In this episode, Christopher Christensen meets with Visiting Associate Professor Nick Embree to explore his journey as a theater and film set designer, which includes over 150 professional productions.
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Transcript
Chris Christensen 00:00
Music. Hello. I'm Christopher Christensen. Welcome to Episode 59 of the PMA podcast. In this episode, I met with Visiting Associate Professor Nick Embree to explore his journey as a theater and film set designer, which has included over 150 professional productions. We discuss his approach and process to design, his involvement in upcoming productions here at the Schwartz center, and what students can expect in his classes for the 2024 2025 academic year. How's your week been?
Nick Embree 00:41
It's been busy. I've been working on a project for Nashville Ballet, and earlier in the process, we made some cuts, just for financial reasons, to the scenic elements in the design and and they were all being fabricated off site, and so they were delivered to, like, two weeks ago, week and a half ago, to the ballet in Nashville, to their their studio space, and the the scene shop that was building the units did not, did not do the cuts. So they actually made all of the framework elements for my Scenic artwork. And so the ballet was like, Can you now do the artwork for the pieces that we cut and you therefore didn't finish? But no, since we now have the we now have the elements that will carry the artwork. Can you do that? Like, okay, I'll, uh, I'll get on that.
Chris Christensen 01:49
In your spare time, which is probably so much of right now.
Nick Embree 01:49
Yeah, right, right. So, yeah, I just gave them that... it's like six more drops. And I gave them the six drops this morning.
Chris Christensen 01:49
Okay, yeah, came busy then. So that's what your meeting was this morning that you had.
Nick Embree 01:54
Yeah, I was handing over the that art work to them.
Chris Christensen 02:09
I'll be 100% honest. I was so glad that we had to push this back a half hour because I needed more caffeine this morning.
Nick Embree 02:14
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just, you know, I just had enough time. So, perfect, perfect.
Chris Christensen 02:20
So you've had a really extensive career with 150 professional
Nick Embree 02:25
Yeah, more than that, I don't know. I haven't counted recently, but lots of shows, largely in and around Philadelphia, but some in other states, or, you know, around the country, okay? And I've also designed for several universities. Of course, I was at University of the Arts for pretty much 20 years, until recently, until when the university shut down, yeah, unexpectedly within a week. And so, yeah, I don't know what the total is, but it's approaching 200 probably
Chris Christensen 03:01
Okay, that's a lot. Let's go way back in the time machine. Let's where did it all start?
Nick Embree 03:07
Well, I think I've always been interested in design, without naming it as design. As a kid, I liked to build things. I liked to figure out how things worked. My dad was, well, he was trained at West Point, I mean, so he was trained as an engineer and a scholar, and he was, like, always a very curious person and very handy. So he was always making things or fixing things around the house. And I, I was the beneficiary of that, because I learned to use tools, and I learned how things worked and to be curious about things. So I was always making things in the backyard. I've made, like a model of a ship, you know, big enough to, like, stand on the deck, and I built a little cabin structure on the on the deck. I built it as if the ship was in the ground, you know. So it was just as if the ground was the water. So then I dug down into the hull, underneath all the all the wood. Very creative, yeah. But specifically about set design, I always enjoyed theater, and I'd always been interested in sets, but I'd never considered that as a path, or that that was a career. But when I was in undergrad, I was at Dartmouth College, which has a lot of really amazing off campus programs that students can can spend a quarter away somewhere. And there was one that seemed really great that was in London for a quarter and you were going there to see plays and talk about plays, and you could go as a as an actor, and I knew I wasn't an actor. I've always been more at the the back stage.
Chris Christensen 05:11
Did you try acting at all?
Nick Embree 05:13
I was required to. There was a there was a required acting class, which I think I frustrated the professor a little bit. I mean, I worked really hard. I did well in the in the course, but we had like a just a fun night at the end of the semester and doing some, like, improv games. And He came up to me afterwards and said, you, you were better like you, you actually committed and engaged believably in that performance as an improv in a way that you never quite got to with the with the planned performance in the in the classwork. And I think that's true of me. I I am better on my feet than I am trying to repeat a performance exactly. I never, I never lecture from notes. I always just respond to the students and try to engage them in the room. So, yeah, it, it's, it's interesting about design. I mean, I went on this, on this off campus program as a designer, that was one of the ways you could go. And I didn't know what that was, so I knew it involved some art. There were some requirements to be going on this trip as a designer. So I thought I could fake it. You know, at the time, I was doing a double major in physics and studio art, drawing and painting and and I thought, well, I've got the, I've got some of the art stuff already, so that'll help me pretend to be a designer and and I'll, I'll just do the other things that they need me to do. And I took a lighting design class, and that was terrific. It was just, it was great. It was it was both theoretical and conceptual and practical in that you you're trying to get across an idea, but you're using technology and tools and instruments, and you're making a tangible effect on the on the room and creating an atmosphere or a mood with the lights. So I thought that was terrific. And then I took a set design class as the next design class, and boy, that just put everything together for me because it scratched the itch to solve problems and to figure out puzzles and and it involves engineering. It involves planning. It's logic, it's it's use of space, but it's also creative. It's about applying all kinds of artistic impulses and skills, and you get to paint and make models, and you get to build things that you thought of. So you're creating a world. And I love that
Chris Christensen 08:01
Nice, yeah, so you're going to be doing that with the students throughout this year you're here for 24-25 right? This academic year. What are some things you're looking forward to in this coming year? What are some things that students can expect from your courses?
Nick Embree 08:51
Well, I'm really looking forward to helping students explore, sort of find their own solutions to the problems, as I was saying, like design is it's about identifying opportunities and then bringing your own imagination and creativity and and thought to solving those problems, or, you know, meeting those challenges. And I love watching students engage with things and find their own voice. And so it's fun for me when they're having fun on the projects. And so it's always new. It's it's a good it's a good time.
Chris Christensen 09:35
I like the fact that you mentioned you were pretending at some point. And 'pretend' is such an interesting thing, right? Like this idea of faking it till you make it- -And also thinking about play within the classroom, and giving students the ability to pretend, to play, to to to also learn at the same time. Do you think there's some room for that? And to determine who it is that you-
Nick Embree 09:45
For sure,
Chris Christensen 09:45
Where you're headed.
Nick Embree 09:45
Right I think, well, I mean, that's what, that's what theater is. It's sort of, it's sort of focused, applied play, right? And we put ourselves into, if we're actors, into embodying a character that is not us. And if, if we're designing something, then we're, we're thinking about the character through costume, you know, we're thinking about the world through the light, the sound. We're creating a the story of a place through scenic design. It's not just the shape of the room. It's also all of the implied history of that room that tells you a lot about the people that live there.
Chris Christensen 10:49
Are there particular designs that you've done that really stick out for you, that really hold a space in your memory, and a part two of that are there for those particular sets that you've designed. Are there some that you impart to the students for a particular reason as well?
Nick Embree 11:06
I think, I think you always love the thing that you're working on. I think that's part of part of the job is that you, you have to really commit to the thing. But there are productions in, in my memory that really stand out, that I think back on, and it's it's wonderful when it happens that that the whole creative team pulls together in a way that is seamless and and really effective and and the art shines, in a way, because everyone is is resonating, I guess, at the same frequency. This spring, I did. I worked on a well, not just this spring, of course, I started on it long before that, but the spring, there was a production of Brian Friedel play called 'Faith Healer' that we did at Lantern Theater Company in Philadelphia. It's a beautiful play. It's it's a set of monologues, really, three actors, so it's very intimate. It was directed by Peter de Laurier, who is a notable director in Philadelphia and and it was just a lovely experience. I think the what we were able to do in the performance and the design was to create a really poetic, simple looking, but very effective world for those characters to inhabit, and that it, it had an effect on the audience. It was just, it was one of the the better productions in the last few years. There was also a show a few years ago that I did at InterAct Theater Company in Philadelphia. The play was called 'Grounded', and it's just a one person play with the young, very gifted director, Casey McMillan and and I, designed a sort of an abstract geometric sphere with panels that could light up and... and sort of harsh metal texture. It's about a it's about an Air Force pilot who is taken off flying duty and put in charge of operating a drone, and what that does to her eventually. But that was a, just a beautiful, beautiful show.
Chris Christensen 14:05
As I'm watching you recollect this. I can tell just from our conversation that you are such a visual person. I can see you going into the that that MindScape sort of almost like manifesting it here in this moment as you describe it, what does your creative process look like when it comes to putting the design together?
Nick Embree 14:29
Well, I love research. I love finding out everything I can about the topics that are in a play about the playwright, the world that the playwright was was part of, so the context, the cultural context, and also just everything that's in the play I want to learn about that. I think it's wonderful as a designer that that you get to work on all these different projects and and each of them comes with its own set of challenges and questions and, you know, prompts, things that you need to find out about. So, you know, I may be learning about ancient Egyptian architecture for one play, and maybe looking at, you know, Moroccan house courtyard design in another in another play. So it's always something new. I love the research. I can't tell you how many times I have run across a wonderful inspiration in the in the course of just being a sponge and and absorbing as much information as possible. I was doing, I blanked on it, oh. I was doing a production of importance, of Being Earnest at Villanova University and and I was looking for inspiration for Algernon's apartment, which is one of the three locations that you go to in the three acts of that play. And and I came across in the research I was doing a house that had been preserved in its original condition from the time that Oscar Wilde had been writing that play in London, and it was the house of a cartoonist for the magazine 'Punch', the humor magazine 'Punch' in London, and the furnishings had been kept intact for all that time. And decorations in in that house, and it was full of art. And I thought, it's not impossible, given the social circle for Oscar Wilde, that he might have been a guest in that house and and I, I use that, that house as inspiration for Algernon's apartment. It's just wonderful.
Chris Christensen 17:06
That's great. Lovely to have a moment like that of inspiration.
Nick Embree 17:10
Yeah,
Chris Christensen 17:11
You mentioned challenges earlier. What-what do challenges look like for you? What are some interesting challenges that you've come up against?
Nick Embree 17:20
Well, I I think, I think my reputation as a set designer is, is that I'm good at making things move, that I'm good at fitting a large show into a small room and and getting it to function and flow. I hate scenery that goes bonk, bonk. You know, I hate scenery that looks like it's difficult and is labored in its emotion. So getting something that that helps the story and moves along from from one thing to the next without looking clunky, is, is what I'm known for. And so, yeah, just figuring it out. It's a, it's a puzzle. It's a, you know, it's a, it's a spatial problem to figure out, how can I, how can I put these things together into this 20 by 25 foot footprint and and have it look easy.
Chris Christensen 18:27
Any specific scenic design that you've done that you felt particularly was, was particularly vexing, where it's keeping you up at night trying to come to a solution to that puzzle? I The design for 'Travesties' at Lantern Theater Company couple years ago. That's a show that has two main locations. It's a Tom Stoppard play, and it's-it's set in the library, like a public library in Switzerland, and it's also set in the drawing room of a person that used to work in the consulate- on the British Consulate- in Switzerland, and this is during World War One and and so the former consulate employee is is remembering his past and then sort of reliving it. It goes from him as a an older man, sort of thinking back to those days, and then we kind of go there. And so it it begins in the drawing room, his drawing room, and then it has to flow into the library, and then it flows backwards and forwards. And then he's getting a little older, and he's getting a little confused. And so the world starts to become confused, and it starts to mix between the library and the drawing room sets. And so I was able to come up with a design that had a bunch of pivoting pieces that ended up kind of ajar in his sort of dissolution at the end of the play, he's he's really not hitting on all cylinders anymore. And we see that physicalized in the in the setting, as the as pieces, which normally would make a full rotation into a, you know, a logical looking position, are just a skew. And I designed everything on angles. So the it was all bookshelves that were at, you know, three, four or five degree angles. So everything was leaning. It was definitely a sort of fragmented design, but it was, it was lovely to watch it move. I'm thinking about, did you attend opening night for that particular-
Nick Embree 21:07
Oh, of course, performance. Yeah. I've only missed maybe one or two opening nights in my entire career. Yeah.
Chris Christensen 21:13
Wonderful! So along those lines, then, of course, you know when you're when you're going through the rehearsal period, things don't feel exactly the same as when you're actually there for opening night. Do you have this sense of where you can sit back and relax and just let it unfold? Did it work? Do you have all those things going through your mind?
Nick Embree 21:36
Sure. I mean, there, there have been some, there have been some productions over the years where it was a, really a race to get things done for opening. But generally speaking, there's a there's a preview period, and you're, you're working through all of the physical elements. If you have moving elements, you're, you're figuring out all the movement, choreography, of all that well ahead of time. And so by the time you finish the previews, you've actually watched it with an audience several times. That's true and and so it's been tested. So usually opening is, is more of a celebration, just a you know, we've we've done it. We've got there. You can let your shoulders drop a little bit, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Chris Christensen 22:25
Are there things that you would- what's the word I'm looking for here?- What are some things you would impart to your students as they prepare for potentially going into a field like yourself to take on a role like this?
Nick Embree 22:40
I think the the best advice is just to absorb as many different kinds of art as possible, and to be curious about how things work and what you know, what possibilities there might be. I, I try to keep students from solving problems too quickly. The first answer that people think of is generally not the most creative. It's just the the easiest available answer in top of mind. So if I say draw a window, they're going to draw a standard like sash window, but a car window is also a window, a rose stained glass window is also a window. And so giving the unconscious some time to think about things and to and to float up to the the top of mind an answer is something that just needs a moment. And I think this is where the research comes in. You feed you feed your mind with an enormous amount of research, visual research, informational research, cultural information, anything about the playwright, anything about the world. And you think about like, what are the challenges of this, of this play? What? What is this?What does the script ask for? What you know, what? What does it need? You know, there's a scene where somebody writes on a clipboard. Okay, obviously you need a clipboard. But what? What could it also have? What you know, what other things can we do that will tell the audience some of the story and and tell us about the people, the world that we're in, and that kind of information just has to be a little more organic. You don't want the first answer. You want, you want to have some emotion behind it. You want to have some... some slow thought behind it. So getting them to take time,
Chris Christensen 25:10
Yeah, it's a challenging thing when you're in your late teens and early 20s. I think we want to come to the solution as quickly as possible.
Nick Embree 25:18
Of course they do!
Chris Christensen 25:18
Absolutely, patience just is not the same.
Nick Embree 25:21
Yeah, this is always what happens in design classes. The students read a play, and then they they want, in the next moment, they want to tell me, you know, what the set is going to be like now. You know, hang on a second, live. Live with it a little bit. You know, feel something about the characters. Think about that world. Think about all the art that you've looked at and and then something will come to you.
Chris Christensen 25:53
Along those lines, are there specific... I mean, we've talked about it a little bit, but specific influences, people, places that that are... that influence you in terms of your set design, your your creative process?
Nick Embree 26:09
Sure. Well, there were two designers at NYU Tisch when I was there that I really looked up to. John Conklin, set designer, famous set designer, theater and opera and Oliver Smith, who sadly passed away that year. But those are designers that I that I look up to a lot. Also another set designer, John Lee Beatty, I think for the poetic simplicity and theatricality of his design work. I mean, they're all different. So Oliver Smith is a very painterly designer, just beautiful, painted, scenic work with backdrops and beautiful, beautiful paint quality. John Conklin is much more conceptual, much more maybe bold in concept and approach, and John Lee Beatty just has a wonderful, simple looking, but very artistic expression in the design work. Then I've worked with some wonderful directors, so the late Walter Dallas, I worked with a number of times. It was a wonderful collaborative artist to work with, also Adrian Hall, also... late Adrian Hall. And, yeah, I've been lucky enough to work with, you know, a bunch of wonderful artists over the years. So, know many of them.
Chris Christensen 28:20
Nice. Have you- You've been here in town, you arrived just in August in a in a serious hurry to get everything taken care of.
Nick Embree 28:31
That's true.
Chris Christensen 28:31
Yeah, yeah, very short on time for getting prepared and whatnot. Have you had an opportunity to take in any of the local theater spaces, get a sense of of what people are doing locally.
Nick Embree 28:44
I haven't had a chance yet.
Chris Christensen 28:46
Yeah, I'm not surprised.
Nick Embree 28:48
I, you know, I had to, I had to get up to speed on courses I hadn't taught before, using materials I hadn't used before. And and this the project for for Nashville. That I just finished up this morning, so I I have barely had a chance to do anything other than walk down a couple of gorges.
Chris Christensen 29:18
Okay, which ones have you had a chance to see?
Nick Embree 29:20
We we went to to Taughannock,
Chris Christensen 29:24
Yeah, yeah!
Nick Embree 29:25
-and, and also to Buttermilk falls, beautiful. And, of course, we, we'd been up here before. My wife and I and been to Watkins Glen a couple of times. We've, we've come just as as tourists, to spend time with some friends, you know, on several of the different Finger Lakes before. So we've seen a bit of the the country and different parks and things. But I haven't, I haven't yet, you know, had a chance to check out the circus school. Or the, you know, there was a puppet festival this last weekend that I missed that.
Chris Christensen 30:06
Yeah, I often refer to Ithaca as being the town of too many choices. There's so much going on right between Cornell, between IC, what's happening locally, all of these things. And sometimes it's easier to just not make the decision and stay. Right. Yeah. Well, a lot to take in.
Nick Embree 30:23
Yeah. In my case, I just, I was so backed up with the work for the courses and also the the work on designing a professional project, that there has not been a free moment really, yeah, yeah.
Chris Christensen 30:41
I don't know why this is popping into my head, but I'm thinking back on the ship that you built when you were younger, and that, you know, sometimes when we have a project like that, it's that kind of thing that's still there somewhere in us, and we're still working on it. Do you think with each of these set designs, you're still building the ship in some way that it's in. It's an expansion of that somehow, I don't know where I'm where that's coming from, but
Nick Embree 31:08
Yeah, I think so. I think that just as with nailing planks and beams together to make that ship in the backyard, I'm... I love imagining a world and deciding where we are in that world, and who might live there, and what creatures are there, and making the map of that world, and then turning that map into bit of that world. And that's, that's what we do. I mean, a ground plan is a map and and then you're, you're making that thing. It's, it's a wonderful thing as a designer, that you you engage. It's not just that you have an idea and and you create something artistic, but you're you're also there for the time when that becomes a physical object, whether it's whether you're building it yourself, or there's a shop that's building it and painters are painting it. It's, it's terrific to work on a theater project, because it's such a team effort, and everyone gets involved and engaged. And there, I think it's wonderful that you have opening night coming on like a train, and you can't, you can't defer it. And so as you know, as differentiated from studio artwork, which I've certainly done lots of you can- in the studio, you can always say, well, I'll do that later, or I'll come back to this, or I don't feel like it today, yeah. But theater, the train is coming and and so you have to, you have to make progress, and then it's done, and you have a party, and you move on to the next thing, and the next thing is different. So I love that. I love exploring. I love doing the new thing. It's, it's, it's playing. I get paid to play. Yeah, I love to teach. I love to design. And so I have the best job.
Chris Christensen 33:54
How do you how do you prep the students, or prepare them for that, that bit of pressure that's there with the train coming at them, and at the same time feeling relaxed enough to play, to come to the answers-
Nick Embree 34:07
Sure!
Chris Christensen 34:07
-need to be arrived at.
Nick Embree 34:08
I think, I think the the main thing is to make a little bit of progress. You don't have to have the big answer yet, but it's, I break things down into little, little steps along the path, and as long as they can take the next step, then they will get there and and the point is not to panic at the size of the task, because it is large. When I was a kid, my father said, you know, paint the garage. The garage was a two story building with, like, three bays, and it was siding, wooden, wooden building with, you know, eaves and everything. And I looked at that garage and I was like, oh, no, this will take forever. But you just dip the paintbrush and you you paint the board that you're on, and then you do the next one, and before you know it, you've got one side of the garage done, and you just keep going, and then it's painted.
Chris Christensen 35:17
Yeah, you step back, go, how did that happen so fast?
Nick Embree 35:20
So it's just overwhelming. If you look at the at the whole project to be done, but if you take it in little steps, and all of the project work I assign the students is is broken down into into steps. So yes, they've got to get the thing done, but there's going to be help along the way, and there will be enough time.
Chris Christensen 35:43
Nick, thank you so much for everything you've offered today. This has been fantastic. Is there anything that I didn't ask you that you wanted to talk about or parting words that you wanted to share?
Nick Embree 35:57
Well, I mean, I think there are the several projects that I'm working on, yeah, so I mentioned briefly already the ballet project. So that one is coming up in October. So I'll be, I'll be going to Nashville in the middle of October for the tech and opening of that that show, and that is my first realized ballet project, the director and choreographer. It's a new ballet. It's about the Día de Muertos, Day of the Dead, Mexican Day of the Dead. So it's, it's a new ballet that's being developed and and the director was a student at the University of the Arts probably 15 years ago. Was a musical theater student who then moved more into the world of dance, and who called me up last year, October or so, and said, I'm creating a new ballet. I need a designer, and I want somebody who has a theater sensibility. Would you be interested in, in working on this project? And I said, Absolutely, I would. And it's been really exciting because it's it's creating these scenic units that are meant to move so often. Dance is designed to have a sort of a static environment, you know, of drops or like wings and borders, and that allows, you know, easy movement on and off stage and a decorative background, and maybe A painted floor or something. But the idea for this was to was to create some different looks on units that could actually move with the dancers and be moved by the dancers. So I have these periactoids, an element of goes back to Greece. It's a three sided column that can be rotated so you get three different looks. So I've designed these units that have actually a round central column, but then three wings at 120 degree separations, and they're all framed out of aluminum, and they're all on Triple swell or casters, so that they just they move beautifully. And then there's artwork mounted to those frames. So, so there's multiple signs there. And, well, I won't go into more, no, please go into detail. Let's hear it. There's also an altar, like an ofrenda, yeah, and so that has that's like a little it's meant to look a little bit like a step pyramid, like a Mayan temple, which is something that the ofrendas often do look like. And I, I designed it to be a composite structure built up out of the road cases that travel with the show, so that the road cases actually become the the altar. They lock together onto a onto like a truck structure, and then there's a backing, again, a sort of aluminum frame trapezoids with with artwork drops mounted. And then all of the units also have these extra tricks built into them, so that, so you would get three, three sets of surfaces on, on the periaktoi, you know, so six drops each. But I've designed a way that you get a new surface. Revealed in in, you know, some of the sides, there's some hinged elements that move around. And this is also happening on the back side of the altar, so that there's, there's actually three different looks for the altar. Its backside has two, and then the front and things light up, then nice. And there's full of flowers and props and, yeah, I'm really looking forward to they're gonna send me some pictures later today.
Chris Christensen 40:28
So you're conveying all of this. You're obviously sending designs to them, yeah, probably having meetings over zoom, yes, that sort of thing. Is it standard for you to do that from afar? Are you usually in person there, sort of helping with the process.
Nick Embree 40:43
It's unusual for me to have to do it all in, you know, over Zoom, I have done some shows where, you know, it's sending the package away, but so few of those, relative to the number that where I've been there, if not for the whole process, at least when things are being built, when things are being loaded into the theater. Certainly, I'm always there for the technical dress rehearsals, previews and opening so it's sort of strange to send these designs off into the void, and not yeah and not know, not I, I thought, I thought they would talk to me more the the people that were actually fabricating the the scenery. So I was a little surprised last week, a week and a half ago, when more pieces of scenery were built than I expected, like things that that the theater had cut in the design process, were head back and so and so. Suddenly I needed to create the drops, the artwork for some elements that I thought were gone.
Chris Christensen 41:54
Surprise!
Nick Embree 41:57
So that's what I that's what I handed off this morning. Was six of those. So I will go there, and I will get more. I will get to see some pictures and movies. Later today, they're going to send me some things. I just I'm dying to see this, to see everything move around. I have two other upcoming projects, I have a show called Rift or White Lies at interact theater company that will be in late March. I think actual opening is the beginning of April next year, and that's a play about two brothers. It's just a two hander, and one of the brothers is incarcerated for murder and is... has made some bad friends inside prison, and it's about their relationship and the navigating that they do to preserve or to let go of that relationship over the years. So the the play spans about 20 years of their lives. So that's a it's a really strong piece. Playwright as Gabriel Dean, directed by Seth Rosen. And really looking forward to that. I just had a production meeting again over Zoom yesterday morning on that to get started on that project. And then I will be designing the PMA studio show the film project for us here for the spring. So that is that is also coming right up,
Chris Christensen 43:41
-and I don't know a great deal about that because I'm not involved in the meetings, and learn more about it through these podcast episodes, but is that going to be built on the Kiplinger again this year, the Kiplinger stage?
Nick Embree 43:56
Well, I I'm not actually sure, since it is a film thing, whether it will all be set up in one pass or things will be shot in sequence, and where everything might be shot, of course, with film, you don't, you're not bound in the way that a theater production is to to one room and time. So I guess I don't know is the answer to that.
Chris Christensen 44:23
Good answer. Good answer. It seems like your time is pretty well spoken for-quite full- do you find yourself feeling drawn to just know what's happening in the Ithaca area, and feel like there's a space where you think I could fit just one more thing? Or, boy, I'd love to be working on this, whatever this thing is that's, you know, just,
Nick Embree 44:44
Well, yeah, I really would like to get to know people at the local theaters and to engage with them. I'm, I've already been talking with some of the other faculty here about projects they're working on, and so I may, I may get involved in some of those things too. You know it's, it's great to be active and working. I always, always like working. Yeah, so I don't know it's gonna be a fun year.
Chris Christensen 45:13
All right. Well, fantastic, Nick, thanks so much. Really appreciate it.
Nick Embree 45:16
Yeah, you're welcome. It was a pleasure.
