En route to becoming an energy healer, I took many side roads. One of those roads was becoming an amateur actor. I left acting before giving myself a chance to become anything greater than “amateur”. The English and French word “amateur” comes from amatus, the past participle of the Latin word amare, which means “to love.” According to one definition, an amateur is “someone who pursues sports, studies, or other activities purely for pleasure instead of for financial gain or professional advancement.” The acting school was a place called HB Studio in the West Village of NYC. Besides providing all the necessary classes, Voice, Body Movement, Scene Study, etc. the school would put on productions in their own quaint and cozy 100 seat theatre. When I was cast, I was usually cast in comedy, as I believe I have inborn comedic timing. This is not me showing off because it’s a pretty well known fact that the greatest comedians are often the loneliest and most misunderstood souls. I’ve always believed that comedic timing cannot be taught. You either have it or you don’t. And if you have to explain the “joke” to the actor, they don’t have “it”. There’s another expression in the entertainment industry that says, “Never act with children or animals. They’ll steal the scene every time.” The role was Sarah Siddons, (a grand Welsh actress and tragedienne from the 18th Century) in Christopher Durang’s play called THE ACTOR’S NIGHTMARE. The running joke was that no matter what I wore, no matter what the surroundings, in each scene I wore ginormous faux diamond earrings which dangled to my shoulders and a vintage bedazzled red cigarette holder. But just to drive the point home and make my character even more shi-shi, they decided to have me hold a tiny dog (a la Paris Hilton style) in every scene. One of my fellow actors had the most adorable miniature Yorkshire Terrier who she volunteered for the role. And as a cherry on the proverbial Sundae, they decided to have the dog wear similar accessories to mine. We couldn’t fit earrings on her, but one of the scenes had me wearing a floral head scarf/babushka style. We had some left over fabric, and my small furry friend wore the same tiny version of the babushka. Little did I know that this stage experience would also foreshadow how important a healing “touch” is in life. A couple of the scenes I was in had some loud bangs, and during rehearsals, I felt the pup shaking in my arms during these sound explosions. It was like her little heart was leaping out of her chest. This was so many years before I every heard of energy healing, but instinctively, I knew I had to send energy to this doggie or hold it in a way that made her feel safe and secure in my arms. Actually, this worked out for both of us. Having to consciously put the dog at peace helped to ground me as well. When you’re grounded and calm, you can deliver your lines with ease and in a deadpan serene fashion. And here was my reward. The pup was so in tuned with me, with my every move, that every time I turned my head to my fellow actor, so did she. When my head turned to the audience, so did the pup’s. If I looked up at the ceiling, so did the pup. We were like ONE! All I heard was waves of laughter each time this in sync phenomenon happened, but I had no idea why they were laughing. And then…a standing ovation. So, YES, you can share a scene with animals and not be upstaged, if you have the magic TOUCH.
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