Weakness
I knew I wanted to spend my life acting since I was five years old. I grew up constantly playing pretend, writing stories and songs, and furthering my craft with various local acting, singing, and dance programs. However, after a Muscular Dystrophy diagnosis at the age of 7, acting became more than a just hobby. It started as an escape, a release of my frustrations dealing with an uncooperative body. Writing a story was not merely enough---I wanted to live it. I walked out of my body and into that of whomever I was playing, learning to see myself as them, to bring all aspects of myself BUT my disability into my work.
I fell into Shakespeare through my love of over the top drama, and then into musical theatre (where I have since remained), in awe of the ability to combine acting, singing, and dance into one. It was with Adventure Theatre MTC's phenomenal pre-professional program that I learned to embrace my disability as a part of myself. Dance is a beautiful thing---creating something out of our bodies---and something I had felt very disconnected from. I felt like I didn't deserve to love my disability, my body, because of a society that so frequently failed to hear my struggle.
It was then that I found my real calling: to become a voice for everyone else who has ever felt this way.
I have continued performing onstage, owning my adapted dance style, and striving to bring disability into each role as a strength and an asset---and have seriously advanced my technique writing stories and songs. I strive to create something new and interdisciplinary, rooted in disability, blossoming into an empire of unheard voices. An empire of strength, driven by the one greatest strength we all have and fail to acknowledge as such:
WEAKNESS.