Inspiring Women : November 2020

We performed in the park in front of the museum.
This fall we hope to be moving the piece indoors to
the Komödie, a theater which normally seats 365
people but due to the corona regulations may only
seat a maximum of 120 people.
Getting Involved in Acting
My decision to study acting after dance seemed most
natural to me. As a child, my mother initiated costume
parades, and theme parties for me and my siblings and
block party activities and plays with the whole
neighborhood. Mom studied Costume Design at the
Art Institute in Chicago. Needless to say, my Halloween
costumes were outstanding. It was mom who brought
me to my first acting audition at a community theater.
I remember it vividly. The director sat me in a chair and
asked me to close my eyes, and to relax into the chair,
and to relax more into the chair, and even more, until I
slid to the edge and flopped to the floor like a rag doll. Bebe in A Chorus Line, Chicago 1989
They were impressed, though I couldn’t fathom at all
why. I was cast as Karen in The Red Shoes. With my dance training, it probably made for a fair
performance to start.
By nature I am a very shy person. Dancing was a safe place to be hugely expressive physically. I was
free as a dancer. My spirit could fly and I was unafraid. But acting exposed my thoughts. I had to
speak and expose my inner voice, and that was extremely difficult for me. I suffered greatly in my
first year of acting school. But I hated being shy. I was determined to break free of my fear. I struggle
with it still today. I fight against it now as I write these words, knowing someone will read them. By
the way, thank you for reading this far;).
There are moments in life, when one stands at a clear crossroad. For example, If I had accepted an
apprenticeship at the Boston Ballet Company, instead of going to the Joffrey, perhaps my ballet
dream may have come true.
Another crossroad: While at University, I was cast as Rosalind, the
lead in Shakespeare’s As You Like It. Just as rehearsals were about to
begin, “Hollywood called“. A few of us dancers who had been
featured in the film Footloose, which had been filmed on location in
Utah, were called to fly to Paramount Pictures in LA to do some
extra filming. My director allowed me to go if I promised to be back
after two days. The two days were extended to four. I kept my
promise and went back to university. If I had stayed in LA, my
journey, for better or worse, would have continued down a different
path. If I had gone to NYC again instead of following my future
husband to Berlin, I would have missed having my children!
With my co-founder, Rosie Thorpe
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One of the fun parts of the Footloose role was I got to go to the “high
school dance” with Kevin Bacon, Sarah Jessica Parker and Chris
Penn. I’ve also danced with some other well known people over the
years: I also danced in Bye Bye Birdie with Tommy Tune and Ann
Reinking at the Muny Opera, played Tessie Cat to Elke Sommer’s