeah. And so you have like a, a favorite musician from back in the day. You’re just particularly feeling recently.

Speaker 2 (31:47):

I mean, I think there’s, there’s been a part of like, there’s been an angsty part of this shutdown. That’s driven me to listening to a lot of Nirvana , you know, it’s just, I, I, I feel a little bit like I did when I was 13. where I don’t like sitting still and I’m weirded out by how much I’m not running around doing stuff. So I’m just, yeah. , that would be the art. That would be the musician. Anyway.

Speaker 1 (32:11):

I, I, I actually definitely went through that and myself. Um,

Speaker 2 (32:15):

And then on the opposite end, I find myself revisiting any, any reggae I have just cause I’m like, oh, I need that too.

Speaker 1 (32:22):

Makes you feel good, right? Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:25):

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there’s, there’s an element of angst in that too, but like it’s angst with an upbeat, so, you know, it’s a little different

Speaker 1 (32:32):

we’re gonna dance to that. Yes . Well, it’s so good to see you, Nicole, do you have any shoutouts for theater people? Anybody else you don’t

Speaker 2 (32:45):

Have? I mean, I guess if I, I, I should probably, you know, like thank my amazing group of people that I work with. I like the Dallas theater center has some awesome electricians on staff with mic and Chris and Jessica. Uh, I love those guys. You any information about like how to stream a bleak? Mid-winter like Christmas Carol for our times.

Speaker 1 (33:04):

well, I can’t wait to watch it, I guess. Yeah. I’m an optimist. And um, I just wanna believe that things are, we’re gonna go back to normal and we’re moving forward. Maybe we have the regular shows and then we have the streaming shows as well. And then that just adds to the audience and I can, I can check out the shows you’re creating and that’s, that’s super exciting.

Speaker 2 (33:28):

Yeah. I mean, that’s an excellent way to look at it.

Speaker 1 (33:32):

Um, I mean there’s a

Speaker 2 (33:33):

Lot of, I, I hope for the best and plan for the worst, so yeah, I think we’re, uh, I’m hoping for the best. I think it’s gonna work

Speaker 1 (33:40):

Out in, in the meantime, I’m super stoked that you are still getting to do what you do. Cause a lot of people are not me too. And, and that this production is moving forward and, and I can’t wait to see it. Oh, I forgot to ask my favorite question. Uh, do you have any interesting things you collect? I,

Speaker 2 (34:04):

I didn’t mean to collect these, but like I got one and then people started buying them for me, but I have those little pop art guys, like they’re all over my office. Mm-hmm like, you know, I think I, I don’t remember who I got first, but like, yeah, now I have like a dozen or so of those little pop art figuring like I’ve got, you know, Chewba and uh Darias and couple of guys from anyways. Yeah. I’ve got a bunch of those. I, I guess if I have a collection that’s that’s it ,

Speaker 1 (34:33):

I’m not familiar. Do you have any like near you?

Speaker 2 (34:36):

I don’t have any here. They, I think they’re literally all at work but they’re famous, famous. Anybody’s like cartoons, uh, you know, any, any sort of like, uh, if it’s a movie, whatever, if you can like give it a big head and a little body and make a cute little cartoon character at it, then they make it into a little figurine.

Speaker 1 (34:57):

Thank you, Nicole, for, for joining us on art and the raw Absolut. And um, for everybody listening, if, if you’re new to the show, tell your friends, like comment, subscribe it’s YouTube. That’s how it works. Let’s keep the conversation going. Absolutely in the raw. All right. Well have a good night, Nicole.

Speaker 2 (35:17):

Thanks, you too.