In this episode, Chris and Leah met with production manager Andrew Deppen and production stage manager Alexa Alfonsi to discuss their recent arrivals here in Ithaca, what inspired them to work in their field and the emerging synergy between them as they prepare for upcoming stage, film, and dance productions in the 2024 spring semester.
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Transcript
Chris Christensen 0:11
Hello, I'm Christopher Christensen Welcome to Episode 53 of the PMA podcast. In this episode, Leah and I met with production manager Andrew Deppen and production stage manager Alexa Alfonsi to discuss their recent arrivals here in Ithaca, what inspired them to work in their field and the emerging synergy between them as they prepare for upcoming stage film and dance productions in the 2024 spring semester. So today, in the podcast studio, we have Andrew Deppen and Alexa Alfonsi, and welcome to the small podcast studio.
Andrew Deppen 0:49
OMG, I just got so excited.
Alexa Alfonsi 0:51
Thank you so much.
Chris Christensen 0:52
You're welcome. As usual, Leah Ingalls co-hosting with me.
Leah Ingalls 0:57
Yes. So Andrew, Alexa, if you guys could just briefly introduce us to what your titles are here at the Schwartz.
Andrew Deppen 1:06
My name is Andrew Deppen. I'm the new production manager here at PMA. This is my second semester. So that's me.
Alexa Alfonsi 1:15
And I'm Alexa, like the machine. Yes, you can ask me as many questions and I will answer all of them. I am the production stage manager and also kind of straddling the theater, dance department, and the film department, and I’m kind of trying to create this, this new definition of what stage management and assistant directing look like together. And how we will explore that further is, remains to be seen.
Chris Christensen 1:44
And you've been here how long? Like all of 10 minutes.
Alexa Alfonsi 1:48
It's been, it's been three weeks, and, and four days and seven hours.
Chris Christensen 1:55
And how you doing so far?
Alexa Alfonsi 1:56
It's great.
Andrew Deppen 1:57
She’s doing great.
Chris Christopher 1:58
Okay.
Andrew Deppen 1:59
I mean, I think we have successfully found a unicorn.
Chris Christensen 2:01
Wow.
Andrew Deppen 2:02
Yeah.
Chris Christensen 2:03
All right.
Alexa Alfonsi 2:05
I mean…
Andrew Deppen 2:06
We knew finding a mix of the two was going to be difficult. But here we are.
Alexa Alfonsi 2:09
See how you feel after we start shooting here.
Chris Christensen 2:14
This is such a broad question. But how did you get into starting to work in the field of theater?
Andrew Deppen 2:22
Well, you go first.
Alexa Alfonsi 2:23
Oh, well, so you, I went to college for theater, with the understanding that I wanted to be backstage somehow, but not really knowing where it was going to take me. So I spent a lot of time having conversations with people instead of reading and, and, spending time watching people work instead of reading. And somewhere around my junior year, I kind of made this executive decision that SUNY Potsdam had taught me everything that they could, and it was time to start the practical application portion of my career, of my life. And so I jumped down into the city where I've started working on Mysteries of Laura. And, gosh, Debra Messinger, I mean, nobody's heard of that TV show. But it existed and it was insane. And it was fun. And it was my first time on set as an Andrew DeppenD apostrophe LPA, and slowly growing and going up the ladder and being part of different crews, like The Blacklist, where stunts were heavy and we were lighting people on fire and blowing people up and people are jumping off bridges on a regular basis. That…
Andrew Deppen 3:38
just like we do here at PMA, right?
Alexa Alfonsi 3:39
Just like we will someday do here at PMA safely and correctly and with all appropriate measures taken.
Chris Christensen 3:48
What was the title of that show again?
Alexa Alfonsi 3:49
Which, The Blacklist?
Chris Christensen 3:51
No, the one before that.
Alexa Alfonsi 3:53
Mysteries of Laura.
Chris Christensen 3:54
I have not heard that.
Alexa Alfonsi 3:55
Yes, it was Debra Messinger’s passion project, and then she got called to go do something on Broadway and said, Okay, I'm gonna go to Broadway now.
Chris Christensen 4:04
So, did it ever air?
Alexa Alfonsi 4:06
It did, it ran for I think three seasons, and then they just kind of abruptly because she decided she wanted to go be on Broadway. I think it came after she lost the role of Lucy to Nicole Kidman. And anyway, we're talking about Debra Messinger who cares about her?
Chris Christensen 4:22
Well, the work you did, I mean, you were on it, so.
Alexa Alfonsi 4:24
I was, I was on it as somebody very far away from the action and very, very brand new. And that was my first, first time realizing how big of an operation filming is. And you know, yeah, it's 60 minutes on the day when you're watching it, but it is, you know, 7 to 10 days to shoot it and it's, it's so magical and crazy.
Andrew Deppen 4:48
Give us an idea, like, how many people, how many, how many people do you think are behind the scenes on something like that?
Alexa Alfonsi 4:54
All right here, I’ll put it this way, Maisel? Thousands. Easily in the thousands. The design team is broken down into several several compartments of, you know, even the wardrobe department was, was broken down into accessories, gloves, hats, dresses versus pants versus, you know, little intricate parts and, and so it really depends on the job you're doing and what the tone of the production is. I will say that a lot of reality television shows? Maybe like 75 people on the day shooting, putting it all together. Something like Maisel on the day may be you know, 800 900 shooting crew, but then everybody else that has to be informed that everywhere above the line, you know, that's not there on the day. So yeah, last…
Chris Christensen 5:46
This is a much smaller place.
Alexa Alfonsi 5:48
This is not, surprisingly, no, you guys have an incredible, incredible cast of characters in this department. And each one has and brings such an incredible perspective and an incredible talent. I think I think we could do some work at highlighting our talents instead of, instead of kind of putting people in positions where they're, they're not being highlighted, you know. So that might be a fun thing to kind of tackle but, redirecting. It's, no, Cornell is not smaller. We're just as big if not bigger, because here, we begin to train you for what's out there. So listen close.
Chris Christensen 6:35
What about you, Andrew?
Andrew Deppen 6:36
Cool.
Chris Christensen 6:37
I mean, does that, does that, is that everything? Does that cover you right up to, up to.
Alexa Alfonsi 6:40
Right up to here. Well, I mean, we won't talk about the pandemic.
Chris Christensen 6:43
Okay.
Alexa Alfonsi 6:45
That was terrifying.
Andrew Deppen 6:46
You don't want my whole, whole history, you just want, kind of, how I got into it.
Chris Christensen 6:48
Yeah. How'd you get here?
Andrew Deppen 6:50
All right. Well, we're gonna go back to the Dark Ages. It kind of started for me when I, when I was in high school, I was heavily involved in different art classes, band classes, choirs, did all of that extracurricular stuff. Was, just anything creative really was kind of my cup of tea. And one year, I think I was in 10th grade, we went on a trip, I think the band went on a trip. And one of the outings was to go see a production of Phantom of the Opera. So here I am, I'm probably 15, had never seen a professional theatrical anything. Oh, I should mention I grew up in the middle of nowhere, like hometown population 500.
Alexa Alfonsi 7:39
That's usually where we come from.
Andrew Deppen 7:40
Super small, right? So this was kind of a big deal. There I am. 15 sitting in the last row of the highest mezzanine. And the music to Phantom of the Opera starts. And that chandelier goes off. And the whole room just erupts with live music, singing, scenery, costumes. Literally, I'm freaking out from the worst seat in the house saying, what is going on here? What is this? Had no idea. It changed my life. I didn't know that there was something out there that existed that was a combination of art and design, music, singing, performing. It was magical. And ever since then, I needed to be a part of production, primarily theater. But that's kind of bloomed over the years, in the last 25 years. But that's, that's where it started.
Chris Christensen 8:43
Any time on stage for you?
Andrew Deppen 8:45
Oh, yeah. There was a day I was quite the ham. I actually did my undergrad at Temple University.
Chris Christensen 8:51
The day that you were quite the ham. I would say that that's still up to current right now. Giving our…
Andrew Deppen 8:59
Yeah, sure, I'm still a ham. I just don't, I don't do it on a stage in front of audience.
Alexa Alfonsi 9:04
We take our bows backstage now, not in the light.
Andrew Deppen 9:10
But yeah, I started out as an as performer, acting and singing in plays and musicals. I did that for the first two years of my undergrad and then halfway I switched into design because I had done it in high school, you know, doing a lot of, taking a lot of art classes, and somebody had to do it. And I was like, well, I'll design the scenery. I kind of, I made the switch and my focus in my undergrad in the last two years I finished as a set designer. And I was the second student ever allowed in Temple’s history to design scenery for their main stage, and this, they gave me two shows. The second one was a graduate production. So that was kind of a big deal. And then I went to grad school, I studied with a Russian set designer. I never looked back though, once I left being on the stage. Like, this was clearly way cooler than kind of…
Alexa Alfonsi 10:04
Everything else.
Andrew Deppen 10:06
Well, I actually was afraid, because I thought that if, if I left performing, I would miss kind of the glory of being on the stage. No, not at all. I was, the show opened and I got to go home. That was wonderful. Yeah, so we went to grad school. Studied with a Russian set designer, ended up staying in Los Angeles for an additional 10 years after I finished. Worked on TV, I got my first gig as a PA on a home makeover show. It was when, it was, this was way back before HDTV existed. So it was on TLC, it was called Clean Sweep. I started out as a PA, and 20 episodes in, our art director quit. And the producer came to me and literally she said, Well, clearly, you're the first choice. So she asked me if I wanted to take over and I did. And that kind of started on my path of being less of a designer and more of an organizer, slash planner, things like that. And when I left LA, my first job out of there was, and actually I was there for the last 10 years before coming to Cornell, I was the production manager in a regional theater just outside of Philadelphia called the Bristol Riverside Theatre. So I spent the last 10 years there. And now I'm here.
Chris Christensen 11:26
Wow.
Leah Ingalls 11:27
Wow, quite the journey you both have been on. You mentioned worrying that you would miss the experience of performing on stage but that you didn't, and also the like organizational planning aspects of it, I was wondering if you guys could just share a bit about what being a stage manager or production stage manager entails.
Alexa Alfonsi 11:47
So I actually, I've got this great speech that I love to give to people of, you know, a production is live. That's why we love it so much. It is. And to think of it as alive, I think, will help you move forward. Because you have all these different functioning organs, almost, you know, you've got your brain, your eyes, the vision, the director, the you, know, scenic, etcetera, all of these little factors that essentially create an organism, right. And so the stage manager acts as this, as the skin, as the protective layer, keeping everything in and safe and guarded from anything that could possibly happen. So I guess, the stage manager is the one that makes sure that everything happens the way everybody wanted it to, and creates an environment where everybody feels welcomed. Everybody feels that they can bring themselves to the table, and feels that they're in a safe space, a safe enough space, that they can explore themselves and can go off the rails if they you know, like, get into your character or get into your scene work. Get into your moment, you know, because we're here, we got you, you know, focus on, focus on the work and not on how we're going to get there. Because that's what I'm here for. Yeah.
Leah Ingalls 13:14
Beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. That sounds like a massively supportive role.
Alexa Alfonsi 13:21
I, yes.
Andrew Deppen 13:22
A production can’t happen without a stage manager. You are literally the glue that holds so many moving parts together.
Alexa Alfonsi 13:31
A good stage manager is the glue. Yes. But I will also say that it's, it's a team, you know, it's not one person, it's never going to be one person that does it all. And understanding that a stage manager and assistant director, any of these organizational roles, right, the minute that you realize that you're here to bounce ideas off of other people to, to have the conversations with each different department, that's where the magic happens. You know, getting everybody's wish lists, sure, so to speak of, of how they would like to see scenes play out, days play out, whatever, whatever. And hearing the different perspectives, that helps culminate a great stage manager. And even then it's not a stage manager, it’s stage management team, you know, because you can't, there's no, there's no way one human could get it all done. We have to support one another. And that's I think the best way to start is understanding that it's not one, it's many. Yeah.
Chris Christensen 14:37
Speaking of that, one of the things that I noted first day that you were here, of course, I stopped by Andrew’s office and there's all this synergy that exists between the both of you, and it was immediately evident, and your energy is contagious. Being in an office with the two of you was very, you know, energetically good.
Alexa Alfonsi 14:56
Good. As it should be.
Chris Christensen 14:57
Yeah, it’s charged.
Andrew Deppen 14:58
You must’ve come on a good day.
Chris Christensen 15:00
It seems like every day is that way, I find myself up there quite a bit and I enjoy it. But I, do you want to talk a little bit about that? You know, what you've got planned for this coming semester, how you're working with each other now? Sure, yeah, we're getting ready to, we're getting ready to film two honors thesis projects, one senior thesis, one honors thesis. And they are two short films. One of them's called Remembering Colin Stall. And it is a very, very heavy psychological thriller style movie. And then we have on the complete opposite side, Doomscroll, a kind of mockumentary style look at what we as a society have become, and what we have to look forward to. And that's all I will say about that. But we have these two, these two wonderful projects and stepping in at the 11th hour to kind of see what we have to do to actually execute here in, you know, a matter of days has been incredible, because the energy is here. You know, the energy is here, the students are excited, they've been talking about it for three semesters, they've been planning for it for so long and now it's time to actually go and film it. And I was telling Andrew that I really, I wish I had more time to explain what I'm doing right now. But it's just time to go. And it's, so I'm in go mode. If people ask questions, that's great. But if not, please.
Andrew Deppen 16:27
You actually mentioned synergy, and this just is naturally happening because of the just who you are and who I am. We're just kind of meshing but a big piece of kind of being in the production office being the production manager and the stage manager, a lot of what we do is planning months in advance of kind of working backwards from your go date, which is like your performance day or your shoot day. You always know when that is and we're always working backwards planning it. But a big piece of what's going on is everything here moves very fast. And there's a lot of different moving parts, but there are also many projects. I mean, you just mentioned two projects of, let me think. There's one, two, we were also doing. Can I say Fannie's piece?
Alexa Alfonsi 17:19
Yeah, that’s part of it.
Andrew Deppen 17:20
Stupid Effing Bird.
Chris Christensen 17:21
I think we can throw it out like that. Yeah. Absolutely, sure.
Andrew Deppen 17:23
Okay, great. It actually has an expletive in the title and there's your version of it. A theater piece. We're also, we also have a core dance project that's happening this semester, we have
Alexa Alfonsi 17:35
A few guest artists coming in.
Andrew Deppen 17:36
we have a few guests artists coming that are performances. So it's, it's quite a few different productions, different types of productions in a very short amount of time. And we're both very new. So I've been kind of looking at this having started last semester, I had mentioned that we kind of reverse engineer things kind of from their show date, and then away. This whole year for me is, though we're, we're flying the plane even though we're currently building it, we like to joke.
Andrew Deppen 18:09
I'm keeping a perspective open of learning what it is PMA actually is trying to do, what it wants to be, who we are, you know, the department has been evolving. And we're both brand new riders kind of on on this ride. But a big piece of this for me is not even in the shows that we're making this semester or last semester, but after they're done, stepping back and examining how we get from point A to point B, what it is that we're trying to make and how we do it. Being new, it's, there, there's no, there's no guidebook to lead you through how anybody does this or that type of different show. I mean, there are some industry standards that we all kind of follow. But each place is different. For myself, this is the first time I'm working in academia, I think for you as well.
Alexa Alfonsi 19:01
Me too, yeah.
Andrew Deppen 19:02
So that has a whole new hurdle of, array of hurdles that I'm just not used to having to problem solve.
Alexa Alfonsi 19:10
Mhm.
Andrew Deppen 19:11
But really, the, the big piece of this whole year for me is really looking at who we're trying to be, what's important to us.
Alexa Alfonsi 19:21
How do we get there.
Andrew Deppen 19:22
How do we, how are we currently doing it? And how do we need to be doing it? So in a way, it's almost like a science experiment, where we have a theory, the test is actually making the project and then we're gonna step back and we're gonna look at our results, measure them and try again.
Alexa Alfonsi 19:40
I mean, that's I feel like that's most cases you know, we, we learn more from from making mistakes, and.
Andrew Deppen 19:48
I feel like I learn more from making mistakes.
Alexa Alfonsi 19:51
Yes, we, yes.
Chris Christensen 19:52
They’re not fun.
Andrew Deppen 19:53
I learned what I don't want.
Alexa Alfonsi 19:54
Well.
Andrew Deppen 19:55
Which really informs what I do want.
Alexa Alfonsi 19:57
Exactly, exactly. I mean, coming to Cornell is the name, the weight of the name, the pressure of 7.6% acceptance rate. You know, like, you think about that, and it almost, it almost makes you feel small. But then you get here and you realize that everybody's so hungry, to evolve themselves. And yes, I know this one way, but I can't wait to find the next way. You know? And I think that's what inspires me the most to be a part of this team. You know, I sent out an email, sent out an email when I got here that, that thanked the entire department for, for giving me this opportunity. I think what I said was, it's exciting to meet the machine and to learn how to be a cog in it. And, and I think that that's so right on because it has existed for so long, and it has been evolving. PMA has, has consistently changed. And that's the most beautiful thing about it. Every time something happens, okay, like COVID was a perfect example. You guys turned around in a week and, and all of a sudden, we were ready to figure out how to continue education. We lost several people in this particular department several years ago, and here we are continuing to have the conversations of how to build back up, you know, how to, how to get from where we are to where we would like to be potentially, and utilizing the folks that are here who are so brilliant. And, and highlighting them, I think is what we need to start working on. Yeah.
Chris Christensen 21:42
I was thinking, Leah, do you want to put on a different hat at the moment? Because you're going to be working on Remembering Colin Stall.
Alexa Alfonsi 21:50
Oh!
Leah Ingalls 21:51
I am, yes.
Chris Christensen 21:52
I don't know if he wanted to talk about that a little bit and how you're all going to be working together?
Leah Ingalls 21:57
Well, I don't have the most information.
Chris Christensen 21:58
Sorry to put you on the spot.
Leah Ingalls 22:02
I'm very excited. It's, it's my first time working as part of a crew on a film set. So I'm very excited. And I think that it's very, I think it's very cool to see sort of the way the whole department has pulled together to sort of put everything together for it. Like them having the set on the stage and the Kiplinger Theatre, I think is really an interesting prospect. Yeah. Is there?
Andrew Deppen 22:27
I think this is actually the, correct me if I'm wrong, but, this is my first film project that I'm working on a PMA, but we've never built, like, we've built the first floor of a whole house on our large proscenium theater. One of the challenges, sorry, I'm trying to think about how I want to say this, one of the challenges that I've discovered thus far being here, this being my second semester, is how do we unsilo the different aspects of PMA, the theatre side, the dance side, the film side, and we utilize all of the personnel, resources that we have, and the talents that we have, to benefit each department. You know, a lot of, a lot of our staff is theatrically trained, but their skill set relates firsthand to every other type of work that we do here. And to my knowledge, this set that has been created is the first time PMA has built a set for a film project.
Chris Christensen 23:30
To my knowledge that is true as well, in terms of like, on the large scale. On the stage. Yeah.
Andrew Deppen 23:35
It’s very exciting, too. It's…
Chris Christensen 23:37
I did a walkthrough of it today. It was rather interesting.
Andrew Deppen 23:38
Creating quite the buzz, yeah. They put the final walls in.
Alexa Alfonsi 23:41
Tell me you don't think that that is totally some little old lady's house.
Chris Christensen 23:47
The, the living room reminded me very much of my grandparents’ place.
Alexa Alfonsi 23:50
There you go.
Chris Christensen 23:51
Yeah, even the couch itself, the table, yeah. All of it.
Andrew Deppen 23:54
I mean, wait till the dressing goes in. It's, it's going to feel like a real place.
Chris Christensen 24:00
I mean, I'm ready to put up wallpaper at home already. I haven’t seen that in so long, so.
Andrew Deppen 24:04
Don't call Savannah, she's not interested.
Alexa Alfonsi 24:08
Our assistant technical director Savannah has been doing an incredible job with her team. And just doing all of the things to get that set ready to be filmed on is just an incredible process. Incredible.
Andrew Deppen 24:24
What is your role in the film?
Leah Ingalls 24:25
I'm going to be working with grip and electric.
Andrew Deppen 24:28
Grip and electric.
Leah Ingalls 24:29
Yes.
Alexa Alfonsi 24:30
Excellent.
Leah Ingalls 24:31
Yeah, I’m very excited.
Andrew Deppen 24:32
We're gonna start doing some of that work tomorrow. I think that the director of photography, Indeana, is, I think she came in to town today. So she's gonna come over and meet with Mike and we're gonna look at some of the lights in the air and talk about moving them around. Are you coming?
Alexa Alfonsi 24:46
It’s all happening!
Andrew Deppen 24:47
Are you coming to the workshops that that they're doing next week?
Leah Ingalls 24:50
I am. Yes.
Andrew Deppen 24:51
Amazing!
Leah Ingalls 24:53
Which is another awesome element that PMA has started bringing in, workshops for its students.
Alexa Alfonsi 25:00
Yes! Ugh, yes. What a wonderful opportunity to, to ask as many questions as you possibly can.
Andrew Deppen 25:05
There's a piece of this puzzle that I want to know. And I know, I know a piece of what the faculty, what I think they're trying to do here. I'm curious if there's a dialogue between students and faculty about the types of work that we do and what we offer versus what students are interested in making? Not as, I'm just curious, I'd be curious to see what, what interests the students in terms of type of production?
Chris Christensen 25:37
Are there dialogues that take place like that, Leah, that you know of?
Leah Ingalls 25:40
I would say so. Yeah, I would say so. Yeah, I think the professor's here are very receptive to the things that their students are interested in. And I think, especially the chair of the department right now, Dr. Samantha Sheppard is working very, very hard to pull in, especially connections to real life, industry leaders and, you know, experiences that offer hands on insight into, you know, translating our experience here elsewhere.
Andrew Deppen 26:12
I'm going to do a little, a little boost for Samantha's chairs, or, Chats with the Chair.
Alexa Alfonsi 26:15
Oh, yes. Chats with the Chair.
Andrew Deppen 26:17
If you’re a student or a faculty and you would like to, to have discussions like this, you can come to I think we're doing two sessions this semester. Oh, did we, did one pass already? Did we already do it?
Alexa Alfonsi 26:30
February 9th is the first one's coming up.
Andrew Deppen 26:32
It's coming up. Yes, you can check it out on the PMA website. There. They're both listed. But yeah.
Chris Christensen 26:38
And to remind our listeners pma.cornell.edu.
Alexa Alfonsi 26:43
Don't mess it up.
Chris Christensen 26:47
You know, we had a lot of questions. We seem to have covered everything. But you know, you're so brand new to the area. Are there things about Ithaca, you want to talk about your experience here?
Alexa Alfonsi 26:59
Um, yes, actually, yes. Um. Hello. Hi, this is Ithaca. Right? How come there's not more reference to the Odyssey anywhere? Hello?
Chris Christensen 27:09
Yeah, we have, you know, surrounding towns that also have similar naming conventions. But the pronunciation has changed. It's no longer Ovid, it's Ovid. You get used to the small town feel.
Alexa Alfonsi 27:22
I just am shocked.
Andrew Deppen 27:24
I mentioned earlier that I am from the middle of nowhere, and we are certainly in the middle of nowhere. Nowhere being a good place, I think.
Alexa Alfonsi 27:32
What was it that you said? About the bubble? Around the bubble?
Andrew Deppen 27:35
You've all heard this, that Ithaca’s, what is it? 10 square miles surrounded by reality? Yeah, that's, that's, that's the phrase.
Chris Christensen 27:42
How many places have you visited outside of the Ithaca area in terms of like, natural beauty?
Alexa Alfonsi 27:48
Oh, man. I grew up in this area.
Chris Christensen 27:52
Oh my gosh, that's right. I keep forgetting that.
Alexa Alfonsi 27:53
I grew up in this area about an hour and a half away from here.
Chris Christensen 27:58
Alpine. Alpine?
Alexa Alfonsi 27:59
Unadilla. Binghamton, and Oneonta area, if you know any of those, you know that they try really hard to bring something to the table. And they’re always just missing the mark. Very small towns, but we used to, my family and I used to come here every summer as often as we could in the summer time to go wander around the gorges and then hit up the Ithaca brewery and have a fresh flower power or an apricot weed. And then we always made a point to oh, you know, right at the end of the day, oh, let's, let's go drive onto campus and feel what it feels like to drive around the Cornellian campus. And every day, we would end up spending too much time in the gorges, we never ever made it up here. And I think I said that in my interview plenty, is it feels good to finally be here.
Andrew Deppen 28:44
I think you've made it.
Alexa Alfonsi 28:46
I think I've made it.
Chris Christensen 28:47
As you recount the story, I'm now remembering and being that it is my 51st birthday today…
All 28:51
Happy birthday Chris!
Chris Christensen 28:52
…It’s totally apparent. Yeah, thank you. It's becoming very apparent that I'm starting to drop memories too.
Alexa Alfonsi 28:57
Oh, stop it.
Chris Christensen 28:58
So this must be part of the aging process.
Andrew Deppen 29:00
Oh.
Chris Christensen 29:01
Oh.
Alexa Alfonsi 29:02
Make a note, write a list.
Chris Christensen 29:04
I'm gonna have to start doing that.
Alexa Alfonsi 29:06
You should see my wall in my office, our office. It's just littered.
Chris Christensen 29:11
Yeah, you have both taken up residence there in a particular way that it's starting to look like, you know.
Andrew Deppen 29:16
We have. I'm not sure if it's popular or not, but… I'll say this. It's the way I've always known production to work. I don't know how to do this job without a stage manager right next to me. Yes. What we do is, it works so in tandem with one another. They're different tasks, but I'm not going to run down a flight of stairs to talk to you every three seconds I have. I'm not going to keep a walkie talkie, do we keep a zoom call open so we can just? We need to be in the same room.
Alexa Alfonsi 29:51
Yeah, it'd be nice if, you know, that office space were just a touch bigger, but, it’s okay.
Andrew Deppen 29:56
Could you repeat that?
Alexa Alfonsi 29:58
I said it would be nice if the space we were in was a touch bigger.
Leah Ingalls 30:06
They dedicated all of the space in the building to the massive classrooms and theaters.
Alexa Alfonsi 30:10
I mean listen, pack the house guys. Get the butts in the seats, because we can't teach to nobody, so.
Chris Christensen 30:18
And I particularly enjoy just not seeing daylight, this has been one of the the highlights of coming to the Schwartz.
Alexa Alfonsi 30:23
Oh, well, you know, if you, I mean, it's kind of a hand in hand thing. If you say yes to theater, you're saying goodbye to the sun.
Andrew Deppen 30:30
It's true.
Alexa Alfonsi 30:31
We did that years ago.
Andrew Deppen 30:32
You need to control the elements, and light is one of them.
Chris Christensen 30:36
Yeah, I mean, I've been at Cornell for 23 years now and I've not seen the light of day since I got here, so it wasn't even here. But yes, yes, it's an IT thing, I think. They like to put us away in places where sun does not reach us.
Leah Ingalls 30:51
Well, as long as you make plans to step out into the lobby with its you know, massive windows. And soak up some of that sunlight, you should be fine. It’s actually sunny out today!
Alexa Alfonsi 30:59
It is!
Andrew Deppen 31:00
It was, yeah.
Leah Ingalls 31:01
Worth a walk.
Chris Christensen 31:02
I got bit by a bug yesterday, I think. I was standing out in the sun for just a few minutes. And when I came back in my finger was very itchy. And I had a small blister on it. So I got bit by something.
Alexa Alfonsi 31:12
I will say this. I've moved from Colorado and I am so not looking forward to humidity. I'm so not looking forward to mosquitoes again. And I was talking to a couple of the of my intrepid staff and faculty members and they have assured me that the summer here is incredibly beautiful. It's cool. It's got breezes, and I’m just like, okay. I’ll wait for the receipt.
Andrew Deppen 31:32
I recall it not being terrible. I mean, I moved here in July. So right in the middle of it. And it depends, it was better than the burbs of Philadelphia. I'll say that.
Chris Christensen 31:44
There’s usually that one week in July that just kind of wipes me out where I'm just like, Yeah, I'm staying in the air conditioning.
Alexa Alfonsi 31:50
I don't know if it's, if it's going to be sunny. I'll be outside. Catch me outside.
Chris Christensen 31:54
Are you working over the summer?
Alexa Alfonsi 31:56
Right now? No. To be determined.
Andrew Deppen 31:58
Actually, here, let’s do this. Ready? Bees.
Chris Christensen 32:04
Are you allergic to bees?
Alexa Alfonsi 32:05
I'm a beekeeper.
Chris Christensen 32:06
Oh, right. So not allergic to bees.
Alexa Alfonsi 32:10
I mean, I very damn well might be. The last time I got stung, my leg swelled up for a good week and a half. But it had also been the first time in several years. So perhaps it was just my body having a reaction because it's been some time. But I love honey bees. I've, I've been tending to bees in some capacity for the better part of, I want to say 15 years. Geez, yeah, yeah. 15 years, holy cow. Um, and I will say this, if you drink almond milk, go, go do some research. Because you might be, you might think you're doing a good thing for the world, but you're actually doing really awful awful things to the honeybee population. Shameless plug there. We don't have to talk about that any further. Unless you would like to. But yes, I would like to spend my summer kind of figuring out what bee culture is like around here. Meet some Beeks.
Andrew Deppen 33:03
Beeks.
Alexa Alfonsi 33:04
Bee geeks, Beeks.
Andrew Deppen 33:06
I got it.
Andrew Deppen 33:09
Did we get it?
Chris Christensen 33:10
Well, you know, there's, there's always that thing where we say, is there anything we didn't cover today that you were, you know, had a burning desire to talk about?
Alexa Alfonsi 33:18
Man. There, guys. There is so much massive, massive, massive potential in this department. Massive. I'll say that one more time. Incredibly massive potential here. I truly look forward to the future of PMA because we're growing guys. Watch out. You know, watch out Ivy Leagues. Watch out Ithaca College Theatre department. What? Who are you?
Andrew Deppen 33:51
I'm good.
Chris Christensen 33:52
All right. Well, thank you both for being on the podcast. It's been a joy. I'm pretty sure we'll have you back on again at some point.
Alexa Alfonsi 33:59
Um, that would be lovely. Please do me a favor though. Do not contact me at the hour of 7 to 7:30 because I will be watching Jeopardy every time. Yeah, Saturdays and Sundays repeats same thing. I will watch the repeats.
Chris Christensen 34:14
We'd never host the podcast after 6pm. Unless you want to, we could call you in. No, no. While you're watching Jeopardy.
Andrew Deppen 34:22
I think that's a different podcast.
Chris Christensen 34:24
I think that is a different podcast.
Alexa Alfonsi 34:27
Oh, geez. It is lovely to be sitting here with you all.
Andrew Deppen 34:30
Thanks for having us.
Leah Ingalls 34:34
It's been so great to hear from you.
