You ran a theatre before coming to MadLab. Tell us about that.  
During our last year of college, my great friend “John John” (John Galbraith) and I learned The Freshman Show was discontinued due to budget restraints. This show was an annual tradition at Baldwin-Wallace College. My involvement as a frosh had a deep impact on showing me the importance of theater. So with $20, ingenuity, and the code to the copy machine, we produced and directed a successful short play festival including original work and all first year (and in some cases, first time) actors and stage crew.
 
Soon after, we noticed three local theaters were all producing the same popular show, at the same time. A show that has been produced thousands of times before. Feeling a bit haughty from our short play fest triumph, John John and I started producing original shows under the name Wayward Theatre Company. Our goal was to showcase unpublished, unconventional plays. Every show was a world premiere. In every facet, participants were chosen for their attitude over all else. No experience necessary! It created a welcoming, safe environment for self-expression. Wayward kept gaining momentum, especially after moving to New Orleans where our business model attracted some significant donors. Our most ambitious production to date was planned for late 2005.  Hurricane Katrina happened in August. John John and I swam out of our home and yada yada yada about a week later managed to rent a car and drove north. Wayward ceased operations. John John and I are still great friends. He’s now a happily married, bass playing, wine making father of one human and three dogs in the Atlanta area. 

You had an artists space in Franklinton. Tell us about that.
​My “super awesome special friend” (now spouse) Eric Shook introduced me to the Franklinton arts scene. Eric is a metal artist and when we met, he had a studio at 400 W. Rich. Because of him, I started going to Franklinton Fridays open studios and other events at 400, The Vanderelli Room, The Idea Foundry, and Rehab. I love the energy and sense of community so I rented a studio at 400 for a while. That space was even used for some Theater Roulette and OGP rehearsals. Eric is currently one of the artists at the Central Ohio School of Metalworking (COSOM) and an Idea Foundry member. I’m back to being a Franklinton tourist and have a small home studio in Clintonville. 

You lead meditation sessions. How did you get into that

​My initiation to meditation was through hypnosis. Hypnosis is a type of deep meditation and my guided meditations include hypnosis techniques. I’ve kept up independent study of mechanics of the mind for a decade. It’s fascinating what our brains are capable of.
 
Attending local shows and having the studio space at 400 W. Rich helped me get to know some local artists, including Alicia Jean (AJ) Vanderelli.  Her gallery, The Vanderelli Room, hosted live events in addition to exhibitions with an emphasis on community. Through her kindness and generosity, I was able to use the space for donation based guided meditations for the general public. Before the recent state-of-affairs, I was working with Witchlab leading group and individual meditations. Since being at home, I’ve started a YouTube channel for meditations (Meditations with Susie) and continued with one-on-one hypnosis. 

​If you could get rid of one state, which one would you choose and why?

• Mississippi, because bugs and racism.

What is the last thing you do before you get on stage?

• Smile, take deep breaths, and remember why I love it!

Your favorite creative role?

• Actor!

If you could compare yourself to any animal, which would it be and why?

• A duck, because I am small and easy to confuse.

Which superpower would you choose?

• Flying, because I am extremely nervous on airplanes.

Would you rather fight 100 duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck?

• I would rather fight one horse-sized duck. 100 duck-sized horses sounds terrifying and would quickly become overwhelming. I imagine 100 duck-sized horses would also shit everywhere and that I'd have a huge mess to clean up after the fight. I would prefer to have one enemy to focus on and then be done with it. I would defeat the horse-sized duck, befriend it, and then I could go flying on my new duck friend.

A llama walks through your front door wearing a tutu. What does he say and why is he here?

• The llama says "I brought queso!" and he is there for Taco Tuesday.

If there was a movie produced about your life, who would play you?

• Melissa Fumero (obviously)

What is your favorite creative role?

• Actor - Acting is by far the most fun creative role for me. It is also the easiest and doesn't come with the stress and prep work required of being a director - did you know the director is in charge?? It's fucking scary.

What’s the last thing you do before you step onstage?

• Say in my head the line that I'm about to say on stage and take a deep breath.

When did you first perform?

• Age 9, I was cast in the first show I ever auditioned for which falsely taught me that getting cast was easy and I've been disappointed ever since :)

If you could choose one song to play every time you walked into a room for the rest of your life, what song would you choose and why?

• Hip to Be Square (Huey Lewis and the News): I can’t think of a better song to represent me. It’s fluffy. It’s fun. You can't be mad while you're listening to it. It’s just an overall good time.

What fictional character do you identify with the most and why?

• I love the title character from The Little Prince. He loves unconditionally, and does an amazing job of reminding you that being a kid is more a state of mind than it is a state of being.

If you had to work, but you didn't need the money, what would you do?

• If I could do any job, I would want to be someone who comes up with the names of Crayola crayons. I am color blind, so I don’t see that happening anytime soon… but a man can dream, right?

What is your favorite creative role?

• I’ve worn lots of different hats, but I don’t think anything beats acting in a really amazing role. A chance to be someone else for a few hours is refreshing! And I’ll never pass up an opportunity to make someone else laugh.

What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?

• Coffee. Add a dollop of Nutella and some crushed pecans, and I’ll be the one melting :)

​For theatre: Again, I was making up characters and stories or mimicking what I saw in movies and TV shows since I can remember. I think I lived in my own little world in my head and in my notebooks for a very long time... OK, fine, I still do. But I'd only ever "acted" in grade school plays that everyone participates in until my sophomore year of high school when I decided to join Today Productions (a community theater group in Toledo, Ohio)... as part of the stage crew. I didn't think I wanted to be on stage with people looking at me. Or maybe I just didn't have the courage for it at the time, I don't know. But after doing crew for one show and watching the actors perform on stage every night, I knew that's where I wanted to be. I auditioned as an actor the following years and majored in theatre at OSU and, after a few years off, am now performing with It's All Been Done Radio Hour and in Theatre Roulette and whatever else I can worm my way into. My aversion to attention/being looked at always loses out to the pull of performing.

F***, Marry, Kill: Ryan Gosling, Channing Tatum, Chris Pratt
F Ryan Gosling, M Chris Pratt, K Channing Tatum*

*Dear Mr. Tatum...Channing...can I call you Channing? I've just murdered you, so I would think so - 

It's nothing personal. It's just that of the 3 options given, yours is the work with which I am least familiar. I am told that were I better acquainted with you, my decision would most likely be different. I am open to that opinion, as I don't like to make decisions with limited information. Especially important ones like whom to murder. Therefore, I reserve the right to bring you back from this hypothetical death I've fated you to. Maybe in zombie form? That's always popular.

So in the words of Todd Rundgren, can we still be friends?

Love, Kristin

Mine were channels 87-89, but my favorite was 87.  TEN: The Erotic Network. A new full length feature started every night at 10pm.  Solid plot lines and 8-10 minutes of uncensored action per scene.  Well, sort of uncensored.  The sound came in clear as a bell (hence the importance of the solid plot lines) but the picture was a wash of colors more suited to Schokko with the Red Hat than Jenna Jameson's Girl with the Pearl Necklace.  The images themselves were distorted beyond recognition about 85% of the time, but every 30 seconds or so a pop of clarity would come through to clue you in as to the current position. Once the visual was lost, you were pretty much on an audio-guided tour for the rest of the ride, but what was left for the imagination was pretty easy to piece together.  Just "a bit of the old in-out, in-out" as they say.

​Of course with the advent of the world wide web, it seems as though the days of coordinating family schedules to ensure alone time to piece together abstracted genitals into some sort of image that made sense both sensually and in accordance with the laws of physics are bygone.  Still, I'm on the lookout.  Somewhere out there is more absurdly confounding material that I can feel just a little bit naughty for finding and enjoying.  Some little tidbit of entertainment that leaves just enough holes here and there for my imagination to fill in, but with a solid plot line to carry me from one 8-10 minute session to the next.  Something raunchy.  Something forbidden.

Something Sketchy.