Creative Chat with Kate Welch
“Collaboration and teamwork: that’s why I’m in this industry, is to be around other people and make their work shine.”
It's another Creative Chat, this time with narrative director and DM to the stars, Kate Welch! Kate and I had a ball chatting about her creative backstory, the importance of trust and collaboration in creative team spaces, and, of course, plenty of Nerd Stuff (TM), including dial-up Internet, Star Wars roleplaying chatrooms, and Dungeons & Dragons. Here’s a teaser:
If you haven’t read Kate’s TIME Magazine piece about the value of playing pretend, then hie thee hence — it’s a great read, and we definitely dig into it, along with the creators and media Kate’s grooving on lately, plus a some side-chatter about her personal creative projects in progress.
Kate’s a real one, and one of my fave folks to sit down with; I’m sure you’ll fall in love with her, too. <3
You can grab the episode transcript here. Enjoy!
xx, aa
[ Teaser video transcript; dialogue playing over music bed ]
kate welch: I guarantee, like, coming at it from this collaborative, relationship-building perspective is not only gonna make people wanna work with you, it’s also gonna make better ideas.
allison arth: Now on the Little Oracles podcast, a Creative Chat with narrative director and DM to the stars, Kate Welch.
kw: I run games of Dungeons & Dragons for people; that’s the thing that I really, really love to do, is seeing people’s eyes light up when they realize what it is to creatively collaborate and play pretend with other people.
aa: I’m curious to know, like, what your thoughts are on the concept of play within a creative process.kw: Everybody I talk to mentions this: there’s a point in your life where you’re like, “Oh, I’m too grown up for this; I can’t do this anymore; I stopped feeling like it was okay to play pretend.”
aa: Yeah.
kw: And that sucks, dude! [laughs]
aa: It does! It does! [laughs]
kw: That sucks so bad! [laughs] Because I think it’s so deeply essential! I really think it’s a healthy thing that people can do, and Dungeons & Dragons and other tabletop RPGs like it give you carte blanche to be like: Okay, the whole point of this is that you and a bunch of other adults are gonna sit around and play pretend together.
aa: I love that!
kw: I think I wanted to find people online to talk to me about Star Wars. [laughs]
aa: [laughs]
kw: And I found— not only did I find Star Wars chat, but I also found people who were roleplaying their made-up Star Wars characters. I was hooked immediately, because I was like: [gasps] people are telling new Star Wars stories that I haven’t read yet!
aa: Yeah! That’s collaborative storytelling right there.
kw: Collaboration and teamwork: that’s why I’m in this industry, is to be around other people and make their work shine. It’s the best part of the job. I feel like I mic drop on that.
aa: Find Little Oracles wherever you get podcasts.
