Episode 18: Making Music and Working in Theater on and off Broadway with Krystle Henninger

On this episode of The Hollywood Dream, I had the pleasure of sitting down with songwriter, author, and photographer Krystle Henninger. Krystle is an incredibly talented individual with a wealth of experience in both making music and working in theater in New York City. Krystle takes us on a fascinating journey, starting with her early days as a stage manager in high school. She shares insights into the role of a stage manager, the challenges they faced, and how digital stage management has revolutionized the industry.

Join me as we delve into Krystle's creative process, her thoughts on networking in the entertainment industry, and the pros and cons of pursuing an MFA. With glimpses into the backstage world of Broadway and the trials and triumphs of being a stage manager, if you are interested in the Theater world this is an episode you won't want to miss. Watch or listen to get a behind-the-scenes look at the making of music and working in the theater with the fabulous Krystle Henninger.

Some takeaways from my conversation with Krystle

🎬 1: Digital stage management is on the rise! 📱 Krystle shared her preference for paperless stage management and how she uses her computer for tasks like taking blocking and writing line notes. The speed and ease of updating information in the digital world make it a game-changer for efficiency.

🖋️ 2: Get in the creative flow! 💡 Krystle dished out some insider tips on her writing process for music. Sometimes, inspiration strikes in unexpected moments, like during a shower or while driving. She records voice memos to capture those elusive ideas and goes with the flow, letting the music or lyrics dictate the direction of the song.

🌟 3: Networking is key in the entertainment industry! 🤝 Krystle emphasized the importance of building connections and keeping contacts to pave the way for success. She also shared insights about the pros and cons of pursuing an MFA, and how it helped her establish connections and get a feel for NYC.

You can learn more about her work by visiting her websites at https://www.krystlehenninger.com/ and https://www.krystlehenningerphotography.com/

Transcript

Please note: This transcript is auto-generated, so there may be spelling and grammar mistakes.

Johanny [00:00:15]:

Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Hollywood Dream podcast, where we talk to the people that are making film and TV in New York City and all around the world today. I'm here with Crystal Heninger. Crystal is a photographer, she's a stage manager, and she's also a songwriter. And recently she won an award for best score at the art of Brooklyn film festival for her film Stillness. Right. How are you?

Krystle [00:00:42]:

I'm good. How are you?

Johanny [00:00:43]:

I'm okay. Hot. Thank you so much for being here.

Krystle [00:00:47]:

Thank you for having me.

Johanny [00:00:48]:

Yeah, awesome. Tell me about stillness. I obviously watched it at the Art of Brooking film festival. But will you mind sharing what Stillness is about and how you created the video song, et cetera?

Krystle [00:01:04]:

Of course. So Stillness actually comes from a set of four songs called gift of the night flurries. And that set of songs was created to encapsulate what snow sounds like. And so there's first snow, which is kind of like tinkly, the feeling that you get. Then snow day, which is kind of more of like a playful going out and having fun type thing. And then blizzard, which is a little bit more minor and intense. And then stillness, which closes out the set. And it's kind of like the calm after the storm. It just has this feeling of kind of like when you go out in winter and you're just kind of by yourself and everything's coming down around you. And I don't know, at least for me, I find that makes me feel good. And I enjoy that time. And I actually went out and recorded some of this footage at like 330 in the morning in the middle of a snowstorm. But you do what you have to do for Art exactly as long as.

Johanny [00:02:18]:

You get the shot.

Krystle [00:02:19]:

Yeah.

Johanny [00:02:21]:

There was one time, before moving to New York City, I did a short film and we're in Rhode Island, and they had me crawling through the woods in some sort of tunnel made of trees. I don't remember, but I remember them saying, as long as we get the shot, it's fine.

Krystle [00:02:41]:

Yeah.

Johanny [00:02:42]:

If I get bit by a snake.

Krystle [00:02:45]:

That would not be okay.

Johanny [00:02:47]:

Are you from? New York?

Krystle [00:02:48]:

Originally. No, I'm actually from Virginia. I spent the first part of my life there, and then I lived in Nashville for four years. I went to Belmont university for songwriting, and then I moved from there to here. Got my MFA in stage management at Columbia, and I've been here ever since. So it'll be ten years in August.

Johanny [00:03:11]:

Actually, I've been here for 14. So that makes both of us New Yorkers. I hear that after ten you're officially a New Yorker.

Krystle [00:03:20]:

Yes. I'm excited about that.

Johanny [00:03:24]:

How was your experience getting your MFA? I asked because I have an MFA and I thought that getting one. My MFA is in writing and producing for TV. And I thought by getting one that would help me. It didn't. It really hasn't. I feel like it was a waste for me. Do you feel like having an MFA in stage management and for theater that has helped your career?

Krystle [00:03:54]:

Yes and no. What it really did was kind of fast track a bunch of connections, and I knew that it wasn't going to be the absolute here's your ticket to stage manager Broadway show. I knew it wasn't going to be that. But what it did get me was a lot of people that I actually do still keep in touch with and I have worked with on multiple projects. I did a lot of outside non union theater work while I was at Columbia, which also really helped me. And a couple months after I graduated was when I got my Equity card. So I am a union stage manager.

Johanny [00:04:38]:

Okay, so you have to be in the union.

Krystle [00:04:41]:

You don't have to be. It helps. Well, depending on what you want to do, it helps. For me, it was the difference between doing a lot of non union work, which some non union projects are great, but others are like, okay, I'm doing two months of work for $500 that doesn't pay the rent. And in order to really be able to sustain yourself, you have to do multiple projects like that. And so I remember there was one time I was working on four shows at the same time, and it's exhausting.

Johanny [00:05:23]:

Were they happening at different nights? How did they all that work out?

Krystle [00:05:28]:

I had different rehearsals. It was usually that I was in performances for one show, so that would be at night. And then during the day, I had different rehearsals for two shows that I kept going back and forth on. And then I was kind of in pre production for one, and the one that was in performances ended the week. That the one that I was in pre production for start of rehearsals. So there wasn't as much overlap, but it was still just I had to keep my calendar very strict and was like, okay, I'm going here and here and here and here. And even then, it was a struggle to really be able to take care of everything, and I was kind of done with that. And I also kind of got to the point where all of the shows that I had done had a lot of the same elements. I wasn't learning anything anymore. And I really wanted to get to the point where I was like, okay, I either want to work on a big show or I want to step away and find a full time job and not deal with freelancing anymore. Because it's tough and it brings up a lot of anxiety and you're wondering where your rent is coming from in six months.

Johanny [00:06:51]:

That's the worst.

Krystle [00:06:52]:

And so it was just like, I want to do one of these two things. And I reached out to a bunch of people and sent them my resume and I didn't really hear back from any of them. I didn't wait on it. I was looking for full time jobs as well during that time and it still took me six months to find one. And during that time I was doing a lot of random freelancing. I worked at Juilliard and Carnegie as an usher and just doing a lot of little OD jobs.

Johanny [00:07:27]:

Is it like film where it's all about who you pretty much, yeah.

Krystle [00:07:31]:

I mean, like you can work your way up, but having those connections gives you more of an in because when people work with people that they know and they like, they keep them in their bubble. It's very much you find your group of people and you keep working with them and sometimes you add other people into it or some people move on from that. And so you have to adjust your bubble of who you're working with. But it's a lot of who you know because it's hard to just show up and be like, I'm going to do this one.

Johanny [00:08:11]:

Yeah. And they don't post the jobs on LinkedIn.

Krystle [00:08:14]:

Of course not. And even if they're supposed to, it's like you don't really know what shows are in development. And so keeping those contacts and being like, hey, if you know anybody who's looking for something so it definitely was a good thing that I did get out of Columbia, and I think it did help me kind of get my feel for New York and kind of cemented the fact that I do want to be here and that this is where I'm supposed to just that was a good part. There are some downsides too. It is hard. It's extremely expensive. Tell me about it. But I work in a nonprofit. You're good. Hoping that pans out for me. But it's a balancing act and it's not something where if you are on the fence about getting an MFA that you shouldn't do because you don't think it's going to be beneficial. But I think you have to really weigh your options and figure out, is this right for me? Because it's not right for everybody I know. And I feel like it was right for me at the time because it did give me that connection and it did bring me here. Would I do it again? Probably not.

Johanny [00:09:45]:

If I could go back in time, I would not do it. But part of me is happy that I did learn a lot about TV writing. And now with the strike, there's no hope for me to get in. And I met a lot of cool people that I have as connections now. But yeah, if I could go back in time, I would not do it.

Krystle [00:10:09]:

I probably would do it again in this lifetime. I wouldn't do it additionally from now. But I feel like I learned a lot about myself too, and it pushed me in ways that I didn't know I could go. It wasn't easy, but what is that's life? But yeah, at the time, it was good for what it was.

Johanny [00:10:42]:

Yeah. And you've been stage managing since high school. You've been doing a lot of it. You've done a lot of shows in New York City back home. Can you share? For those who might not be familiar with theater, the arts, what a stage manager is, their job, and how their job can also be creative?

Krystle [00:11:05]:

Yeah. So stage managers are basically kind of the center of a theater production. Essentially. That's how one of the things I learned in Columbia, we got kind of like a shift in thinking of how stage managers work in theater and to kind of view them as a CEO of a production. Yes, the producers are in charge of the money and all of that fun stuff, but really, if you think about it, the stage manager has to coordinate everything. So stage managers jobs start well before the actual production process, the rehearsals and all that. So we usually start out we have production meetings with the crew, so all of the designers, the director, any assistants, which there are usually plenty of, and we figure all the things out. We have to go through the script and look for any potential problems. It's like, oh, there's a bucket of blood that's going to be poured in this scene. How are we going to do that? Are we allowed to rehearse with anything like that? Is there something that we can do? How is this going to affect costumes? How is this going to affect the set? Every night? There's just so many questions that snowball from everything, and so we kind of have to be the forefront and have the foresight to ask those questions. Then once rehearsals start, we keep track of blocking, which is all the movements that the actors do. We keep track of props. Where do they come from, where do they go? Put them back on the table at the end of the night, yell at the actors for not doing that, and figure out if we have quick changes, how long people have to change costumes, and all of that. Then once we get into the more tech rehearsals, when we're bringing in the elements, we get the lighting cues and the sound cues. A lot more shows are using projection now, so we get all those cues from the designers, and then we actually do what we say is calling the show, which is saying all of the cues. Nothing happens unless we say, go. Well, they're not supposed to anyway. Some people do. Or if you've got a really big sequence and you have an understanding and you're like, okay, you're going to go off of this, or when I say this, this is also your cue.

Johanny [00:13:56]:

You're not the person you know, when you go to a theater and there's like a guy underneath right in front of the stage keeping is that you or is that a director?

Krystle [00:14:05]:

No, it's actually neither. Well, it depends on what show you go because there's also the person that you probably see the most. Are you talking about in the pit or in the back of the stage?

Johanny [00:14:21]:

Not in the pit.

Krystle [00:14:22]:

Yeah. So in the pit, that's probably going to be the conductor for the musicians. And we also have to work with them to make sure that everything is on the same page between the actors and the musicians and where we're getting our cues from. Do they have enough lights down there? How are they getting there? What's the path? But no, the stage managers, usually the production stage manager or the calling stage manager is going to be somewhere off in a booth with video monitors being able to look at the screen. Because especially in big Broadway theaters, there's no good place for them to sit and see the whole stage and be able to talk and call cues without being in the audience view and disrupting the performance. So usually there's some booth that's built either somewhere way up in a wing off to the side of the stage. Even a lot of shows have calling stations off to the side.

Johanny [00:15:25]:

Okay.

Krystle [00:15:26]:

Backstage. And there's usually video monitors set up and some queue lights where if we do have a lot of stuff or a lot of the backstage movement stuff happens by q lights where they'll get the light to be on. Standby. And then when the light goes off, then they are allowed to hit the button to move things. Or they bring in the set pieces coming in from up, way up in the wings.

Johanny [00:15:59]:

I was a stage manager once for when I first moved here. I was really close with this guy who's playwright, so he'll put up his own shows and he asked me to be a stage manager. And I don't remember doing any of that.

Krystle [00:16:15]:

Well, what I was describing is more like the big budget Broadway and off Broadway shows.

Johanny [00:16:22]:

But I don't remember what I did, to be honest. I remember being in the back on my phone.

Krystle [00:16:30]:

The first couple of shows that I ever did. I mean, I was in high school, I didn't really know what I was doing and the director had talked to me and kind of gave me an outline of what I would be doing. But until you really get into that rehearsal room and actually see how everything's coming together, it's hard to really completely sum up what a stage manager is and does. And it's constantly evolving, too. Now there are so many technical advances that can help and for me personally, I pretty much do paperless stage management. I like having my computer in front of me. I like taking blocking down digitally. I like running the show that way because to me, it feels more efficient because if I'm taking line notes or whatever and that's when an actor messes up and you write out what they messed up and what they need to fix and all that, I'm a much faster typer than I am writing by hand. So it just made sense to me to start doing it that way. And while I was at Columbia, some of my classmates were like, oh, I could never do that. And then one in particular, when she was working with me, she was like, now I kind of want to try that. And it is something that's becoming more used just because it's easier and it's faster to update things, it's faster to get more people the information. And that's not to say that the old way in handwriting doesn't work. It definitely does. But for me it was I don't want to spend an additional 3 hours every night after rehearsal going home and translating this to the documents. I might as well just do it on the spot.

Johanny [00:18:34]:

When I first moved here, I joined like when you come to New York, there's so many theater things off know yes. Where they put up productions and we pretty much have to do your actor. And you also work the shows and I remember working I think I was the light person and I actually enjoy that because I had to be focused on making sure each light went into whatever or what light goes into which queue and just following. So I was completely focused on that because I was terrified that I'll mess something up and then it's my fault.

Krystle [00:19:15]:

Yeah.

Johanny [00:19:15]:

But yeah, I enjoyed the light. What is that? The light technique?

Krystle [00:19:20]:

Light designing.

Johanny [00:19:21]:

Light design.

Krystle [00:19:22]:

Well, were you actually designing or were you more just hitting the button like the operator?

Johanny [00:19:26]:

Well, the operator, I remember I had to follow the script and there will be like in this word, this light goes off. And in this word this light goes off.

Krystle [00:19:38]:

Yeah.

Johanny [00:19:39]:

So that's what I was doing.

Krystle [00:19:41]:

Yeah. So more the board operator. Yeah. But it is fun, it's satisfying to hit the button and see things happen on time.

Johanny [00:19:50]:

And I think I was just like so stressed that I'll hit the wrong button and then I'll screw the whole show up. Yeah, it's my fault. So what made you go into stage managing? Is that something that you just kind of fell into or you had a desire to work in the theater and that was a way in.

Krystle [00:20:15]:

I didn't know that I wanted to stage manage until I was in high school and got the opportunity to do it. And then once I did, that was kind of a no, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. Which is interesting because it's not what I'm doing right now. Yeah. But it's still something that I want to do eventually. One of my ultimate life goals is to stage manage on Broadway. And I haven't done that yet. So not crossing it off and not ruling it out. If Broadway calls, I will be there.

Johanny [00:20:47]:

Broadway, call her.

Krystle [00:20:53]:

But I like being behind the scenes. I like being kind of the puppet master. I like being able to know everything and put everything together. I do a lot of things creatively, as I'm sure you figured out, but I like knowing how to do different things and knowing how different people do their jobs. And it's not that I want to do everybody else's job, because I definitely don't. I will never be a costume designer.

Johanny [00:21:32]:

But it's good to understand exactly does their job, why that job is important.

Krystle [00:21:38]:

Yeah, it's actually interesting because one of our assignments at Columbia was to make a flowchart of how everyone in the theater interacts with each other. And my program advisor, every time I see him, he's like, I still use your chart because I love it so much. But my chart basically looked like a two year old got a hold of a crown and just kind of like, drew all over it. Because I had the stage manager in the middle, and I was doing it on my iPad. And I initially attempted to color coordinate the different lines of how everybody connected with each other, but then I ran out of colors because I was doing it on a note app and limited. So then it's just this nice, pretty boxes with the typeset and everything, and then just colors everywhere. But the stage manager is really connected to every single person who works in the theater, whether it be the ushers or the janitors or the producers who aren't usually on site, but you still have to deal with them. In a way. You're very connected to the director and the actors and the designers and the crew. I like knowing a little bit of everybody's job because I feel like it makes me better at my job because I know how to talk to you. I know what you want to hear from me. I know what kind of questions you're going to ask me. So if I can get some of those answers for you ahead of time, why not? It's like, let's make personally, in pretty much everything I do, I try to make everybody else's life easier. And as a stage manager and as someone who leads teams, if I can have those answers ahead of time, instead of sitting there and being like, I don't know, it makes me feel more accomplished, and it makes me feel like I am on top of it and I am doing a good job. So I attempt to do that.

Johanny [00:23:53]:

I don't always succeed, but it's the intention.

Krystle [00:23:56]:

Yeah.

Johanny [00:23:59]:

You've done a lot of theater. Of all the shows that you've worked on, what has been some of the most challenging or most memorable? Either positive or negative? And why were they challenging.

Krystle [00:24:11]:

Oh, boy. I have done a lot of off Broadway shows are always memorable.

Johanny [00:24:25]:

Not in a good way.

Krystle [00:24:27]:

They are definitely memorable. A lot of challenges always come with them because sometimes not always, but sometimes the directors have big visions and don't know how to execute. And they give a lot of things off to you as a stage manager. And they're just like, I don't know, just figure it out. And it's like, cool, but that's not actually in my job. Or they ask impossible things that they're like, oh, yeah, can we just change this lighting queue? And it's like, no, I'm not actually the lighting designer. There was one show that I did that we weren't going to have an intermission. It was like two and a half hour show. It was. Oh, my God. We were all mad about that. We were like, no, let's put in an intermission. And the director did not want to he did not want to budge. And then after the second or third night, after everybody was complaining about not having a bathroom break audience wise, he was like, okay, let's put in an intermission. And I was like, you do realize that affects lighting cues, right? And he was like, oh, we'll just fix it. And I'm like, thankfully, I had actually done some lighting design before, and I had worked with the board that we had at theater, but I was still like, I'm not supposed to just walk in and do that because that's taking over someone else's design. Sure, I can copy cues and everything, but I don't want to step on people's toes and do their job for them. That's not okay. Plus, I'm not being paid to do that because that was one of those.

Johanny [00:26:10]:

Always ask the most when you're working for free.

Krystle [00:26:13]:

Yeah, well, and that was definitely one of those nonunion being very underpaid jobs. And the lighting designer actually wasn't in town. They didn't live here.

Johanny [00:26:26]:

Oh, my God.

Krystle [00:26:27]:

So I did call her up and we did talk and we figured it out, and she told me what to do and how to fix things. But it was still just like, no.

Johanny [00:26:39]:

Is there a particular show that you would love to work on?

Krystle [00:26:42]:

Oh, there are many.

Johanny [00:26:44]:

What is your dream? Like, if Broadway could call you right.

Krystle [00:26:46]:

Now, bring back American Idiot. Green Day is one of my favorite bands, and I saw that show on Broadway twice and then on tour twice as Think. And it's just it's one of my all time favorites. So definitely wouldn't do that. I would love to do Spring Awakening. I actually did do at LSU. I worked with Swine Palace and did Curious Incident of the Dog in the nighttime. And that was on my bucket list of shows that I wanted to do. But I definitely wouldn't mind doing that one again.

Johanny [00:27:24]:

Okay. And you're also a songwriter. You went to school for songwriting yes, I did. Excuse my ignorance. No, I didn't know that you could get a degree in songwriting.

Krystle [00:27:37]:

A lot of people don't. It's totally fine. Every time I say that, that was my major, everybody's just like, what?

Johanny [00:27:44]:

So how is that? Is it data for your program?

Krystle [00:27:47]:

Yeah. So when I was looking at schools and this kind of goes back to the whole how I got into stage management thing, I was trying to decide if I wanted to go to school for theater or for music, and it was pretty much like a coin toss decision. Like, I could have done either one. But ultimately I decided I can walk into a theater without a theater degree and have the experience to back me and be perfectly fine. But something that I've always wanted to and I currently am kind of pursuing is music producing. And if I just walk into a studio and I don't have that kind of knowledge and I haven't really been working with it, they're not going to let me touch anything.

Johanny [00:28:36]:

So.

Krystle [00:28:39]:

I went to Belmont for songwriting. So songwriting and composition are two different things, technically. So songwriting is more of, like, the stuff you hear on the radio with the lyrics, and composing is more just the instrumental type stuff. And I had also tried to decide whether I was going to go for more composing or the songwriting thing, but when I saw that there was a songwriting major, I was like, yes, that is actually what I want to do. And I was trying to decide between Belmont or Berkeley College of Music up in Boston.

Johanny [00:29:17]:

Okay.

Krystle [00:29:17]:

And got into both, which didn't make the decision any. And I almost went to Berkeley because they have a film scoring class, and that's something that I was obviously now interested in, but they don't have a theater department. So I went to Belmont because I was able to have a theater minor as well. But I got to work with Grammy Award winning songwriters and had a lot of different assignments where it was like, write different genres, write outside the box, do some co writing. I had a lyric only class, which was really cool. And I feel like it's interesting to have any kind of major where a lot of the stuff you're doing is creative.

Johanny [00:30:07]:

Yeah.

Krystle [00:30:08]:

Because it's just like, sometimes, as I'm sure you know, the inspiration doesn't always strike.

Johanny [00:30:15]:

Oh, I know.

Krystle [00:30:18]:

So it's kind of like, okay, but I don't want to force anything that's not going to work. But sometimes you just have to put yourself in the situation where you're like, okay, well, I got to come up with something because it's due tomorrow. But I feel like having that really pushed me to be a better writer, to understand the basic elements of what goes into making a good song. And it was interesting because I was looking back at some of my songs the other day, and I was like, I thought these were really good at the time when I wrote them, but they could use a little tweaking. I guess that's the editor part of my brain where it's like, that never shuts up.

Johanny [00:31:01]:

What is your songwriting process like?

Krystle [00:31:04]:

It depends on what I'm writing. And I feel like it changes every single time. So a lot of times I'll get an idea. And usually the best ideas that I get are ones that I can't actually actively work on at the moment. Like, I'll get them when I'm in the shower or driving or it's like, I can't put pen to paper right now. But usually when I get those kind of ideas, I just continually if it's a melody or if it's lyrics, I continually just go over them and over them and over them until I can get to paper or my computer or whatever and get them down. I record voice memos a lot because I have noticed that as I get older, my ability to retain those kind of things dwindles, so it's just better to have a version of it somewhere. And sometimes it starts with the music first, sometimes it starts with the lyrics first. Lately, one thing I have been noticing is that I've been writing the chorus. I've been starting off with the chorus more than anything. And I don't know if that's that wasn't always the case sometimes, and it still isn't always the case sometimes it changes up, but I just kind of go with the flow and whatever happens, happens. And I let it.

Johanny [00:32:40]:

For Stillness, what was it you started with a song or with a video first? How did that work?

Krystle [00:32:47]:

So there was a video that inspired the song. Okay, so my creative partner and best friend, Jake King, he had a short little video clip that he had recorded. And it was him standing in front of his window and you could see the snow falling through the window. And it was like really big, thick, heavy flakes. It was just really pretty and cool. And when I saw that, I immediately heard the first two chords of Stillness in My Head. I just knew what it sounded like. And I wasn't intending on doing anything. That was just one of those it happened moments. And thankfully, I was at work where I work at a nonprofit music school, so there were a lot of pianos around. So I ran into a room with a piano and started playing and figuring it out. And I was getting ready to leave for the day too, but I was like, I can't go on the bus until I have this figured out. So I stayed a little bit later and worked on that. And then once I voice memoed it and I took some notes down, then I went home and set up Pro Tools because that's what I record with and literally recorded for 25 minutes and just sat. At my piano and played and just kind of got all the ideas out of my head. And then I went back later on and actually cut and pieced it together was like, okay, this flows. And then with working through that, I knew that I wanted to do something with video for it because it just felt very cinematic. It just had that feeling of big emotions. And something is happening in this, and I feel like it's greater than just it existing as a piece of music.

Johanny [00:34:41]:

Yeah.

Krystle [00:34:42]:

And like I mentioned, I've always been extremely interested in film scoring, so it was something that I was like, we're going to marry the two. It's going to be fine.

Johanny [00:34:54]:

I'm working on a documentary, so I will definitely call you so you can score.

Krystle [00:34:59]:

Yes, please. Would love to.

Johanny [00:35:03]:

Aside from working on a Broadway show, do you have aspirations to do other things? What is your main goal in life as far as being creative?

Krystle [00:35:15]:

Yeah, I have a couple different aspirations. One of the things that I really love doing is I'm a photographer, and I love doing concert photography. And I've been shooting mostly for Frank Turner, who is one of my absolute favorite artists. But to be able to shoot all of my favorite artists at some point in life would be amazing. And to actually be on a tour as a photographer is kind of like a big dream. I also love music producing and would love to get more into that. Okay, well, in the works, I have a very big multidiscipline project. I've got a whole bunch of artists on board. It's going to be music, dance and film somehow. But I'll be producing that as well.

Johanny [00:36:18]:

So more in like, the music side, you would say.

Krystle [00:36:21]:

Mostly. But I also want to do the Broadway thing. I also write novels, and I have four that I'm trying to get out in the world somehow.

Johanny [00:36:34]:

They're done already?

Krystle [00:36:37]:

Yes. I keep going back to them and editing them, but I think they're ready for an agent or for a publisher to look at.

Johanny [00:36:51]:

Well, good luck with the novel.

Krystle [00:36:53]:

Thank you.

Johanny [00:36:54]:

I have a segment called fast and Curious oh, boy. Where I'll ask you a bunch of questions.

Krystle [00:37:00]:

Great.

Johanny [00:37:01]:

And you have two minutes to answer as many as you can. All right, the number to beat is 20.

Krystle [00:37:07]:

Oh, boy.

Johanny [00:37:08]:

It's actually 19. When I was editing this one episode, I told him 20, but it was 19. I just miscounted. But since it's out in the world, that is 20. It's 20. All right, I'm going to start the clock. Who is your current celebrity crush?

Krystle [00:37:27]:

Oh, God. I'm it actually don't know that I have one.

Johanny [00:37:40]:

Can say pass.

Krystle [00:37:40]:

Fine.

Johanny [00:37:41]:

Pass. What is your favorite emoji?

Krystle [00:37:45]:

The smiling face with smiling eyes I use that one a lot.

Johanny [00:37:48]:

Favorite TV show?

Krystle [00:37:55]:

Absolute. Well, one of my favorites is Mash.

Johanny [00:37:58]:

Okay. Favorite movie?

Krystle [00:38:01]:

Godfather.

Johanny [00:38:02]:

The longest flight. You've ever taken?

Krystle [00:38:05]:

6 hours.

Johanny [00:38:06]:

Favorite family tradition. Past or present?

Krystle [00:38:10]:

Christmas time.

Johanny [00:38:12]:

Longest distance you've ever walked or ran?

Krystle [00:38:16]:

I think like seven, six or 7 miles.

Johanny [00:38:18]:

Best trip you've ever taken?

Krystle [00:38:21]:

Definitely. Music cruise last year.

Johanny [00:38:25]:

Best place you've ever lived in New York. Scariest movie you've ever seen?

Krystle [00:38:36]:

What's coming to mind is the Shining.

Johanny [00:38:39]:

Favorite actor or actress?

Krystle [00:38:46]:

Al Pacino.

Johanny [00:38:48]:

Hardest class you've ever taken?

Krystle [00:38:53]:

Pre calculus. And I dropped it.

Johanny [00:38:55]:

This is hard. First concert you went to.

Krystle [00:38:59]:

Bob seeger?

Johanny [00:39:01]:

What was your first car?

Krystle [00:39:03]:

A Nissan Maxima.

Johanny [00:39:05]:

What fashion trend do you wish would come back?

Krystle [00:39:16]:

Pass.

Johanny [00:39:17]:

Last show you? Binge.

Krystle [00:39:20]:

Currently watching. Say yes to the dress.

Johanny [00:39:23]:

What's something people love? I'll give you this. What's something people love that you just don't understand.

Krystle [00:39:34]:

Why I'm rap. Okay.

Johanny [00:39:51]:

15.

Krystle [00:39:53]:

It's not bad.

Johanny [00:39:55]:

You didn't win.

Krystle [00:39:56]:

That's okay. I didn't think I was going to. I spent too much time on the first one.

Johanny [00:40:02]:

I know you did. All right, final question. Is there any advice you could give anyone who has aspirations to pursue a career in theater? Whether it be stage managing, acting, lights.

Krystle [00:40:14]:

Whatever, just do as much as you possibly can. I feel like we're in a world where the more you do and the more knowledge that you have, the better equipped you are to do anything. So as much as you can say yes, take those opportunities if they're presented to you, you never know where it's going to lead or who you might meet, or you might end up falling in love with what you do. So it's just say yes as often as you can, unless it's going to absolutely make you miserable.

Johanny [00:40:50]:

I agree. I wish I would have said yes to more things when I first started. I agree. Well, thank you so much, Crystal. Thank you for having me. Glad you came and didn't cancel.

Krystle [00:41:01]:

Of course not.

Johanny [00:41:04]:

And where can people find you?

Krystle [00:41:07]:

So I have a website, crystalheniger.com. I have a photography website, Crystalhenigerphotography.com. Instagram, knheniger and Twitter. Although I don't really tweet anymore. And Facebook k hennegar 13th.

Johanny [00:41:23]:

No threats?

Krystle [00:41:25]:

No, I just saw that that's a thing the other day and was like.

Johanny [00:41:31]:

Nah, I can't keep up with social media. But thank you for being here and thank you, everyone, for listening.

Krystle [00:41:37]:

Thank you,