You blog like a girl » Daily Life

Final Countdown

Nina — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 01:35:08 +0000

I have spent the last 6 years working for or in the Office of the President at ASU. I started as a student worker when I was an undergrad, working on ridiculous charts and terrible Powerpoints. Now I am an interaction designer. I am not like an interaction designer that deals in code only. I look at not only how we interact with objects, digital and print, but also how we interact with each other. A human interaction designer, how people can understand and connect with ideas from other people.
This job has taught me amazing things. It has helped me understand my own education and the role of education in the greater economy. I’m really lucky to work for visionaries, to make a living supporting an idea that makes the world a better place. I am lucky to work for a place whose mission I can stand behind. Even when things are tough, I know that university education can change lives. I have experienced it, my family has experienced it. I have selfish reasons for working here, too. The value of my degree is something I take very seriously, and I feel like I am in the trenches every day working on that.
My last day here is April 12. I have taken a position elsewhere in the university, and I am starting a new path. I needed a shift in audience, and a great opportunity came up. I am excited about what is ahead, but I’m sad about leaving the driven, passionate people of this office behind. They all seem to have the right mix of optimism and reality.
I am filled with nostalgia and gratitude this week. Thank you, Office of the President, for giving me pride in my education. Thank you for helping me grow beyond what they could ever teach me in the classroom. Thank you for letting me pass that knowledge on to another generation year after year. Thank you for taking risks with me, thank you for listening, and thank you for bringing me from undergraduate to career woman. I still have much to learn, but I appreciate every opportunity you have given me.

Trust us

Nina — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 05:13:08 +0000

Since I finished the Torch improv training, I’ve thought a lot about what it means to me to be a trained improvisor *bum bum BUM*. Mostly, the day after the graduation showcase looked like any other day prior. My hair wasn’t shinier, I didn’t have a new British accent. What I did have was something intangible. It was more than confidence. I felt… malleable. Like I was being affected by what was happening around me. More than I had been, more than I had let myself before.
Some community events that I’ve taken part in over the last year have really affected me. I’m learning to trust in my community more, that there are people giving everything they have to make community better. Lifting each other up. Trust is huge on stage: trusting that everyone is “all in,” no one is holding back or afraid, trust in your own ideas and trust that everyone is working at the top of their intelligence. In an environment built on trust, amazing things can happen. Without trust, big bold choices don’t happen. Creativity dies. People don’t speak and perform from the heart.
A group built on trust can dodge and weave through characters and ideas together like a school of fish, or an amazing basketball team (so I’m told – I’ll trust basketball lovers on that one). We call it “group mind” on stage.
I said Design Week changed me, and as I thought about it more, a lot has changed me. I feel like there is a group mind building in the Phoenix design community. I was open to feeling it, I was seeking it out even. And I felt it more than I had ever felt it before.
That is all well and good, but the REALLY big deal about that more than a year ago, I was told by my therapist that I have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I talked about this at TEDxPhoenix, how trust is a choice that we make. My trauma involved stranger danger and public places, so my whole adult life I’ve been guarded against a sense of being part of a community. Five years ago, the terrible events in Tucson would have shut me down. The world would be filled with palpable danger, threats around any corner. While this may be true for everyone, and was proven true for that group of people at that moment, I no longer find myself having that fear make my choices day to day. Still, being affected emotionally by a group of people in public is a struggle day after day. Having a place on stage to push that trust in my fellow player farther and farther, opening my heart to the audience, not hiding behind a playwright’s words anymore and trusting myself to be the producer of the work has begun to rewire my mind. I choose to trust, more often than I allow myself to be guarded.
I’m learning more every day about how my mind works, unravelling and laying out the ratty yarn ball of emotions and structures that have been built around it. I have been living with so many kludges in my system for so long, it will take a while for me to figure all the knots and ends that have been tied together quickly. For me, working on stage as an improvisor is a vital part of that unravelling. I am seeing now the neatly wrapped ball of yarn starting to form, ready to knit into a most amazing scarf at some point in the future. It will be comfortable, beautiful and useful. It will take a lot of work to get to that point, but it will delight me every day.
My heart and mind has been very filled by the victims, survivors and heroes of Saturday’s tragedy. I hope that they, and all of us, can continue to be work towards hope for and trust in the community around us.

Improv of the Future

Nina — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 18:36:34 +0000

Come see my Level VI showcase: August 4, 11 & 18 at 8 pm. It’s $5 at Space 55.

If your 20-year-old self could meet you today, what would surprise her the most? What would she be most impressed by, and what (if anything) would she find disappointing?

Nina — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 01:39:45 +0000

I think she would be surprised at my path. She wouldn’t be surprised about where and who I am now, just how I got there. Especially 20 year old me would be surprised with how things developed and the outcomes of those developments.
She would be impressed with my accomplishments in design. At 20 I was fairly intimidated by that world. Also, as surprised as she would be with the choices I made walking away from being a working actor, I think she would respect the reasons I have for why, to this day, I don’t want to pay my rent via acting.
I think she would be disappointed at the same thing my 33 year old self is disappointed at: time lost. I have so much I want to do now, and I had a few frozen, scared years that are just gone now. I know I needed that time to learn what I’ve learned, but I still wish I could scrape some of that time back into my energetic happy pile.
Also, she would probably tell me I am fat. And I would tell her to shut her cake-hole and get over herself. And then we would high five.

Ask me questions.

Talent

Nina — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 23:39:52 +0000

“If you wrote something for which someone sent you a check, if you cashed the check and it didn’t bounce, and if you then paid the light bill with the money, I consider you talented.” – Stephen King

This is a great statement. The first time I cashed an acting check I felt like I was invincible. There is a talent for survival as well as a talent for the arts.

If you could ask Barack Obama one question what would it be?

Nina — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 03:38:24 +0000

OMG I totally got to meet him and was too worn out/excited/overwhelmed/awestruck to do anything like ask him a question. I guess I would ask him if he truly is hopeful. And if so, how does he stay that way.
I have a framed picture of me and a bunch of other people standing around him. It really was an amazing moment. I had to get a background check to be in that room. I shaved above the knee that day. Also, that day was the beginning of an amazing adventure in my life. One that makes me hopeful and grateful everyday, no matter how scary and terrible the oil spills and wars are.

Ask me questions.

Get comfy at the Torch!

Nina — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 18:53:07 +0000

You walk beyond the red velvet curtain, and into an intimate space. The stage is empty, but the room is filled with a sense of anticipation and excitement. You can’t wait to have a seat and get ready for a night of fun… WAIT, WHAT?! Where are the chairs!? NO CHAIRS. You run around screaming in a circle until you collapse, exhausted and empty.
Well, maybe not exactly like that. But it’s close.
Today we are launching our Adopt-a-Chair program for the new space. That’s right, there are 40 lonely chairs out there somewhere, and for mere pennies a day, you could be the proud parent of one or more of them. We’ll even put your name on it! Come be a part of Torch history! Adopt-a-Chair today.

There are so many lonely chairs out there waiting for your help...

[This post was originally published at 4721, The Torch Theatre blog]

Reading this: Creating Breakthrough Ideas

Nina — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 01:21:54 +0000

So far, I love it. I can’t believe I HAVE to read this.

Today is the day of the letterpress exhibit!

Nina — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 18:38:38 +0000

Come down to Fractal (1301 Grand Ave, Phoenix) and check out a really rich gathering of all the different types of work that is being done with letterpress. The collection includes work from Seesaw Designs, Pyracantha Press, lots of amazing artists and designers around Arizona. I tried to choose pieces that give a sense of place, and I also tried to show the range of work that people are doing in this medium. The work ranges from purely typographic to purely graphic. There is everything from wedding invitations to political art. Please come by tonight and check it out, SeeSaw is bringing a press for display and selling their sweet sweet calendars and cards. We will be there to talk about the work and the process.
If nothing else, come check out the pretty neat installation method that Bully engineered.

I am the winner

Nina — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 05:43:16 +0000

Improv is a great model for collaboration. It is also hilarious. It is also the way I got my brain back from a dark place over the last year. I am a fan.
If you haven’t been to a show, you should go. People living in the moment, dealing with what is in front of them, turning judgment off (unless the character is judgmental), and supporting each other’s ideas and building on them. It is a beautiful amazing thing. I have learned a lot about myself, other people and my creative self.
I am performing this weekend. A lot. I’ve been told I haven’t been broadcasting my performances enough. So I will broadcast a little more. This weekend is a my first marathon performance weekend. Last weekend I performed with a super fun grup “A Little Piece of Corey,” and we made it to the next bracket in the Phoenix Improv March Madness Playoffs, so I will be performing on Friday at 10:30pm. Then, on Saturday I am performing in Cagematch with the team I helped form from my fellow students. We call ourselves “Unicorn Warpath.” THEN on Monday, the culmination of my Level 4 class is performing two of the formats we’ve learned this session. We’ve named ourselves “Pigeon.”
I might be exhausted next week, but I’m really excited about all these opportunities to perform. I hope you can join me at some point. I’ve learned a lot from this adventure, and I will continue.
Also, these are my friends.

Phoenix Improv Festival 2010 Promo from Dane Paul Stewart on Vimeo.