Break a Leg Avalon!

11 years ago I was about to give birth to my daughter and living in a funky little apartment in Pittsburgh. I had walked away from a deeply flawed MFA acting program and my husband was dissolving a dysfunctional business partnership. To say that we were taking a leap of faith into the great unknown would be an extraordinary understatement. To say we were scared out of our minds would be a more apt description.

We had decided to move to eastern PA and open a bead store and fair trade handicraft gallery and were working on the logistics of said move. We gave birth to a beautiful baby girl that February and we began to undertake the arduous and daunting task of parenting. She was the center of our universe and we designed a reality that allowed us to share in taking care of her every day while running our new store. We could have done it differently and perhaps in hindsight it might have made more sense financially, but we did what we did and I think our daughter is the better for having had both of her parents take turns parenting her. There is an old proverb I love that says, “Mothers give you roots and fathers give you wings. You need both.”

I was still pursuing my acting and vocal music career when we first moved to the Philly area; I’ve since merged those goals with my current career. People asked me over and over again why I didn’t get her an agent and get her work. She was an ethereally magical creature with huge blue eyes and porcelain skin. Perfect strangers went out of their way to comment on her beauty. I simply couldn’t imagine trudging my baby around to auditions. I felt as if it should be her choice and not mine. There is nothing worse than a parent who forces their dreams and goals on their children, I believe we should all choose our own pathway and not bear the weight of someone else’s dreams. I suppose I've been the opposite of the stage mother because I’ve not pushed my daughter towards performing at all.

Last year we were looking at summer camps and she asked to do theatre camp. I said yes and told her if she liked it she could explore it further. She loved it. The woman who ran the camp loved her and asked her to audition for The Wizard of Oz. She did, she got three roles and a solo song and tonight, my lovely daughter, my favorite person on the planet and my bestest friend debuts in her first play. I can take absolutely no credit for her talents, she’s fiercely independent and she’s not really wanted my advice or help and I have respected that by staying out of her way and allowing her to shine.

Of all of the things I’ve done in my lifetime, of all of my incarnations and experiences, none of them come close to the joy I feel at being the mother of such an amazing, smart, creative, talented, beautiful young woman. My current career was designed so that I could be present with her and I feel so lucky to have that opportunity when I put her on the bus every morning. I’m arriving in LA tomorrow evening for CHA, which has proved to be a bit of a logistical nightmare because of my early class on Sunday, but I wouldn’t miss my daughter’s play for the world.

Break a leg, Miss Avalon!

Love
Mom