Second Act

Tell me about your path to acting and the other work you do now—how did your career unfold?

My first acting role was in the second grade at P.S. 63. I played one of the leads in Christmas in Puerto Rico; I replaced the initial student who had been chosen to play Juan.

I don’t remember acting on a stage again until a dozen years later as a member of Masque and Gown. My experiences on the Bowdoin theater stage made me consider the possibility of making a livelihood from acting.

What I had still to learn were the concepts that would enable me to not only bring a playwright’s words to life but would also create a character. Following college graduation, I returned home and took on the employment task of being an actor: plowing through the trade journals (Backstage and Showbusiness) as soon as the latest editions were on the newsstands, buying sheet music for musical auditions, finding monologues for drama auditions, going to casting cattle calls, pursuing professional representation.

I auditioned for Hair and Hello Dolly, among other Broadway shows; I didn’t get them. Toured from NYC to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, in a children theater musical based on the life of Harriet Tubman. Several background acting spots: Superman, Raging Bull, and Nighthawks among them.

My film work enabled me to join SAG, the Screen Actors Guild. I put my full-time pursuit of acting on hold in the mid-’70s and obtained my master’s in library science from Rutgers University. I spent the next twenty-five years working in libraries and library related fields.

Upon “retirement” I revived my acting endeavors. I theorized that relocating to Fort Lauderdale and being part of the aging Baby Boomer generation would be assets for me. I contacted four agencies in the Miami area, and within a month I was going on auditions and getting a variety of assignments: movie and music videos, TV commercials, and print work. I read once, 2 to 4 percent of SAG members receive an annual salary to sustain a living. I am now at a stage in my life where my husband and I have a stable retirement, which allows me to still pursue my craft as an actor.

What do you find inspiring, rewarding, or challenging about your work?

Most challenging is creating a new character. Sometimes the playwright or director provides you with enough formation to use in developing your character. In other instances, you have scant direction from the writer or director, so you build a complete backstory for the character on your own.

What brought you to Bowdoin?

Having grown up in The Bronx and attended a high school with over two thousand students, I had my eye on a small college in a bucolic setting. Oberlin had been my first choice, but a couple of weeks later my college advisor recommended two small colleges in Maine that might suit me—Colby and Bowdoin. I was leaning toward majoring in history. Both were in small towns, far from The Bronx. It was close, but Colby had the edge. Even as I rode a Trailway bus to Brunswick to visit Bowdoin for a weekend, I had my steamer trunk packed for Waterville. After two days on the Bowdoin campus I could not imagine not returning to The Bowdoin Pines.

Are there ways that your academic or extracurricular work at Bowdoin has come into play in your life or career?

The concept I had of the theater before my freshman year was memorizing pages in scripts and studying Shakespeare. Over my four years in Masque and Gown, theater became a religion for me. Memorize lines, sure. Hit your mark, definitely. But so much more. Developing characters. Realizing that theater is universal and existed long before The Bard. That while a play can be a unique work, the emotions have existed before and have been repeated over and over again in new ways.

Is there something about your work or life that others would find surprising?

From a kid growing up in The Bronx who traveled no further than rural Virginia by my teens, I’ve managed to set foot on six continents and two thirds of the United States. Beginning with a professional touring children’s theater company, I’ve played small venues, like The Ford Theater in DC, and larger areas like the Kennedy Center. I’ve watched blue-footed boobies dance up close in the Galapagos and had tea on a barren expanse on safari.

Is there something about YOU that others might find surprising?

That I still do a wicked Imitation of Diana Ross, Supremes era, in my street clothes.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

As most retired folks will attest, there is no spare time. My husband and I work for Clayborne-Vanderburg Inc. It’s a full day maintaining our household from 6:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The wonder is how we had an extracurricular life when we were working nine to five. We do watch the nightly news broadcast (like troglodytes)—as if there was anything that got by us watching MS NOW earlier in the day! We get together with friends to celebrate special occasions or just to celebrate being. We traveled a lot until two years ago. Now, having toured six continents, we plan to return to our favorites. With a new inhabitant joining us at home recently, we want to spend a good deal of our “spare time” time with our Ragdoll cat.

Best Bowdoin memory, or most lasting lesson from your Bowdoin days?

Spring finals 1966 were completed. One of my fellow freshmen brothers in Delta Sigma suggested we decompress with a camping trip to Camden Hills State Park. I had never had the opportunity to go camping, let alone do it with pals. It was cool and overcast on the drive up from campus. We stopped to switch drivers in a small town, by a small, white two-story house. We all got out of the car to stretch. Out of nowhere, a white goose materialized. Somehow I instigated a sense of ire in the bird. It began chasing me around our automobile, flapping its wings and blaring frightening squawks. My fellow travelers were left alone to double over in laughter. I made it back into the car without a scratch (or whatever marks biting geese leave).

I’ve been reminded of the incident several times over the years; most recently at my 50th Reunion five years ago. I still laugh whenever the story is told. We drove on to the park, where we spent a chilly weekend under a teetering tent and baked a cherry pie on a grill. You could call the adventure a fiasco; I think of the two days as emblematic of the four years I spent at Bowdoin, where I was exposed to a plethora of new experiences and learning and developed bonds with fellow students who have remained close despite years and distance.

This story first appeared in the Winter 2026 issue of Bowdoin Magazine. Manage your subscription and see other stories from the magazine on the Bowdoin Magazine website.