This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:03] Christine Toy Johnson: Welcome back to Conversations from Away.

[0:06] Christine Toy Johnson: I'm Christine Toy Johnson. I play Diane and others.

[0:10] Shawn Pennington: And I'm Shawn Pennington. I'm the production stage manager.

[0:14] Shawn Pennington: To date, our show has done over 765 performances.

[0:20] Shawn Pennington: It's been 179 since we relaunched in October.

[0:24] Shawn Pennington: We have traveled to 65 cities and have done 67 loadouts and load-ins.

[0:32] Shawn Pennington: That's a lot.

[0:36] Christine Toy Johnson: So in this episode, we're going to talk a little bit about what it's like to do a long run from a couple different perspectives in the company.

[0:58] Christine Toy Johnson: And we're joined by a very special guest. Will you please introduce yourself to our listeners?

[1:04] Kiana Weber: Hi, my name's Kiana, and I play fiddle in the show.

[1:09] Christine Toy Johnson: It's great to have you here. Thanks so much for joining us.

[1:12] Kiana Weber: Thanks for having me. This is such a treat.

[1:15] Christine Toy Johnson: So personally, I have done this is my fourth Broadway national tour. But definitely the longest one I've ever done and the largest number of performances I've ever done of the same show. I think I'm at 730 plus change or something like that. But Shawn, this is your, I believe it's your 17th tour.

[1:38] Christine Toy Johnson: And for our listeners who can't see our young handsome Shawn, he's not 150 years old or something like I am. So for him to have done 17 tours, that's a huge accomplishment. Uh what it tell tell us what that's like. What's the longest run you've ever done in one of these tours?

[1:58] Shawn Pennington: Um, and have they all been well they've all been tours, they haven't been sit-downs or or have you had sort of um tours that have had longer sit-downs than uh, for example, we do a lot of one week stops.

[2:14] Shawn Pennington: Yeah. So I had to sit down last night and actually count this up because I wasn't I wasn't exactly sure. Turns out, um, I have done I've worked on 17 tours. That is true. 13 of those I have been on as uh either as an actor or as a the production stage manager. And then four, I was the production manager, which meant I organized the whole thing from the beginning through tech, getting it up and up running. I hired the crew, I did all that, but I was not actually on those tours. So 13 uh, you know, actually physically being a member of the tour, and that started for me in 1998 on a children's theater tour of Little Red Riding Hood, in which I played the big bad wolf.

[3:07] Shawn Pennington: Um, and that was like six people crammed into a cargo van. Like our set was in the back. We were all in the either the front row or the second row, and we and all of our luggage, and we literally toured the country in this little van taking turns driving. So I have played the I've done the extremes. I've done like that's how I started. And then I went all the way through. I've done one nighter tours, I've done, I think my record for one-nighter tours was 32 cities in 32 days.

[3:38] Shawn Pennington: Oh.

[3:39] Shawn Pennington: So like without a break. Um, which was that was crazy. Um, all the way up to Come From Away, which is my 13th tour that I've actually been on, and I think I can fairly say my favorite for sure, uh, up to this point.

[3:55] Christine Toy Johnson: Uh I did your favorite than playing the big bad wolf?

[3:59] Shawn Pennington: You know, yeah, I think so. I think so. That had its that had its bright spots. Uh but I have to answer your other question. I have done, I did three Broadway shows as a stage manager. Um, Wicked, I worked at Wicked on Broadway for two and a half years. And so I counted that up, and I think I did just over a thousand performances of Wicked during that time. So that is my record so far, but with any luck, hopefully Come From Away will exceed that eventually. But yeah, I've lived most of my adult life on the road out of suitcases.

[4:35] Christine Toy Johnson: Well, so I just want to follow up before we ask Kiana about her experiences. The 32 one-nighters in a row. How do you even sleep and then move on? Do you are you on a bus that you sleep in?

[4:55] Shawn Pennington: Yeah. Well, that was a so that was during my obviously non-equity touring phase. Um, that was, you know, and you know, it's good to talk about the differences there because there are very big differences of what the union, the protections that the union provides, right, and what can happen when there is no union protection. I will say I want to be fair to that time of my life and those people. We were very young. Like that was in my 20s. Everyone had boundless energy, and we were, it did not seem at the time as oppressive and horrible a thing as it seems now, looking back on it in hindsight. But um, you know, it's hard. The crew lives on a bus. Like we lived, well, you know, the stage manager, of which there's only one stage manager on those tours, usually, it was just me.

And the crew travel on a sleeper bus, like like a rock group would would use on a rock and roll tour. Um, and so that's a whole different subculture than what we're used to. You learn, you know, everyone's living in bunks, everyone has a drawer on the bus with your food and with your like, and it's it's just a whole different life. It's a lot of fun, it's a lot of work. Um, you roll into a a theater, you know. We play a lot of small cities. You roll into a theater at 8 a.m. You load in from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The cast arrives, you do sound check, you do the show, you load out, you get back on the bus at 2 a.m., sleep until 8 a.m. and arrive, you wake up in the next city.

[6:27] Shawn Pennington: Wow. And and that's the that's the now the one stretch I did of 32, that was rare. That was like the longest. And to be fair to the we did have four days in a row off where they put us up, all expenses paid in like I think we were in an Atlantic City. I think they put us up for four days after that to sort of unwind. Um but yeah, I mean that's I I always think of that as the trenches of touring, but I will say that it is I also feel like it's beneficial, and I can always tell people who started in that world because they they have a different perspective on what tour life is like when they get to the larger, you know, equity tours, the first nationals, the things that run, you find that you know, when you have that perspective of how how hard that can be, you it some of the little trials and tribulations of of touring a large-scale tour don't bother you as much, I think. Um so I always appreciate that.

[7:33] Christine Toy Johnson: Wow, that's something. That's really something. I when you said you each had a drawer, I actually immediately imagined that you each had a drawer that you slept in. So I'm glad to know that you did not sleep in a drawer.

[7:47] Shawn Pennington: We did have bunks. One funny one funny thing, just real quick is that I did because I did I did that style of touring probably for five or six years straight.

[7:56] Shawn Pennington: Wow. And and you get so used to sleeping on a bus on a in a in a bunk, then it's kind of like I don't know, there's something womb-like about it, like you're in this little like closet and you're it's rocking back and forth, and you're, you know, as you sleep. For quite a while after I finished my last tour, I could not sleep in my bed in my in a in a bed that was not rocking back and forth. It was difficult to fall asleep because I got so used to it.

[8:23] Christine Toy Johnson: Yeah. That's really interesting. Um, Kiana, I know you have traveled and played all over the world. And can you tell us how um Come From Away has been similar or different from those experiences?

[8:37] Kiana Weber: Yeah, well, it's so interesting to hear Shawn talk about his pre-Come From Away life because I feel like we actually have so much more in common than I realized. Um, and I agree that I love the feeling of sleeping on a tour bus. It's so cozy. Um, so yeah, prior to Come From Away, I spent basically the last um 10 years touring with bands. So I come much more from that world, which is a very different model for touring, and maybe a little bit more similar to what Shawn's experience has been. It's, you know, different cities every night. You're moving really fast. It's a small group. And often you're either on, you know, sleeper coaches, um, or you're flying, and it's, you know, a lot of like load into a city, do your sound check, do the show, load out, drive to the next city all in the same day. So you don't see as much of the place.

[9:35] Kiana Weber: Um, but yeah, so I've been I've been touring with bands since I was 19. Um, and a lot of that has been international. I toured with a Canadian fiddle group, um, and went all over the world, uh, Asia, South America, all over Europe. Um, and then after that, I toured with a Celtic rock band called Cagaelic Storm. Um, and then I toured with a Spanish artist named Carlos Nunez. Um, and they all had slightly different tour models um that I think have prepped me for this sort of long haul tour in very different ways. Um, but yeah, some of that takes the place of sleeper coaches. Some of it is that you're staying in hotels and you end up taking planes to every different city. Um just all all very different.

Um I think the this the really interesting part, just like Shawn was saying, is when you get to a tour like this, you know, it's so interesting to connect with the people who've been on those kind of shows because um you just get really really used to living in a suitcase and some of the sort of like what what feels like a longer sit down for me, you know, a week or two is like it just it's just such a different experience. So you you maybe are a little bit more patient with some of that.

[11:06] Christine Toy Johnson: Yeah. Is that making sense?

[11:07] Kiana Weber: Yes that's that's really interesting. I I have only done from one week to I'd say six weeks in length. So um I don't I can't even really wrap my head around the idea of moving around more than um from week to week. And on Come From Away we we have actually done no no shorter than one week and uh I think Los Angeles for six weeks in the in the in year one was our longest stay. Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe that's true.

[11:42] Shawn Pennington: Yes that's true.

[11:44] Christine Toy Johnson: Um and it's it is interesting how we have different techniques for moving in or unpacking. Some people don't even really unpack for if we've we're only for a week um I myself have like packing cubes where I've all of my shirts are in one packing cube and all the packing are you know so then then you feel like you have you can kind of unpack but you're not really taking everything out. And um sometimes we have kitchens um sometimes we have just a fridge and a microwave and um, and I I'm curious to know from from your perspectives. Um, I'm I'm jumping around a little bit. Um, but how you go about settling in to a city when we are there for a week or more, when it has to do with um your your groceries and and how you're you plan to take care of yourself um both physically and mentally, including um setting up your kitchen or your little mini fridge or setting up how you um are going to plan your week ahead.

[12:58] Kiana Weber: Yeah, I'll jump into that one. I this is something I've spent a lot of time thinking about, and I feel like I've I've finally gotten to a place where I'm pretty happy with my routine. Um, but I also wanted to clarify just in in terms of like the difference of the feeling from like a tour with a band versus a show like this is you know, Come From Away or a first national tour. It is like you are out on the road non-stop, um, even though you have longer sit-downs. Whereas the life I'd previously come from in a band tour, it might be, you know, you're like Shawn was saying, in 60 different cities in 55 nights, but then you go home. Then you, you know, then you actually get to go home for a month or two months.

[13:40] Kiana Weber: And that is a really big mental difference I'm finding on a tour like this, which has really changed the way that I approach like how I settle into a place. Um, because it doesn't it it needs to feel like your home is on the road because you don't get to go back. You don't get to have that other life that you get to like go to. So I really make a point of like, even though I don't travel with a lot, I travel really light, I do make a point of like giving myself a little, okay, this is my home right now. This is where I live for these two weeks or these six weeks or this one week. Um yeah, I I try to like make sure that I'm getting groceries. I think that cooking for myself is something that like really makes me feel like a real person that like lives in this city.

I do try to everywhere we go, like, you know, be like, okay, we're in Dallas. Let's just like live in Dallas. You know, what would I eat here if I lived here all the time? What are some things we can find at the farmer's market, which I know we got to visit together? Those make such a big difference. Um, and I also have like little home tokens that I bring with myself, like a little blanket and a candle that's familiar that I can just put in whatever room or apartment I'm in for that week that just feels like okay, this is this is where I'm landing for right now. I want to ask Sean next what he does to keep himself mentally and physically fit in just a minute.

[15:06] Christine Toy Johnson: We'll be right back.

[15:17] Christine Toy Johnson: And we're back. Tell us what you do to keep yourself really um just humming along, doing your job, but also happy on the road and or and or any place in a long run.

[15:33] Shawn Pennington: Well, it's interesting, just to sort of finish tie up what what Kiana was saying there at the end of the last segment. I it's funny that up until this tour, I think it was this tour, I never unpacked. Oh, yeah. Because of my because of my background where you just didn't. Like I open my suitcase and pull out what I need for the day, and then and I live like that for so long that it's really this tour, which now, you know, is three years, three three plus years old. But now I make a point of when I get into the hotel, I unpack everything, I hang up my clothes, I put everything in the drawers, I do, I I make a home for myself for the week, which is new for me. This is like, you know, and and but I still I still pack really fast.

It cracks me up when I hear people talk about how they start packing three days before. I literally pack an hour before we leave tops. Tops, because I got so good over all those years of just packing a suitcase in 2.2 seconds. Like, like it does, I I don't even know what I would do to start packing three days before. Like I don't even know how to how to do that. Um but in terms of in terms of um physical and mental health, you know, that is something to consider. And I think the longer you do this, the more you realize how important it is. Because it is, there are a number of traps that you can fall in on the road. The one for me, the big one is how I eat. Um it is so incredibly easy on tour to fall into grabbing quick, fast, particularly not healthy food, and because it's convenient, it's open late at night, it's after the show.

There's just and before you know it, you're eating nothing but fast food and pizza, at least for me. Um, and and that's something you I was fine in my 20s, but now in my late later in lifetime, um I that I I pay a price for that. A big price. So I I'm I'm I try very hard recently to really watch what I'm eating and to cook when I can, to always make sure that I've got you know fresh vegetables in the fridge or something that I can like and make a salad or I try to eat a salad a day, like trying to sort of keep that under control. And then the other thing for me, you know, pre-pandemic, I I tried to make uh time to get to gyms everywhere we went. I I really liked going to the gym. Um since we're back from the pandemic, I don't really feel safe going to gyms just yet.

That seems like an unnecessary uh risk to me, even though a lot of gyms are open, but I just feel like touching lots of equipment that lots of other people have touched is maybe not the best thing quite yet. Um so I do a lot of walking. I try to get out and walk for long distances as I can. Um then I really find that I have to schedule for myself just time away from the company. I love everyone to death. I love everyone in the company, but when your job is to manage the show and manage all of the things that go along with that, you just need personal space. And and for me, the the big step I've just taken that I'm so excited about is I just bought a car that I so I have basically I've been dying to ask you about this.

I have essentially forced myself to have at minimum like eight to twelve hours of of thinking time every week while I drive from one city to the next city. Um, which I think is gonna be great. So far, I'm absolutely loving it. I just I it it couldn't be better, like to replace the hassle of going to an airport and dealing with airplanes and security and baggage weight limits and all the things that go along with that to replace that with eight hours of peaceful me time driving by beautiful scenery. I will I will take it.

[19:42] Kiana Weber: It's a great one. There's a lot of people on our tour that have made that decision, which I think is so interesting. That I think, especially coming back, people you know, they've been used to that like really clear mental space for themselves, and I think a lot of people coming back made that choice. Because we have is it 10 people driving tour? Something like wow. Something it's something like that. So there's a lot of people driving the tour for exactly that reason. And I think it also having those wheels gives you easier access to groceries and you know, some lifestyle things that maybe are just so important to mental health. I I really want to hit home for anyone that's listening who is thinking about touring or touring that like making those choices that are so that help your mental health on tour are just so worth it.

Even if it costs you a little bit more, even if it takes extra time. I know Chrissy, you make such a point of the grocery shop every week, which I'm such a huge fan of. I think that that is right. Just about the best thing you can do for your mental health on the road.

[20:39] Shawn Pennington: Yeah, I think it's that that and also the the um responsibility we have to keeping our um our stamina in a certain place. So, you know, doing eight shows a week and then also traveling on many of the days off, the idea of of building your your day so that you can optimize your energy to be um to be where it needs to be um at 7:30 or 6 o'clock or 8 o'clock, whatever it is, is really paramount. For me, I I really have a double life because I'm a writer too. And so I and I wake up super early and um and I do my writing and I I'm the treasure of the dramatic skills, so I do meetings in the morning, and then at basically three o'clock in the afternoon, I say I'm not having any more meetings. I'm now starting my day over again for come from away.

And I used to feel a little embarrassed to say that I would have to like take a nap, but then I thought, well, I'm waking up 12 hours before I go to work. Who does that? So it's okay to kind of recalibrate and start over and then do all of the things, you know, all of the warming up, all of the the um, you know, we were joking earlier about how most of the women in the show can do not have a bathroom break during the run of the show. So like I, for example, I don't this is so counter counter counterintuitive to being a singer or or a person, but I stopped drinking liquids two hours before curtain because I don't want to get myself into a position where I, you know, I'm regretting my life where I have to, you know, I wish I could run off stage.

Anyway, I think that um it's it's pretty interesting to think about the daily um the daily routines and and all of the elements that you've already spoken about that go into making sure we can be at our best for to do our do our job and also live our lives and be the full people that we want to be.

[22:48] Christine Toy Johnson: Kiana, yes, can you talk to me a little bit about your uh daily routine? Your so what do you do to to um stay inspired and play the same show um over and over again?

[23:06] Kiana Weber: Uh I mean we are very lucky because I think I can speak for all of us truly that we are in this rare unicorn moment where we all really truly love the show we're doing and it's it's such a gift to have that experience. And there have been I know for all of us other times when maybe that isn't the case where you where you you're grateful to have a job and and and you're and you like the people you're with and you like your job but it's not maybe as much of um I feel like a love fest as this has been um yeah I mean I yes I agree 100% that this is it's such a beautiful story to tell and I still feel really thankful and excited to tell it every night um but and I would say this this goes into something I was thinking about before we started talking that the sameness of the show is I think my favorite and least favorite part at the same time of what a long tour like this is and that takes a very special kind of like mental preparation as I'm sure it does for everybody you know how do you how do you approach that knowing that this is mostly going to be exactly the same as the other 764 shows that you've done um and of course you get to know your body better Chris like you get to know how you need to prep for water for food you start to like know okay this is kind of like an athlete like how can I be in peak performance for this moment when the curtain you know goes up how does this how do I get my body ready but I think the the mental part of that is really important um and it's such a strange it's a strange life because you have all day beforehand that you kind of need to you know get yourself ready.

[24:52] Kiana Weber: My own routine I you know I I do a lot of cooking at home I try to eat well I try to get some physical exercise in I think that's really important also as a as a musician that like the physical health of my body my traps and my upper you know my shoulders and my upper back is really important to how the show goes for me. I've struggled a lot with pain playing in this show in particular because it's just it's one of those where I'm like sawing a lot of fast things all the time. So I I do try to like really make a point of doing some work with exercise bands or anything that can kind of like free up my shoulders and get them warmed up before the show. And then I think that the like mental prep for at this point I almost feel like it's like a meditation that you get to do every night.

And yeah again it's just it's a thing that I love but also can be like really uncomfortable that it is it's so similar every night but then that's also the most beautiful part about it. And it becomes this like warm blanket that you get to wrap yourself in and you tell the story and like just sink into this like meditative state I think in a way um and I do try to come up with little challenges for myself to like keep it fresh every night I don't know if everyone else does that this far in with like you know little little tricks that like maybe tonight I'm gonna try to play all these Boeings backwards and see what happens.

[26:17] Shawn Pennington: Wow.

[26:18] Kiana Weber: Or maybe tonight, maybe I even make little goals like, you know, tonight my focus for this, you know, 100 minute meditation in violin is like I'm gonna just really live in tone. And how can I just have the best tone all night? Or tonight I'm just gonna really focus on my interaction with this one actor. And like, how could I make more contact with them? How can I like really explore expressing what that character's thinking in the music I'm making? I don't know. Weird little, weird little games like that for myself. Just listening and hearing new things in other people's lines and in my own lines and and thinking uh trying to be really in the moment um in my own uh scene work so that I'm not um stuck in a in a pattern of of a line reading, which is which is challenging. Um but I imagine that's really hard after you've done it so many times.

[27:19] Shawn Pennington: It probably feels like this is just part of your body, you don't even have to think about it.

[27:24] Christine Toy Johnson: Yeah, Shawn, how do you keep your show fresh? And you know, you have a lot of things that you supervise. Um, so how do you day to day, how do you keep um inspired?

[27:42] Shawn Pennington: That's an interesting question. I mean, listening to you both talk, it's interesting because it struck me that the definition of success for the stage manager is not the same, like keeping it fresh is not necessarily a good thing for stage management or for a lot of crew positions. Actually, you don't want it to be exactly precisely the same every show, show after show, so that the musicians and actors can create and be fresh inside the parameters of a strictly controlled, safe, same world from night to night. Like you don't want the turntable moving at different times than it normally does. Please, the lights shouldn't come on and off at different times. Like from my perspective, it should stay the same as much as humanly possible.

Which means you don't get any sort of night-to-night creative, you know, finding your inspiration from, uh, different, you know, differences in each performance is not something we do. So I think to answer the question, you know, I draw my inspiration from the story itself. Like I do not get tired of telling the story of Come From Away. I mean, last night I was welling up at certain points, like after 765 performances.

[29:12] Christine Toy Johnson: Yeah.

[29:12] Shawn Pennington: And I will say that I haven't always felt this way. In fact, I rarely have felt this way about most shows that I do. I mean, I always start out, you know, liking the show, maybe loving the show, and after, uh, you know, a long time, that can wear off and it can really become sort of a chore. I don't feel that way about this show, and I think a lot of it has to do with the message, has to do with the importance of the message at this particular time in history, which I think is really unique and something I know I'm grateful for, I know we're all grateful for that we get to tell this story during this particular time. Um, but that's what keeps it energized for me.

[29:57] Shawn Pennington: On a more practical side as well, of course, I'm constantly rehearsing our six standbys, um, each of whom plays five different roles. So there is a natural sort of mixing it up quality to those rehearsals because in every rehearsal, not only do I not know who, you know, each of them plays a different person in every rehearsal than they did in the last rehearsal, I play the other people, the missing people.

[30:27] Christine Toy Johnson: So I really want to come watch one of these.

[30:29] Shawn Pennington: That's amazing.

[30:30] Kiana Weber: That's amazing.

[30:33] Shawn Pennington: I think I feel like, but it is true. Like I play all 12 roles in rehearsal. And you know, I try to like, it's fun for me because I have an acting background, so it is fun, I would lie if I was saying it wasn't fun for me to do. Um, and I have to find that balance of, you know, I believe fully that an actor needs something to react to.

[30:58] Christine Toy Johnson: Of course, right.

[30:59] Shawn Pennington: So I try to give when I'm playing the other six roles, you know, in any rehearsal, I try to give just enough so they're not acting against a wall. Right, you know, because that's hard, that's really hard when you're getting nothing back from whoever else is reading those lines, you know. But I also try not to hold back so I'm not like fully committed, because that can be distracting as well when you're like, what are you doing? Are you trying? Because you know it's not about you at that moment? It's not about me, it's not about me. So finding that balance is sort of what I try to do. Just to give just enough so they feel like they're interacting with a human being, but not so much that they think I'm auditioning for the role.

[31:40] Shawn Pennington: Um, but to be fair, like that actually helps me a lot with my creative outlet of, you know, where I find sort of inspiration and keeping going and because I love rehearsal on this show more than I've ever loved rehearsal just because of that aspect, because it's such a challenge, and it's such a challenge for the six standbys, who all of whom are so phenomenal, and seeing them sort of grow into each of those five roles really is mesmerizing, and I never really get tired of that.

[32:15] Christine Toy Johnson: You know, I think that one thing you just mentioned that really is something I have been thinking about too is the parameters of the security in the parameters that you and the crew have set up so that you know you are safe. For example, um, in the turntable in Stop the World, I know that there is a stage manager on deck, stage right watching us do walking across the chairs on that moment.

[32:49] Shawn Pennington: And when I see you there, subconsciously, I feel, oh good. In case something happens, they're there. I mean, fortunately nothing has happened there, really, except for, you know, the occasional, um, I don't know, bump in the road, but um, it's really comforting to know that you have set up those safeguards for us. Um, can you talk a little bit about how the equipment and all of the physical elements of the show are maintained and what it takes to keep them going?

[33:26] Shawn Pennington: I mean the load-ins and loadouts are it's a miracle. We get to a new city and the set is there and it's, of course, it's a hard-earned miracle that the crew has put all of their bodies and souls into, but everything keeps working night after night and I wonder if you could talk about that a little bit.

[33:45] Shawn Pennington: Yes, I'm very glad to. I think that this is one of the most misunderstood and underappreciated aspects of touring any type of show but in particular a Broadway musical is, and I think what you just said there about you just arrive and the show is there, that's how I think most audiences feel. Like they go into, you know, the music hall at Fair Park in Dallas, Texas, and they walk in and they see Come From Away and it looks just like it looks on Broadway. Right. It looks exactly the same and, and it's, you know, and I think I've actually had people tell me that they think that the people here in Dallas built like that, that set just stays here. Like that we have a new one in that too, like we have a new one in every city we go to.

They just, the people there, and then we just arrive and do the show and then leave and someone else is built like that because, and I don't say that to belittle that idea because what actually happens is so miraculous that it sort of defies logic.

[34:58] Christine Toy Johnson: Yeah.

[34:59] Shawn Pennington: When you think about the fact it is exactly the same as Broadway in nearly every way. And on Broadway or any regional theater or sit-down theater, when you install a show, it can take anywhere from two to six weeks, or in some cases much longer, to load that show in. Like they take, and that goes everything from going from a bare stage, building the sets, installing the lighting, installing the sound equipment, the sound, like everything. You can take up to six weeks to do that. We do it in 13 hours every week.

[35:33] Christine Toy Johnson: Wow.

[35:33] Shawn Pennington: 13 hours. It goes from a bare empty stage to a Broadway show. And if you've ever got a chance to watch, there's many, many people have time-lapse photography, like done a time-lapse of a load-in. It's so fascinating to watch and to just see the show. It's like literally looks like a magic just add water, and the show just grows. Like it's really interesting. But it can only work because our crew, it's like a Swiss watch. Like, like everything has a specific order that it has to happen in a specific amount of time that it has to happen in.

[36:19] Shawn Pennington: That's something too, is like you think about, oh, well, you know, if let's say lighting, you know, or the carpenters, let's say, are having a really good day and they're really energetic, and they get there and they build the stage and they build the trees and they build everything really fast, but the lighting department has not had time to lay the cables that go under the stage and go around the trees and go up, like so they could actually do damage to the whole process if they go too fast. So it's this incredible clockwork of I do this, then you do this, then they do this, then I do this, and you do this, and it's been worked out, and they do it every week, and you get so efficient at it and so good at it that you just know what's gonna happen next.

[37:08] Shawn Pennington: And, um, and of course, in each city, so we have one or two or even three touring people in each department. There's sound, lighting, carpentry, props, wardrobe, hair, um, and then stage management. You know, so we tour with those like heads, those folks. But then in every city, we engage anywhere from 40 to 60 local crew members who don't know anything about the show typically. They show up, they're there, and they listen to instructions by the road crew. Each of them has a team of, you know, six, eight, ten people, and they instruct them into how to build the show that they've never seen and don't know anything about. So it's literally like a paint by numbers, like just trust me when I tell you, plug this in there, plug this in there, lay this there, do this there, and please follow my instructions exactly, and do not deviate from them in any way. Because we can, and they do, and that the, you know, the local crews in these places know what they're doing. They know how to do that.

[38:18] Shawn Pennington: Um, I think it's one of the things about this, about touring that makes it such a different art form almost than Broadway or regional theater. And it's, it's these are the unsung heroes that I feel like frequently don't get the attention that they should get simply for the miracle of what it is that they do.

[38:44] Kiana Weber: Miracle is the right word.

[38:45] Shawn Pennington: Oh absolutely it is just like magic.

[38:47] Kiana Weber: I love that you said it's like, it is, it's incredible.

[38:47] Shawn Pennington: It's incredible.

[38:51] Christine Toy Johnson: Um, I'm gonna wrap us up soon but Kiana is there anything else that you would like to add about um anything that we've talked about?

[39:01] Kiana Weber: Oh gosh, well I was just sitting there thinking that there's this beautiful moment that I get to have every loadout that's actually one of my favorite things that keeps me so inspired that like as in the band we have our own little mini loadout. You know it doesn't take us 13 hours but it takes us maybe 30 minutes to like, you know, wipe down all our instruments, make sure they're packed properly for travel and, um, you know that everything there's like a little bit of maintenance to do and stuff like that. And there's this little moment of overlap where I get to like finish putting my fiddles away and I put all the sheet music away and I get to watch like the hard hats come out and some of the bits of stage like start to disappear and it's just like it is actually magic. And I just, it's one of the most, I just feel so grateful every time I'm in that moment that it's, it's like this absolute privilege actually to get to watch that. It's just, it's so inspiring.

[39:56] Shawn Pennington: That's so beautiful.

[39:58] Kiana Weber: I think one of the things that that is so special about this whole experience and I know we've all mentioned something about it is that it doesn't get old. It never gets old the doing hundreds and hundreds of performances and telling the story and and getting the energy back from the audience um and the people in the, in the, all the people in the building is so life affirming really and um and exciting every time it really never is not exciting and um I'm just so glad that we were able to have this conversation today to hear different perspectives we literally cannot do this show without one another and so I'm so happy to get to share the space with you and experience your joy and generosity so thank you so much.

[40:07] Shawn Pennington: Thank you, Chris.

[40:08] Kiana Weber: Thanks so much, Chris, for being.