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[0:07] Mary Dina: Hey everyone and welcome back to Page to Stage, a conversation with theater makers. We're your hosts. That's Brian. That's Mary. To put it simply, we're both theater nerds. So let's pull back the curtain and get a glimpse at the artists' process while creating their art.

[0:27] Brian Sedita: And guys, we're so, so, so excited because we're starting a podcast. I can't believe it. We both are avid fans. We're big podcast listeners. Anything. I started with true crime and now I'm kind of just listening to a lot of different genres.

[0:43] Mary Dina: And I started with theater podcasts. Brian and I talked maybe a month ago, and we decided that we're gonna do a podcast together. Because why not? And when we were deciding what we want to do, we decided it has to be about theater because that's what we're both interested in. But we wanted to hit some topics that maybe other podcasts that we normally listen to that are already out there don't cover.

[1:09] Brian Sedita: And also chatting with people who maybe aren't being represented on podcasts already. Like right now, the podcasts that I listen to, a lot of them are just interviews with other actors talking about acting, and there's nothing wrong with that because we definitely are interviewing actors. We're gonna do that too. So I'm not subtweeting our own podcast. But we want to hear from stage managers and playwrights and producers and designers and so many other people that normally aren't represented in the podcast realm.

[1:41] Mary Dina: But first, we want to introduce ourselves to you guys. It's kind of like a mini podcast interview, yeah, of each other. Exactly. Because if we're gonna be your co-hosts for this thing, you can't. I think you should know a little bit about us. Let's get to know each other. It's like a first date.

[1:57] Brian Sedita: Absolutely. And if there's anything that we missed, find us on Instagram at Page to Stage Podcast. And where can you find yourself on Instagram, like Mary?

[1:58] Mary Dina: Yeah, so we can um, on Instagram and Twitter, I am at TheMaryDina. Dina is spelled D-I-N-A because people actually always ask me that.

[2:17] Brian Sedita: Really?

[2:18] Mary Dina: Yes. It's another name.

[2:19] Brian Sedita: I know, but I also get, I actually when I first had you on social media when we met, I thought that was just like your middle name because a lot of people use their first and middle name.

[2:19] Mary Dina: Yeah, throughout high school, people actually, even actually continuously throughout my life, there have been people who have thought that Mary Dina is like my first name, like a little stage name.

[2:19] Brian Sedita: It's a little, no, yeah, I guess sure. And if you want to follow me on Instagram, you could find me at Brian Sedita, Brian with an I.

[2:50] Mary Dina: Simple, easy.

[2:50] Brian Sedita: Simple. I gotta make sure people can find you.

[2:56] Mary Dina: Yeah. So I guess we're gonna kick this off. So Brian said earlier we both work in theater, so I'm gonna ask Brian some questions about what he's doing. Um, so Brian, I knew that you went to Montclair, Montclair State, Montclair State University.

[3:07] Brian Sedita: Ooh, I got my uh, so got that in common and we didn't know that until after like months of knowing each other.

[3:16] Mary Dina: Yeah, absolutely. I didn't know that we were there at the same time because I remember you did tell me that you got your master's at Montclair.

[3:16] Brian Sedita: Yeah, yeah, I was in the acting program, BFA acting program.

[3:31] Mary Dina: Woo woo. Were you there for all four years?

[3:33] Brian Sedita: I was there for all four and a half years.

[3:35] Mary Dina: And a half years.

[3:36] Brian Sedita: Four and a half years. Alright, we're gonna unpack that. So I guess one. My first question for you, so are you, were you from around that area? Did you go to school there? How did you find Montclair?

[3:45] Brian Sedita: So Montclair State is like five minutes from where I grew up. I grew up in Totowa, New Jersey. And yeah, it was a very local school. I didn't have to move away. Uh, so I commuted to school every day. And state school, state tuition prices, that was good. But also the program was really good. And so that was a really huge plus that I had a program that was really good that was so close and affordable, and also it was so close to New York City. It's like a twelve-mile radius to New York City. And honestly, I didn't want to move away from the city to go to school. Like I didn't care if I had to move to New York City or anywhere in that radius that I'm used to, but I didn't want to move any further for school.

[4:35] Mary Dina: Yeah. So was the program, is it like a liberal arts program or is it?

[4:35] Brian Sedita: So the conservatory, is that the way? It's not a conservatory program, but it's moving in the direction that's more conservatory based. So it's not like we have, you know, acting and movement and voice five times a week, but we definitely have all those classes each semester for at least six semesters. Um, yeah, it was a great program. There's a lot of opportunities to make your own work, and that's encouraged, and I did a lot of that, which was awesome because I'm really interested in directing as well. So I directed a bunch of student works.

[5:15] Mary Dina: So did you do any of the like summer stock?

[5:19] Brian Sedita: I didn't do any summer stock in the classic summer stock definition that people think of when they hear those two words together, but I did a lot of shows on my breaks over the summer. Always tried to look for things to do over the summer to keep it going and put what I was learning in class to use. I did, you know, a couple like I would look for films and stuff like that to do to build up my reel. And then this past summer I decided to do an internship at Broadway Teachers Workshop, which is where you and I met.

[5:54] Mary Dina: Yes.

[5:55] Brian Sedita: Broadway Teachers Workshop is a professional development opportunity for theater educators and honestly directors, choreographers, or anyone who was really in the business, honestly, because the workshops are educational for everybody. It's not just geared towards theater education.

[6:11] Mary Dina: Yeah, I mean, as somebody that was still just on a college summer break, it was an awesome opportunity to fill my gap with something that was educational and hearing from people that are working in the business and doing their thing. I've met so many amazing people, a lot of wit, a lot of people.

[6:36] Brian Sedita: Yes.

[6:37] Mary Dina: I'm so excited to introduce them to you guys. Um, yeah, I've been with them four or five years now.

[6:44] Brian Sedita: Wow.

[6:45] Mary Dina: So I started off as an intern and then maybe a year or two or two or three years after that, I switched to the freelancing part of it with them. So I do their social media and their photography for their workshops. I do the student summit during the school year, teacher's workshop in the summer. It's pretty cool.

[7:01] Brian Sedita: Nice.

[7:01] Mary Dina: Yeah. And that's how I met you.

[7:03] Brian Sedita: Woo!

[7:04] Mary Dina: So thanks, Pam and Gordon.

[7:06] Brian Sedita: Thanks. Um, so you mentioned you wanna, you're interested in directing and that's kind of where your focus is, would you say right now?

[7:13] Brian Sedita: I think that you can pursue both at the same time. I think that I'm primarily focusing on acting right now, but there's a lot of directing projects in my mind and things that I'm always thinking about, especially when I go to see shows and performances. My mind is always thinking like an actor and a director, which I think helps me in the rehearsal process for both.

[7:39] Mary Dina: That's really interesting.

[7:54] Brian Sedita: Yeah. But I think it's weird in that, in a good way, to have like the actor and the director side of your brain because they focus on two entirely different pieces of the puzzle.

[8:04] Mary Dina: They're two entirely different pieces of the puzzle, but when you're doing theater, you're all going for the same result in the end. I mean, like everybody has their own idea of what the result is, but like we want the show to work, right? You wanna tell the story.

[8:19] Brian Sedita: Yeah, we want to tell the story, and I think that as a director, actor, director, actor, back and forth, I think that the acting portion helps when I'm directing because I know how I would want to be directed, how I would like to be spoken to by a director.

[8:38] Mary Dina: Mm-hmm.

[8:38] Brian Sedita: And so I know right now you're working in a casting office.

[8:43] Mary Dina: Uh, so early.

[8:45] Brian Sedita: I'm just finishing up working at a talent agency.

[8:49] Mary Dina: A talent agency, okay. And so what piqued your interest there?

[8:54] Brian Sedita: Well, yeah, so I'm interning there. Um, one of my professors from Montclair reached out to me and said that his representation was looking for somebody to intern in the office during pilot season just to, you know, pilot season's a really busy time at an agent's office. So I thought it would be really nice and educational and hearing the other side of the business.

[9:20] Mary Dina: Yeah, I've definitely, I've always wanted to work in a casting office just to get that experience and know what it's like.

[9:26] Brian Sedita: So a lot of, so it's not a casting office, it's the agents that send you into casting offices.

[9:35] Mary Dina: So casting, I would love to work in a casting office. You know, just like to intern at a casting office. Because I think that that's another valuable thing. So like I think the difference is, so it's the representation.

[9:48] Brian Sedita: Yeah, so these are agents that are trying to get their clients work, right? But a casting office is actually working with the creative team. And maybe we will bring a casting director on this podcast to explain this better.

[10:02] Mary Dina: And an agent.

[10:03] Brian Sedita: We could do that. But just really, really in short, the casting office, they're the casting directors that are casting the project, and so the actors go to audition for the casting directors, and then they're like, "Oh, we have this list," and then it's like, "Okay, here's this list. Directors, now you can see them in the callback or whatever or on tape and stuff like that." So they're completely two different jobs, but both really important for the actor, for the production, for relationships because that's a lot about what this business is, and I think that that's a lot of what our guests are gonna say this business is about.

[10:43] Mary Dina: Yeah. Absolutely.

[10:44] Brian Sedita: So that's what I'm doing, and I'm also working on a podcast.

[10:48] Mary Dina: Yeah, you are! So Mary, let's hear about you.

[10:52] Brian Sedita: So you're from Delaware.

[10:54] Mary Dina: Yes, I am. And did you do theater throughout high school?

[10:58] Brian Sedita: I did.

[10:59] Mary Dina: I started actually, if you ask my parents, I started as a child doing some stuff.

[11:05] Brian Sedita: I did too. I was at the ripe age of six. My parents put me in community theater.

[11:10] Mary Dina: I'm gonna say something that I'm probably gonna regret later, but when I was like four or five, you know those old, like maybe not even old, those like dust pans that like you can stand up and like the stick, like it's like the, like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it has like the stick so that was like my height, and I used to use that as a microphone, and I used to watch the tenth anniversary of Les Mis on VHS, dating myself probably, and belt my heart out to that Eponine song.

[11:35] Brian Sedita: I still had VHS when I was younger too, don't worry.

[11:35] Mary Dina: Thanks! Um, but yeah, so I started there. Um, I then kind of like through middle school, I think I focused just more on singing, which is like really ironic because I definitely don't do that now.

[11:50] Brian Sedita: You don't do any singing?

[11:50] Mary Dina: Yeah, no, not at all, I know.

[11:56] Brian Sedita: So you went to undergrad in Delaware?

[11:56] Mary Dina: Yeah.

[11:57] Brian Sedita: And what did you go for?

[11:58] Mary Dina: Um, what's going, so I applied and was accepted as a psych major, was gonna do psychology and go like the therapist route. Um, I find that so interesting, but that's like the theater actor person in me that's like psychology of a character and all that. I'm so interested in that.

[12:14] Brian Sedita: I'm also, which is, I'm also very interested in knowing people's stories, and I am a very good listener. Not to like toot my own horn, but that's just something that I've learned about myself.

[12:24] Mary Dina: Well, we know you listen to so many podcasts. Um, which I think is fitting now because now I get to listen to our amazing guests tell their story and get to learn about them. And so yeah, so I quickly, I think before or even at my new student orientation, I actually was like, "Nope, I'm gonna drop that major."

[12:48] Brian Sedita: And so without telling my parents, I became an English education major.

[12:53] Mary Dina: You're an adult, you're eighteen by then. You don't like to tell them?

[12:55] Brian Sedita: You tell them that.

[12:58] Mary Dina: So um, so I became an English ed major, and for three years, three years I was an English ed major. At the end of my junior year, right before I was about to start student teaching, I was like, I was watching my friends who were education majors in different fields, different areas, and they were so passionate about it, and I was not passionate.

[13:20] Brian Sedita: Yeah.

[13:21] Mary Dina: I thought if I could be an English ed major, then I could get a degree in teaching and then teach theater, but I didn't want to teach theater. I worked in college as a director. I worked at a black box theater. I also taught classes for the kids there. I did a lot. I worked in their admin office. It was a huge part of my life growing up. I had that piece of me that was interested in that, but I didn't want to make that my career of just teaching theater or just teaching.

[13:51] Brian Sedita: It wasn't gonna be fulfilling for you.

[13:53] Mary Dina: Yeah, and why, I mean, unfortunately or fortunately, I don't know. I, well, I went through 20 years old, you don't have to do anything for another 40 that you don't want to do.

[14:02] Brian Sedita: Yeah.

[14:03] Mary Dina: Yeah. And also I didn't, I felt like if I went into something that I wasn't passionate about, especially with teaching, that was gonna be a disservice to the kids.

[14:11] Brian Sedita: Right.

[14:11] Mary Dina: And also it's like, you know, I'm sure we've all had those teachers that are at the end of their careers and are so jaded and have had their days. And it's like they probably started out as really excited teachers that wanted to teach.

[14:25] Brian Sedita: Yeah.

[14:26] Mary Dina: I had a very adult conversation with both my parents where I was like, "I'm dropping that part of my degree or my major." You know, I had to go home, I had to have a full conversation with them, and my dad to this day we still talk, we still laugh about it where he was like, "You can't make a career out of this." Like I don't understand.

[14:50] Mary Dina: Like math education.

[14:51] Brian Sedita: That sounds terrifying.

[14:52] Mary Dina: I you know I hate math.

[14:54] Mary Dina: I actually I have kept math in my life. I'm a math tutor uh on the side for kids.

[14:59] Brian Sedita: Oh that's cool.

[15:00] Mary Dina: I didn't know that. So I still keep math in my life as everybody keeps math in their life because math is everywhere.

[15:06] Brian Sedita: I know but now we have this thing on our phone where it's called a calculator but it goes with you all the time.

[15:10] Mary Dina: I'm talking about algebra.

[15:12] Brian Sedita: Okay, maybe algebra's not there every day but anyways I digress.

[15:17] Mary Dina: Um and so I was th they were basically like what what is your plan? Like you're about to graduate any four years or did you have to go a little spoiler alert yes.

[15:28] Brian Sedita: Whoa you beat me.

[15:30] Mary Dina: Well here's why so I I basically was just dropping the education part of my major and so in the English department education was like a concentration if you and then they also had other concentrations so I switched to a drama. I was also a theater minor I should mention that I was a theater minor, so I was collecting credits of theater and English and education.

[15:51] Brian Sedita: Um you knew you knew the whole time.

[15:53] Mary Dina: I did. I think yeah, I definitely knew You know what? You probably when when did you feel like you were inching towards that?

[16:00] Brian Sedita: Towards theater.

[16:01] Mary Dina: Towards theater? I mean, I think going into college, I think when I switched from psych to English ed.

[16:08] Brian Sedita: Yeah.

[16:08] Mary Dina: Because I wanted I think I think I knew my end goal was to teach theater at that time. And so then I just took the teaching part out of it and I just still had theater, you know?

[16:19] Brian Sedita: Yeah.

[16:19] Mary Dina: And so after college, did you go right to grad school?

[16:22] Brian Sedita: Yes.

[16:23] Mary Dina: Wow. So basically what I told my parents was I'm going to grad school. I'm dropping this and I'm gonna do this, and I'm gonna pursue theater in some capacity, probably directing, and I'm going to grad school. And they were like, Okay.

[16:35] Mary Dina: Um and it took a it took a minute, but they've both come around and they're super supportive. And I went to Montclair State, moved up to North Jersey. I'd never lived in Jersey.

[16:44] Brian Sedita: Yeah.

[16:46] Mary Dina: Because like South Jersey is probably more like Delaware.

[16:50] Brian Sedita: Yeah, it's like right.

[16:50] Mary Dina: Yeah, that's not too much. I mean it's any other part of like this area that's not like right outside of New York City.

[16:58] Brian Sedita: Yeah.

[16:58] Mary Dina: Because like when I tell people I'm from Jersey, they're like, oh Jersey shore. Oh, this, that, and the other. No, like North Jersey right by New York City.

[17:07] Brian Sedita: So it's like we're practically in New York City, just very suburban.

[17:10] Mary Dina: Yeah. Um it was it was different, but also there were a lot of similarities between my experience at the University of Delaware versus Montclair State. They're both state schools, but also they both had like the campus, but then real life around it. Versus 'cause I I've I toured other places and I visited other places that it was like a bubble. And I didn't want that.

[17:40] Brian Sedita: Yeah, totally.

[17:41] Mary Dina: Like if you're in a really small town, it's like Yeah. That's the city is that university.

[17:46] Brian Sedita: Yeah.

[17:46] Mary Dina: It feels whereas Montclair, there's there's so much life around it. And like I said, there's a training station right on campus that brings you right to New York City. It's very helpful.

[17:54] Brian Sedita: It was very helpful to get to the city, although it wasn't great if on the weekend.

[17:59] Mary Dina: Well, right. But I never had to deal with that 'cause I was from that area and I had a car.

[18:04] Brian Sedita: Yeah, I didn't have a car.

[18:05] Mary Dina: I did not have a car. So then after you graduated Montclair.

[18:08] Brian Sedita: After I graduated, I was at a loss. I did not know what I wanted to do. I was like, okay, so I wanted to direct up until that, but then ever I was doing a lot of arts admin work and I had experience before in college, but I didn't know like w what to do. Like I wasn't getting connections with directors. I wasn't I didn't like Yeah. I was I didn't know what to do.

[18:30] Mary Dina: And so I talked to my little bit of how I feel in the directing sense as well. Cause like at least for acting, I could go to auditions, right? Like I can't audition to be your director.

[18:42] Brian Sedita: Yeah.

[18:42] Mary Dina: So it's a networking thing for sure.

[18:44] Brian Sedita: Yeah, definitely.

[18:45] Mary Dina: Um I applied to a few jobs, like arts admin jobs that interested me. I had also between year one and two of grad school, I worked at Bucks County Playhouse in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

[18:58] Brian Sedita: Woo.

[18:59] Mary Dina: Um and so it was it's beautiful. If you have not been, you have to go.

[19:02] Brian Sedita: I have been.

[19:03] Mary Dina: Uh my high school used to do those um Oh of a student theater festival.

[19:07] Brian Sedita: Student theater festivals where we would uh prepare like a thirty minute ver trended version of whatever show we were doing, the play and the musical, and then we would we would go down there on a field trip.

[19:16] Mary Dina: Oh, that's so cool.

[19:17] Brian Sedita: They still do that, by the way.

[19:18] Mary Dina: I know. My high school still goes. They j I think they just celebrated their fiftieth anniversary last year, which is wild.

[19:25] Brian Sedita: It's it's beautiful. We always loved that field trip because like that area is just so beautiful. And it was always like at the end of April or beginning of May. So it's like blooming and the birds are chirping. It was it's uh it was honestly it was amazing, and I loved the people there, and so when I graduated, I had reached out. At that point, I was like, maybe I'll be a company manager, maybe I'll work in their management office.

[19:50] Mary Dina: So I reached out to a person that I knew that still was there, and he was like, There's nothing in this office, but we have an opening in the development office, which if you don't know it's fundraising for nonprofit theaters, not creative development, which a lot of people thought that's what it was. And so I was like, I don't really want to write grants, I don't really have an interest in that. I I don't think it would it's in my skills, and so my advisor was like, honestly, I wish I would have had experience in development, so take it consider it at least.

[20:21] Brian Sedita: So it's like okay.

[20:24] Mary Dina: And so I was interviewing with a few places and ended up landing with that one, and I was there for three years, and I you must have enjoyed it.

[20:32] Brian Sedita: I loved it, it was great.

[20:34] Mary Dina: I learned I learned a ton about development. So, what made you uh leave Bucks County and come up to the city and move up here full time?

[20:43] Brian Sedita: During my time in Bucks County, I was actually going back and forth because like I said, I was freelancing with probably two teaching crew.

[20:50] Mary Dina: You would wake up at what, like three in the morning four thirty morning.

[20:59] Brian Sedita: To get to New York by nine.

[21:00] Mary Dina: Um, a lot of times I was working. I'm sure you listened to a lot of podcasts on that.

[21:05] Brian Sedita: Oh, I did.

[21:06] Mary Dina: Oh, I did. Um, and did that sometimes I was working seven days a week, especially in the summer when they had their teachers's workshop, and that was also working full time um at Bucks. They were great, and I was able to use vacation time and other time, like comp time, to go off and do that still.

[21:24] Brian Sedita: So Bucks was really great at being supportive.

[21:27] Mary Dina: That's great. I decided to leave because ultimately development was not what I wanted to do with my life. Um I learned a great amount of ski like skills and tips and just a different side of the business that I would have never received otherwise. So like we should definitely have someone out there on the podcast that's fundraising related.

[21:47] Brian Sedita: I was doing a lot of events for them, like fundraising events for Bucks, and I learned that I I'm interested in producing. I worked very closely with the producing director, Alex Fraser. Um, and I started to to question whether or not like why why did I like directing so much? And was it maybe I was interested in producing instead? And so I had a conversation with him and a f with a few other people and events there were for me very similar to the idea of producing because you're producing at a whole event. You know, you're having to come up with the everything from like the details to like who's performing or who's the host and all that stuff, who's being invited, and like how much or tickets or whatever.

[22:32] Mary Dina: And so I started looking for jobs in New York because one I I knew that it was time for New York for me. I knew that I was eventually gonna go back, and I it just felt right. So I took that leap and uh and where did you land?

[22:48] Brian Sedita: I now work for uh Tony Award winner, um, Ken Davenport. I am his uh events and social media and marketing and podcasts and all this stuff with him, and it's great and it's fun. I'm also learning a lot, which is amazing.

[23:04] Mary Dina: I think that's something that's very important is that if you feel like you've stopped learning. Yes, it's time to especially now in my late twenties.

[23:13] Brian Sedita: Oh late 20s.

[23:15] Mary Dina: They're amazing, honestly. I highly recommend it. I think that it you need to be challenged every day. Something needs to make you question something, anything. You need to be able to evaluate things and have a conversation with yourself even. And I wasn't I got a point I got to a point at Bucks where that that was I wasn't doing that on a daily basis, maybe a weekly basis, but I I needed to grow. And so, you know, like every you know, I spent three years there and I did a lot of work and got a lot of you know support and so you just move on and now I'm r being challenged and I'm receiving um feedback and just growing, which is great.

[23:56] Brian Sedita: Yeah.

[23:57] Mary Dina: So it's totally a different ball game and what you're used to. And also it's so weird because nonprofit going to a like a for profit.

[24:03] Brian Sedita: Oh, it's such a nonprofit.

[24:05] Mary Dina: Yeah. Oh, I didn't know that.

[24:07] Brian Sedita: Yeah, well, that's why I was fundraising.

[24:09] Mary Dina: Right. So you fundraise for a non profit. Um yeah, that's the I that that I I underestimated that switch in your brain for sure. At least on my end, working on the fundraising side, like I had to bring in, and I mean I mean the team, had to bring in money, had to raise money.

[24:30] Mary Dina: Yeah, so that's me. And also, um, I freelance social media marketing, sorry. With Broadway Teachers Group. Yeah, and for some other places. I've done some small gigs here and there. Um, I've I'm consulting, if you will, for some friends for social media stuff and for some colleagues that that I've met, people that I've met along the way, and I am doing a podcast.

[24:52] Brian Sedita: We are doing a podcast.

[24:53] Mary Dina: Yes, we are. So now that you've met us, we hope that you would like to meet our guests. You're gonna love our guests. Because they're so fun and exciting, and we've got some really cool people lined up for you guys, and they're just all really insightful people for what they're doing, and they're all at a different point in their career, which makes it so much more interesting for us because we're not getting the same conversation each time.

[25:26] Brian Sedita: Yeah, but even if they were at the same level, because I've sat through panels and conversations before, and people who have been at the top, whatever that top is for for for you. They always want something next, right?

[25:39] Mary Dina: Yeah, but their journey to to that place is so different for every single person. And so the fact that we get to sit down with people who are at the beginning of their careers or who are seasoned and hear about what it's like and what their process is like as a stage manager, or how they prepare as an actor, or what's the first step as a director, and etc. I think is I'm I'm just I'm very excited for that.

[26:05] Brian Sedita: Yeah, because I mean bottom line, if zero people listen to this podcast, if our mothers listen to this podcast only, you know better. You know, we're still doing it because we're learning as much as it is for other people to listen to as well.

[26:20] Mary Dina: The excitement that we have is is what's really important to us.

[26:24] Brian Sedita: Yeah, and we're living the dream. We've started a podcast. Come on.

[26:28] Mary Dina: Yeah, and there will be mistakes along the way, I'm sure.

[26:32] Brian Sedita: Yeah.

[26:33] Mary Dina: But also, it's like live theme. Let me tell you guys, we have this is not live. We have uh really gotten a crash course in audio. Honestly, we need we need some sound designers up in here to talk to them because I have a lot of questions, but also I have a lot of respect for you guys.

[26:50] Brian Sedita: It's like I think it's the one area in theater that is still a lot of the tech positions like I wouldn't know how to program a lightboard. I took a lighting internship when I was in college with the professional theater on campus, and um it was terrifying. It was it was I was like, whoa, because it this is so intense.

[27:10] Mary Dina: Yeah. Anyway, I'm not gonna for a future podcast. We will learn with you. We're coming at you every other week. At least that's the initial goal is every other week. And um, who knows? Maybe there'll be bonus episodes and stuff like that.

[27:25] Brian Sedita: Always episode.

[27:26] Mary Dina: This is kind of like a bonus episode.

[27:28] Brian Sedita: Yeah.

[27:29] Mary Dina: I would love to know what you guys where your interests lie. Want to know, yeah. Because like we we're interested in certain things and certain people, but I'd love to know what areas of the business you guys are interested in hearing about, and if there are certain questions that you may have, you could DM us at Page to Stage Podcast on Instagram. I would love to know, and I'm sure Brian would too.

[27:52] Brian Sedita: How many of you listening are in college and have questions about what it's like in the real world? Because I know when I was in college I did, and honestly, even post-cro college, I still have those questions. And sometimes now at 27, I'm like, how do we do this thing? So please ask us questions.

[28:13] Mary Dina: Yeah, and and feel free to like tell us what you are pursuing if you're in school.

[28:18] Brian Sedita: Absolutely.

[28:19] Mary Dina: If you have anyone that you'd like to recommend, you know, anyone in the industry, like we said, we're willing to talk to me. From like a particular show that you're that you're really interested in. We love to talk to in any career, any field in the in the industry. So don't hold back. Send us your suggestions.

[28:35] Brian Sedita: And if you are enjoying our podcast, if you enjoyed this first episode, if you could take a couple seconds to just rate and review us wherever you're listening to this podcast, we would really appreciate it. And if you could share it with your friends and family or anybody that you think would be interested in listening to these types of conversations with us.

[28:58] Mary Dina: Even strangers on the train.

[29:00] Brian Sedita: The dogs.

[29:03] Mary Dina: Definitely the dogs.

[29:04] Brian Sedita: Just the dogs.

[29:05] Mary Dina: I was gonna say your dog.

[29:07] Brian Sedita: I said the dogs.

[29:08] Mary Dina: Anyways. Thank you all for tuning into this first episode.

[29:13] Brian Sedita: Thank you.

[29:13] Mary Dina: And we can't wait to bring you some really cool conversations with theater makers.

[29:19] Brian Sedita: That's Brian.

[29:20] Mary Dina: That's Mary.

[29:21] Brian Sedita: You've just listened to Page to Stage podcast, the first episode.

[29:25] Mary Dina: We'll see you next time.

[29:26] Brian Sedita: We'll see you next time.

[29:27] Mary Dina: Bye.

[29:28] Brian Sedita: Bye.