Karmyn's acting class at age 5

I grew up watching a lot of musical movies and loved The Sound of Music with Julie Andrews. When we moved to Texarkana, there were more ‘artsy’ opportunities, and I tried to give Karmyn a broad education of the arts. At 5 years old, I enrolled her in an acting workshop at Texas High with Mr. Al Pasley for the summer. No other 5-year-old signed up, so they put her in the older class. This introduced her to acting, and she loved it. They did a little play with costumes and music on the last night of the workshop for the parents to watch. Karmyn's character was a brown bear. 

From that night on she wanted to be on a stage. Our fireplace became her stage, and a Dr. Pepper bottle was her microphone to perform. Her dream was born at 5 years old to be on Broadway before she even knew what it was. For her mom, I cringed because the first rock musical Hair hit the New York stage in 1968 and featured a much-talked-about scene at the end of the first act in which the cast appeared totally nude on the dimly lit stage. Not what you want your child to be involved in but thank goodness Community Theatre was a little milder.

 

Fortunately, by the time she was 13 years old, the Phantom of the Opera was a Broadway musical hit and her first NYC Broadway experience. It just fed her passion for being on a stage.