Shelli Delgado
@shellidelgado in her luscious bedroom
-Theatre-
Shelli is a style icon. If you disagree with me you are wrong. We went on vacation before the pandemic together and not only is every ensemble brilliant but she looks like she was born to wear it. The clothes all just become her. So getting an opportunity to look into her closet and personal world were a huge treat. Not to mention walking away with a couple pieces gifted from her closet to mine. She might hate me for this but when I showed up at her apartment and reprimanded her on how cute she looked for this “casual” photo and interview, she came back and said, “But I wore this outfit yesterday!”
Shelli was in the apprentice class before me at Aurora Theatre. There is a lot of competition among the apprentices classes and Shelli was always the one who did the most, went the extra mile, stayed late and came early and it has paid off with an amazing career as a performer and arts administrator. Talking to her casually about her worries and fears is not something I normally get to do. And I’m so glad she was open and willing to do it.
Interviewed 5.28.20
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Casey: So first and foremost, how are you doing?
Shelli: I think it changes every day. I am trying to keep a positive attitude. But, you know, some days it's a lot easier than others. And I have been traveling a lot in the sense that I was in Waco for two months. Did you know that?
Casey: No...
Shelli: Oh, yeah.
Casey: What are you doing in Waco? Like you said that casually earlier and I was like, what?
Shelli: Oh, my boyfriend lives there. So I was living in Texas for two months.
Casey: That’s right! Oh, my gosh.
Shelli: Obviously, I did not think it was a good idea to fly. So I drove to Waco over two months ago. That was like 14 hours. And I lived with him in Waco, basically on a farm. He works on windmills so he basically is a little spider monkey. He climbs them and he fixes them. And so there's like one other person on his job site with him, and so it was just me and him for two months. Because it was Memorial weekend, I had the time to make that trip back home. So I've been home for three days.
Casey: How and what has your experience been like coming back to Atlanta?
Shelli: Interesting. So I have had the pleasure of not seeing a lot of people and not being in the city. Not that it was a false sense of security, but it did feel safer, obviously, because I'm not seeing anyone except for the grocery store, which maybe had five, ten people in it. And coming back here, it was a shocking difference.
Casey: What were some of the more jarring things?
Shelli: Way more people, to be expected. Luckily, I went to Target and I would say 90 percent of people had their masks on. So that was good. But, you know, in our neighborhood, we have a big dog park, and J.D. and I will take Sully to the park and it has been like crazy wacko right now. So, we had to go find a creek. So we just have to get—you have to be more creative about where you hang out in the city. I just walk outside and be like, I'm alone. Walk five miles, still alone.
Casey: In Waco?
Shelli: In Waco, but yeah. So it is very different. But it is really nice to wake up and be around my roommates and, you know, have somebody at home during the day has been really nice because my days by myself would get really lonely in Waco.
Casey: You must have just went to Waco, like right after we got back from Palmetto Bluff.
Shelli: We did. We did. I went to Waco like two weeks later when all of Aurora started working remotely. And I just decided it would be safer and better for me there.
Casey: What did you do while you were out there? Besides hang out with your boyfriend, what was there to do since you were alone?
Shelli: Mostly working remotely during the day. But a lot of things that I do normally just honestly became easier for me. Like on the weekends I would go hiking and instead of having to travel an hour and a half to, you know, like the bottom of the Appalachian or to Asheville or whatever, it was 30 minutes to wherever I wanted to hike to. I feel like I've been spending a lot of time being outside, and that's given me a lot of solace, just to be in nature alone is a nice thing to do.
Casey: How has your family been?
Shelli: So my mom is an open heart nurse and my dad is a medical technologist, and they live in Florida. So I have been worried sick about them. My mom is actually retiring from being a nurse for 40 years. 40 years this woman has been a nurse and she's retiring in July. But she had been working the Covid tents at her hospital. And, she's fine. They've been taking care of themselves. They've been healthy and happy. But, you know, I check in with her everyday and luckily she's not working on them anymore. But, you know, within the brunt of it last month, she was working 15-hour days in those tents.
Casey: How old is she?
Shelli: 66, you know. So, yeah, that's been tough to think about everyday because it's always in the back of my mind, like, how are you doing, what are you up to? And it's almost like the roles have changed in which I'm texting her every two hours being like, "Hey, what's up? What are you doing? What are you up to? How's it going? You on lunch? You want to call?" But yeah, they've been doing fine. They've had really positive attitudes about it. And, you know, my mom only wants to help, ever. That's why she's been a nurse for 40 years. But it's hard to think that any 66-year-old woman is working in those tents, let alone it's your mother. So taking it one day at a time. But, yeah, she's been good.
Casey: That's insane.
Shelli: Yeah.
Casey: Sorry, I got completely sidetracked by the fact that that's….You would think the hospital would be like, "You're a high risk person because of your age, you don't get to work in a tent." But that just shows you how….
Shelli: How much they've needed it...
Casey: So we talked about how you were hiking and I know you've only been home for three days, but do you have any sort of new self care habits, or rituals, or sacred places that you make for yourself that you have started during quarantine that you want to take into the future?
Shelli: Yeah, I think, honestly, my road trip back home had been really therapeutic because I couldn't stop in overly-populated areas. I had to be really careful about where and when I stopped and I explored. I was still able to explore so much of America on my three days being on the road. It just had to be creative. So I think that I'll take that with me, you know, going forward.
Like, you know, instead of staying in a hotel, I found a farm that had one person on it and I hung out with cows on a lavender farm for an entire afternoon. And that was magical. You know, exploring places that normally I would overlook. I found a lot of magic on my way back, so that was cool. And I also realized that I like being alone a lot more than I thought I did, and allowing myself to not be so freaked out or scared of that alone time and kind of embrace it more has been helpful. It is hard sometimes. And I was like, really excited to be back with my roommates, but I gained a sense of independence on my way back and that was really cool.
Casey: That's wonderful. Do you create at all in quarantine and how have you found the motivation to create or not create?
Shelli: So I have been writing 10-minute plays and it's been really interesting writing these plays in the mindset that I have been in. So imagine Shelli at like 2 a.m. writing a 10-minute play on a farm and three raccoons came up on me and I was like, "Cool. This will never happen again. Take note." Or like, the other time I was walking down the farm jotting down ideas and a possum came out of a tree. And I was like, "Wow, you're the only thing I've seen all today. Do you want to talk about my play? Do you want a discussion?"
So, yeah, I've been writing a bit. So that's been helpful. Working at Aurora, doing all those things in development, and then weird craft projects, like I have been doing a lot of origami garland. That was fun. It's all in Waco. One day Alex came home and the whole porch was Origami garland-ed? Garland-ed? He was like "cool".
Casey: That's great that he wasn't like, "What on earth."
Shelli: I re-did his whole patio. I was like, "So by the way, I, um, I ordered you this patio and this patio rug and these patio chairs and this origami garland. I spent all day making it. I hope you like it. It's very specific taste."
Casey: Hope it works out. See you later….
Shelli: Yeah, and I've been cooking a lot and baking a lot, which are things, you know, I haven't had time to do but I love to do. So I've just been exploring that side of myself.
Casey: So it sounds like you have had the motivation to do things. You haven't had a lot of downtime.
Shelli: I think in order for me to stay sane, I have to keep my mind active because my mind is always going. Obviously there have been days where I have just sat in my bed like this, and just been like, "Today I'm not doing anything." But a lot of times my mind won't let me do that. I'm so used to going places and being somewhere all the time that I definitely have cabin fever and I definitely have to bake a cake at 3 in the morning, or make an origami garland, or talk to a possum about my next 10-minute play.
Casey: Yeah, love that. What do you think you will take away from this chapter in your life? Not just the world's chapter in its life, but your chapter?
Shelli: I will never take the holding somebody's hand or having human connection or being close to another person for granted again, you know? And I'm about to cry thinking about that, but I miss physically touching my friends and I have been able to show them love through sending people boxes of things that make me think of them or, you know, FaceTiming or, you know, writing letters in the mail. I will not take that for granted, ever. As sucky as it is, I'm glad I learned that lesson, you know. And it sucks to have so much love in your heart for so many people around you and for that to be contained to what we can do right now. But I will say, I had no idea I was capable of this much love for the rest of my human kind. I don't even know the capabilities. So, yeah, I will take that with me and I will also take this newfound sense of independence and like this less fear of quiet. And a lot of new recipes and a lot of new origamis.
