Starsweeper interview: Nina Troy-BRANDT
1. How have you been holding up during the pandemic?
Okay I guess? It’s hard to tell. These past two years have felt like a blur of days with lots of very slow moments.
I’m a preschool teacher and have been working on and off. During the early days of lockdown I got very into birdwatching because it was a meditative solo outdoor activity that I could do safely. Like a lot of people, I cycled through various crafting activities and tried everything from embroidery to jewelry making to resin crafting. And most recently I’ve been learning about foraging.
All in all trying to focus on getting from day to day and moment to moment and finding bits of joy to balance out the looming existential dread.
2. When did you know that you wanted to be an [actor/writer/director]?
I was always interested in acting/theatre in general. I always participated in the school play and whatnot. But it wasn’t until college that I got into the technical theatre side of things and really found my niche there.
3. Tell me about StarSweeper. What do you love most about working on the show?
I love being able to work a group of people again on something creative. It’s a very welcome change of pace and something that I missed so much these past two years.
4. Who or what has been the biggest influence on your work as an [actor/writer/director] thus far?
I’m kind of all over the place with my various influences. I tend to leap frog from influence to influence and hold onto the things I’ve learned from each. But I’m drawn a lot to my South Slavic roots and delving more into the cultural practices and traditions from that area of the world. It helps me feel more connected to my family over there and carry a piece of them with me even though we’re on opposite sides of the ocean.
5. What else are you working on right now?
I teach at an outdoor forest preschool program in Brooklyn in my day to day life. And that’s a program that I’m really passionate about and I really enjoy doing. Spending my day outside with kids, exploring and learning about nature and how to care for it is very grounding and fulfilling. It gives me hope for the future.