I received my Equity card in 2000, quite by accident. At the time, I was a junior working toward a degree in musical theatre at Baldwin Wallace University. I was hired as a non-Equity performer by Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, Ohio for its production of Gypsy, which starred Donna McKechnie. When I showed up for the first day of rehearsal, the company had lost one of its Equity cast members. There was suddenly an extra Equity contract. The director Victoria Bussert, who also happened to be my teacher at Baldwin Wallace, pulled me into the hallway and said, “I want you to join Equity. You're ready.” I think I told her I had to go ask my mom! My paperwork was filed later that day and I remember feeling grown up, as I was now a member of Actors' Equity.
