Quarantine Q/A: SHELBY AND BRIAN MATICIC

Brian, Rory and Shelby Maticic

by Gil Benbrook

Our series of "Quarantine" interviews, which focus on individuals involved in the Phoenix theatre community and their reaction to Arizona's stay at home mandate, continues today with a conversation with actors, directors, writers and Brelby Theatre Company co-founders, Shelby and Brian Maticic

The COVID-19 virus and the recent protests in support of racial injustice have affected us all in many ways. The theatre community has been harshly impacted with show closures and postponements. We hope this series of daily interviews will be a way to provide some personal insight into what people are doing during this period of time while highlighting familiar individuals from the theatre community in town.

Was there a show you were in or involved with or preparing for when the stay at home order started? 

Brian Maticic: "I was directing and scenic designing for Shakespeare in Love, and we were just getting rolling on rehearsals. We had blocked about the first quarter of the show when we hit pause. It was a very difficult call to stop a rehearsal in its tracks when we were just picking up steam, but it was definitely the only call that could be made. "

Shelby Maticic: "It’s strange to think about...but that was, what, three months ago? I am costume designing Shakespeare in Love, so that was my next project to hit the stage. I had a dressing room packed with rentals that we just returned before I was even able to have actors try them on."

B: "Beyond that, I was working on rewrites and pre-production for Luna and Solis which we were supposed to take to the San Diego International Fringe and on tour over the summer. That project has been put on hold until (optimistically) next summer. "

S: "The tour was hard to press pause on. The entire Fringe was postponed to next summer. We were so excited about kicking off a partnership with Penguin Productions in Oregon, but we know that we’re all in this together. "

B: "Agreed. We’ve been looking forward to pushing our original shows outside of AZ for a long time, and this was to be our first real step towards that. But this is true of so many original projects we had in the pipeline for this year. "

S:  "For me...this has most immediately affected the process of writing Echoes with Helen Morris. We were preparing for the first workshop of our new musical in mid-March when everything quickly spiraled. Canceling the workshop was heartbreaking. It’s been a challenge to figure out what our new collaborative process looks like. We work most effectively when we are writing together in person, and that isn’t an option right now. So we pressed pause, and we gave ourselves the grace to acknowledge that doing that was okay. We ended up doing a super secret Zoom reading of what we had, and it felt good to try to reignite some sense of artistic normalcy."

How have you been personally impacted by our current situation?

B: "It’s been a pretty significant change. We’ve always been the type that never stop moving, never stop working, never stop pushing toward the next goal. That stopped in its tracks. All of our theatre projects are on hold. We were in the early stages of planning for a second business. That’s on hold. I had to transition to teaching middle school math and science online, and we have been taking quarantining very seriously having a high-risk toddler in the house. So we went from being home a few hours a week, to 24/7. That said, pausing everything else has given us the opportunity to explore other ventures and ideas we’ve been talking about for a long time, but hadn’t had time to really explore, or implement."

 

S: "It certainly forced us to take more of a break than we have in the past...well, decade. Brelby is my primary job...and getting creative about how to keep my artistic community connected has been a challenge. I know that at this point people are burned out on virtual readings, but my artists are happy to be connecting in some way. So, I’m glad that we’ve been doing them. I also taught middle school theatre at Metropolitan Arts Institute. My students had just auditioned for their fall play before we left for Spring Break and quarantine hit. There was a small grieving process over the loss of that artistic experience. They were so ready to create a show together."

How has your daily routine changed?

B: "Completely. My day now has zero resemblance to my day before the lockdown, with the exception of chasing a toddler around. I’ve always been terrible at relaxing, so I spend most of the day wandering aimlessly feeling like I should be accomplishing things, but feeling guilty if I’m not giving Rory all of my attention. It's a time. Fortunately Shelby has been very good about reminding me to take care of myself, and pushing me to work on some new projects."

S: "I feel lucky that we’re a family that enjoys being together. We very quickly had a conversation about our needs as an extrovert (Brian) and an introvert (myself) during week 2 of quarantine. It’s helped us to stay on the same page about things. It’s us against the circumstances, never against one another. Rory (the aforementioned toddler) has an autoimmune disease that has been regressing a little bit lately, so we’ve been staying vigilant about social distancing. She hasn’t seen anyone in person other than the two of us since March. It’s hard on her. She misses her family. She misses her friends. She asks why there are no people around at the theatre when we pop in to do an odd errand here or there. She really misses our artists. (Many of them are her babysitters.) Brian and I adapt well under pressure. We are used to navigating crises. However, we lost our dog Rumor early on in quarantine, and having to explain the circle of life to a two-year-old has been one of my greatest challenges to date."

Shelby and Brian Maticic in Twelfth Night at Brelby Theatre Company 
photo by Devin Hanson Photography

 What do you feel will be different when theater restarts?

B: "This is a really difficult question that I don’t think anyone can fully answer yet. So much depends on how the science plays out. Best case scenario, a vaccine is discovered at some point, and things can return to some version of normal. Even in that circumstance, there will be huge changes. I think audiences will be more appreciative of the live event aspect, and also more hesitant/cautious about attending. "

S: "Some people are going to be nervous about gathering in groups with strangers. Rightfully so. One of the most beautiful things about live theatre is the shared experience with fellow audience members...and I worry that anxiety is going to rob so many of letting themselves be connected fully to the onstage storytelling. I’m also looking at this from an artist’s perspective. So many of us have gone through a grieving process over lost shows, jobs, experiences...will everyone be ready to leap back in when it’s time to start up again? Will we be overly cautious about the health risks? Or is there even such a thing as overly cautious when it comes to a pandemic?"

B: "It means theatres are going to have to really focus on community engagement and communicating their value, and the steps they are taking to make it a safe experience. It will force theatres to adapt. In the shorter time before a vaccine, I’m not sure. Hopefully very thoughtful programming with smaller casts, limited seating, and all sorts of precautions. Beyond that….. as regrettable as it will be, I’m nervous about how many theatres and arts organizations aren’t going to be able to come out of this. "

S: "I think that some theatres will have to scale back to survive. I hope that we all can survive. The Zoni Board has been trying our best to create opportunities to help ease the hardships, but there’s only so much we can do. "

When do you think that’ll happen?

B: "I hope not before it is truly safe. My best shot in the dark guess….. end of August for limited social distancing with ⅓ seating.  Honestly with the way Covid spreads, and the ignorance in the behaviors I’ve seen on my few trips to the store, I believe it is a dangerous and reckless mistake for any organization to hold any indoor in-person performances or rehearsals before the state actually sees multiple weeks of substantially declining cases as reported by scientists and medical professionals... not politicians."

S: "I agree with Brian. I know that everyone is going to have to make the best decisions for their own businesses, but I hope that we’re prioritizing safety. My guess is that the soonest it’s okay to start rehearsing is late August. (Assuming that we can avoid a second peak here.) Once there’s a comfort level there...we still have to go through the process of actually preparing a show. I think what I’ll be hoping to do is ease into things with some small cabarets while we prepare for a MainStage. It’s going to require a serious change in the numbers before we’ll consider it. Our house only seats a little over 60 people...to practice social distancing in our venue would be impractical for economical reasons."

Brian Maticic and cast in Peter and the Starcatcher at Brelby Theatre Company 
photo by Anabel Olguin

What have you been doing to stay creative during this time?

B: "Well…. I’m being repeatedly dressed in ridiculous hats and necklaces by Rory… does that count? I’ve definitely been more able to dive into creative outlets since school ended. Before that happened between online teaching, and keeping Rory occupied so Shelby could administer/host our virtual reads and other initial online projects I had trouble finding the time to sit and focus on any writing of substance. Fortunately since summer hit it's been a flurry of activity in our house.  Next year I will be taking over the high school theatre and film program at my school, and that has thrown me back into film production which I haven't done much of since college. It's been exciting and lines up well with the next steps for Brelby. In the last few weeks I've been having some pretty late evenings after Rory crashes filming and editing content for our launch of a more robust digital branch of Brelby in the form of Brelby Productions. "

S: "We sort of reclaimed our YouTube presence early on during quarantine. We did live readings of our scripts, weekly jam sessions with our musicians, and I have an ongoing monologue project, Socially Distant, Artistically Connected. There are a handful of pieces in the hands of actors now, just playing the waiting game for them to finish so I have our next batch to post. It was recently featured on KJZZ thanks to one of our writers, Colleen Carnahan, so that was very exciting. Helen and I are still working on our musical, Echoes. I took a playwriting intensive with John Perovich...and I outlined a new thriller in there. I’m hoping to dive into writing it this month. Brian and I also play D&D with some of our actors, so we’ve been transitioning to an online format...and that’s been a fun adventure...or quest..."

Any binge tv shows you’ve watched?

B: "Not by choice, but so, so, so, so much Mickey Mouse Clubhouse…...And by extension, most things that Shelby has binged. "

S:  "Gilmore Girls, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, Nancy Drew, The Newsroom, Avatar, The Magicians...and yeah...every episode of every Mickey Mouse series ever."

B: "And the new Scooby Doo movie just came out… and I live for Mystery inc, so I may have watched that more times than a reasonable adult should have been able to already. "

S: Very big Scooby Doo fan over there.

Any new hobbies you’ve taken on?

S: "The art of the Zoom call? Just kidding...sort of. I started resin casting and metal stamping. I reopened my Etsy shop. I’ve been painting again. I just started teaching myself the basics of digital art. Brian created an original board game that he’s been refining for a couple of years now...and I’m working on creating the artwork for it. Hopefully we’ll have a beta version ready for testing in the next month or so. "

B:  "I haven’t really taken on any hobbies per se, but I have been playing so many make believe games with Rory. We’ve flown to the moon, she’s made me lots of invisible meals, and we’ve built and destroyed so many castles and towers out of blocks. "

S: "Lots of arts and crafts with Rory. I tend to paint with her, while Brian gets pulled into the super active play. Brian bought our family a set of ukuleles to paint and assemble, which has been fun. We try to stick as many loud noisy instruments in her hands as possible. She’s getting familiar with drums, guitar, uke and even was gifted a tiny accordion recently. "

B: "One thing that we have been doing frequently, about once a week, is escaping up north out to the middle of the woods somewhere just to get away from technology, and a change of scenery. Also, Viola (our dog) has been getting much more frequent walks. "

Shelby Maticic and cast in Peter and the Starcatcher at Brelby Theatre Company 
photo by Anabel Olguin

How has this experience changed you?

B: "That has become an increasingly complex question with the events of the last week. I don’t know that I will be able to clearly see the ways the start of 2020 has changed me until we are past it. I hope I am more sensitive to the struggles of others, work harder to be aware of my privilege, and work harder to advocate for and hold space for those without. Regarding quarantine, the extra time with my family while Rory is developing so much has been an incredible gift (even if it is exhausting). I also hope that I will be better about focusing on self care and taking time to rest with my family once the world starts again." 

S: "I’d like to believe that slowing down has been really good for us, and that we’ll be more intentional about giving ourselves this kind of time in the future...but I’m an Enneagram 3, so I doubt that slowing down is really a permanent state for me. I do think that I’ll be more intentional about committing to things that I’m passionate about. In light of the current climate, we also are having a lot of conversations about how we can be stronger allies to our artists of color...and become a safer and more welcoming space for those who haven’t auditioned for us yet. It shouldn’t have taken this kind of turmoil to prioritize these discussions, and that’s on us. I’m also looking forward to finding ways for the zonis to work to become better allies and advocates for our artists. Black Lives Matter."

B: "Seconded. Black Lives Matter. "

What is the one thing you’re most looking forward to when the stay at home order is lifted?

B: "People. I’m very much an extrovert, and I miss people so much. Also, getting back to work and allowing Rory to see her grandparents and family, and all the Brelby artists. I think she’s an extrovert too. That said, we will be sheltering at home well beyond the order being lifted to ensure our family’s health and safety. Also board games. I miss board games."

S: "Me too. I am a Settlers of Catan fanatic, and I can’t wait to beg everyone to just play that game with me for hours. I’m also looking forward to reconnecting with our community. I miss our people, even if I’m not a hugger. I’ll probably give a few out. Maybe. "