We recently connected with Lonnae Hickman and have shared our conversation below.

Lonnae, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

I work as a full time freelance props designer, mainly based in Chicago and Milwaukee. During my time in school, I heard many times that this was almost impossible but for me I can’t see the possibility of working another job and doing prop design. Being a props designer is extremely intensive, for me, I knew I didn’t want to live in two worlds of working as a creative and juggling a full time job”normal job”. I wanted to fully devote my time to it so that I could be my best mentally, creatively, and physically. Looking back five years later this was the right move.

However, in order to work full time as a creative, I had to work very hard to make connections and impress people pre and post graduation. I often took multiple internships, and I hardly even partied of goofed off in college. This was a sacrifice but one that I wanted to make. Theatre Connections and networking are the key to working in this city – I’ve found that once you impress people with your kindness, collaboration, and communication you will get work. Talent is only a small portion of that.

As soon as I graduated, I was booked for jobs. I didn’t really have to apply, but got gigs through word of mouth and an impressive digital portfolio. Again, those internships I took and my persistent networking paid off. I also want to state that what helped is my field of prop design is in high demand in theatre and I had gotten very lucky with my timing of graduating.

Starting out, I was taking a lot of lower paying storefront theatre. These jobs are intense and I was usually working solo, but I gained so many connections and skills that it was invaluable. Now today, even with connections, I still have work hard to keep revenue and business. I’m often working 10-15 hour days. Yet, I’m slowly making more money and I’m offered bigger gigs that help me to sustain myself. Prop design is not an easy line of work and it doesn’t pay as much as you’d think. The job is incredibly demanding and since the beginning I’m working long hours and in constant meetings. Yet my resume continues to build and the gigs get better and better each year. I’m also now able to take projects I’m interested in, not just based on what I’m given.

I don’t think there’s any perfect success stories or steps, everyone is on their own path. What I do think though, is that success should be created by you. Success is whatever you believe and whatever fulfills you. I also think the key to success and working in any field requires hard work. Nothing comes easy. Even with all the work I’ve done, I still have so many goals and. unanswered questions for the future of my career.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I graduated from DePaul’s Theatre School with A BFA in Theatre Art and a double major in American History. I went to school to study prop design, and I found my love for literature and history along the way.

Prop design is a little complicated to explain but the definition is ” a skilled artist or craftsperson who designs, creates, and sources the objects (props), set dressing, and furniture that actors interact with in film, television, theater, and other productions.” I do this for various productions at different theaters all over the city. Prop designers also budget how much they spend, make spreadsheets, attend meetings, and have deep conversations with the director, designers, and playwrights. I often have to multi-task and come up with easy solutions to challenges depending on the production. Sometimes I work in a team of people, or as a assistant, but mostly the work is solo with me as the head of my department.

My clients are theaters directly. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Teatro Vista, Northlight Theatre, Albany Park Theatre Project, Theo Ubique Theatre, About Face Theatre, Steep, Chicago, Children’s Theatre, and many more. I also teach at University of Chicago-Illinois in their theatre department and I’m a collective ensemble member at Teatro Vista.

What set me apart is my collaboration and communication skills. I’m very type A and like to have things extremely organized and proper. I also really try to do my best regardless of the budget. I want all of my shows to look amazing no matter where or who does it. Yet, even with my perfectionist skills, I want everyone to be treated with kindness. Everyone who is on a team I’m working with is important to me. I value their time, their energy, and their advice. Any actor, designer, and director is able to communicate with me about the props they need and I’ll try my best to make it happen. I’m a collaborator at my core – sadly this is rare.

I also want to state that the theatre workplace can be a very toxic place to work and it can drain life out of people. I see myself as very kind and fair but firm when I feel like the work is becoming toxic. I’m not interested in overworking myself. So often in my early years I was burning out and many of my fellow designers experienced this. Now, I work really hard to speak up and make theatre that is more equitable and sustainable – that is rare and has taken me far.

I’m proud of all my work, even the work that didn’t turn out like I thought.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

The biggest challenge as a creative is that it’s still just not sustainable yet. It is still too hard to be come a full time creative. We as a country still don’t value the importance of art and so it’s not being funded.

Donate to smaller theaters and support your local artists of color!. Don’t just go to large theaters in the city or Broadway In Chicago but do research to go out to events and see lesser known art when you can! Donate to various theaters and museums or become a subscriber! Talk to your legislation about the importance of funding art. You also don’t have to pay a lot of money, there are free and pay what you can events at every theatre and event. Showing up and showing your presence in any way is still supporting! If more people show up and are aware of the arts importance, it will become more known to the people in our government and community.

Something that would also help is setting a minimum for how storefront theaters pay artists their worth. Often times we are getting low stipends for months of work. We as a theatre community have to understand that $400 stipends should not be acceptable. Yet, there’s only a certain amount of money and theaters are struggling to stay afloat – with more audiences and more sold out shows for smaller theatre this would help.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I needed to unlearn the idea of grind culture and instead start thinking about ways to create work life balance.

For me, in the begging of my career I was working so hard and so fast all the time. Day and night, I was making props, staying late at theaters, and driving all around the city without help. I felt that I had to hustle to get people to see me. The more shows I had under my belt, the more credentials I could fall back on. I was taught in my college and throughout my career to hustle and I WAS praised when I did so I began to seek it out.

I was taking production after production, never taking a day off, and burning myself out in the process. I was never standing ups for myself or offering a day of rest because I didn’t want to burn any bridge, especially as a young Black woman.

I was seriosuly letting my work and my attitude about work ruin my life. Professionally, I was never better, I was completing production after production with acclaim but on the inside I was a mess. I was letting work seriously stress me out and I was struggling with panic attacks often. I wasn’t eating or making any doctor’s appointments, and I had very little social life. I felt like a relationship or too many friendships would get in the way of my career.

I thought this was all ok, because it was what others were doing around me. Hustling is so engrained in our culture, especially as an artist, despite how awful it is. Yet, I quickly realized I needed to change – I was killing myself slowly. If I wouldn’t rest, my body would make me one way or another.

Everyone deserves rest, hobbies, and community. Looking back, I don’t regret the hard work that I did but I regret thinking I didn’t deserve rest. I needed to learn that it was ok to take a day off and to ask for what I need. That no one was taking tabs if I needed to take a sick day.

I needed to speak up about what I could and couldn’t do. I needed to learn about what I need and how to try ground myself each day. I needed to give myself grace on the days where I’m just not my best, because everyone has off days. I needed to learn that asking for help is not a weakness: my theatre community has my back – if I need a day off or need to be somewhere else, my productions and my team have my back.

As a person, hustling just isn’t the life I want anymore. I obviously want to challenge myself , but I have no need for grind culture. I’m still learning this and new things that help me everyday but this is what I had to unlearn.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lareyboy.wixsite.com/lonnaesportfolio
• Instagram: Lonnae_h
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lonnae-hickman/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Cina-nae

Image Credits

Headshot of Lonnae Hickman

Albany Park project’s Port of Entry (on prop team)

The Lehman trilogy: Chicago Regional Premier with TimeLine Theatre (Co-Prop Design)

Marie and Rosetta at Northlight Theatre (Prop Designer)

Frog and Toad at Chicago Children’s Theater (Prop Designer)

Gender Play or What you Will at About Face Theatre (Prop Designer)

Ironbound at Raven Theatre (Prop Designer)

Dial M for Murder at Northlight Theatre (Prop Designer)