I decided pretty randomly who I was going to interview. Beforehand I had talked with Augusté about working together, but Katrin became my partner. Then we hoped for the Black Box, but got the costume shop assigned to us. Two aspects of the interview were completely changed and, as I have learned over the past semester, I have to “deal with it”. There is always something that comes in your way but it is how you deal with it that often makes the product better. I have also found that it is good to be pushed out of one’s comfort zone and not receive everything one hopes for because then there is still space for exploration. I had previously worked with Katrin in the student production, but it was not a profound relationship because we did not spend a lot of time together and when we did, it was for work. While we worked together, it was clear that we both wanted the interview to go as smoothly as possible, so pre-production is a principle we knew we had to dedicate some time to. I feel like we shared the amount of work fairly and it feels wonderful to know that someone is there to support you. I felt like this when Katrin said that she would help me set up. Even such a simple gesture can carry a lot of meaning and portray the essence of a person. Katrin is generous and passionate about creating her best work, whether in class or for projects outside of academics.

While I was booking equipment, she was thinking of questions. Then we “regrouped” and filled each other in. When we had a solid list of questions, the most challenging part of the process came: restructuring the questions to give the interview a sense of progression. We just sat next to each other going through different possibilities, each weighing in on which question should follow the previous one. When we finished and the flow felt reasonable, we were both relieved and went our separate ways after going over our game plan for tomorrow, printing out the questions and doing everything we could before the interview tomorrow. It feels like unfinished business, but to me, every creative process feels like unfinished business. No matter how hard you work, there will always be one thing that just did not work the way it should have, but you have to move on. For today, we completed our task of finding engaging questions, practicing them, and thinking about how we wanted to film our interview.

I am excited about the interview tomorrow because there are so many factors that I cannot account for. What will the weather be like? What will Maria say? How will the set-up in the costume shop look like? But exactly this is also what keeps me on my toes. It means that on the day I have to work efficiently to answer all these questions as quickly as possible. It also means that I will be surprised no matter how much I plan because many aspects are not in my control. I think this is what keeps drawing me into these experimental theater and film settings because there is only so much work you can do before you are left with circumstances that you have to manage. I love this challenge of having to figure out what to do and how to do it quickly so no time is wasted and the challenge can be overcome because it drives me to be present and think outside of the box. I look forward to continuing to work with Katrin throughout the day, during the interview, and when editing.