My first official performance that I recall (other than piano recitals & backyard folly) was the year I read a Shel Silverstein poem at the school talent show. It was about Melinda Mae who sat down to eat an enormous whale: "She thought she could. She said she would . . . She took little bites and chewed very slow . . . and in eighty-nine years she ate that whale because she said she would"  I guess that set up my life as a performer in many ways - as I have persisted and trained and performed and persisted and I hope to continue to do so until I am at least eighty-nine!  I have tread the boards in many types of venues ranging from regional, tour, stock, off-Broadway, and cabaret with repertoire that includes Shakespeare, opera, operetta, improvisation, new plays, classics, and loads of musical theatre!