An EArly Start...
I was a talker right from the start.
As the class chatterbox in the first grade my teacher, Mrs. Downey, actually moved my desk next to hers at the front of the class. It was a last ditch effort to prevent me from nattering all day long. Much to her chagrin, I simply talked to her instead of my classmates. But who was to know that all of those checkmarks in the 'talks excessively' boxes of every one of my reports cards was actually just stamina training for my future profession.
Thanks to my parents making sure we were exposed to all kinds of 'culture', I was swept away by the siren call of "treading the boards" early on and participated in plays, choirs, and public speaking throughout my childhood. My parents did not blink when I announced I would be pursuing a degree in Theatre Performance. I earned my portion of my tuition by doing summer stock during college -- and it was there that I met my future husband.
Six days after college graduation, I began my first full-time job as an actor. I toured for two years with "The National Theatre Of The Deaf", a company I had seen perform throughout my childhood. I was tasked with the responsibility of playing my own characters, as well as providing the voices of multiple characters for deaf actors who were signing their lines. During my first year with NTD, the Artistic Director asked me if I would be willing to do the voiceover for a video about the company's work...I would make some extra money and get to try something I had never done before.
Behind the mic in that studio, a lightbulb came on. I realized that the combination of working as a voiceover actor and a stage actor held a very special appeal. My actor's toolbox applied in two very different ways -- a rehearsal process followed by the run of a stage show where you have to live the character start to finish every night... and a listen-closely, deliver-quickly world where surgical precision is rewarded because time is money.
I was hooked. This dance between voiceover acting and stage acting became the new dream.
And I am so grateful to get to do both, practically every single day.
Thanks to all of you who keep that dream coming true.
- Kymberli Colbourne