Chris Carter
Hi, everybody. My name is Chris Carter. I’m the Executive Director at Livermore Valley Arts with The Bankhead Theater. And I’m here with some wonderful staff members and we are super excited because this week we announced our new 23-24 Bankhead Presents Season. And we’re here to all kind of talk about this season and what we’re excited about. But first, we all need to introduce ourselves. So why don’t we start over here with Justin? What do you let us know about you?
Justin Beasley
All right. Hello, my name is Justin Beasley. I am a Box Office and Marketing Associate. It’s great here, to be here today, and I’m very excited for this.
Chris Carter
He’s also a very good singer. So keep that in mind.
Justin Beasley
Yes.
Andrew Kracht
Hi, I’m Andrew Kracht. I’m the Marketing Manager here at Livermore Valley Arts. And I’m really excited to talk about this upcoming season today.
Chris Carter
And Andrew is also very talented on the stage as well.
Andrew Kracht
Thank you.
Brittany Mulgrew
I’m Brittany Mulgrew, I’m the Development Manager here at The Bankhead Theater and it is a very exciting season. We’re really looking forward to it.
Pam Harvey
Hi, I’m Pam Harvey. I’m the Hospitality Coordinator and I’m looking forward to this season, too. It’s going to be some excitement going on backstage.
Gary Brunclik
Hi, I’m Gary Brunclik and I am the Production Manager and I too am looking forward to the season because it seems to be the best one we’ve had in a long, long time.
Ruth Egherman
And I’m Ruth Egherman. I’m the Director of Marketing here at The Bankhead and I’m super excited about so many shows this season! Can’t wait to tell you all about them.
Chris Carter
So we’re going to be talking about the season and we all have programs, right? So everybody knows what’s coming up and we’ve all been asked to think of like your top five, right? I personally cannot pick five, but I’m going to try my best. But Andrew, you want to tell us what you–I put you on the spot first because I like you. So why don’t you tell us what you’ve been thinking about for this next season? And by the way, Andrew has this weird ability. So what date is Napoleon Dynamite live?
Andrew Kracht
Friday, November 3rd.
Chris Carter
Okay. What date is Folsom 68?
Andrew Kracht
That is Friday, February 9th.
Chris Carter
Oh, my gosh. What date is Danu?
Andrew Kracht
Saturday, March 16th.
Chris Carter
And then what about Britbeat?
Andrew Kracht
Friday….Saturday, January 6th.
Chris Carter
Oh, my…
Ruth Egherman
It’s amazing. I know. It’s like some sort of savant.
Chris Carter
He knows all the shows inside and out. So tell us someone who has the most intimate knowledge of everything here. Why don’t you tell us what you’re thinking about?
Andrew Kracht
Well, the number one right off the bat that I’m really excited about, and it’s one of the posters we have in the hallways for when patrons come to The Bankhead. I’m so excited for Brian Stokes Mitchell to come to The Bankhead. Obviously, I’m a big Broadway person. He is a Tony Award winner. My first exposure to him was walking by my mother on the couch in the early 2000s. He was opposite Reba McEntire in the PBS South Pacific. And I have such vivid memories of hearing him sing “Some Enchanted Evening” opposite Reba. And I mean, he’s just–I was in–I’ve been in shows that he’s the cast recording, the you know, I hear his voice so much just amazing baritone talent. And I am so thrilled that he’s going to be on our stage singing Broadway songs I know and don’t know, so I cannot wait for that in November.
Chris Carter
Was he Man of La Mancha, right?
Andrew Kracht
Yes!
Chris Carter
It’s like the big one that he did.
Andrew Kracht
“The impossible dream”
Chris Carter
And then, was he on TV, too? Wasn’t he in a TV show?
Andrew Kracht
Oh, that I don’t know.
Brittany Mulgrew
I think I saw that.
Chris Carter
He was on. Oh, my gosh. It was like a police drama or something.
Ruth Egherman
A police drama.
Chris Carter
I don’t remember. I, I mean.
Ruth Egherman
I really don’t know, but I believe you.
Andrew Kracht
I believe it. Yeah. I mean, I really only know his Broadway stuff.
Chris Carter
Somebody pull their phone out and figure
Gary Brunclik
Google’s their best friend.
Andrew Kracht
I know.
Ruth Egherman
This is something to find out.
Chris Carter
T.V. Star. Okay, so Brian Stokes Mitchell. I’m excited about him, too. He’s never been here.
Brittany Mulgrew
Nope.
Chris Carter
And I think vocalists, my favorite performers on the stage have got to–there’s two of them–I love acoustic guitar on this, in this room, but I also love great vocalists because I think this room really works well with vocals. Justin, I mean, you’re a singer, right?
Justin Beasley
Yes.
Chris Carter
Tell me when you come here, is that what you kind of listen for?
Justin Beasley
Yes, usually, especially when it comes to vocals. I want to know, like, is is the room or the space acoustically sound? If it is great. If it isn’t, let’s just hope everyone can hear and everything goes well. But I’m glad that The Bankhead has great acoustics in here that we’re able to hear everything in, no matter where you are, you have a good area to hear everything.
Chris Carter
And what show are you looking forward to the most?
Justin Beasley
I would say, it’s something that my mom is looking forward to as well, is a Bobby McFerrin: Motion.
Chris Carter
Yes!
Justin Beasley
She is super excited about that. I’m very excited about it. And I checked out some of his stuff and I’m just like, I’m so excited.
Ruth Egherman
Has she ever seen him before?
Justin Beasley
She has once. She’s seen him once. It was I forget when. But when she told me that he was coming here, she wanted to make sure. Justin, so do you have anything… it’s coming! Just like it’s coming.
Chris Carter
You better hook up with some good tickets.
Ruth Egherman
Yeah. Yeah. You do! I’ve seen Bobby McFerrin twice. Once. And it must have been about 15 or 20 years ago. I saw him down in Southern California with Pacific Symphony, and he was performing with a symphony behind him. And I don’t know, there’s probably 2,000 seats in that venue at the Segerstrom Hall. He was just so–like he has such a stage presence. Excuse me, it’s really unbelievable. Like you just are enveloped by his warmth. And that was in a 2,000-seat theater. And then I saw him again solo without any backup, not drums, nothing, just a cappella. At, up in Sonoma State. And that was like 750 seats. I can’t wait to see him in this theater doing whatever magic he does because it is absolutely magical. So I’m there with you that night?
Justin Beasley
Yes.
Ruth Egherman
You and me both. Although hopefully the day works for me. But I definitely want to be there.
Chris Carter
Andrew, would know what time it is.
Andrew Kracht
Saturday, September 16, at 3.
Ruth Egherman
At 3 p.m?
Andrew Kracht
It’s an afternoon matinee for us on a weekend
Justin Beasley
On a Saturday.
Andrew Kracht
Yes.
Ruth Egherman
On a Saturday. So I think that’s going to I agree with you, Justin, I think that is going to be such a fabulous show.
Justin Beasley
Right.
Chris Carter
Gary, what are you looking forward to next year?
Gary Brunclik
Well, for me, I might be a little slighted because I look at the groups that are coming and I see numerous people that I used to tour with coming through this this year. So it’s a reuniting for me and my friends. But I’m really looking forward to obviously The Righteous Brothers. I mean, they are just hit after hit after hit. They’re known by multiple generations. But my, probably my biggest show I’m looking forward to is pretty unknown band name, The Immediate Family.
Chris Carter
Yup.
Gary Brunclik
I can’t talk enough about these guys. I mean, if you listen to James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, Roger McGuinn, any of these Southern California people, these guys were the players that made the records. They were the bass player, the drummer, guitar player, Warren Zevon. I think they’re just fantastic. Their record is really smokin’. I downloaded that and listened to that, so that’s the show I’m looking forward to the most.
Chris Carter
That’s going to be a rock show right?
Gary Brunclik
Well, you know me, I like rock shows.
Chris Carter
Turn it over.
Ruth Egherman
Wait, when is The Immediate Family, Andrew?
Andrew Kracht
Friday, February 16.
Ruth Egherman
Okay.
Chris Carter
That’s my mother’s birthday. Maybe I’ll take her for her birthday.
Gary Brunclik
Well, she is your immediate family.
Chris Carter
She is.
Andrew Kracht
That was good.
Brittany Mulgrew
Beat him to it!
Chris Carter
Um, sorry. Caught me off guard with that graet joke. I’m looking forward to that too. The other rock show that I think is going to be pretty cool is the Rolling Stones Classic Albums Live. So that’s that’s a tour classic, but we haven’t done this one before, but they’ve been here in the past and what they do is they pick an album, a famous record, and they essentially play it note for note the first half of the show, and then there’s an intermission and then you come back and they’ll do other songs by the group, and it’s not really a tribute band.
They’re not dressed like the band. They don’t talk about the history, they really just play the music and it’s really good. We’ve had them do Fleetwood Mac. There was a Rumors album. They did feel like there was a Pink Floyd one we did a few years ago. Do you remember what else we might have done with that?
Brittany Mulgrew
We’ve done quite a few.
Gary Brunclik
Yeah, well, we’ve done quite a few of that.
Chris Carter
There was a Beatles. The first one was The Beatles.
Gary Brunclik
We did Beatles last year.
Chris Carter
Oh, yeah. I mean so it’s, it’s a great tour. So looking really forward to that one. And it’s the Sticky Fingers album.
Ruth Egherman
You said it!
Chris Carter
I know I have a hard time saying the word fingers in front of people, but first, but I do want to say it because it’s a great album. Probably their one…
Gary Brunclik
I think it’s the best.
Chris Carter
Yeah, one of their best ones.
Ruth Egherman
So in the second half, what will they do? So will they… do more albums? Or original music?
Chris Carter
They’ll do other Stones. They’ll go do Stones.
Ruth Egherman
Oh okay! Other Rolling Stones.
Gary Brunclik
Stones. Other songs off their records.
Chris Carter
Yeah. So that’s the other big rock show. Pam, you’ve–so you’re the hospitality manager, which means you’re backstage with the crew or the band, the performers and you’re making sure they get the food that they need. All the TLC, you’re kind of like the mom backstage.
Pam Harvey
Yes, I am.
Chris Carter
It’s like when Carl Bernstein was here and he wasn’t-he was feeling under the weather and she got him some special tea and all this stuff. And he was.
Pam Harvey
Throat lozenges.
Chris Carter
He was great. And by the time he started, it was really fun. So some of these you’ve worked with before, is there any ones you remember that you really like?
Pam Harvey
Oh, I liked Roger McGuinn.
Chris Carter
Yeah.
Pam Harvey
I love that he was in The Byrds. It was before when I was really listening to music and back in the day, but I just found him to be very kind man. He’s very talented and he has a lot of fun when he goes out on stage. So backstage he was a delight. He had his wife with him and they were quite a couple. So its as far as return? I’d like to see him.
Chris Carter
Yeah.
Pam Harvey
You know one on my list I have The Four Phantoms. And the reason I have The Four Phantoms is, is I’ve seen the play and it was, I thought it was fabulous. Yeah. And to hear four of them at the same time is going to be phenomenal, especially on our stage and the chandelier. I don’t know if we’re going to have a chandelier.
Gary Brunclik
We could! A disco ball!
Chris Carter
Falling onto the stage!
Ruth Egherman
Maybe you can put a note in Venue ops.
Chris Carter
Is that in the rider?
Pam Harvey
Make a note it’s gotta swing, you know. Yeah. So I’m really looking forward to that too.
Chris Carter
Let’s figure out how much that costs first.
Andrew Kracht
And that one is even more, I mean, I say exciting. Well because I mean, a day I thought would never come just came a few weeks ago. The show actually closed in New York. And I literally thought it would be running my entire lifetime. And it closed after 35 years. And so, no, the fact that it’s closing.
That it closed, and now there’s still a way to have Phantom in your life for those Broadway fans. You know, people have such–I remember when the show closed, I saw so many friends just sharing stories and I didn’t realize the show was such a part of so many people that I knew’s theater history. So yeah, that’s going to be such an exciting one. See these four phantoms from different times singing songs from Phantom and other great musicals on the stage.
Chris Carter
That was the first musical I ever saw.
Andrew Kracht
Oh, yeah. You said that!
Chris Carter
When I was 18 years old.
Brittany Mulgrew
Wow.
Chris Carter
And I didn’t even know how to get there. And this is before GPS and I just figured I’m going to go where all the big buildings are in town and I’m going to find it in San Francisco.
Pam Harvey
That’s where we saw it.
Chris Carter
It was at the Orpheum.
Pam Harvey
Yeah.
Chris Carter
I think it was the Orpheum.
Justin Beasley
Orpheum. Yeah.
Chris Carter
And then I remember parking in this parking garage and I asked the guy, Can you tell me where the Orpheum is? And he goes, Yeah, it’s right across the street. I had found it. In some magical Phantom way, I found it.
Chris Carter
But yeah, I remember thats when I really I fell in love with musicals too after watching that, and it’s such a great introduction for people to that genre. So I’m very excited that that’s going to be here. That’s a big tour, it’s going to be a big show.
Justin Beasley
And also to hear them all as, four of them, as a quartet and hear them harmonize with each other. I think I’m most excited to hear what they all sound like because you we’ve heard them all separately in this role, but to hear them all sound together in a quartet and just blending together, I’m most excited about that.
Chris Carter
Yeah, well, and I’m curious because Brittany has worked here probably longer than anybody. I’m going to guess. So you see more shows on this stage than anybody else. So first of all, you’ve been at The Bankhead for pretty much every season.
Brittany Mulgrew
Yeah.
Chris Carter
You’re gonna… You’re going to tell us this is the best season ever, right?
Brittany Mulgrew
Well, you know, it does look that way. It look like it is going to be the best season ever. Yeah, I’ve seen a whole lot of shows here. I–the patron experience has always been something that I’ve enjoyed getting to talk to people, especially at our Season Announcement Party. The buzz this year and the excitement and I was actually able help several people with their ticket orders and some of them were like, I’m going to be here quite a few times the month of November. I’m just going to be here every weekend.
Andrew Kracht
I heard so many times , let me just say real quick, we just had our Season Announcement Party two days ago and I heard so many times in the lobby, Oh boy, I’m spending a lot next year. So the excitement is definitely felt.
Brittany Mulgrew
So I felt that on Wednesday night with a lot of folks and they just–a lot of them said, you know, I’m going to do these now. And then I would talk to friends and get more tickets. So that was really fun to hear. And it’s–it is nice because I’ve been to every single Season Announcement Party that we’ve had because yeah, I got hired in November or December of 2007, the year we opened.
Pam Harvey
Wow.
Brittany Mulgrew
So I’ve worked in several different departments and I used to sell tickets. So that was a lot of fun to get to know patrons that way and then move into Development and Fundraising and get to know more members. But of the shows it was like the same thing, most of ya’ll said, is it’s really hard to pick, but my husband has been asking for a few years okay, get Buffalo Nichols.
Chris Carter
Yeah.
Brittany Mulgrew
He’s been following him for a few years. So I’m familiar with him and Lizzie No. And I just was listening to him again and his voice is incredible. It’s that Smokey, Bluesy…
Chris Carter
It’s going to sound good in here.
Brittany Mulgrew
Earthy sound. And I know we’ve had blues people here, but he’s a young guy and I think he’s bringing some real fun energy to blues, and I think it’s going to be incredible. And all three of them just have unique sounds that totally contribute to that genre. I didn’t realize, but Lizzie No also plays the harp.
Justin Beasley
Yes, I heard about that too and I thought that was amazing!
Brittany Mulgrew
I just found out about that and I was like this will–this will be just an incredible show. So I do have tickets for that. And I have tickets for about eight different shows, which is probably the most I’ve ever had. If I’m being completely honest, I have tickets for eight different shows.
Chris Carter
Well, I think Lizzie, somebody told me Lizzie No is playing this weekend that what’s the festival.
Brittany Mulgrew
Hardly Strictly
Chris Carter
Hardly Strictly.
Brittany Mulgrew
Yeah, she’s played there more than once.
Ruth Egherman
Is it Lizzie No? Or…
Chris Carter
Sunny War!
Ruth Egherman
Sunny War is also playing Hardly Strictly.
Chris Carter
Sunny War is at Hardly Strictly.
Ruth Egherman
Oh so both of them are there.
Brittany Mulgrew
Lizzie has played before at Hardly Strictly, I don’t know if she’s there again this year.
Chris Carter
And I saw Buffalo Nichols and Lizzie No are going to be at the SF Jazz this summer.
Ruth Egherman
Oh, awesome.
Chris Carter
So yeah, they are. They’re truly are rising voices. And so…
Justin Beasley
They are.
Chris Carter
I think that that’ll probably be one of my favorite shows that I’m looking forward to.
Ruth Egherman
I think one of the things about that show in particular, is I think you’re going to really feel the intimacy of this theater. I feel like when people like that, like Ron Artis II when I think about Ron Artis II’s show from this year. He’s similar in terms of genre a little bit, singer-songwriter has a unique voice. These three have unique voices, unique perspectives to bring to our stage.
And I think that the audience and the artists are going to have this really wonderful conversation, whether it’s through the music or through actual conversation back and forth. That’s one of the greatest things about being in the theater, like being an audience member in this theater is like feeling that moment because I’m also– I’m often just sort of sitting there taking in both what’s on stage and what’s in the audience and what’s happening. And those are the moments really stand out for me. And I think that show in particular, Rising Voices, which is on…
Andrew Kracht
Friday, November 17th
Ruth Egherman
Friday, November 17th
Justin Beasley
Nailed it.
Ruth Egherman
I think is is really going to be one of those shows that, people. are going to be sorry they miss if they don’t go!
Justin Beasley
Yeah!
Chris Carter
Yeah, yeah.
Ruth Egherman
In a year, they’re going to be like, oh, my God, I should have gone to that!
Chris Carter
That’s going to be a great show.
Justin Beasley
And to add on to that. It’s the fact that they each sound so different from each other, but they all have such a unique sound to them with I know Lizzie No is has more of this I either confusing her or Sunny War. I think one of them is more more indie singing. One of them is more blues and jazz, which is more, I think a Nicholas Buffalo.
Ruth Egherman
Buffalo Nichols. Yeah.
Justin Beasley
Yeah. And Sunny War…
Chris Carter
Almost like she has kind of country vibe.
Justin Beasley
Yeah. The feel is you know, the feel is country.
Ruth Egherman
She’s a little folky. A little bit of folk music.
Chris Carter
Sunny War, has a little soul, roots.
Brittany Mulgrew
Yeah, she said on her bio. She said something like, You should feel everything and then deal with it. And then she tries to incorporate that into our music. And I was like, Ooh, I can’t wait. I’m going to be feeling everything that night. But yeah, that looked really cool. I, I like when the singer-songwriters especially because they, there’s just a lot of emotion in their music.
Chris Carter
One of the cool things for me when I’m doing this job and I’m, we’re trying to book these, look at these different artists, I’ll get emails from agents and they’ll send me the roster. And if I don’t know who it is, I’ll look them up and oftentimes I’ll look somebody up and I’ll get into this. It’s like I’m discovering some new musician and all of a sudden I’m listening to them all the time. So that kind of happened to me with Lizzie No.
Justin Beasley
Right.
Chris Carter
Gaby Moreno last year, same thing. I didn’t really know her. And then now it’s like she’s on my regular rotation. And another one that happened to me for the, that happened to me was Kat Edmonson who was doing a holiday show. Same thing. I didn’t know much about her, looked her up. And now I listen to her music all the time in my car. I mean, it’s it’s really fun. She’s kind of a throwback.
Ruth Egherman
Yeah. She’s got a cool voice.
Chris Carter
Jazz Singer. Yes. It’s so different. But then she’ll do some singer songwriter stuff with acoustic guitar and it’s and I saw her live and she was great. And so that’s another one I’m really looking forward to.
Ruth Egherman
You saw her at one of the conferences, one of the program conferences.
Chris Carter
I did. I saw her in New York.
Ruth Egherman
Yeah.
Chris Carter
And she was such a presence, and it was like a little small club, and the whole time I felt like she was just staring right at me as she’s singing. And which is really awkward because I don’t like, okay, I can’t look away.
Ruth Egherman
It looks like me, but that’s what I like to see U2 in concert on the Joshua Tree tour, and Bono was singing to me the whole time.
Chris Carter
But she was, it was like, she was so engaging and all, all the people around me though to where like, just like I’m like, gosh, this is so good and moving and just loving her music. And so I just said, I got to bring her here. I think this is going to be a great show for Livermore.
Pam Harvey
Cool.
Chris Carter
Well, another singer-songwriter Five for Fighting, is…
Gary Brunclik
After three years of me beating ya up about it.
Chris Carter
Yeah, Gary’s been bugging me about Five for Fighting.
Brittany Mulgrew
This is their second time being here.
Chris Carter
Five for Fighting has been here, but it was before Gary.
Brittany Mulgrew
Oh.
Chris Carter
Yeah, but Gary, you, you know.
Gary Brunclik
I know John personally.
Chris Carter
Yeah.
Gary Brunclik
I used to tour with John and Ruth wants me to tell this unique story about John. First of all, his songs. Everybody will recognize his fantastic voice. He’s a great songwriter. I toured with him with a band, but I’m really excited to see the string quartet because I think his music fits in that type of situation. But John, I took John to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
I was the sound engineer in Guantanamo Bay for seven years, so I would do all the USO shows that came in. But John is the only performer that they actually let play over at the prison. So the people that are stationed in Guantanamo Bay, when they do duty at the prison, you don’t leave the prison its on the far side of the island.
Chris Carter
Yeah.
Gary Brunclik
So they brought him in and he was solo and they said, well, we’re going to take you over to the prison, let you play for the guys that are stationed there. And that was the only time any entertainer or civilian was allowed inside the prison. With me, John, and one other guy. So I’m, I’m going to have that reunion with him and I’m looking forward to that.
Chris Carter
That’s really cool.
Ruth Egherman
It’s really interesting.
Gary Brunclik
His music is fantastic. Great piano player, great fun.
Chris Carter
Yeah, that’s going to be an incredible show.
Gary Brunclik
It is.
Chris Carter
One thing we haven’t talked about yet is comedy and we have a lot of comedy this year. Is there any comedy shows you all are looking forward to?
Pam Harvey
Well, I’m a Paula Poundstone fan!
Chris Carter
Paula Poundstone. And she’s coming soon. She’ll be here on the 10th of June. And I got her show secured and she likes her Pepsi.
Gary Brunclik
She does.
Pam Harvey
One year. I bought the wrong size and she took it on stage and she called it a dollhouse Pepsi. So it was the small mini.
Ruth Egherman
The 7oz size.
Pam Harvey
Yes.
Ruth Egherman
She doesn’t like the 7oz size?
Pam Harvey
No, she likes the large regular. So ever since then, whenever I see a Pepsi, it’s got to be a dollhouse Pepsi. And Paula, she’s amazing. She is able to make a joke or a funny about anything she sees. When I drive her from her hotel to our venue, she will look at a stoplight and she can make that funny. She just picks stuff out of the top of her head. I don’t know where she gets it, but that’s how genius she is.
Chris Carter
Didn’t you take–she left her–one time she was here and she left her laptop at the airport.
Pam Harvey
Yes. Yes.
Chris Carter
And you took her?
Pam Harvey
No. I was able to intercept the limousine company and they were able to find it. It was still sitting on the table.
Chris Carter
Yeah.
Pam Harvey
And her manager saw, she goes, That was you? I said, yes that was our place.
Chris Carter
So like a week later, we get a postcard in the mail. And it’s from Paula Poundstone for Pam saying, thank you for rescuing my laptop. And the postcard is a picture of her cat.
Pam Harvey
Yes, she loves her cat. Yes. She’s amazing.
Ruth Egherman
I think for comedy, I would say I’m really looking forward to Amy Sedaris.
Chris Carter
Yeah.
Gary Brunclik
Yeah, I was, too, but I’m going to be gone.
Ruth Egherman
Oh!
Pam Harvey
Sugar!
Gary Brunclik
Yeah.
Ruth Egherman
When is Amy Sedaris?
Gary Brunclik
August 6th.
Ruth Egherman
No, no, that’s. That’s Maria Bamford you’re thinking of, which is August 5th.
Gary Brunclik
Oh, then maybe I will go!
Andrew Kracht
Amy is Friday, September 21? 22! I caught myself for the record!
Brittany Mulgrew
We’ll allow it.
Chris Carter
That one. It’s a conversation with Amy Sedaris. So it’s a moderated conversation. And the moderator is Jessica Aguirre, who is the NBC nightly newscaster out here.
Ruth Egherman
For the Bay Area.
Chris Carter
For the Bay Area. She lives, Jessica lives nearby, she’s a Tri-Valley resident. And last time she helped us out was…
Brittany Mulgrew
Gala?
Chris Carter
Clambake.
Brittany Mulgrew
Yeah, lobster clambake a fundraiser.
Chris Carter
She remembered us, and she’s happy to help us out again. So we’re really grateful that Jessica is doing that for us.
Ruth Egherman
So that’ll be more like a conversation, a long conversation. Like if she were to have a long conversation with Stephen Colbert.
Chris Carter
Yup.
Andrew Kracht
Yeah right. It’s more like…
Chris Carter
A night show.
Ruth Egherman
Yeah.
Andrew Kracht
Even though, you know, It’s the show is titled A Conversation. I mean, I think of it like a talk show host. You know, you can’t help. But when you’re a funny person, you’re going to you’re going to be funny talking and bring that’s going to be brought out.
Ruth Egherman
Yeah.
Andrew Kracht
So I think it’s going to be an amazing night.
Chris Carter
Yeah, and the other comedy I guess is comedy, but it’s also film is Napoleon Dynamite Live?
Ruth Egherman
Yeah.
Chris Carter
I mean, like…
Pam Harvey
Yes!
Brittany Mulgrew
I got tickets for that one.
Chris Carter
Going crazy for that one.
Brittany Mulgrew
Yeah. You’re going to have trouble finding staff to work the show!
Ruth Egherman
Yeah, I think that one is going to bring in a fun audience.
Justin Beasley
Yeah.
Ruth Egherman
And I think it’s going to be… I’m so looking forward to that. When you came in and pitched the idea of doing that, I was like, Yes. Yes.
Chris Carter
Yes, please.
Ruth Egherman
Please don’t say anything else.
Chris Carter
Well we’ve never done a show like that where you do a film screening with the stars of the movie there.
Andrew Kracht
I think that’s such an amazing genre.
Chris Carter
This will be a first.
Andrew Kracht
I wish that would be more of a thing.
Ruth Egherman
Yeah.
Andrew Kracht
I think that’s such a great genre.
Brittany Mulgrew
I think. Family friendly, though. Yeah, yeah.
Ruth Egherman
I think it was doing like interesting genres. We have History that Doesn’t Suck coming, which is a podcast.
Chris Carter
Podcast.
Ruth Egherman
And he’s going to do it live on our stage. It’s not going to be recorded that night, but it’s the podcast live on our stage. I’m a huge podcast listener.
Chris Carter
Yeah.
Ruth Egherman
All the time. Every–you know, with my commute and everything, I’ve always got a podcast on. So to me this would be really a cool one.
Ruth Egherman
You know, at a certain point out in the care what the podcast is about, I just like them. I grew up on talk radio with my parents.
Pam Harvey
Yeah.
Ruth Egherman
We always listen to talk radio, so to me it’s like long form talk radio. That’s really interesting where they take a deep dive into a subject and you come out the other side of it really having a good understanding. And yeah, I think that’s a cool genre that, you know, maybe we’ll, we’ll see how that does and we can branch out into that and do more of that stuff.
Gary Brunclik
You might want to let them know that we can record it live here.
Ruth Egherman
I know.
Brittany Mulgrew
Yeah. But that’ll be a lot of fun because it’s supposed to be funny too.
Ruth Egherman
Right.
Brittany Mulgrew
It’s, yeah, it’s. supposed to be….
Chris Carter
Yeah, It’s like if you ever listen to the podcast, History That Doesn’t Suck. He’s telling these stories, and there’s. It’s scripted somewhat. And there, there’s music in the background and it can sometimes it’s light, sometimes it’s intense and there’s sound effects. So he’s talking about a cannon firing or something. It’s like, boom, as he’s talking.
And that all happened on the stage here. There’s musicians coming with him. And so and he comes out, he plays the guitar a little bit. Um, but it’s, it’s pretty fun. And he’s, he’s very intense and engaging and funny and all sorts of things.
Ruth Egherman
I think that is pretty cool, so that’ll have, that’s a tiny bit of comedy, maybe not full on comedy.
Chris Carter
There’s, there’s, yeah, there’s a little humor in there. But he tells a great story. That’s another one I saw when I was in New York. I saw him do this and he talks. It’s essentially the first hundred years of American history. Yeah, from the Revolution through the Civil War. And his take on it was fascinating and it’s really, really good and it’s kind of reflects on where we are now, too. It’s a great, great talk.
Ruth Egherman
Yes. I think it’s really kind of cool that we’re bringing.
Andrew Kracht
New stuff.
Ruth Egherman
Like new and interesting genres, like History That Doesn’t Suck and Napoleon Dynamite Live, we’re even doing Coco.
Chris Carter
Coco in concert.
Ruth Egherman
Is it live to concert?
Justin Beasley
Live in concert.
Ruth Egherman
Live in concert.
Gary Brunclik
It’s a band.
Brittany Mulgrew
But with music, with the…
Chris Carter
Orchestra.
Gary Brunclik
The band plays music while the video plays.
Ruth Egherman
While the film is showing.
Chris Carter
It’s a whole mariachi orchestra.
Brittany Mulgrew
They won so many awards for that film. So many. So there’s some awesome music in it. Very family-friendly. Very great. Great.
Ruth Egherman
So is History That Doesn’t Suck-family friendly.
Chris Carter
Yep.
Brittany Mulgrew
Yes. Yes, we did get tickets for some of those too.
Ruth Egherman
Yeah. So now that my kids are grown, I don’t really sit in front of Pixar/Disney movies anymore. So it’ll be the first time I see it.
Brittany Mulgrew
They’re always growing.
Andrew Kracht
Oh! That’ll be so special. With a full orchestra!
Chris Carter
Oh that’s a great show.
Ruth Egherman
I’ve never seen it.
Andrew Kracht
Honestly I, you know, and I added that sentence or somewhere, maybe the press release. Honestly, it is a perfect film like in my opinion. I mean, I’m a huge Oscar buff. It was one that should have also been nominated for Best Film of the year, not just best animated. You know, it should have been like a Beauty and the Beast category.
Chris Carter
Yeah.
Andrew Kracht
It’s an amazing film.
Justin Beasley
They used to do that for animated films beforehand but now but now they had an animated…they had an animation area for best animation.
Chris Carter
Can we talk about one more thing that we’ve never done before. God is a Scottish Drag Queen.
Ruth Egherman
Yes, I was going to bring that up.
Justin Beasley
I once you said that title to us. I was I was a little bit confused. I was like, wait, that’s a thing. I was, oh. Oh. I had a lot of reactions. When I saw that, I was like, okay. I see.
Chris Carter
Well, it’s, it’s a it’s a one person show.
Justin Beasley
Mm-hmm.
Chris Carter
Yeah. It’s very it’s a it’s irreverent, it’s funny. It’s not, you know, it’s not off putting it all.
Justin Beasley
No.
Chris Carter
I don’t know. Maybe it is, but it’s, how do I describe this. God, God is like entered the body of a somebody who’s a Scottish drag queen, essentially, and is talking to the audience through this person on the stage. Yeah. Yeah, it’s it is really funny.
Ruth Egherman
The clips that I’ve seen are really funny. Yeah. So I’m looking forward to that show too. I think it’ll be fun.
Andrew Kracht
And I think what makes it, so, you know, successful in the clips and the research that we’ve done, I think that uses this humorous lens to kind of comment on us as humans and, you know, in a funny and approachable way. And I think that that’s kind of why, you know, this show has had its life, I think, in the UK or I’m not sure I maybe I’m mixing that up. But you know, if…
Chris Carter
He’s out of Canada.
Andrew Kracht
Out of Canada.
Chris Carter
Yeah.
Andrew Kracht
I’m mixing up geography. So no, I think that it’s very comedy, but talking about bigger ideas, I think people can always approach that.
Chris Carter
Yeah. So and that actually it’s been selling well since we opened.
Ruth Egherman
Has that?
Chris Carter
Yeah.
Andrew Kracht
I know I haven’t looked at that updated…
Ruth Egherman
Yeah.
Chris Carter
I’m always like fascinated what’s selling the best.
Ruth Egherman
I know.
Justin Beasley
I need to look at Patron Manager.
Brittany Mulgrew
After the first day…I didn’t notice much.
Ruth Egherman
Right? Well I see it. I run my weekly report on Monday and become one with the numbers then.
Chris Carter
Well, you know what’s selling the best right now that everybody should get tickets to before that sells out? Right.
Brittany Mulgrew
The Righteous Brothers.
Ruth Egherman
The Righteous Brothers.
Ruth Egherman
Two nights!
Justin Beasley
Yeah. There were so many people after the announcement party that I really wanted tickets to The Righteous Brothers.
Chris Carter
Yeah.
Brittany Mulgrew
You know, I can remember putting the CD in our five CD changer when I was little.
Chris Carter
Of The Righteous Brothers?
Brittany Mulgrew
Like the best of one of their best of albums, and we listened to that a lot growing up.
Chris Carter
It just reminds me of Top Gun.
Brittany Mulgrew
Yes, yes. And they have a lot of soundtrack.
Chris Carter
Yeah.
Andrew Kracht
Earlier when you said like, oh, you know, we know them. I didn’t know them by name.
Gary Brunclik
Yeah.
Andrew Kracht
But this year, because of the Oscars and Top Gun Maverick, I actually watched Top Gun for the first time as well before that. So I want to never go back. I’d never seen it. So but then I Was like, Wait, I know the song, but I know that. So it was like and I was like, Oh, wait, they’re in Ghosts too! I was. Like, oh, okay, I know The Righteous Brothers.
Gary Brunclik
You know what amazed me…
Ruth Egherman
Wait aren’t they also in Dirty Dancing?
Gary Brunclik
Yes, they are.
Andrew Kracht
Yeah.
Gary Brunclik
Yeah, the “Time of Your Life” is Bill Medley’s song, I was very surprised when I did some tours with them and I was surprised at the breadth of the audience from young to old with them. And they’re just like hit after hit.
Chris Carter
The music is timeless.
Andrew Kracht
So much!
Brittany Mulgrew
I got my parents tickets for that for their anniversary gift this year.
Gary Brunclik
They’re a good show. They’re a really good show. And, you know, well, Bobby’s gone, but Bill Medley, super guy, really easy to get along with nice guy. You’ll like him. That’s great.
Ruth Egherman
Before we before we wrap up and I know we’re probably going to have to wrap up soon, can we talk about all of the amazing theater that’s coming this year.
Brittany Mulgrew
Yeah.
Ruth Egherman
As a theater geek.
Chris Carter
Okay. Which one?
Andrew Kracht
The resident theater geek here.
Ruth Egherman
I’m super excited about. L.A. Theater Works: Pablo Picasso. A Weekend with Pablo Picasso, I think is the official title. That’s in February.
Andrew Kracht
February 21. Wednesday.
Ruth Egherman
Oh, I should remember that. It’s my daughter’s birthday. I think that one’s going to be great. He’s going to be doing, like painting and sculpting and while he’s embodying Pablo Picasso. So it’s going to be fascinating. It’s going to be visually exciting from that perspective. I’m also super excited about Selected Shorts, which is kind of theater. It’s it’s these famous, a famous actor or two will come read a story, mostly fiction, mostly short stories, but some of them will be maybe non-fiction. I don’t know. It’s it’s very vague in its descriptions.
Chris Carter
It’s a storytelling show. And it’s if you go to NPR, it’s it’s a NPR show, Selected Shorts.
Ruth Egherman
And there’s another podcast.
Chris Carter
All these famous actors and actresses have done it. And they there’s got to be somebody a pretty big TV or film actor that’s going to be here doing that. We’re not going to know who it is until about four weeks before the show.
Ruth Egherman
That’ll be fun to announce.
Chris Carter
So you’re kind of taking a risk, but it’ll be fun and it’s and it’s a story, storytelling
Ruth Egherman
Storytelling.
Chris Carter
If you kind of think about The Moth: Storytelling. So it’s a little bit different than acting, but it’s yeah, I think that’ll be good. And the other one you were going to mention was probably Cross That River.
Ruth Egherman
Cross That River.
Gary Brunclik
That’s one I’m looking forward to.
Brittany Mulgrew
I am so looking forward to that. It looks incredible.
Ruth Egherman
Yeah, it’s about black cowboys in the west.
Chris Carter
Yeah.
Ruth Egherman
Yeah. Who knew. Well, that’s why we need theaters to tell us these stories, right?
Brittany Mulgrew
Yeah, the guy ran away from Louisiana.
Ruth Egherman
If we’re not history buffs. You know, I wouldn’t ever consider myself a history buff.
Brittany Mulgrew
Oh, I love it.
Ruth Egherman
Yeah, I know you love it.
Brittany Mulgrew
I love it. But he ran away from Louisiana, got to Texas, and it’s about a guy named Blue who I guess he’s noted as one of the first black cowboys that made it out west. And so I’m looking forward to it, to hear more, but it should be really exciting. The only other one I really wanted to mention, though, it was our Gala, our fundraiser.
Chris Carter
Jason Alexander.
Brittany Mulgrew
Yeah. Jason Alexander. I know, comedy, Broadway. They just announced that they’re doing another Cinderella, so I’m hoping he’ll be in that again. The Rodgers and Hammerstein Cinderella. He was in that one and he was a lot of fun. So I think he’s just such a big personality for us to have on our stage.
Chris Carter
Is he….
Gary Brunclik
I had no clue he was a Broadway star.
Chris Carter
Yeah.
Brittany Mulgrew
A lot of people didn’t. Everyone I’ve talked to, is like, Oh wow.
Chris Carter
But he’s got to be, now that I keep rewatching Seinfeld episode he is the best one on that show.
Ruth Egherman
Oh yes. By far.
Chris Carter
So good.
Andrew Kracht
You know, and I mean and he’s won the first ever because the SAG awards were came about in the nineties he won the first ever best comedy actor. I believe it was. But he’s like the first like that’s amazing. But he gets to have that. I was the first.
Ruth Egherman
Yeah, yeah, he is. The clips we’ve seen of his Whimsical Salute to Broadway. I think they’re so fun. I think it’s a huge night here with a great, like, pure entertainer.
Brittany Mulgrew
Yeah. And with Livermore-Amador Symphony.
Gary Brunclik
Although I do have a question about some of the props that he’s asking for.
Ruth Egherman
Oh wait, what is his asking for?
Andrew Kracht
Don’t give away any spoilers, let’s save that for September 9th.
Chris Carter
All right. Well, we better we didn’t even get to the Rae Dorough Speaker Series, but check out the Rae Dorough Speaker Series its going to be really good this year, but I think we’re going to wrap it up. Thank you, everybody. You can go online if you’re a member or not, you can go online. I think by the time this video comes out and you can buy tickets at LivermoreArts.org.
Chris Carter
Did I get it?
Ruth Egherman
You got it. Thank you. Bye, everybody.
Chris Carter
That was fun.
Michael Collopy: Yes. Nice to meet you over the Internet, Chris.
Chris Carter: Yeah, please. Yeah. Get a face to the name. Or, is that right? And get the name to the face. And then Ruth is our Director of Marketing.
Michael Collopy: Nice to meet you.
Ruth Egherman: Nice to meet you, too. Thank you for doing this.
Michael Collopy: Of course. Of course. Happy to.
Ruth Egherman: I was putting together some marketing materials and the event page and all that kind of stuff, I was like, wait, this guy has taken some of the most famous photographs ever and he lives right here in the Bay Area.
Michael Collopy: Well, thanks.
Ruth Egherman: And he’s going to be on our stage and it’s like, wow, this will be very interesting. And I instantly recognize obviously the Mother Teresa one and the Dalai Lama and stuff. And it’s just fascinating to see all of that. Really cool. Really cool.
Michael Collopy: Oh. Thank you.
Ruth Egherman: So it’s a pleasure to put a name and a face to the person behind the camera.
Michael Collopy: Oh, thank you. Well, it’s been a lot of fun through the years, for sure.
Chris Carter: You know, I I’ve been to your website several times now. I was getting ready for this, and I kind of have a hard time believing that you took all those pictures. So I you know, I’m looking at it and I see Mother Teresa, I see the Dalai Lama, Jane Goodall, Jimmy Carter. When I was a kid, I used to tell other kids, Jimmy Carter was my grandfather, by the way. That was just because we share the same last name. Gloria Steinem, Willie Nelson, Ella Fitzgerald. I mean, the list goes on and on. And I just need to know who, who was the first person, public figure that you photographed and how did, how did you really get started with this career?
Michael Collopy: Well, I think in terms of what you just said there, that only makes me old. Chris. I’ve been photographing for about 45 years and how I got started, you know, I actually was thinking that I would go in the direction of my parents. Both of my parents were artists, grew up in a big family, six of us. And I thought that I would follow in the direction of my dad, who was a graphic designer. I ended up going to various schools, the Academy of Art, College of San Mateo, College of Notre Dame. And then I finally graduated over at Saint Mary’s College with a fine art degree, looked for a job that was graphic design oriented. But in those years prior to the computer age, all that was available to a young graduate, art graduate was something that’s called a paste up person that would paste up different kinds of advertisements for design firms and, you know, the jobs that were available to me at that time, Chris, were not really creative jobs.
So I was pretty discontented that here I went through all that schooling and, you know, never came away with something that was really creative as a as a career or occupation. And so it was around that time that I saw an exhibit of Ansel Adams work at the Oakland Museum, and I had never taken photography in school. I had always loved photography, and somebody had given me a Brownie camera when I was in high school.
So I would tool around with that and take, you know, sunset pictures at Folsom Lake and those type of things on our camping trips. But I never really looked at it as a serious profession. However, having seen the Ansel Adams exhibit, I remember talking to one of the docents there at the museum who said that Ansel had a house in Carmel, and that’s where he lived, that’s where his darkroom was. And so the next day I called 411 information up for a listing on Ansel Adams. And sure enough, he was listed. I called and he answered the phone and I told him that I was interested in photography. And he said, Well, that’s great. I oftentimes meet with young photographers on Wednesday nights for a, for a glass of wine, and we watched the sunset and talked for a little bit.
So that’s really how I got into photography, was learning from Ansel Adams and I befriended him and would go down quite often over the course of about three or four years and work with him in his darkroom and talk to him about a variety of things in regard to photography that really stick with me today. So that’s really how I got started. I realized that I could never make a living making, you know, environmental pictures on the scale that Ansel Adams was doing. So…
Chris Carter: Yeah.
Michael Collopy: I had always been interested in people I used to draw and graphically design individuals of note, most often out of great photographs. So I was aware of some of the photographers that had taken those pictures, but I was more interested in graphically kind of designing these, these images. And so the other person that I thought would be very instrumental in my career was Richard Avedon. So I saved my money up and I went to New York and I went to his studio, I think every day for about two weeks prior to the opportunity of being able to meet with him face to face via his studio manager. And that was really the epiphany moment that I came back with Chris that, you know, really gave me the inspiration to pursue this career as a photographer, as mostly a portrait photographer in those years. And the first, let me think who would be the first individual of note? Well, in terms of a world leader, it probably was Mikhail Gorbachev. I was one of the first photographers that had been able to do a portrait photograph of he and Raisa Gorbachev when he was still…
Chris Carter: What year would have that been?
Michael Collopy: That would have been in the I would say it would have been in the early eighties, early to mid eighties. And prior to that, I, I guess my big break was meeting Frank Sinatra as a 20 year old. I was working in a theater much like The Bankhead Theater, was a little bit bigger perhaps, and I ended up photographing a lot of their entertainers. I was their house photographer for about ten years, and one of the individuals that came to perform was Frank Sinatra. And I ended up doing a few pictures of him that he liked. And then a few years later, he hired me to do some of his photography for about 8 to 9 years after that.
Chris Carter: I can’t believe the first question I ask you, the names that come out are Ansel Adams, Frank Sinatra, Mikhail Gorbachev. It’s–I it sounds like, though, you were–it’s not just right place, right time, but you really made an effort to go out there and meet these people.
Michael Collopy: Absolutely. Well, you know, Chris, I think it’s very important. I think in those years I was very much fired up to meet individuals that I thought could be an inspiration and bring me further into this career or a little bit down the vocational path. And I say that only because I think there’s a lot of us who want to pursue a particular career and, you know, it’s all a matter of just reaching out and connecting with somebody that perhaps you admire in your life, in your same vocational career path and more often than not, I think people are willing to meet with you for coffee or for a short meeting for those that won’t meet with you. Certainly there will be some that will and it could be one of those individuals that would, you know, incite, that inspiration that you would need for that vocational discernment.
Chris Carter: That’s such great advice. Does anybody, I mean, are you that person for other people now?
Michael Collopy: I really try to be, Chris, because you know, I came up that way and I think whatever I’m asked to speak or whenever somebody, some young photographer calls me, I’m always available and want to be there for them in the same way that Ansel and Richard Avedon were for me.
Chris Carter: Yeah. And Michael, you know, I just think so many of those figures that you’ve photographed over the years, you’ve got to have a few that are really memorable for you. Was there one or two that just really stand out? I mean, yeah, I wouldn’t know where to start if I was you, but I mean, there’s gotta, if you could pick like one that you were absolutely–would do over again in a heartbeat, who would it be?
Michael Collopy: Well, there have been so many as as you said, you know, I’ve been blessed in my life, I think, to meet most of my heroes because, you know, I had a great affinity to individuals who are changing the world as well as it was for individuals who maybe influenced me with music or could be politics or, you know, entertainers, artists.
I would say that, you know, there were a number, if one was to come out at me, as, as probably my favorite was probably Mother Teresa because I had seen a movie about her life prior to her being world famous. And that really influenced me to get to know her and to have that opportunity to meet her and photograph her. But I would also say, you know, growing up in the sixties, Chris, you know, I was very influenced by The Beatles. And I think the opportunity that I had later in life to meet Paul McCartney and get to know him and Ringo Starr, that was really a wonderful experience. And sometimes, you know, when you meet your heroes, they can be a letdown in some way.
Certainly these are two individuals that are very, very humble people and, you know, not caught up with their fame, not presumptuous. And, you know, take time to talk with you and get to know you. And I’ve gotten to know Paul and his family, as I first met his brother. And then I got to work with Paul. And now I keep pretty often contact with his oldest daughter, Mary, who is a photographer as well.
So, you know, those individuals stand out. I think I was very much involved with loving the Apollo program and NASA as a young kid and having been able to meet and photograph a lot of those NASA astronauts, such as Neil Armstrong and John Glenn and Jim Lovell, that was really extraordinary experiences as well in my life.
Chris Carter: Yeah, I see. Ruth has her hand up. So I’m wondering if she has a question.
Ruth Egherman: The question I have is sort of the opposite of what Chris just asked you. Is there anybody that you would really like to photograph that you haven’t been able to find your way into to get that sitting with them?
Chris Carter: Oh, that’s a great question.
Michael Collopy: I think that’s always a question that I grapple with, because definitely there are so many you know, I have a sense, a curiosity about certain individuals and an admiration, of course, and, you know, I’ve always sought in my career to document individuals who were of note of accomplishment in some way. And that’s probably a long list. You know, going back to the fact that I wish I was a little younger or a little bit actually older in the sixties to have been able to document some of those wonderful bands that were playing in those years.
And, you know, maybe the thought of photographing Robert Kennedy as a ten year old, I got a chance to meet him. And with my family, who my parents were big supporters of his run for presidency. So that was a big inspiration as a young ten year old. And it probably prompted me to document these individuals of note going forward, because two months after I met Robert Kennedy with my parents, he was assassinated and I realized that this was an individual who was changing the world and a selfless service really to other people, and especially the poor and those who are marginalized.
So I think that made a big impression on me that whatever I ended up choosing in my career, I would try to give back in some way to the community. But to answer your question, you know, there’s a number of people I’m working on a book, Ruth, called “The Influencers”, which is a book about musicians that have influenced other musicians.
And I would love to get, for example, somebody like Keith Richards to probably do the forward because he’s sort of a sideman that, you know, had influenced generations of artists. I started out documenting a lot of the Rock and Roll Foundation, people like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Fats Domino. And of course, all of those individuals would be documented in this book.
But I would love to bring it up to date in terms of the young artists that are out there today who were influenced by that second tier of musicians such as The Rolling Stones and The Beatles and others. So, you know, I in my career have been blessed to have photographed a lot of different genres of music. So to be able to put a lot of those influences in one book and to try to go forward, it’s going to really incite me to try to go after a lot of these artists of today and people who slip through the cracks who I wasn’t able to get a portrait of.
So that would be pretty high on my list. The other thing, Ruth, is I’ve, I’ve spent a lot of years documenting the Nobel Peace Laureates, and I’m up to 41 Nobel Peace Laureates that I’ve photographed. And I there are a couple there’s one individual who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 19, I think it was 22. And or maybe it was 21 that he received it with Maria Ressa, the two journalists. So this man is a journalist from Russia who I’d like to document. So just to keep up with that particular archive. But long story short, I could think of so many different people artists, entertainers, actors, musicians that I would love to photograph. There’s never a shortage of that.
Chris Carter: Yeah. Thank you. And you have this nonprofit that you’ve started too Architects of Peace, is that correct?
Michael Collopy: Yes, Chris.
Chris Carter: And tell me a little bit more about that and how that came about and you have a book also.
Michael Collopy: I do. I do. So thank you so much for bringing that up because that’s really at the forefront of what I’m doing today. So I realized that after photographing a lot of these Nobel Peace Laureates and spending time with Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, individuals that we really put up there on a pedestal in some ways, as our world peacemakers, although I’d have to say they don’t see themselves in that light.
They don’t see themselves in any way being on a pedestal. But they have been very much influencers in our world for the good and I would say that after having a lot of these individuals, I’d put them into a book right before the millennium called Architects of Peace. And so I reached out to the Dalai Lama at the time, Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela, individuals such as Spielberg and Carlos Santana, real wide cultural view of our world in 1999.
And I asked each of these 75 individuals to write a statement on the issue of peace, and that was something that just sort of took off and had a life of its own. Maybe. I think I was really kind of thinking that if I didn’t get too far, I would have to fold the cards on it. But after six months, I had a number of these individuals wanting to participate and I really spent maybe five years on the road documenting these people around the world.
I think one year I logged in, 250,000 travel miles, air miles, photographing them. So I was very happy that they took the time in a free way, you know, unpaid to write a statement about peace. And I realized that having all of these individuals together under one book roof, that I should bring this out to the schools. So that’s been my journey ever since that time to be able to bring these individuals. And I haven’t stopped photographing the latest peacemakers that arise in our world and document them to bring them out to the schools so that students everywhere can get an opportunity to learn from these individuals, from the examples of their lives. So we oftentimes have exhibits in the schools and we have educational curriculum that’s tied in with these individuals at places like Stanford and Marquette, the National Civil Rights Museum, various schools in the Bay Area and across the U.S. and in Mexico.
And so, you know, it’s been really gratifying to see that this work and these images and the statements of peace that are associated with the picture and various exhibit even outside the classrooms in these schools, that it has influenced students, you know, it kind of dictates their day a little bit. And having a word like kindness or compassion or acceptance, you know, there are certain words and quotes that I think can really influence us, especially if we see them on a daily basis and we’ve been told with the professors at various universities where these images and quotes lie, that it has helped the students kind of navigate their personal relationships on a daily basis. And it also has helped them to discern their vocation, you know, in life. And it all really ties back to the fact that I think first of that quote by Gandhi, that if you really want to find yourself, you should lose yourself in the service of other people. So I think ultimately our goal with Architects of Peace is to not only raise the bar and kind of bring these individuals into these homes of these students and have them learn from them. But also to realize that probably the greatest fulfillment that they’ll ever get in life is to be able to spend time working in their community, spend time in service to others.
Chris Carter: Maybe that’s something we can work on with you out here in Livermore, so.
Michael Collopy: I would love it.
Chris Carter: Put that in your pocket for the future.
Michael Collopy: Well, I would love to be involved.
Chris Carter: Yeah. And you do have some photographs that are going to be on exhibit here. We do have a gallery and we’ve been working with you on a music musical exhibit around art and rock and roll. And so you’ve photographed a lot of great musicians over the years, too. So is there anything you want to share about what we’ll have here?
Michael Collopy: Well, I’m honored that Anne and you had asked me to bring some images, so I printed up some images of the people that I really had great times with and admired through the years, one being John Lee Hooker. So John Lee Hooker, you know, when you think of his importance in music, he wrote some songs back in the late 1940s that really were a precursor to rock and roll.
And when you ask, say, Keith Richards or Mick Jagger or Paul McCartney or Eric Clapton, they’ll always cite John Lee Hooker as being a great influence of their. So I have an image of John Lee Hooker. I have B.B. King, who was just this wonderful man who was also quite an influence on on rock and roll. I have Gregg Allman and I also have Buddy Guy. And Buddy Guy may not be a household name for a lot of people, but, you know, Buddy was greatly admired and considered to be a mentor for Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, and a host of others. So those are the individuals that and Carlos Santana, I think I’m bringing as well. So many of those those particular individuals, I had a relationship, a friendly relationship over many, many years. Carlos I still see and work with and that’s going on 45 years. And John Lee Hooker, I knew very, very well for, for many years as Buddy Guy and Gregg Allman, well Gregg is unfortunately gone.
Chris Carter: Yeah. Well, we’re certainly excited to have those photos here, so thank you for being a part of that. I do have to mention we’re both St Mary’s alums,
Michael Collopy: Oh fantastic!
Chris Carter: If you see my oh, right there.
Michael Collopy: Oh, that’s great. Fantastic, Chris. I knew we were brothers.
Chris Carter: Yeah, I knew a couple brothers, but I feel like I have a connection to you already.
Michael Collopy: Definitely.
Chris Carter: I had one other question I was going to ask you maybe two, but you’ve been doing this, you said for 45 years. How has technology kind of changed your profession? You know, are you are you using digital or have you moved on to digital photography or are you still kind of doing it the old fashioned way?
Chris Carter: Or is it? I don’t know. Is it do you ever do you take pictures with your iPhone ever? I mean, I don’t know, like, what’s your how it’s been, It’s so different nowadays with photography than it used to be. And it’s so prolific and a lot of in our lives now. What, what’s your–have you, have you changed at all or have you kind of really focused on the way you’ve always done it?
Michael Collopy: Well, thanks for asking that Chris. Absolutely. I’ve changed through the years. It’s extraordinary when you think of the trajectory of photography in the course of a few decades, how we started out with analog and now we’re into some incredible digital cameras. So I remember in the years where I was friendly with Ansel Adams and would talk with him about photography, and he said to me one day, he said, You know, I wish I was about your age because you’re going to you’re going to see the advent of digital photography.
And he got into it a little bit. And certainly he knew in the early 1980s and I want to say like 1980, 1981, that this was all going to go digital. And he must have had some sort of insight in regard to where it was going to all go. But when it did start going digital, I immediately went into it Chris and maybe that wasn’t the best thing because those early digital cameras were very, very expensive and probably not far off of what the local you know, what our iPhones can do right now, the capacity that an iPhone has and they were very expensive. But at that time, you know, I always wanted to stay up on the latest technology.
So when we were working in analog, it was quite expensive for us young photographers. You know, we really weren’t seeing a huge income because Polaroids were so expensive and film and film development was so expensive and printing, of course, was expensive. So, you know, it was all, you know, adding up after after a while. And, you know, if you shot, for example, four by five or eight by ten, you’d go through a box of Polaroids that were about $100 apiece. And we’d go through that maybe in a half a day. So, you know, that was complicated, you know, to really see, you know, the fruits of your efforts in regard to pay. And of course, I stayed up. I think, you know, I shot so much in the early years in black and white. I always wanted to find the best film to use.
And I started out working with Plus-X and Tri-X which were still even to this day, good films. However, I was always a big fan doing portraits of having the best quality and the best, you know, detail. And I was looking for very little grain in those films, so I went to T-Max as soon as that came on the market and exhausted those particular films and tried to if I was studio lighting somebody, I would want to shoot with a very low ISO. So I oftentimes bought the 100 T-Max film. I guess it was in those days, medium format. Because of those shoots I was using a Hasselblad, but as soon as it went digital, I immediately went into digital and, you know, tried to stay up on the latest cameras. I’m just about to get an R5 Canon camera, and I’ve gone back and forth from Nikon to Canon.
And, you know, as a question exists oftentimes as to what is the best camera, I think it’s really what you can do with any camera and, you know, having said that, you know, when I’m on vacation or I’m in the mountains or hiking, I’ll just use the iPhone and you can really get a pretty decent print off of the iPhone.
I’ve found that it’s all about the apps. You know, I ended up doing a shoot not long ago with Steve Wozniak, and he told me that the great invention wasn’t the iPhone as much as it was all the applications. And I tend to agree with him because, you know, there are certain apps that I can recommend for photographers who photograph with their iPhone one is called Snapseed. And Snapseed is a wonderful app that’s free and you can manipulate your photographs. You can send pictures from your camera or just use the app with your phone pictures and you can make them more dramatic. You can make them artsy, you can change the color, you can turn them into black and white. There’s so many different avenues with Snapseed that you can utilize on that. So it’s it’s almost like another Photoshop that’s basically free to anybody who’s got a phone.
Chris Carter: Wow. Thank you. And last question, when you are here on May 11, what what can we expect to hear from you?
Michael Collopy: Well, what I’ll do is I’ll bring a lot of photographs. And, you know, having had a lot of portrait sessions, the big gratifying thing that I’ve had in my career, Chris, was all the relationships that I’ve had through the years with many of these individuals of note. And I will probably go through a litany of stories and experiences that these individuals and I have a lot to talk about and a lot of pictures to show from way back at my earliest career, you know, start to probably weeks before the actual talk, I’ll bring pictures and, you know, basically tell stories and talk a little bit about the process.
But mostly it’s going to be, you know, stories of these individuals that I’ve gotten to know through the years that made such an impact in my life.
Chris Carter: Well, we are looking forward to it. On May 11, Thursday at 7:30. If anybody’s interested in purchasing a ticket, you can go to LivermoreArts.org and come see Michael Collopyand some of his great photos and we’re really looking forward to it. So thank you, Michael.
Michael Collopy: Thank you, Chris. Thank you, Ruth.
