Cori's Per-FARM-ance Adventure

Cori’s Per-FARM-ance Adventure  OR
How I was offered a “Power Moment” and took it!

People dream about breaking away from our “regular” lives. We pine for a chance to chuck it all aside and do something fresh and new and “exciting.” But it is only the rarest of opportunities that will get us to actually take any action. This site is the story of my rare and singular opportunity and what happened when I took it.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

You’re doing what?
I’m quitting my job and moving to Minnesota for 2 1/2 months to live on a farm and be in a play. Really?

I’m a 46-year-old woman trying to reinvent myself and my life. I’ve come to Minnesota to live on my friends’ farm, to write, learn a bit about farming, rediscover my artistic side, as well as rehearse and perform in a play. The specific project has a clear beginning, middle, and end, but it is also a new beginning for me on a much larger scale.

April-May 2011

Lucky! How come you get to do this?
Back in April, I was chatting with my dear friend Evie Barr, with whom I studied theatre at Northwestern University in the 1980s. She was walking me through the astonishing number of creative projects she has undertaken this year and mentioned that she was going to be directing a local community-theatre production of the musical Oliver! She said, “Hey, you should come out here and play Nancy!” I said, “Don’t tempt me,” and she said, “No, I’m serious.” I warned her, “You know I would really consider doing this. Do you think it’s actually feasible? Surely I’m too old to play her.” —“Definitely not! Nancy could be anybody.” —And the conversation went on from there.

The whole idea seemed insane, but I felt a jolt in my core. Over subsequent days I thought about the prospect of leaving my job and transporting myself into this other world to reinvent myself. I talked with my husband and my therapist. I experimented with mentioning the idea to friends and a few acquaintances, to see how they’d react. I tried the idea on for size.

I had been wanting to get back to acting for a long time, but had been away from it for at least a decade, and could not imagine where to begin. Though I was enjoying my job well enough, loved my coworkers, and knew I was doing important work, I wasn’t passionate about it. After more than five and a half years, I found myself struggling each day to stay motivated.

In and out of work, I had fallen into a deep rut. I’d been in a state of constant, low-level depression for several years and it was keeping me from making any significant changes. I knew that I had once been a person driven by creativity; fueled by the need to make art, but that person seemed so young, naive, and far away. I couldn’t seem to get motivated or find the passion that had once picked me up out of bed every morning. It was no-one’s fault; just the kind of thing that happens to a lot of people at this point in their lives.

When I told my boss Catherine that this was a straight-up mid-life crisis, she corrected me and said, “No, this is a power moment and you should embrace it!” I loved that concept, and really took it to heart.

This is crazy talk. It’ll never work!
There was an interlude of several weeks, during which I realized on my own and discussed with Evie that I couldn’t possibly take on the juicy role of Nancy when there were undoubtedly women who actually lived in the community who would love to play her. Evie acknowledged this, but was very kind and said that we should check in again after the audition process was over. Though I agreed to do so, I convinced myself that there was absolutely no chance that it would work out.

I put aside the idea of going to Minnesota and playing Nancy, but felt buoyed by a new sense of possibility. Just the fact that Evie seemed convinced that I might be able to play such a complex and challenging character made me feel that the rut I was in might not be so deep after all. I started to feel like I might be able to find that lost young creative person inside me after all.

Moving on.
Those several weeks went by and I didn’t expect to hear anything from Evie. I was sure she would be wracking her brains, trying to figure out which eager young woman from Wykoff or Spring Valley would be best suited to play Nancy in her unique production of Oliver! I was doing some consulting work that day for Bunny, my sister’s mother-in-law, and my good friend. Taking a break, I checked my email like I do numerous times every day.

Among the e-newsletters, and requests to speak up about a dozen social causes, I spotted an email from Evie. It simply said, “You’re Nancy if you want to be!”

I was stunned, and thought I might need to check my blood pressure because heart was pounding so hard. I tried to call Craig, but he was in a meeting or something and couldn’t get to the phone. I went downstairs to talk with Bunny, but she was busy on the phone as well. I was thinking seriously of jumping out of my skin.

So…
Long story slightly shorter than it might be if written by someone less verbose than I…

This opportunity was so obviously the thing I needed at this particular moment in my life that I quit my job, left behind my husband and dog, and flew half way across the country to seize it!

(By the way Craig, the aforementioned husband, is my biggest supporter and has been behind the whole crazy thing right from that first phone call with Evie. Willow, the dog is probably a lot less happy than Craig. She is a herding dog and is no doubt deeply concerned that an integral member of her pack is not in her rightful place. Hopefully she’ll forgive me, and I promised her that I’ll be back soon!)