Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Leah Ramillano. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Leah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?
My parents highly prioritized my education and encouraged me to do well in all my academic experiences. I imagine it’s a sort of immigrant mentality to lean into formal education and how it’s tied to the idealization of the American Dream, but without knowing it explicitly, they taught me about diligence, consistency, persistence, asking for help when you need it, prioritization, and most of all generosity.
Two weeks into my first year away at college, my father passed away, and when that happened there were many folks who expected my mom to bring me back home and take a break from school, but we did the opposite. We spent time to grieve and do all the formal, complicated, and very un-fun things you have to do when someone you love dies, but then I went back to school. My mom and I understood that life was always moving forward and that the ending of my father’s life did not mean the end of ours. So in essence, my mom taught me how to live – how moving forward and figuring out my sense of self was in a way, honoring my father’s memory as well.
We both learned to lean on family, friends, and new experiences – we both learned that healing is not linear nor is it predictable – we both learned that we are not alone, ever.
In my life, I’ve always felt secure in the community that I’ve both inherited and created for myself and I feel deeply grateful and lucky for it – for knowing that the people around me have helped shape who I am and have loved me into being (as Mr. Rogers has said). On the other hand, my career is also filled with community and collaboration, and where I think it is strongest is when people find the point at which their artistry and empathy meet.
I guess what I’m really trying to say is, my parents – through hard work, generosity, and some deep belly aching laughter – taught me how to find my people and lean on my people and the rest will follow.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am predominantly a Scenic Designer, but also enjoy being an assistant designer and also just try my best to maintain a level of creativity that I don’t feel the need to monetize. That’s been a challenge when your profession is art, but well worth the journey finding the balance. I received my undergraduate degree in Theatre Arts with an emphasis in Scenic Design from he University of Redlands. That summer, I went on to do an apprenticeship with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and then the next summer with PCPA Theatrefest. After that, I went to graduate school to pursue an MFA in Scenic Design at the University of California, Irvine. From there, I got hired by Mattel and continue to also work as a designer outside of my normal corporate business hours.
It has taken a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to get here but I am so thankful. Balancing a corporate 40-hour-week (with some weeks having overtime) job with being a freelance scenic designer has been wildly exhausting, and in many ways one part of my career cannot exist without the other. Mattel helps me feel grounded, scheduled, consistent, and financially supported – whereas my design work fulfills my hunger for creativity, collaboration, and offers a healthy disruption in daily routine. I’ve learned that having both is a continuous evolution and practice of self care and balance. I don’t think I’ll ever get it fully right, but I’m happy learning along the way.
But all in all, I love storytelling and I love collaborating with others. I had a mentor in grad school tell me that as a designer/storyteller/theatremaker, I have the sacred responsibility of telling someone else’s story. This really stuck to me and continues to do so because every task, every gig, every story deserves the due diligence of doing the hard work, research, and practice of empathy in order to tell a story in the most honest way I possibly can. It means crawling out of my own bubble of experience – historically, culturally, emotionally, etc – to help support a story. This also anchors how I collaborate with folks; I try my best to maintain clear and timely lines of communication and open my process up for editing, compromise, and evolution so that all departments of design, production, acting, directing, etc can come to the strongest result possible, which sometimes means letting go of some ideas in order to make room for better ones. And at the end of the day, it’s about understanding that the people I am working with all have a the common goal of getting up a project that tells a story in the most authentic way we can; that we all deserve to be treated with kindness and grace while we practice such a open and vulnerable art form.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
For a long time, all I wanted was to be a designer and was willing to push down a number of typical life goals on the priorities list to become one, Of those goals, included finding a romantic partner, motherhood, having a 9-to-5 type job, and really just overall health and balance. After 3 years of grad school – and to folks who have gone to design grad school, they know that it is no joke when it comes to being absolutely overloaded with projects – where I missed out on a lot due to being so busy and engulfed in my work, my biggest promise to friends and family was to catch up – to give them as much time as I could for all the time we had lost while I was in school.
Several years later, I would go on to meet my now fiancé, and that also shook my world up a bit. I had found someone that I wanted a future with and my heart opened up to the idea of motherhood again.
And of course, the pandemic changed us all. I had a bit of a mourning period for my career, or at least what I thought I wanted my career to be. I originally wanted to be a designer that was constantly working, keeping busy, and making a name for myself in the theatre world. I was glorifying the struggle and the suffering of an artist, and was really set on being a 24-7 creative that filled my life with art and art alone. When I realized that this version of my career no longer fit the person I was becoming, I felt empty. I felt like I was a quitter, guilty for throwing away all the potential my mentors had seen in me.
After living in the discomfort and limbo of dissonance between what I thought I wanted and what I had realized I wanted now, I realized that more than anything I wanted balance. I wanted to feed my creativity, while at the same time spend time with my partner. I wanted to have exciting collaboration projects, while learning how to be a mom. I wanted to keep challenging myself as an artist, while also taking care of my mental and physical health. I don’t think it’s impossible to have both, but I do think striving to have both at max capacity would be unhealthy for me, so for now, I keep practicing and searching and sometimes fumbling to get the balance right.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
This doesn’t have too much backstory, but the important thing I unlearned – which goes hand in hand with my answer to the previous question – is to not feel like I have to say yes to every gig offer for fear that there will be less offers in the future. I do understand that there are also financial needs that come into play when making decisions about accepting projects, but there are also the dangers of very damaging creative burnout and the risk of disregarding other things in life that are also important.
Contact Info:
- Website: leahramillano.com