Cassie Brucci

Cassie was spotted by CFT’s Erica Reid at one of Chicago’s many theatres, where they were both doing theater-y things and she (Cassie) was nice enough to sit down with us (Erica and Fuzzy) at New Wave Coffee in Logan Square to talk about her tattoo.

CFT: Tell me about your Chicago flag tattoo… sorry, that’s habit, about your Chicago skyline tattoo.

Cassie: So, I moved to Chicago in September of 2011 and I came here on sort of a whim. I decided to go to Columbia. I came here to visit family and I decided to go visit the school while I was here and I fell in love and was like “this is where I need to be”, so I transferred into Columbia and switched my major. Ever since I’ve been in Chicago I have really felt like I’ve grown so much as a person and there are so many opportunities that were presented to me here that wouldn’t have been presented to me at home and it’s such a huge part of who I am now. I mean, I wouldn’t be the same person that I was if I had just stayed at home and continued doing what I was doing there. So, I had the idea to get the skyline since it means so much to me, but get an EKG outline of it so it looks like a little heartbeat because I felt like when I came here was when I really started to “live”. Like I felt really scared to be who I was back home and wasn’t really true to myself but then when I got here, it really opened up my horizon and opened up just me in general to being proud of who I am and what I’m doing. So that’s the story.

CFT: Where did you come from?

Cassie: I came from Scottsdale, Arizona. I was born in California and we lived there till I was three and I have lived in various cities in Arizona ever since. Mostly Paradise Valley in Scottsdale.

CFT: It’s interesting that you call Arizona home. Does that still feel like home to you and Chicago is something different than home?

Cassie: It’s really weird because I will interchange home for Chicago and Arizona. Like when I’m in Arizona, I can’t wait to go home and I’m referring to here. Then I’ll be here and I’ll tell people that I’m going home for Christmas. I don’t know, I guess they’re both homes to me. I have to give credit to Arizona because that’s where I was raised. A lot of things happened there that shaped me but this is just like another stepping stone in becoming who I am so it’s just like a second home.

CFT: You can have more than one home. I don’t mean to challenge your word use. I guess I just wanted to explore that a little bit because I have had so many homes.

Cassie: Yeah, this is definitely equal on the playing field of home, if not better to me as home.

CFT: I guess 2011 has only been like 3 years. You fell in love right away. There wasn’t a tipping point, you visited and then knew, “I have to be here”.

Cassie: I have always wanted to move away ever since I was 8 years old. My parents knew eventually, “she’s not going to be here forever” and then I finally was able to go to a place and really connect with it just right away. Because I had explored going to other schools but they weren’t cities I really loved; it was more for the sake of just getting out and I was like “uh, alright, let’s see” and then I came to Chicago and it was just like, instantly, “nope, this is it”. You just know when you have a gut feeling in you that something’s meant to be. That was it when I got here, like I had that.

CFT: What are the things that Chicago has let you do?

Cassie: I wanted to go into the entertainment field doing more behind the scenes work. I have been dancing since I was like 3 years old and I’ve always been very heavily involved in music and playing instruments and singing but I don’t feel that being a performer is where I’m meant to be for a career path. I like being behind the scenes, I like just being there and doing the work that no one sees, to be able to put on events that people then go and see and love and cherish for years to come. That gives me really deep satisfaction knowing I was there working to put this whole event on. When it comes down to it, you know, there are people working behind you don’t even see, they’re one of the reasons these events even happen.

I came to Columbia and saw the arts management program. That’s kind of a vague major; no one really has that anywhere else. So when I came there, I saw, this is a thing? I have to do it! Perfect! I’ve just had really awesome internship opportunities open themselves up to me. I worked at City Winery and I got to work with Schubas and I got to intern at a really awesome booking agency called Flower Booking. It’s just stuff that’s here and I wouldn’t have found at home that’s kind of helped me build up to where I’m at now. Now I’m helping a local producer here do his marketing and his PR and he’s pretty well known around the scenes. I know I wouldn’t have found this stuff staying at home at Scottsdale, Arizona.

And just on top of it, I mean, aside from being career focused, you guys know there’s so much to do here. The restaurant scene is kind of unmatched unless you’re talking about New York or something like that. There’s endless things to do in the summer. There’s always something going on with museums, festivals, whatever, you can never get bored here. You can always develop your knowledge and you can find your people. You can never get bored here and if you do, you’re not looking hard enough. You don’t even have to look very hard. It’s just nice to know that there are so many great resources for art and science and literature and music and food and anything you can think of is right at my fingertips in my own backyard. That was a huge appeal of the city to me.

CFT: Is that your first tattoo?

Cassie: It’s my first and only tattoo right now.

CFT: Where’d you get it done?

Cassie: I got it done at Deluxe Tattoo at Southport and Irving, probably a month after my graduation ceremony. It was like June of 2013 so I’ve had it like 6 months. It’s pretty fresh ink.

CFT: I don’t know if you’ve travelled since you got it done, but do people know what it is? Here, it’s pretty obvious.

Cassie: I’m trying to think because the only place I’ve really gone with the tattoo was probably back home and I think people know. They actually do, they go, “oh my god, Chicago skyline!” Some people go, “is it New York or Chicago?” but either way they have a general idea of what it is so yeah, there’s no real abstract guesses.

CFT: “Oh, I guess you really love Toronto!”

Cassie: Right, exactly. “Oh, you like lines with a lot of pointy ends on them.” Like, no guys, they have the right idea so they either nail it or you have to steer them a little bit. A few states too east, so I gotta get them back to the midwest.

CFT: Awesome! Thanks!

Cassie: Thank you guys!