First up:
We tag-team mowed our massive front yard yesterday for the first time this year. We did a high-five and were proud of ourselves. Then, by the evening, we were frigging exhausted. And my allergies went haywire. The first mow is always the hardest and, eventually, it will be much easier. As will my allergies.
Started a new puzzle, but I was so stuffed up and tired after mowing that I didn’t get very far.
Today, we’re taking it easy.
_____________________________
I’m sharing more today about my career. First, a clarification. My decision to teach was also based on the realization that after acting since I was 10 – that would be for 23 years – I no longer had any desire to act. I was done. Ironic, since I had just been granted an MFA in Acting. But without that degree, nothing that happened later would have happened. So, going back to grad school changed my life. It was a bold move for someone like me. I’d stayed in Michigan. I was cautious. At the time, I was not someone who could just pick up and move someplace far away. I had ties to my family, I watched out for my sisters, I had a support group of friends and family. But staying there, I realized when I turned 30, would have been lethal for me. I was stuck working in a job that I didn’t like to support myself. I worked 40 hours a week and spent another 25 rehearsing for various productions. I hated doing something I had absolutely no interest in. I had dear friends who knew me well and urged me to make a change. I knew that the way to do it was to audition for a graduate program and earn a post-graduate degree (which had always been important to me.) Once I made that decision, the rest followed.
So. Three times in my life I have changed my course. Moving away to grad school. Deciding to no longer act, but to teach instead. And eventually giving up a lucrative teaching position and resident voice and dialect position with the Old Globe Theater in San Diego to move east with my husband and freelance.
But back to Boston University. That job was everything for me. I worked my ass off. I was usually gone for 12 – 15 hours a day, teaching classes during the day, attending rehearsals at night. Since it was my first teaching job, I felt like I was about 2 days ahead of my students. Every night, I wrote a lesson plan for the next day. Then I ‘sold’ it. That is what I did when I interviewed for a job – I had to teach a class and I sold it. (I can be very funny and charming.) Same with teaching. I think all of us – at times – feel like we’re fakes, pretending to be qualified when, in our heart, we feel exactly the opposite.
That entire first year, as I taught phonetics and Standard American Speech (speech for the stage that had no discernible regionalisms and a rich, full sound) and another class in dialects, I was figuring out how to teach it. I was blessed in my colleague Robert Chapline, a brilliant teacher who became my mentor. I wrote about him a few years ago when he died. He was always there for me if I had questions – a gentle man and a gentle guide.
BU’s program was a tough one and there were cuts made after the second year. (I hated making those decisions.) But it was a BFA program and when you’re 18 and coping with all sorts of changes in addition to the demands of classwork and performance, there comes a time when you – or the faculty – realize it’s not the right fit. But the students! Lord, how I loved them. They were fiercely talented and intelligent and funny and demanding and I remain friends with many of them to this day. They brought out the best in me. I had to become good at what I do. I coached everything; mainstage shows, lab shows, projects…I never stopped.
I worked there for five years, only leaving because I was paid too little to survive long-term in Boston, which is a very expensive place to live. When Bill Lacey hired me, he hired me as a visiting assistant professor. Since they hadn’t been able to do a full-out search, I was ‘on approval’ for that first year. I was so grateful for the job that I accepted a ridiculously low salary and, though I got a raise every year, it wasn’t enough to make a huge difference. Luckily, for four out of the five years I was there, I lived in a rent controlled apartment in Cambridge. But my first year? The smallest studio I have EVER lived in – three times the rent of the rent-controlled one bedroom I eventually moved into. The size of many walk-in closets I see on Instagram.
Many of those students are working to this day. Some of them are rather big in Hollywood; Krista Vernoff, the show runner for Gray’s Anatomy and Station 19. Michael Medico, who directs for both those shows, as well as others. Cynthia Watros, Daytime Emmy Award winner for her long-running role on Guiding Light, Abraham Higginbotham, producer for Will and Grace, Ugly Betty, and Executive Producer and Writer for Modern Family and multiple Emmy winner. Peter Paige, actor in the series Queer as Folk and many more, and producer and creator of The Fosters. Kim Raver, actress, who has had continuing roles on countless shows; 24, Ray Donovan, Designated Survivor and currently, Grey’s Anatomy. Anthony Ruivivar, who works constantly – he was a regular on Third Watch and has a new series starting up right now. He’s also married to a fellow alum, Yvonne Jung. And more, of course, I just can’t remember specifics at the moment. I am still friends with them to this day.
They shaped me. They made me want to help them and be the very best I could be.
Also, while I was at BU, I started to coach in regional theater, specifically, at the Huntington Theater in Boston as well as the North Shore Music Theater. All of that experience prepared me for my next job.
More later.
Stay safe.
Happy Tuesday.
I am so happy you are documenting your career on your blog. I so enjoy hearing your experiences and how it all came about for you.
Sincerely,
Marion
Thank you Marion. I’m glad you’re enjoying the posts!
Stay safe.
FYI. You love gardening so much. Be sure to watch THE GARDENER on Amazon Prime. Frank Cabot designed one of the most renowned gardens in the world in Quebec. Like you, he had to make a career change and the world, especially Quebec, Canada is a better and more beautiful place because of it. His contributions to gardening are documented in this film written and directed by his son. The creative, imaginative and stunning gardens are emotionally uplifting.
This Michigan girl has never left. I still live about 40 miles from where I grew up. I never would have had the courage you did. You were very brave. All those changes lead you to Don eventually so I think it was meant to be.
I did some yard clean up on Sunday and yesterday I felt aweful from allergy. Today I feel a bit better. We have a big yard too and I leave it completely to my husband and his riding mower. Pushing a mower must be exhausting.
The puzzle looks fun and cheerful. Rest and feel better.
It is exhausting, but we love it because we get a lot of exercise.
Thanks, Marilyn!
Stay safe.
Oh, thank you for letting me know about the program. I’ll be sure to watch it.
Stay safe, Nancy.
Thanks for your recommendation for The Gardener. I watched it yesterday, and I will be watching it again. It is magnificent.
First of all, I’m a bit jealous of the lawn mowing as we got 4″ of fresh snow overnight here south of Denver. We’re due for more tomorrow too.
Claudia, I love that you’re sharing stories of your teaching and learning with us. I’ve been following you for a while now, but now long enough to have “heard” many of these stories, just a few here and there. It’s so interesting to see where the different forks in the road take us on our journeys.
Have a good day!
Sorry about the snow!
Thanks Jayne, I’m glad you’re enjoying the posts.
Stay safe, Jayne!
So interesting to hear your work history. We’re having snow today after 70 degrees yesterday. Crazy weather. Have a great week.
Crazy, indeed! We’re heading into below freezing weather tomorrow! And high winds. April is crazy!
Stay safe, Judy.
Very interesting bio; very interesting jobs.
And I thought you’d hired a young helper to do that lawn when I saw the photo, realizing after I read on that it was DON. That is NOT the physique of a guy over 70! Bravo!
He’s not over 70 yet! He’ll turn 70 in June.
I’ll pass that along, he’ll be thrilled.
Stay safe, Vicki!
I love reading about your journey, and I am looking forward to the next installment. I hope you’re enjoying remembering, and writing, it as well.
What an influence you have been, and are, to the arts. I will love reading it when your journey reaches Don as well. You two offer a glimpse into a world I’ve never experienced, so I find it really interesting.
Perhaps I’m being presumptive, sorry. I’m really not trying to direct your blog content. It’s just so enjoyable.
Wow, that’s a lot of mowing without a riding mower. No wonder you’re both tired. If you wore your mask would it help with allergies? An added bonus to our new reality of mask wearing!
Oh, you’re not being presumptive!
I’m glad you’re enjoying these posts, Janice.
I tried wearing my mask but it gets annoying when I’m pushing the mower. It feels hard to breathe.
Stay safe!
My rams would say ‘yumm yumm’, when they saw the dandelions.
Thanks for sharing your theatre history!
Helga
I love dandelions and I don’t pull them because the bees need them right now!
Thanks, Helga.
Stay safe.
Claudia, thank you so much for sharing your career history with us. I’m looking forward to reading more.
You’re most welcome, Denise.
Stay safe.
Dear Claudia — seeing your green grass is great–know keeping it neat/tidy is never ending chore in growing season. Having lived w/my engineer Mr over 50 years, I have to ask — do you all do your own maintenance of your equipment, i.e. oil changes, blade sharpening, air filter replacement, etc?? I have learned alot in 50 years, LOL!!! being neatly cut and looking beautiful is good compensation for all the work!! hope your allergies lessen — I know how miserable that is. pls stay safe and healthy. p.s. am anxiously awaiting your progress on this puzzle
We don’t do a lot of maintenance. But we take good care of the lawn mower.
Thanks Linda!
Stay safe!
like others have already said, i am enjoying the stories about your career … especially how one thing led to another in your work and that you’ve enjoyed it. thanks for sharing!
and “massive” is exactly the right word for the size of your lawn (also “beautiful” because it sure is that, too), but wow; that is a lot of work to maintain! glad to hear that you and don take it easy after such work, even if it’s all a “labor of love”!
snow flurries yesterday and more windy, cold weather today. unfortunately those things will get rid of the blossoms on all our pretty flowering trees much too soon, but that’s april around here. the lawns are starting to look as green as yours, though, so that’s something good!
hope you are having a nice day and stay safe.
kathy in iowa
We have temps going down to 30 tomorrow night, then high winds on Thursday. Yikes.
Thanks so much, Kathy.
Stay safe.
So interesting. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks, Linda.
Stay safe.
That puzzle is going to be fun — and a bear! But glorious.
I can relate to the allergies. I brought in some daff blooms, falling hyacinths, a broken bleeding heart, and lilac buds that were due to be nipped during last night’s freeze. They look so pretty on my table, about three feet from my face as I type.I will have to move them, I htink. Stuffed, sneezing and loving them so much!
I love hearing your career trajectory. Do you mind if I forward your blog posts to Jerry? He probably won’t comment (he doesn’t on mine, I’m not sure he even reads it!) but I know he’d be fascinated! I am!
Not at all, feel free to share! Hey, did you ever know Donna Garcia, while you were at MSU? She’s a dear friend of mine, also in our high school class, and she studied music. She, Jerry and I were pals.
Stay safe, Jeanie!
I didn’t know her. Our paths never crossed, which I think might be a sad thing!
xo