Julian Keller-Heikkila
Grade: Sophomore.
Age: 15.
Art focus: Brainerd High School Theater.
Adviser nomination: “This is Julian's first experience being involved in a play, and Julian is a phenomenal tech crew member. Julian is continually bringing on and off heavy furniture pieces quickly in-between each scene. Julian also greatly helped the theater program by allowing us to borrow a dryer as a set piece for the show ‘Almost, Maine.’ Julian constantly has a positive attitude at rehearsals, and is more than willing to help out. The trickiest scene involves a shoe dropping from the ceiling, and Julian was a key person in figuring out how to do this. Thank you so much for all of your hard work, Julian!”
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Memorable fine arts achievement: “Just getting in this (theater) position in general is pretty great.”
Other fine arts activities: TV Productions.
Artist most admired: TV Production teacher Andrew Dwyer.
Why did you join theater: “For awhile Miss J (Karla Johnson, the theater director) was telling me I would be great for it. During my freshman year, she was encouraging me to do it and I finally decided to join. It was a great experience. She was my English teacher.”
Did you want to be a part of the tech crew? “I didn’t have any intentions on what I wanted to do in theater, but I landed on the tech crew. I am pretty grateful for this position. Being on the tech crew, I don’t have to deal with a lot of pressure memorizing lines.
“As a crew member, I move props on and off the stage. I get to help with figuring out the props and where they should be placed on the stage. There is a lot of prop management. It’s not super difficult, but it can be challenging at times. I don’t know what to do all of the time, but we get it figured out in the end.”
Toughest challenge: “(Storage space.) We have more than one crew member moving props and we have a bench that takes up a lot of space behind stage. We need more room, but we get it sorted out in the end.
“We had to figure out how to get a shoe to drop from the ceiling so I strung it over a pole on the ceiling and connected the shoe with a safety pin. I used fishing line and tied it to a paint can and fastened it with a pencil. When I pull the pencil out, it slowly releases the fishing line and drops the shoe. I just have to listen to the verbal cues.”
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Do you have experience in building things? “No not really. I did build a treehouse a couple of months ago and it took me a month to build. It is about 20 feet up and I built it on my own on an oak tree. I wanted some space away from my family and we had some spare wood. I did the work in chunks, and then had to haul it up the tree.”
Best part of theater: “There are a lot of great people in theater and it’s great to be a part of it. I plan to stick to it all year.”
Dream job: “I have a lot of skills in programming, so I would like to be a scientist or computer programmer.”
Favorite subject: TV Productions.
Favorite movie: “I watch a lot of science fiction movies.”
Favorite TV show: “Friends” and “Seinfeld.”
Last audiobook listened to: “Off to Be the Wizard.”
Favorite song: “Enemy” by Oliver Tree.
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Favorite musician: Oliver Tree.
Favorite food: Macaroni and cheese.
Beverage of choice: Dr. Pepper.
What are you known for? “I am an open book. When people think of me they think of computers.”
Parents: Kelly and Ian Keller-Heikkila of Baxter.
If You Go
What: Brainerd High School fall play “Almost, Maine.”
When: 7 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Nov. 22-23, and 2 p.m. Sunday in The Little Theatre at BHS.
Cost: Tickets are $5 for students and $7 for adults.
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