After teaching dramatics for a year after college, I auditioned for Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. When I was politely rejected, after running through five pieces, I signed up for a course at The Catholic University of America in order to be eligible to try out for its productions. I had the good fortune to be in the first two plays of that season, one of which was The Skin of Our Teeth, directed by Alan Schneider, who was the director at both Arena Stage and the university. During the happy experience playing Sabina in The Skin of Our Teeth, Zelda Fichandler changed her mind and invited me into the company at Arena, to play Margery Pinchwife in The Country Wife. And that’s when I got my precious Equity card, in 1953.
