At first, I had no intention of writing a book, the project began as a therapeutic journal during a traumatic experience. Two years after A CHORUS LINE I had another baby girl and after dealing with a horrendous bout of post-partum depression I sought help and my doctor suggested I try EST (Erhardt Seminar Training).
This sixty-hour course taught on unleashing your “inner power” and gave me various therapeutic approaches to making positive changes in my life. After the seminar was completed a shift took place and the flood gates of creativity burst. In that first week I wrote a one-woman comedy act for myself complete with songs. I had never written a song before yet there I was writing song after song as segues in my act.
The writing became so prolific I wrote twenty songs in a two-months. It even garnered me an Honorable Mention in the Eighth Annual American Songwriters Festival. Keeping a journal enabled me to go back in time, to review and work through my past insecurities. It stabilized me and helped me grow. The daily snippets of writing soon became an obsession and my favorite saying took hold “A little each day soon becomes a lot.” I continued to write, and it helped ease the pressure of self-doubt. Eventually it became my newly discovered respite from the daily workload of raising my three young children.
An astounding thing happened soon after, my husband Andy Bew was contracted to direct and choreograph a company of the musical version of Some Like It Hot, called SUGAR for Chris Manos at the Theater of the Stars in Atlanta Georgia. Having acquired a new found inner confidence I announced to Andy that I wanted to audition for the lead role that I had understudied six years and two babies earlier. He informed me that he had a list of top Broadway performers he would be auditioning as well. “No problem,” I told him “that part is mine.” I knew it was my part from the first time I watched it from the wings when I was very pregnant with my first baby. I had paid my dues through the experience of understudying Leland Palmer in the West Coast company and never had the chance to go on as Sugar. I felt it in my very core. I was determined to keep that promise I made to myself during A CHORUS LINE, I would never be an understudy again and so I began training for my audition.
Daily vocal and dance workouts in my living room became a greater part of my routine. I insisted “I don’t want anyone to know I am your wife. I will get this on my own merit. Plus, I don’t want anyone thinking they are doing you a favor and getting a two for one deal. I will be paid as an individual and get what I deserve.” I showed up at the audition in a tight purple jersey dress that I made especially for the occasion. Embodying the character of Sugar Kane, I mesmerized the producer. He never knew I was Andy’s wife till the first day of rehearsals when he introduced me with overwhelming flattery, to the rest of the company. Andy turned to him and thanked him for my compliments, proudly adding “She’s my wife.” At thirty years old when my youngest child turned one, I was contracted to perform in my first leading lady role, co-starring with Robert Morse, Ken Berry and the legendary Donald O’Connor.
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