How I got started in show biz…

As a kid I was entranced by show business — I always imagined myself  on all the PBS shows I watched. But I think my earliest memory of being a musical theater kid would be my obsession with The Sound of Music. I used to watch my VHS copy, fast-forwarding to all the scenes with the Von Trapp children. I knew if given the opportunity I would make the perfect Gretyl. So I practiced scooting backwards up stairs like Gretyl does in the party scene, singing “the sun has gone to bed and so must I…” I made my mom do my hair in braided pigtails (just like Gretyl) and I posed for pictures with my elbows out and fingers cupped together.

Posing, Gretyl-style, on my first day of first grade. My favorite part of this is the pink salt-water sandals. I think I convinced my mom that they matched my uniform because “red and white makes pink, mom!”

I was very influenced by my great dance teachers. I was so blessed to study with teachers who made dancing and auditioning seem like fun instead of just hard work. But also, getting to wear costumes and perform was a great pay off!

Here I am as a yellow duckie, already aspiring to be Millie Dillmount in awesome ribbon-tied tap shoes.

It wasn’t until high school, while I was dancing every day, that I took performing into my own control by asking to understudy the parts I wanted/thought I should get. Even if that meant being a dancing tree once in a production. Yes, a tree, no, there’s no picture. 🙂 This totally paid off when the people I understudied got sick or injured, and by the next season I was being cast in parts I wanted, and even scored an apprenticeship with a professional dance company.

I still will never know what made the final decision in my mind to pursue acting full time, and get my college degree in performing. Which to me has been my real start in the business of shows, not just the fun of performing. It’s been 5 years since I decided to try acting, and three since I started working as a professional actress. I can say with absolute confidence that it was one of the best choices I’ve ever made!