So Many Acting B.A.'s, So Few Paying Gigs

soozievt
Thu, 08 Dec 2005 13:41:01 +0000

Mini…while I don’t want to veer off topic too much, you wrote:
“no amount of work or talent or connections or lifetime of choices helps much if you are stricken by a debilitating disease or run over by a truck.”

First, I think some LUCK is involved. For example, as you are likely aware my youngest child at age 16 this past March was in a serious car crash. Some bad luck is that she had it. But the good luck was that one, she lived (I read just a week later of a kid in a similar crash in the area who was not as lucky). Other good luck…she was a kid who was auditioning to be admitted to BFA programs in Musical Theater for the coming fall. You must audition to get in. She had JUST finished her 8th and final college audition serven days earlier. Had she had the accident just a few weeks earlier, her plans for going to college would not have been possible. Had the accident happened much later, her plans also would have been thwarted. With some luck she survived but it was a long haul and they said it would take six months until she could dance again and that was exactly how long it was until college was to begin where she would be training in dance. The window of this accident was luckily just right. She got many of her acceptances while in a hospital bed either in the hospital or in the house. What a goal to get better and heal.

Not all IS luck. Someone would have to not give up and to really work hard to get to their goals even with setbacks like this.

I agree with Emeraldkitty about choices that are made when some bad luck happens.

Let me share this story with you. My daughter had the good fortune to work with a guest director one summer at her beloved theater camp out of state. The musical he was directing was one he conceived of himself, a revue. It was called Another Openin’ Another Show and consisted of 40 opening production numbers from 40 different musicals. He not only directed the show but choreographed it, teaching all the choreography himself, which included amongst many others, the full tap number from 42nd Street and the dance opening number from A Chorus Line. He was a fantastic director and choreographer, AND person. He was a true inspiration. Why? This young man had NO feet. He had two prosthetic feet. His bad luck was that as a child, he was mostly in the hospital and due to defects, he had to have both of his lower legs amputated. He spent years in rehabilitation. Doctors told him he would never walk. This man went on to DANCE on BROADWAY, in the Tony Award winning production, Shenandoah. He also won an Emmy for choreographing the Miss America Pageant. He has a career in musical theater. Life dealt him lemons (bad luck) but he surely made sweet lemonade. His name is David Connolly if you wish to read any more about his incredible journey.

Susan