October 4th, 1997, the Saturday before the performances, I visited with Kevin and Nicole-Capri Brocksieck. We talked about the upcoming Canticle performance at Friends, Rich, Tapestry, and other things. The following is a partial, edited text of that visit.
I first met Kevin when Kenaniah, the acapella Gospel group he was with, came to our church's state youth gathering in Rock Springs, KS, about four or five years ago. Of all the artists who came to those gatherings, I'd never quite seen the response from our kids as I did that particular weekend. I didn't meet Nicole until I showed up at the rehearsals with the wild idea of auditioning for a part. I didn't make it, which is probably a good thing with my crazy schedule.
Danl Blackwood: You both have a Christian production company called Tapestry. How did that start, where did that come from?
Kevin Brocksieck: Well, we had always wanted to do something like a production company, to be together. Ever since when we were dating, we wanted to do something like that. And we lived in California for most of last year, we did a few productions there. But some opportunities came up here in Wichita, and we had so many friends, and contacts, and all over the city and doing different things that we thought, gosh, if we took this opportunity in Wichita we could really kick off Tapestry, and really do something with it, because we know more people in Wichita.
Danl: So it's a fairly new venture?
Nicole-Capri Brocksieck: Yeah...
Kevin: So, I guess the first thing we did officially would be the fine arts school this summer. And that was just a fine arts academy for teenagers and adults.
Danl: Who else is directly involved in Tapestry? Or is it just you two?
Nicole: Pretty much just us, but we bring in different artists.
Kevin: Yeah, and we call it "Tapestry Performing Arts: a Collection of Christian Artists", and what we try to do is to just bring different Christian artists together to do different projects, or to do different things. Like we'll start acquaintances, we'll do something, and bring different people in. So it's not necessarily like, when you're in Canticle, you join Tapestry. We're just a common collection of arts and artists.
Danl: Nicole, tell me a little bit about your history of theatre and dance, how you got into that.
Nicole: I did my undergraduate work at Memphis State University, in Memphis Tennessee, and then from there I went and studied with the National Theatre of the Deaf in Chester, Connecticut, and toured with them for awhile. And I actually was freelancing out of Memphis when I got a job doing a show at the 'Crown Uptown.' And, that actually is how I met Rich, because the 'Crown Uptown' actor house is next door to Rich's old house. So, I was moving in one day, and I saw him. He was moving in at the same time. And I asked, "Are you Rich Mullins?" And he said, "Yeah." So...
Danl: That's wild.
Nicole: And...that's pretty much how it happened. He'd kind of hang out with all the actors after the play, and we'd all go to Harry's [Restaurant]...
Danl: So were you living in Wichita then?
Nicole: I just moved here for that show...and then, eventually I started getting jobs around here, and started working around here...
Danl: So you ended up moving here...
Nicole: Yes, and met Kevin, actually, when I was choreographing a show at Friends. He was playing the lead in 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'.
Danl: You went to Friends, Kevin?
Kevin: Yes. I graduated in '96.
Danl: And did you meet Rich from classes, or music stuff...
Kevin: We never had a class together, but we were both music majors at the same time. I didn't get a music degree, but...
Nicole: Kevin [and Rich] did a couple of concerts together, too...
Kevin: Yeah, we did. We [Kenaniah] did a couple of things with him. We all kind of knew him, because we were all there all the time, and he was there all the time...
Danl: Do you remember how you first met him?
Kevin: I remember the first time I saw him, was just in the hall. There's a thing called 'Faith and Learning' on Thursday mornings, it's like a chapel service, that they have at Friends ... and it was then I realized that that person was him. The face and the name together, that was Rich. When he was writing Liturgy and Legacy, the CD, he would practice those songs in school all the time. Because we've got practice rooms everywhere. And it was kind of surprising, but he would come out and go, "Hey guys, you want to hear my new song?" And he never seemed he'd be that kind of guy. He seemed like he would be real private. And I don't think he was ever showing off, at all. But we'd come in, and then he'd say, "Now you sing this part," and so we'd sing it. And that's how we learned, 'Hold Me, Jesus.'
Danl: Cool...
Kevin: I grew up in the Salvation Army, and every time he would sing that line in 'Hold Me, Jesus' he would look at me. And honestly, at that point in our lives I don't think he knew my name, but he knew, 'Salvation Army'. He called me 'Salvation Army.'
Danl: That's funny...
Kevin: And we learned 'Midwestern Boy' which, at that point had an acappella part at the beginning and at the end, and, since we were an acappella group [Kenaniah] we all kind of sang it and thought it was really cool. And we asked him to come sing at a Kenaniah concert that we did, in Alumni Auditorium at Friends. And he came, and we did 'Midwestern Boy', and he played, and sang, and we sang with him and that was real cool. And then, there's really only one other time that we did something musical together. And that was when he was putting a demo together for the Liturgy/Legacy CD, to send to the record company, to kind of let them know what he was doing. And another guy from Kenaniah and I went over to do it. But, that was a weird day, because it was the first day that it really, really snowed really hard of the winter, I mean, it was BAD. We went up and did a couple of songs. And he just wanted us to sing the backup stuff. So it was really cool...really fun.
Danl: Neat.
Kevin: And then, once he graduated, we didn't have a whole lot of contact with him until this [Canticle].
Nicole: We've known him for years, but we never really feel like we even started to know him until we started working on this show, reading and working on the script--I mean, we don't claim to be Rich's best friends, or anything like that...but working on that script, because I retyped the whole thing, I felt like I just kind of got a little window...because I worked on it and worked on it and worked on it, kind of reworded a couple of things, cleaned up a few things for theatre...
Kevin: I met Rich when I was a freshman at Friends, about seven years ago. I don't know if he had come that same year, or was already there...I think he started in the late 'eighties somewhere, didn't he?
Danl: Yeah, I was thinking it was either 'eighty-nine or 'ninety.
Kevin: Because I started at Friends in '90. And he was there.
Danl: So then he moves to New Mexico, and everybody in Wichita kind of loses contact for a little while, except for some of his really closest friends. And the 'Canticle' is something that he's been working on for a very long time. How were you first contacted about the 'Canticle'; what was the connection there?
Nicole: The first person that contacted us was Jim Smith, a friend. He also lived with Rich... Rich worked with us, and Jim as well. Rich called and said, "I'd like Kevin to be in the 'Canticle.' We want to do it there, and I'd like you to direct it." Of course we said "yes."
Danl: "No, let's think about it. Um, ok!" (laughter)
Nicole: We had actually been writing a show of our own, and we decided to postpone doing it so that we could do this one. And Jim said, "Well, can you meet with Rich and Mitch and me?" a couple of days later...
Danl: So it fits right after they came back from the summer tour...
Nicole: When we met with them they were just really gracious. They really liked all of our ideas... we hadn't even read the script, they had just kind of told us about it. And they gave us a bunch of pieces of paper, hand-typed, not really put together in any way...
Danl: And that was the script...
Nicole: Yeah, that was it. (laughter) And so, then after that, they called us and said, would you be interested in kind of helping us clean it up, and typing it, and making it look right...getting it ready... so, we had worked on that for a couple of weeks. The Friday, the week before he died, I had told them I would have it in the mail to them by then. We didn't actually get it in the mail until that Monday, but we 'overnighted' it...
Danl: So you sent the script off, the 'typed up' one...
Nicole: We sent the script off, we thought for sure they had it, and it was returned to us.
Danl: I read about that in the [Wichita Eagle] newspaper article. That's kind of heartbreaking.
Nicole: We did give one to his mom, and that made me feel a lot better...
Danl: She made it to the memorial?
Nicole: She made it. I think, it was just so shocking, too, because we really thought we were going to be having dinner with them that night, to go over everything...because Rich, especially, I mean, basically, when I called them with changes that I had, they would say, "Oh, whatever. We trust you." I said, "What do you mean, you trust me? You don't know me! I could be doing whatever! I could have changed the names of everyone in it!" And they'd say, "Oh, no, we trust you"... And so I wrote in this letter, I still have the package, and I opened it, and it says, "If you don't like it, make the changes, and I'll change them back."
Danl: And this was what was returned back to you, so you're on your own... So you did make some script changes that will be unique for this performance, as opposed to some of the other performances?
Nicole: I did...this whole script itself, this was Rich's final draft. And the changes that I made were so minor, they were mainly just rearranging a couple of things, making it easier to stage. I didn't take a whole lot of artistic license...
Kevin: Yeah--correct me if I'm wrong, but they had pretty much hired you to add all your stage directions into the script, so when they published it, all the stage instructions would be what we were doing, what Nicole had written.
Danl: Have there been any changes in the script, or in the play, since the accident?
Nicole: No. We haven't changed anything. The only thing we've kind of added in, is 'Heaven Is Waiting' is basically a tribute to Rich. There's slides of him that will come up on the scrim.
Danl: Oh, no! I don't know if I can watch that! (nervous laughter). The sound track that you're using ... were you in contact with Mark Robertson about that, or did Mitch handle that for you?
Nicole: Actually Mitch and Rich sent that to us, and, as far as we know, we don't know of anyone else that has it, that background sound track. In fact, we made them a tape of it for the funeral, because nobody could find it.
Danl: Oh, my goodness...
Nicole: So we walk around and just hold those very gently...
Danl: Well, I would imagine Mark, I'm sure, has the masters...but that's probably something they had to sit down and engineer and mix.
Nicole: Basically we got those in an old brown paper bag.
Kevin: And they're not marked. At all. The CDs were blank, and there was no cover on them. One had a piece of paper about this big ripped off, with the letter 'A' on it.
Danl: On the one, and 'B' on the other?
Kevin: On one, and nothing on the other! 'A' on Act I! So I made some covers, because it was just getting too frustrating to keep that 'A' with the right CD!
Danl: When did you get the sound track? Was that something that you just got recently, or have you had it for awhile, to practice to?
Kevin: Probably four weeks ago. We didn't have it, like, right off the bat, but we had it.
Danl: So you have had that for awhile, then. I just wondered if that was something that was, you know, kind of an afterthought...They obviously were planning for this one. And wanted it to be the 'real deal.'
Nicole: I was so excited for him to see this one, because we've added dancers, and the way we're doing the animals...
Danl: He'll see it! (laughter)
Nicole: But I wanted him to see it sitting next to me!
Danl: That's true...
Nicole: ... and I wanted him to be surprised...
Danl: Although, you know I've talked to some people that are really struggling with it, close friends. And they're like, "Well I wonder about Rich, I wonder what he's thinking about all this stuff..." You know, the first thought that comes to my mind is, "Rich is in heaven, he's got a choice. He can look at Jesus, or he can look at us. Jesus? ... us. Jesus? ... us. Pretty easy choice! (laughter) But I think he'll take a break, and watch.
Nicole: I think he will...there's some poetry and stuff in it that's pretty incredible, and then there's some poetry in it that's just like totally over my head! (laughter)
Danl: Yeah, he's pretty deep, that's for sure.