Granny Has A Podcast

And then some other stuff happened.

I wanted to stage an all-female 1776. I was going to produce, and play John Adams, and hire an all female team. Some folks headed for Broadway already had theirs in process, and independently producing a musical is a long road.

I got as far with it as being a recognized producing entity by MTI, and on the email updates for when rights would be released to my then geographic area. I had beautiful women friends from the musical theatre plugged into dream roles.
A month later, my castmates of Menopause the Musical saw my career end in a dance rehearsal accident at Pearl in Manhattan. I should have been rested between strenuous numbers; older muscle tears when over stressed. I was the only one over 60 in the room. It was my Big Showbiz Break and it ended in tragedy. I had torn through a gluteus medius like it was tissue paper.
The company fired me and took no financial responsibility.
A hematoma began to spead down from my hip to my knee. I couldn’t get an MRI. The husband I used to trust refused to come to New York at all, even to help me home. I never received the full term of care required because a pandemic messed us all up.
So much has changed. I left him and I live on the couch of the friends I was staying with when I was injured. I’m divorced. I know now that I’m autistic AF and always have been. Lost friends. Gained friends.
And I may not be able to offer anybody a strenuous 40 hour rehearsal week with heavy choreography…
But I can still play John Adams.
And I still come equipped with my own ponytail.
And by next year, I will be on my feet and auditioning again.
I faced the fact some years ago that Broadway is inaccessible to me, and I probably won’t see any of those theatres from the on stage view.
But I can still play John Adams.
It’s a highly romanticized view of the Founding Owners and except for “Molasses to Rum” it doesn’t deal with the racist nightmare of owning human beings. It ain’t no Hamilton.
But there is still value in the work. And there is still value in the old girl here.
It’s been a season of pain, poverty, and paperwork as I have wrenched myself from the wrong marriage and started my life over from scratch. And my ex-husband, who knows what he did and how he got to here, disappeared all evidence of his 20 year relationship and styled himself “single” months before the divorce was final. So, you know. Erasure.
But I have three clients now. One for audio editing, one for voice acting coaching, and one for audition coaching (theatrical). I have a closet studio, better sleep habits, and safe space in the right city. The storms are diminishing as I clean up untidy ends.
Wait for it.
Like a volcano, I am not necessarily extinct. I might be between eruptions.
Anyway, tragic though the state of the Union may be, we can always celebrate the various forms of Independence.
I know I will.