That is all so very familiar. I didn't stay in art school as long as you did, but after my one semester of thinking I wanted to be a painter, I dropped out of Kansas City Art Institute and returned to live at my parent's house in Philadelphia to pursue my true career: acting! I took a year of memorable classes and then got interested in writing. Impressed that you actually got bit parts in movies!
Oh, wow! I didn’t know either of those things. How funny that we followed such a similar path. Just took me another 30 years to make it around to writing!
Funny. I got a BA in Drama & Speech (after switching from some inane major). Studied with a member of the director's unit of Actor's Studio in NOLA for three years. Came to NY & failed my audition at the Studio. Fear. Writing I'd been doing in a diary since I was fifteen begun in an Animal Pads scribble pad the summer I was fifteen the summer before my father's suicide. Writing to the only person who was paying attention literally saved my life. Later on I took on improv, which I still do periodically. Drawing I abandoned being self taught. I did spend two weeks in the Academia de Belli Arti in Florence in 1976 before being thrown out( I drew a lot of big breasted women with no heads). Luckily, I had a daughter who's a brilliant illustrator /potter. She has a cool website - https://elenigavrielatos.com Lately, she's been writing a lot. Always good to have another art to fall back on when one or the other wans. 🧿👁⚜️
Lucinda! If I hadn’t already been so far along in my BA in art when I started being in plays, I would also have switched over to drama! I love your story (Animal Pads!) and the ways in which it coincides. Also love your daughter’s ceramic work!
Thank you for looking💞 Yeah, the highlight of my acting was playing Amy Beth in Life Under Water directed by my darling mentor Ivan Uttal at a tiny theater we started on Julia Street in the warehouse district in New Orleans. The play's title fit my then life. I have a chapter of my memoir never published called "We Never Close." I should just publish it myself on substack. 💙🕶 In fact, that's a great idea. I could publish the whole damn thing, parts of which have been published.
My world was dance (which you already know), auditioning, always with hope of that one break through, but then chosing another path, or more like, paths, "dancing" through the ups and downs of many interesting choices.
I wandered around those streets of dreams, terrified of exactly this subway in this movie trailer, walking to my babysitting gigs in SoHo, passing improv classes running scenes outside, keeping my head down between my divorced artist parents houses; my mother so hungry for a place in the arts and struggling with her health while my father grew increasingly worshipped at Brooklyn College. NYC was a place to escape.. from. It’s taken decades to embrace my own creativity. My other reaction to that movie trailer… not a lot of parts for women!
Yeah—I remember those scary subway days, complete with red beret wearing Guardian Angels. So glad you made your way through those tough family times to a place of your own creative freedom.
That is all so very familiar. I didn't stay in art school as long as you did, but after my one semester of thinking I wanted to be a painter, I dropped out of Kansas City Art Institute and returned to live at my parent's house in Philadelphia to pursue my true career: acting! I took a year of memorable classes and then got interested in writing. Impressed that you actually got bit parts in movies!
Oh, wow! I didn’t know either of those things. How funny that we followed such a similar path. Just took me another 30 years to make it around to writing!
Funny. I got a BA in Drama & Speech (after switching from some inane major). Studied with a member of the director's unit of Actor's Studio in NOLA for three years. Came to NY & failed my audition at the Studio. Fear. Writing I'd been doing in a diary since I was fifteen begun in an Animal Pads scribble pad the summer I was fifteen the summer before my father's suicide. Writing to the only person who was paying attention literally saved my life. Later on I took on improv, which I still do periodically. Drawing I abandoned being self taught. I did spend two weeks in the Academia de Belli Arti in Florence in 1976 before being thrown out( I drew a lot of big breasted women with no heads). Luckily, I had a daughter who's a brilliant illustrator /potter. She has a cool website - https://elenigavrielatos.com Lately, she's been writing a lot. Always good to have another art to fall back on when one or the other wans. 🧿👁⚜️
Lucinda! If I hadn’t already been so far along in my BA in art when I started being in plays, I would also have switched over to drama! I love your story (Animal Pads!) and the ways in which it coincides. Also love your daughter’s ceramic work!
Thank you for looking💞 Yeah, the highlight of my acting was playing Amy Beth in Life Under Water directed by my darling mentor Ivan Uttal at a tiny theater we started on Julia Street in the warehouse district in New Orleans. The play's title fit my then life. I have a chapter of my memoir never published called "We Never Close." I should just publish it myself on substack. 💙🕶 In fact, that's a great idea. I could publish the whole damn thing, parts of which have been published.
Serial memoir on Substack—yes!
My world was dance (which you already know), auditioning, always with hope of that one break through, but then chosing another path, or more like, paths, "dancing" through the ups and downs of many interesting choices.
Ah—the big breakthrough. Yeah. And SO many ups and downs and wind arounds! Glad our paths wound together ❤️
I wandered around those streets of dreams, terrified of exactly this subway in this movie trailer, walking to my babysitting gigs in SoHo, passing improv classes running scenes outside, keeping my head down between my divorced artist parents houses; my mother so hungry for a place in the arts and struggling with her health while my father grew increasingly worshipped at Brooklyn College. NYC was a place to escape.. from. It’s taken decades to embrace my own creativity. My other reaction to that movie trailer… not a lot of parts for women!
Yeah—I remember those scary subway days, complete with red beret wearing Guardian Angels. So glad you made your way through those tough family times to a place of your own creative freedom.