Yes, I did intend for the title to rhyme. Please enjoy the musings of my first blog post!
For those of you who are skimming through my website and understand the reference in the banner of the homepage… bravo! If you’re a musical theater lover to any extent, you will understand that it is a reference to the beloved show Cabaret. If there’s one thing to know about me, it’s that participating in musical theater early on in my life and up until college is a main reason for why I am who I am today. Theater sparked confidence, passion, curiosity, mindfulness, drive, and purpose in me. While I did not pursue it as a career, one of my “what ifs” in life, there are few trades that make you ponder in the way theater does.
Many of the most important talks of my teen years were up on a sandy, badly gaff taped, marley covered stage at a musical theater camp in middle-of-nowhere Wisconsin. It didn’t matter that the costumes we wore hadn’t been washed in decades or that I often woke up with an odd red eye from all the mold and moisture in the walls, the people there, both the staff and campers, made it magic. Once my enchanting week was over, I’d leave with enough confidence and love to fuel me for another year until I would inevitably return the next August. One of the hardest parts of being a proper adult has been finding spaces for creativity and passion to flourish in the same way as it did at this wondrous little camp.
While I did not do theater in college, jazz ensemble and a cappella choir became spaces for me to stay connected to a freer version of myself. These activities were necessary for my morale while I took on leadership roles within student affairs, stirred the pot at the school newspaper, and said “yes” to every job, internship, and academic opportunity I could. Inevitably, I often found myself quite stressed out by all of the activities. When considering taking something off of my plate, my immediate reaction was always to cut out one my “creative” commitments, as it was also often suggested by the people around me. Fortunately, I knew better.
I’d like to believe that I am the storyteller I am today, in all mediums, because of my humble beginnings telling tales on the stage, devouring scripts, and jitterbugging through dance breaks.
AUDRA GRIGUS 