Yes I tell my story over and over in different ways, not because I am special, but because all stories are. In the 1970’s I started thinking about storytelling while teaching would-be actors to tell their stories and began to see that the personal story is connected to bigger events people were born out of, into, and beyond them, that history is something people carry in their bodies.
Whether actors are just born that way, or if anyone can learn to act if they choose to is a question I still ponder. Having taught people who act, I can only answer that craft can be learned and the proclivity for it is inborn, a gift, a mystery one may not choose to work at. Gifted people who choose to work as actors are a gift to us all. Those who want to act and learn the craft are at least generous, because taking the time to use one’s life as an instrument of expression calls up energy connected to transmitting human lessons. To act is to teach.
I learned the craft of acting by saying yes to a part offered me at Howard, and never looked back. To support myself after finding my way to New York, and to learn more about acting I learned how to teach, to direct, to write, and to think about many things through the lens of theater.