Episode 5 - Pandemic Depression

COVID-19 has changed the world as we know it. From mask mandates to global shutdown we are still feeling the impact of what is now known as the 2020 pandemic. New studies have shown over 50% of the population has suffered from depression caused by the pandemic so today Vanessa sits down with Heather Renner, who shares her own experiences as not only a student but a performer in the pandemic.

Ok, But Seriously airs Tuesday evenings 6-7 pm on 91.5 KUNV The Rebel HD-2.

Show Notes

Find out more and access the full show archive at https://therebelhd2.com/shows/okbutseriously

What is Ok, But Seriously?

Ok, But Seriously airs Tuesday evenings from 6-7pm and gives you the information you need in the way you want. Vanessa Lauren, UNLV broadcast major and Vegas native, talks about her passion for people, history and storytelling. Join her as she breaks down all of the serious topics in a non-serious way. If you are looking to learn and laugh this is the show for you… seriously.

0:00:00
Hello, hello, everyone. And welcome back to another episode of Okay, but seriously, I am your host, Vanessa Lauren. This is the show where we talk about serious topics in a non serious way. You're listening to 91.5 the rebel HD to K un V. We're the broadcast service at a UNLV and we are listener supported. So we want to thank all of you out there who are listening. I hope everyone had a good, good, fun, safe 4th of July celebrating whatever way you wanted to. I personally spent the holiday in Hawaii, which was very different from the couch, which is where I was last year. And I can't believe it's been a whole year since the pandemic has rocked everybody's world. I was very taken away, taken aback by how like many permanent things have, have happened. And when it comes to COVID and the pandemic, like the social distancing circles, you see the masks that we see, the commercials even, and even like myself working in media, some permanent changes have happened, which is why tonight, the topic is going to be a little bit of a unique one. particularly for those that are creative, which brings me to my guest. So we're going to start on a high note, literally and figuratively. I bring in a guest who's accomplished something big during the pandemic, which we're not going to reveal right now. We're going to reveal that later. She is a UNLV student in the theater major. Her name is Heather Renner, no relation to Hawkeye. We were just talking about this before we were on.

0:01:29
Yes.

0:01:29
She's here tonight.

0:01:30
Hello, Heather.

0:01:31
Welcome. Hi, thank you for having me yes thank you for coming in so let's just start with telling us about yourself which is like the

0:01:47
most basic question but give us the fun facts where are you from absolutely I am from Reno Nevada I was born and raised there and then I moved down here for school so I have only ever lived in Nevada oh wow yes but I love Vegas I love living here um and I'm really glad that I chose to stay in state because in-state tuition is really something. Yeah, it's really something.

0:02:06
Where it's at, exactly. I'm the same. I'm born and raised here in Vegas, so when it came to school I was like, why go outside the borders and pay $20,000 extra? No, thank you. So you said you started from Reno. Did you do any school, college out in Reno or just high school?

0:02:23
I didn't, no. I graduated from high school in 2018 and then I took a year off and I just worked two jobs to save up for school. And then I moved down here and I had been planning to come to UNLV for a while. So I had all of my department auditions and everything lined up and I'm just super excited to be here. I love school here and yeah, this was my first college experience, which was great. Yeah, the first nine months of my freshman year, and then it was March of 2020 and I had to go home again and finish my classes online, but now it's, I mean, really wonderful again. So I'm happy.

0:02:55
You said something interesting. I caught it. I don't know if listeners caught it, but you said department auditions. Yes. So can you explain that a little bit? When you're, so what were you, like what were you signing up for and how does the audition process work?

0:03:09
Sure. So generally in the theater world, when you are going to college and you want to be a theater major, you have to audition for the department. So they only take a certain number of kids every year and you have to prove that you deserve to be in that bunch. And that was my understanding of the UNLV theater department as well, that if you are a theater major, you have to audition to get into the major. That's not how it works here.

0:03:30
Okay.

0:03:31
But we do have a special audition program called SSA, Stage and Screen Acting, and they take about 15 kids, 16 kids every year, and we just get special attention. So ultimately it was a really wonderful thing that I'm glad I didn't know I had to do. Yeah, yeah, but I'm glad I did.

0:03:49
The only familiarity I have with auditions was a job that I did a long time ago. I auditioned for a cruise ship job.

0:03:57
Oh, awesome.

0:03:58
It was a process I was not familiar with. Like when they said audition, I just thought it was a fancy word for interview but then I got there and they're like no like you're really like standing in a room with like the number on your chest like American Idol and I was like oh snap okay this is an audition which as not a theater person I was not I was not I was not ready for that so good on you um okay so Heather is not just any student she has a list of accomplishments already, which is fantastic. Congratulations to you.

0:04:28
Thank you.

0:04:29
You're Miss Nevada Outstanding Teen. What year was that?

0:04:31
2016. I'm old now.

0:04:33
So you are?

0:04:34
For teenage?

0:04:35
Yeah, I don't think they'd let me at 21.

0:04:39
But hey, you could be a young at heart.

0:04:41
Absolutely.

0:04:42
What's the age rank for the teen competition? Yeah, so for teen, it's 13 to 17. And then for Miss Nevada, it's 17 to 25. They just bumped it up a little bit. So I'm planning on competing for Miss Nevada next year. But okay, I took some time off after after my team title. Yeah,

0:04:56
look at you. You say you say it like it's not like it's easy, but it's just something that you just say. And I feel like there are a lot of people out there, myself included, who like when I hear that, I'm like, Oh, my gosh, I wouldn't even know where to begin. Can we talk about your like pageantry?

0:05:09
Like how did that even come to be? Absolutely. Yeah, Miss America is kind of a casual thing that I guess I throw around a lot. My grandmother was actually involved in Miss America. She was the director of the Miss Nevada pageant way back in the day. And then my mom competed for Miss Nevada when she was, you know, when she was in her 20s. So it was something that I grew up watching on TV every year. And it was never a pressure thing. Like my mom was never like, you're going to run in pageants. It was not that at all. It was very much me motivating it, like, I can't wait until I'm old enough that I get to do this wonderful thing. I got to go to rehearsals with my mom when I was younger because she was the producer of the Miss Reno Sparks pageant. I got to see all the girls in their gowns and their talents, and I was like, oh yeah, just you wait until I'm old enough to do that.

0:05:55
That's fantastic. So you kind of grew up in it.

0:05:57
Absolutely.

0:05:58
So it was very familiar for you. So was it still intimidating that first time that you went to compete? Were you like overwhelmed and like, oh my gosh, or you kind of felt ready?

0:06:06
Oh yeah. No, I lost my first two pageants.

0:06:08
You did.

0:06:09
Okay.

0:06:10
Absolutely. Is that common? I know nothing about pageantry. So I would say it's normal to lose a pageant or two here or there. But ultimately it just made me work harder for the next year. And I clearly it didn't deter me from continuing to compete. Yeah. Okay. So then you won in 2016, right? Okay, so walk us through that whole process, like the day of and all that.

0:06:35
How did it work? Yeah. Oh man, that was so long ago. So I placed first runner-up the previous year in 2015, and I wasn't really expecting to place that highly, and I was just kind of shocked by it, and then I realized, oh, that means I could win next year. And so girls who are really super dedicated to pageantry in terms of like really believing in the community service, really believing in bettering yourself, they generally prep all year long. There are a lot of girls who will prep for the couple months before the competition, but I'm very much someone who likes that all year preparation because it makes me a better person and then come the next pageant I can measure all of the ways that I've grown since the previous year. So I was working really hard all year long and then when I got to state that year I was just very calm and ready and I was singing O mio bebbino caro, which is like one of the most famous opera songs ever, and then I got a cold and lost my voice for five days.

0:07:34
No!

0:07:35
Which is super not awesome to sing opera when you don't have a voice.

0:07:39
Wait, did you still do it?

0:07:40
Oh yeah, well I don't have a choice.

0:07:42
Oh my god.

0:07:42
35% of your score right there. So the video is actually very funny because the whole time I'm like, and then right before the ending I step back and you hear and then I do the high note perfectly and clearly it worked. So you won. Yes, with no voice Wow It was wonderful. And then I had my interview the next morning with the judges and I was like, hey guys I'm I'm really sorry, but I didn't have a voice last night and I don't have much left today And we all laughed about it. That's pretty amazing

0:08:17
So like yeah, because it must be because I'm not again not familiar with with pageants But there's a combination of different categories, right? But then also, like, when it comes to that, like, I would think that that's, like, a death sentence, that that would be, like, something like, oh, she's not performing. But they must have seen the raw talent inside of you, despite what was happening to your voice, which is amazing. Well, thank you. That's really cool. Congratulations on that. Thank you. Like, it's one thing to win. It's a whole nother thing to win when, like, mentally, you had to just stand there and do the best you could, which I'm sure was also difficult to do. It was.

0:08:52
When you were how old? I was 15 at the time. I was just about to turn 16.

0:08:56
Oh my gosh. I think the only thing I did at 15 that was like remarkable was like I was able to get like a quarter to flip across the room and land on a piece of bread with peanut butter on it in like one try. That was my big thing that I didn't fit when I was 15. I'm curious why you were doing that in the first place. So you remember the show minute to win it. I sure do Okay, so on that show I used to pretend that I was gonna compete I was I was dedicated I have a big family So I was bored most of the time just trying to entertain myself because my family was doing other things And I remember thinking okay if I'm gonna compete I have to be able to do all of these things like training camp and the One that I could never do was the peanut butter bread one So you put peanut butter on a piece of bread and then they what they would do is they'd stand X amount of feet, not very far, it's like four feet away, and you would toss a quarter and you're trying to land it right on the peanut butter bread. So I'm not just a weird kid who did that. That was the, I was trying to get into a minute to win it. Never actually competed a minute to win it. But you know, yeah, so different lives when we were 15, different lives.

0:09:57
Everybody's on their own track, you know.

0:09:58
Okay. And then let's fast forward a little bit. So you've been in a play here at UNLV, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and you were the witch.

0:10:08
I was the white witch, yes.

0:10:10
Yes, okay. I've never seen this play. We were talking before we went on air about, for those of you who don't know me, I am a big theater fan, and I was a theater kid behind the scenes, so I'm familiar with the play, but I've never seen it. How did, was there a lot of competition for that position here at UNLV?

0:10:27
To be honest with you, I didn't really know. Auditions were I think the first week after school started, so it was my freshman year. I didn't know anyone in the department. I was amazed that I got a call back for a show at all, and then when I got cast, I just couldn't believe it. But theater is the best way to make friends in the whole entire world. Yes, it is. Because theater people are all extroverts. Yes, they are. And I am definitely not an extrovert. So just being like thrust into a group of people that's like, oh, I want to be your friend. I want to talk to you. It was the best experience ever. And then we were supposed to do Little Shop of Horrors in spring of 2020.

0:11:05
And then we all know what happened.

0:11:06
Exactly. So we'll be doing that this fall. And I am hopeful that I will be getting into that.

0:11:11
So maybe this is a common misconception or maybe it's just my thought process, but I would think being in the theatre department that one of the givens is that you would all perform. So that's not how it works. So you came into school as a freshman and is it just like High School Musical, the flyers posted up and it's like, hey, this is the play that's happening and you just audition for whatever piece you want? Is that how it works?

0:11:35
Oh, pretty much. Generally you don't go into an audition saying I am auditioning for this role. That's usually something the director picks out for you. I mean obviously if you're an ingenue type or if you're, you know, if you have a certain look like a character actor then you generally know which role you're looking for in that cast. But I was open to anything. I had never read the Narnia books before I auditioned. And the script is basically the exact same passages of it, word for word, out of the book. Oh, okay.

0:12:10
Yeah. I'm familiar with it. I didn't read the books. I've seen the movie.

0:12:14
Very similar to the movie.

0:12:15
Okay, okay. So then, yeah, that's kind of heavy stuff. That's kind of hard to just go in without any back knowledge on. But did you just... So you just went in and did an audition. You didn't know what you were going to get cast as, is what you're saying? Correct. And so then they cast you as the witch and you're like, oh snap, I'm like, comma, the witch in this.

0:12:34
Oh yeah, I was so excited because again, I didn't have any friends. Yeah. I had my roommates, but I was just looking forward to getting to work with a new director, doing a first show in Vegas. Yeah. And getting to have a named role is kind of a big deal.

0:12:51
It is a really big deal again. Congratulations. Thank you I'd the accomplishment. Okay, so then other plays performances things that you've done Either here at UNLV or in the past. What are the things have you done?

0:13:02
So that's the only performance that I've done at UNLV. Okay, just since everything else got shut down But in Reno, I did a lot of shows in high school. We did sister act act? I was the mother superior character. Oh fun! That is the best role. There's no dancing. You just get to show up and be cranky for like 15 minutes and then the rest of the show is just peaches and cream. No work. That sounds really fun. It was awesome. I did some work with Reno Little Theater and with Sisters 3 Productions in Reno, but most of it was

0:13:32
high school stuff. Fun! Gosh, you're taking me back to my theater days. I tried. I did audition one time. I think I was a junior in high school here and I auditioned for Grease. And when you do the audition for Grease, you have to do like the full audition, right? So you have to do the singing, the dancing. I did okay with the singing. I wasn't the best, but they were like, all right, we could put you in an ensemble. The acting part I actually did pretty well. But the dancing, they teach you a choreography in like less than 10 minutes and then you go in there. Oh, I was backwards and forwards and all kinds of things. They were like, yeah, no, we can't do anything with this. We'll just put you on props. But so nowhere near your talent, but very cool. Okay, I'm going to roll backwards here because we lost the lights, everyone. So just give us a second.

0:14:21
There we go. Got it. We're back. I'm curious to know what you sing for your audition song. Do you remember?

0:14:29
I do. Hold on. Give me a second. I sing It's Your Party, You Can Cry If You Want To. Yeah. I don't know why. I think they had a list and they were like, you can choose from one of these songs. I'm guessing. If my old theater teacher, Miss Fronte Martin, is listening, FM, if you're out there, let me know if I'm wrong. I can't remember, but I just remember that was a song because I was like, I can sing that song. I sing it in the shower.

0:14:54
Sure. 50s and 60s songs for Greece. Yeah.

0:14:57
Yeah. And then I remember afterwards, the one of the actual, the choreographer pulled me aside and she's like, you're not, you're not too bad at singing. And I was like, Oh, I'm going to be Mariah Carey, move out world, move out of the way. But then no, my career was very short when I went to the dance audition. They're like, yeah, no, that's not for you. It's okay, because now I can appreciate theater from the sidelines. Absolutely. And that's okay.

0:15:19
I am not a dancer myself. My mom owns and operates a dance studio for a living, and I'm just kind of doing what

0:15:26
I can, bare minimum.

0:15:27
Dancing is literally a talent. Singing is also a talent, but dancing, it's an art form, and people spend years perfecting it, or they spend years trying to get down certain moves and train their bodies. And yeah, that's a whole nother thing. I can't. If you're just joining us, I am in studio tonight with Miss Heather. Heather is a UNLV student, and we were talking about her journey in being a performer since the time that she was very young. And I brought her in for a very specific reason because you recently won something. Can you tell the listeners about your experience here at UNLV? Of course.

0:16:03
I was very, very lucky to win the UNLV's Got Talent talent show, which I have been looking forward to doing for probably two years. I mean, I knew about the talent show before I was... Oh, you did? Oh, I sure did. I was in, I think I learned about it on Instagram before I was even an enrolled student. Wow.

0:16:21
Yes.

0:16:22
And I said, ah, I see scholarship funds up for grabs. I will be doing that. And of course, I couldn't do it last year, last spring, but this year I was just super, super excited to be able to do it.

0:16:34
As soon as I saw it in the newsletter, I was like, whoop, who am I emailing? Yeah. And so, okay, I know because being a journalism major, I did a story on this, that the process this year was very different. So normally they have the students come in and they audition, obviously in person, and it's a whole thing, just like America's Got Talent, right? But with UNLV, they didn't do that this year. This year they took auditions virtually. So what did you compete in what category? Or like what did you do for your talent?

0:17:03
I am an opera singer.

0:17:05
Amazing. Thank you. I did not know this before meeting you, what, like 40 minutes ago? Correct. Yeah. I sat down and I was like, so what did you actually win the talent show with? And she said that, and then I just went bananas. And we're going to get into the questions about opera in a second. But to audition then, you had to submit a video?

0:17:24
Yes. So I did a video with two different songs, just like one that was maybe a little more upbeat and one that was sad, just in case there was a preference for tone on that. But in general, I think that it's better to choose A, songs in English, and B, comedic songs, because opera in and of itself is not an overly accessible art form. Oftentimes, the people at the center of the story are white men. Operas are written by white men. I think that it's important that we give people of color, especially women of color, the opportunity to be composers, because if not, I really fear that this field is one that's going to become irrelevant. And as a white woman, I can't really help much with that. But I think that it's easier to get people involved in the opera scene if you give them something that's fun in a language that they actually speak. Because otherwise it's like, oh, well, this woman seems sad and she's going to say what I assume are real words for the next three minutes, and then it will be over.

0:18:27
Well, and it's interesting because like I said, I don't know much about opera. And when hearing you talk about it, I'm picturing the few occurrences I have of opera. And I picture, just to be blunt, I picture a big, older, fat lady standing on stage, right? And she is white. And that's just what my brain goes to. And I don't know if that's my own experiences, but we were talking a little bit before the show about how like that's the age thing is, is, is that you it's, it's, it's something that can't be avoided, right? That's what we were talking about. And I'll let you explain that to the listeners. But the the representation or lack thereof is something that can be controlled.

0:19:07
Absolutely.

0:19:08
You're trying to say here, yeah, which is important for people to know. Talk about the age. Why is it that we primarily see older opera singers?

0:19:17
Yeah, so when you're going through puberty, your voice changes. It continues to change until you're in your late 20s to early 30s. Then the cartilage in your larynx, which some people call the voice boxage, kind of underneath your Adam's apple, that's where your vocal cords are stored. As you get older, that cartilage starts to ossify, so it turns to bone. And that gives you a harder surface to bounce sound off of and to resonate through. So that's why it's kind of impossible to be an opera singer until you're in your 40s, because that process hasn't finished happening. And that's the only way that you can get your biggest, brightest, best sound. Because opera was made to sing over a hundred piece orchestra. You have to be loud, but in a very specific way, you also have to be resonant because that's what cuts through, right? Because a voice doesn't sound exactly like a violin or exactly like a flute. There's something special that makes it stick out above the orchestra, and that's what opera was made to do.

0:20:13
Now, I would be curious to know, I know singing is a talent all in itself. There's so many different things about singing that would take us forever to get through. But I would feel, I feel like opera is very unique. I don't feel like everyone could do that. I think it takes a special set of vocal skills, or could it be something anyone can train into as long as they have the basic talent of being able to sing?

0:20:36
I would say it's definitely something that you can train into. Although a lot of people are good at belting or a musical theater sound or a pop sound, that uses a completely different set of muscles than classical singing does. Classical singing utilizes the muscles in and around your larynx. And then belting is a higher pressure sound and that uses the muscles from around your thyroid. So it's kind of like, because I train in both since I want to do musical theater. So it's like doing bicep curls every day for a year. And then someone asks you to do like tricep extensions. And you're like, well, that's I, I know my arms are very toned, but I don't know how to do that. That's a different set of muscles. So it's important to keep both of those in shape for me.

0:21:20
And when you say training, I'm picturing like, what's that, the cartoon Shrek, where Fiona's like walking through and she's like doing that.

0:21:30
Oh, yeah.

0:21:32
Or are there like specific things you do to train other than just singing?

0:21:35
So I do my scales every day. That's a non-negotiable. That was actually something that my voice coach this past year, Courtney Schwalbe, she instilled in me. She was like, here are your scales. You're going to do these every day. I said, oh yeah, sure, okay. She goes, no, no, no. The way that you brush your teeth every day, the way that you eat breakfast every day, you're going to do your scales every day. I was like, oh, okay.

0:22:01
I'm assuming like any good coach or trainer, she'll know if you weren't doing them.

0:22:05
Oh, a hundred percent.

0:22:06
Isn't that so annoying? When like a trainer tells you, I only have like the physical trainer knowledge, but when they tell you like, okay, I want you to do this and you're like, okay, and they come back like you're not doing it.

0:22:16
Yeah. Like when you go to physical therapy and they're like, well, we can tell that you haven't been doing this because your knee is still trash.

0:22:22
Yep. Or the dentist. They're like, you're not flossing. You're like, I'm flossing. Yeah, absolutely.

0:22:27
But she's wonderful and that motivated me to really get my practice back into gear because living in the dorms last year, it's really hard to carve out an hour to be loud every single day when you have three roommates and nowhere to hide. But now that I'm in an apartment, sorry neighbors, but I think for an hour, oh, I know they are. I'm sure they are.

0:22:50
You think so?

0:22:51
I'm very loud and it's like

0:22:52
an hour every day. But you're singing a beautiful song or you're singing just like, you know, scales, you said. So I don't know what that is. That just like noise like Do, Re, Mi,

0:23:01
Fa, So, La, Ti, Do? Yeah, pretty much. Okay, so it's not like a song. No, I mean, I do my song. So I do it probably 15 minutes of scales every day. And then I do whatever songs I'm working on to help build technique and then also just to kind of give me a better repertoire for the next time that I need to pull something out of my back pocket. But hearing the same songs every day and then 15 minutes of, oh, like me, like squishing

0:23:24
my face in different arrangements to, yes, you didn't see what she just did there, but she literally took her hand and like pushed them against her cheeks. And yeah, like a little kid would do.

0:23:33
Yeah, pretty much. It's like, oh, I'm dealing with jaw tension. Well, now I have to hold my tongue when I do this right. It's just there's a lot going on

0:23:39
You know if we can if we can deal with athletes training we can definitely tolerate singers training you do you yes?

0:23:46
Yes, the fact that there are those giant ice baths that oh, yeah, that's nonsense. Yeah, we can we can let singers motion

0:23:53
I mean, they're feeling all the ice really what are we gonna have left for our parties with these ice baths that they have going on?

0:23:58
That's why we have climate change

0:24:00
Exactly okay, so you won now. I I don't know, do you know, like, how many people actually competed in the talent show or they didn't tell you that?

0:24:10
It was not many. I would say five.

0:24:14
There's a handful of you guys. Five of us. Yeah. I mean, it's easy to kind of just... Let's feel, hey, a win's a win. I'll take that scholarship any day of the week. Absolutely. Yeah. And from what I understand, when I did the story, it was voted on by peers. Did you know that? I did. Okay, did that make you nervous or did that make you excited knowing that other UNLV students would get to hear you?

0:24:34
I would say a bit nervous because then it turns into sort of a popularity contest. Yeah, but I thankfully have a lot of theater friends that I can mobilize with the opportunity.

0:24:45
Because you are the witch!

0:24:47
That is true, yes.

0:24:48
If you weren't here earlier, we're not saying she's the witch. She was in a play here, you know, the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. So yes, yes, made a lot of friends that way. Okay, so then let's talk about just being a performer. What's your favorite thing about being a performer? Maybe not necessarily performing, but just being a performer.

0:25:08
That's a great question.

0:25:09
Thank you.

0:25:10
the last high note of an aria or a song is always like a victory lap because at that point you think I've done everything right or you know I only cracked once I'll take that as a W. But in that moment like I'm a super super high soprano I'm a coloratura soprano so the high stuff is the in that moment, it feels like, have you ever watched the X-Men movies? Yes. Do you know the, in Days of Future Past,

0:25:41
the like super advanced robots,

0:25:44
the Sentinels who are trying to kill the X-Men, their faces open up and like a beam of light comes out and just evaporates people. That's what it feels like.

0:25:53
It feels like-

0:25:54
You feel like a Sentinel that's evaporating people? Yes, it feels like I have enough power coming out of my entire body to evaporate everyone in the room and it's delightful. There's nothing more powerful. And you are.

0:26:09
You're evaporating us with a beautiful talent. I have not heard you sing. I'm dying to hear it. I did ask her before. I was like, oh man, do you think you could give us a little something? But she's not fully practiced right now to do that and I don't want to damage your vocal cords and I don't want to put you on the spot like that. But I am curious to hear it because just hearing you talk about it, you can tell like you're really passionate about this and you enjoy it and you practice and you train. So well earned the victory at the talent show. What would you say the hardest thing about being a performer is aside from the pandemic because we're going to get into that right now, but just the hardest thing in general?

0:26:42
I would say maintaining vocal health is really quite difficult. A lot of professional singers do not drink, do not go out after any sort of party situation. You have to sleep a lot to make sure that your voice is healthy. A lot of water. I drink like under a gallon of water every day.

0:26:59
Oh my goodness.

0:27:00
I drink a lot of water. But just so much of it is like, oh, if I want to yell to my friend across the sidewalk, I am not allowed to scream at her. So there are just a lot of things that you have to kind of remind yourself of. I need to do this every day to make sure that my instrument is in good condition. If you play the violin and you leave the violin in the back of your car and it gets to be 120 in Vegas or whatever, your violin is going to be damaged. If you're banging it around and chucking it down when you get into a room, it's not going to sound as great as it possibly could. The same is true for vocal performances as well.

0:27:32
That makes a lot of sense. That reminds me of, you're talking about your skill and your talent and your craft, but in a serious note, because we're okay but seriously here, everybody has a craft or something that they do professionally that they have to be very careful about. I remember when I worked for the professional golfer, and one time I worked for professional golfer as a nanny for six years.

0:27:56
Wow, that's awesome.

0:27:57
Yeah, it was a really fun job. One of the things that he would never do is he wouldn't go with the kids on the ski slopes or sometimes he wouldn't get on a really scary roller coaster. And I used to give him a hard time about it. I'm like, come on, be a cool dad. And he was younger, he was in his 30s, and he's like, no, could you just think about it? If I hurt myself, that's my craft. That's the end of your career. Right, I can't hurt my body because I need my body to work. And I'm like, oh, that makes sense. I don't need my body to work, so it's fine.

0:28:23
Yeah, I would say it's definitely not something that most people have to think about on a day-to-day basis. Correct. Yeah, as a professional golfer, you go skiing and you tear your meniscus, done.

0:28:32
Yeah, okay, so now we're going to kind of pivot into the more serious side of things here. If you're just joining us, you missed all the chaos earlier. But this is okay, but seriously, I'm Vanessa Lauren, I'm sitting down with Heather. She is the winner of UNLV's Got Talent 2020. And we're gonna talk about, she's a performer, she's won a couple of things, she's done a few things in theater, and also she's an opera singer, so she does a lot of different things. And it got me thinking about the pandemic and how that has affected performers, specifically in the realm of like being depressed and being discouraged in your craft. So as a performer, what has it been, and also a student, how, what has it been like for the, in the pandemic for you?

0:29:16
Pretty rough. I'm someone with a history of depression. And so actually when I was competing in the Miss Nevada organization, that was my platform was mental health awareness. So I am pretty intimately familiar with what to look out for when I noticed that my mental health starts slipping downhill and every single one of those boxes was checked when the pandemic started because it was like I had this whole life in Vegas and friends and Then suddenly I'm moving back into my parents house and I don't really have any friend interactions and There are a lot of things That of course are taken away from you, right? Yes And the more that's taken away the harder it is to find the things that make you happy, because it's easier to stay in bed than it is to go eat breakfast outside, even though I know that eating breakfast outside in the sunshine will make me have a good day. Right? Like getting out of your pajamas makes you have a better day than just staying in them. And so when you don't really have a goal to work for, when you're doing a show, usually rehearsals are like 25 hours a week. The week before campus shut down, we had already gotten our scripts for the musical Little Shop of Horrors. So, it was right in front of us. And then it was like, okay, well, clean out your dorm room, return your scripts. We'll see you someday maybe. And I mean, we're doing this show this winter, but still that's something that we had been thinking about and working on and kind of internalizing and then it was like, oh, well, everything that you've been working for is now gone. Yeah, that was really difficult for all of us.

0:30:57
And I think we have to go back to when this all started in March of 2020. None of us knew. None of us knew how long it was going to last. I actually worked for the theater department at the time as a bartender for the Performing Arts Center. Oh, cool. And so I was told the same thing like, hey, we know what we're gonna just put you guys on hold and we'll call you back when things start getting back to normal. And that phrase is now kind of a joke in retrospect with back to normal. And I remember sitting there in like April and May and being like, okay, well, my birthday is in May. And I was like, oh, by the time my birthday rolls around, and I was like, oh, by the time Christmas rolls around, and then months turned into a year. And what you're saying about having a goal and having really a purpose is really interesting because I think sometimes, not that other people aren't passionate about their job, but when it comes to performing, there is a creative juice in you all. I say you all because I'm not a performer, but there is a creative juice in you that has to get out. Like, that's why you do what you do. So what I, because I told you before we went on air that I have friends in the industry and a lot of them struggled with like the no end in sight, right? And then like keeping themselves active, like what you were talking about. Did you have any friends from or was it, did you guys find camaraderie in the fact that you all were kind of in the same boat? Or was it more like this person's sad, that person's also sad, and it's kind of like everybody's sad?

0:32:22
there was a bit of camaraderie, but it's hard to maintain those relationships when you're living, you know, all the way across the state from each other. Sure. And there's nothing really to keep you in touch because it's like, oh, well, I did the same thing today that I've done for the past two months. So I don't have anything new to share with you. But yeah, did you have a similar experience with that?

0:32:47
In the pandemic?

0:32:48
Yes. Um, I'm a unique story. I so my job is that I work in media. I work for a local TV station here and I did not get sent home. Luckily, I was I was working through the pandemic and then being a broadcast major, I had at least one in person class each semester. So I didn't have the full lockdown experience that a lot of people did and looking back on it and having talking to a lot of people, I've realized like how much of a blessing that actually was because a lot of people got very crazy, stir crazy and the depression set in because they didn't have like, like I had to get up and go to work right every day, at least at least my normal Monday through Friday. So it kept my sanity going. But I think for some people, like when you don't have that, then it's like, what do you look forward to? Like you said, like you could just lay there and be in your pajamas all day, which to me sounds lovely, but I think to other people, it was really depressing at times. So we're gonna take another quick break. The time is slipping away from us. And then we actually have, I have put together a little true and false game that I wanna play with you after the break. And then we'll get back talking with Heather here about what it's like to be a performer through the pandemic. Welcome back to OK, but Seriously, I am Vanessa Lauren. I'm sitting down with Heather. She's a UNLV student, the winner of UNLV's Got Talent in the flesh. She is an opera singer and she's done many other things. And I have been going through a little bit of a struggle tonight with the technical side of things, and she has been helping me. I appreciate you being here and going through this with me. And all of you out there listening to the 91.5, the Rebel HD2, I appreciate you sitting here through all of the shenanigans. But let's use these last 10 or so minutes to hit you with some knowledge. So we're gonna play a true and false game. Now this is a theater true and false game. So she doesn't know, I haven't told her any of these questions, so we're just gonna do it cold and see what happens.

0:34:46
You ready? I am a bit concerned that I will fail this miserably and then all of my professors will shame me.

0:34:52
You'll be fine. It's okay. Well, I'll edit it so it sounds like you knew. So just say both true and false.

0:34:57
Do like a robot voice. Yeah.

0:34:59
Like I think it was Robert Downey Jr.

0:35:01
Right.

0:35:02
Yeah. Okay. So number one, true or false, the word thespian comes from the first person to have taken the stage in ancient Greece. His name was Thespius.

0:35:11
Thespius was not the first person to take the stage. He was the first person to step out from the chorus in Greek theater. So before then, it had been a line of people chanting in unison and he was the first solo performer.

0:35:23
Okay, look at you dropping knowledge, see?

0:35:26
Doug Hill. Thank you, Professor Doug Hill.

0:35:30
Technically, that's true. That's where the word thespian comes from. Correct. But you're dropping more knowledge on us. We're getting more than we paid for, ladies and gentlemen.

0:35:38
I know. I'm concerned the first one was an easy warm-up.

0:35:41
Okay, number two. True or false? Ghost lights are ancient legend and no one leaves them on stage anymore. Is that true or false?

0:35:50
Oh, I would say that's false. I've seen a good deal of ghost lights in my day.

0:35:53
Yes, that is.

0:35:54
Theater people are very superstitious.

0:35:55
It is false. Do you want to explain to people what the ghost light represents, why they do that? Do you know? Sure.

0:36:01
So, it basically, like I said, theater people are very superstitious and there's this idea that if ghosts exist in the theater, it will sort of placate them to keep a light on and they won't cause shenanigans overnight.

0:36:14
I love that you say shenanigans. Yes.

0:36:17
You planted that word in my brain because I said it just now.

0:36:19
No, it's definitely true. They do it even here in Las Vegas. I know that like the Blue Man Group does that and like it's so the bigger productions even do that as well, the ghost light. Okay, number three, true or false, the first female actress took the stage in 1660.

0:36:40
I'm gonna say that's false, because women were not allowed to be actors for a very long time. And I'm not sure if that was when we were allowed to be.

0:36:51
Oh, okay. It is true. Okay. So I don't know when women, I didn't know that women weren't allowed to be actors and now I want to look that up. But according to, according to the thespian.com website I got this from, Margaret Hughes, who was also known as Peg Hughes. I don't know if you're familiar with her. I'm not, but I love that she had two names completely different from one another. Well Peggy is short for Margaret. Is it? Yeah. I didn't know. Mar- Margaret Marge Peggy. Where do you get Peg from? I don't know. That doesn't make any sense. How do you get, um, like Rob from Richard? I don't know. That also doesn't make sense. If you're a Rob or a Richard or a Peg or a Margaret, please call us. Yes, please let us know. Okay, so this is true. So the first professional actress on the English stage, December 8th of 1660. So now everyone knows. Girl boss. Yeah, that's right. She's set in the stage, literally. Okay, next true or false question is the most performed play of all time is Mamma Mia, which has grossed over about $8.2 billion worldwide.

0:37:59
If that's true, I will be very disappointed.

0:38:02
Really? Oh, okay. It isn't. It's false.

0:38:05
Okay.

0:38:06
But Mamma Mia is number two. Can you take a guess at what you think number one is? The one that has grossed 8.2 billion dollars? Does this include straight plays or is it just musicals?

0:38:14
I don't know. I'm assuming it's...

0:38:16
Tell me the difference between straight plays and musicals. Musicals would be singing. So like Phantom of the Opera.

0:38:20
Oh, yes.

0:38:21
Musicals.

0:38:22
Okay, then I would say number one would probably be Phantom of the Opera.

0:38:27
No. What is it?

0:38:29
The Lion King.

0:38:30
Oh, that makes sense.

0:38:31
It does make sense.

0:38:32
The Lion King is fantastic.

0:38:33
It is fantastic. I used to know Mufasa, the one that performed here in Las Vegas. The Lion King was here in Las Vegas and Mufasa went to my church. That's awesome. I know. And then he moved to New York and now he's like a big hot shot in New York.

0:38:46
Hi, Derek.

0:38:47
Hi, Derek. If you would like to get in contact with me, I will be moving to New York in a few years.

0:38:53
Yes, Derek, help Heather. Okay, number five. This is the last true and false question for you. I'm not keeping score, but I think you're killing it. I'm definitely not killing it. Broadway actors make a weekly minimum wage of $1,000 a week. True or false? This is according to 2020. This was like from backstage and the Broadway Journal if they are equity, which is the Actors Union. I believe that would be about correct Okay, it didn't specify you're making me look like a bad journalist Heather. No, that's fine. It's fine. It's okay

0:39:26
We're I mean, this is my college major. So it's kind of my business to know the door

0:39:29
I'm glad you do know this is what we're here for. I'm here to learn you're here to help me learn So again, according to Broadway Journal and backstage, which if you're not familiar

0:39:40
here we go! 91.5 hg2

0:39:42
i know, it's so exciting

0:39:44
siri, play cashlaw, doing too much I'm like, shut up, you ain't doin' enough Oh, you f***in' mad, that's too f***in' bad Since you f***in' act, I like doin' too much Look, 20-inch heels like I'm Lady Gaga My Gucci nails tatted right here on my d*** D***, like I'm Dolly Parton Livin' La Vida Loca like I'm Ricky Martin, pink tusser, I ain't got a pocket Can't f*** an NBA if he ain't started, period They like she can't be serious, they see that plain interior They wanna know who lyric it, she like, cash You doing too much, I'm like shut up, you ain't doing enough Oh you f***ing mad, that's too f***ing bad Since you f***ing act, I like doing too much I'm obsessed with myself, I make love to myself I put this money over n****, I'm in love with my wealth Where these ghetto n**** nails like I'm Flo Jo Rub his n**** while I throw it back in slow mo I'm just bought a hundred acres, I might build a mall My feelings disappear, I make that beat dissolve Got a white billionaire named Paul He told me that he love me, I ain't got no flaws She like, cash, you doing too much I'm like shut up, you ain't doing enough Oh you f***ing mad, that's too f***ing bad Since you f***ing act, I like doing too much Can't pronounce the label, you ain't fluent enough Only want me to turn down cause you ain't doing enough I count up all these hunnids while I'm doing too much Pipe down, you ain't doing enough She like cash, you doing too much. What? I'm like, shut up. You ain't doing enough. That's right. Oh, you f***ing mad. Ha.

0:41:45
That's too f***ing bad. Ha.

0:41:47
That's too f***ing ass.

0:41:48
Ha ha.

0:41:49
I like doing too much.

0:41:50
Look, you need to knock that jealousy ball off your motherf***er's shoulder, cause there's someone gonna be doing too much. Me, that's who. And guess who ain't doing enough? You, that's who. Ha ha. You ain't doing enough. Okay.

0:42:08
Welcome back, everyone.

0:42:09
That was an unexpected break.

0:42:11
That one was not on me. Heather is my witness. No, I am here to say that that was very spooky and it started all by itself, and now I'm

0:42:17
thinking that you mentioned we might need a ghostlight here, and I think you might be right.

0:42:23
Yes. So, again, apologies. This is OK, but seriously, with Vanessa, I'm your host, Vanessa Lorne, and that is Heather that you just heard there, and she is a performer. She is the winner of UNLV's Got Talent. She's an opera singer, and we were playing a true and false game, and then the computer said no more. So, if you were sticking with us, and you stuck to that song, the last thing we were talking about was what Broadway actors make in a weekly minimum wage. I said $1,000. That's false. It actually is a little over $2,000. It's $2,168 a week according to the Broadway Journal and Backstage and that's at 2020. Okay, I have one more bonus question for you and then the ghost has taken up our time. So the bonus question is, can you finish this line? Okay, it's a line in a play. It's a Shakespeare play. Okay, it's a pretty famous line though. All the world's a stage.

0:43:20
I remember it's something you're like, and all men actors in it.

0:43:24
Very close. And all the men and women merely players.

0:43:27
Okay.

0:43:28
That's how it goes. So, you know what? You did great though. The rest of the true and false, you knocked it out.

0:43:32
I'm not a Shakespeare buff. I'm not really a fan of Shakespeare.

0:43:36
That makes sense. You're an opera singer. You're not a Shakespeare singer.

0:43:39
Yeah, I can only be so stuffy, right?

0:43:40
You can only know so many things. Thank you so much for being here and for dealing with all the, again, shenanigans that happened tonight and for you as listeners, thank you for hanging in there as well. Heather, if anybody wants to keep up with you and all the brilliant things that you're doing, how can they do that?

0:43:54
I would say Instagram would be the best way to do that. Heather Renner. I also have a Facebook, but I am not a grandma, so I do not use my Facebook very often.

0:44:04
Don't take offense to that y'all. No, it's it's okay. She's she's on both. So, find her on Instagram, find her on Facebook. Heather Renner, you heard her here first. I'm so excited to see where you go in your next journey and to see you blossom and to see you in the plays that in the pandemic will subside and you'll get to do all the things that you wanna do. So, thank you so much and for those of you listening, this has been okay but seriously, again, I am Vanessa Lauren. I'm here every Tuesday somehow They let me stay Tuesdays six or seven talking about serious topics in a non-serious way They let me stay Tuesdays six or seven talking about serious topics in a non-serious way So till next time now, I'm really gonna put the music on. Okay. Bye

Transcribed with Cockatoo