Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
To disability empowerment. Now, season 4.5 bonus.
I'm your host, Keith Levi de Ginsini.
I'm talking to my good friend and colleague Anita Holland.
Anita, welcome back to the show.
[00:00:33] Speaker B: Hi, Keith. Thanks for having me.
[00:00:36] Speaker A: No problem.
It's always a joy to talk to you. We must act again together. I still remember Teachers pet. It sends shivers down my spine every time I just think about it. And we go. We miss you so, Anita. You always do so much.
You're a powerhouse of theater, of song, and you just received a huge award.
Tell us about that.
[00:01:28] Speaker B: Well, it was the Harold Russell Award as part of the Media Access Awards. And it is given to somebody who is in the business, who has been in the industry and for their work in the industry, but also their advocacy and representation of the disability community.
And this was what I would call, to me personally, it was a lifetime achievement award because I've been advocating for over 40 years.
To be honest, about 48 years, because the first time I stepped on a stage after my first cancer operation with a brace on my leg, that automatically made me an advocate.
But my union advocacy began in 1983 when I was tugged in by associates who said, we need you here.
And I realized at my first meeting, which was at Actors Equity, and I wasn't even yet a member of Actors Equity, but that they did indeed need somebody who was working in the business who had a disability and knew the ins and outs and had some intelligence about it. And from there on, I started meeting extraordinary people and bringing as much positivity and optimism to a group that was largely complaining of the lack of any opportunities for them.
So here I was, person working mostly in the theater at that point, but then very quickly, it became television and, and sometimes film and, and voiceover. Just so many things started happening and it. It was.
It just kept going.
And I will tell you, Keith, when I did the acceptance speech in Hollywood and, and to be honest, this was a huge blessing in my life to be able to.
To be honored by the people I had wanted. I had been trying to help all these years, and they. They gave me so much love in return.
And I started my speech with the reason why I do all of this, which really came from my background, from my dad who died 50 years ago this.
This fall. Wow.
Who I had take, we had. He had left behind these words on a piece of paper, and the family was like, oh, my gosh. We didn't know where he got those words, but we assumed it was his handwriting. And there was no name of the quote or anything. And there were no quotation marks. So we, we had to know that it was him, that he was thinking through either a speech or something because he was a real leader and, and that he wrote, you know, like you write down a thought so you won't forget it. And his words were beyond the welfare of one's family and friends, the enhancement of the lives of others and those yet to come must be the real object of life.
And wow.
Yeah, right, wow. When I spoke those words to the audience that they were like, oh yeah. Like you could feel it in the room that it was amazing because it really spoke to why I would have given all of these years to, to doing this. Because you can be an advocate by, as I say, just getting on a stage on one leg, you know, and doing something like that. You're already advocating because you're saying I'm doing this, you can too. It's that sort of thing. But to go out of one's way and put in the hours, days, weeks, years into the hard work of committee work representing thousands of people and in fact, I think it's up to somebody said 60 million people, some people say 57 million people who identify as having a disability, not performers with disabilities.
But then within that is a large group of performers. And the arc of all of the work that we've done has come.
It's just exploded. We have so many more performers with disabilities working. So it was a great opportunity to thank the pioneers and thank my dad and note that my mom and my sisters and I have all lived those words all these years.
And also I got a little signing in at the end and a little singing too. I was like, I wrote a speech that would be like a little three act play within 90 seconds. And I tried to put everything I wanted to do, but 30 seconds for this, 30 seconds for that and 30 seconds and I'm out of here.
[00:06:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
And you got presented by and recognized the current SAG president, Sean Adston, who is a little known actor, starred in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
That just meeting him mods have been mind blowing.
[00:07:25] Speaker B: Honestly, it was Keith. And I want to say looking at you in the screen, you look like you could be as brother. Basically when he showed up before the red carpet, I had done the red carpet.
[00:07:37] Speaker A: Tell him that bleed.
[00:07:40] Speaker B: I will. I'm talking to him later. I will tell him because it's very interesting.
You might want to look at your lineage.
But I was waiting in the area for the red carpet. I had already done my little Red carpet moment. And then they had said, come back out because we want to wait until Sean gets here and then you'll go out and walk the red carpet with him. Which to me was just a wonderful.
One of the many wonderful things of the evening. Right.
Well, I thought, well, and then I saw that he was, he had arrived and he was coming over and people were stopping and talking to him. And then it's, it was kind of magical and kind of Hollywood. Because we were in Hollywood.
[00:08:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:28] Speaker B: And we're really near a parking lot. Literally the, the, the holding area outside. The red carpet was outside. And what you would. What was a parking lot.
[00:08:37] Speaker A: That's magical.
[00:08:39] Speaker B: Yeah, it's most magical parking lot ever. But he sees me and he just like, just right. Comes right up to me and gives me a hug and I'm like, never met the man. Just had seen him in committee meetings with him and we hadn't, as far as I can remember, had much communication about this.
This was his first public appearance since he was elected president, so that made it special. But the warmth that was coming off of him and like, we were old friends and like.
And he, he is a person who does his homework.
[00:09:21] Speaker A: Oh, I bet he does.
[00:09:23] Speaker B: Honestly, in committee meetings, many different committees that I'm on and that he's on, I would watch him and when he would raise his hand to speak, it would usually be like, I've read the report on that, or I don't think I have the full report. Could you please send me the rest of that? I mean, this is a man who does his homework. He looks up the information he wants to know. And this was before the elections, before I knew that he was going to run and maybe before he knew he was going to run, because apparently it was. It might have been a short notice kind of thing that he was running, but I don't know that for sure. I just know that I didn't know he was running. But as he was speaking at these meetings, I would say, you know, he would make a really good president.
[00:10:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:17] Speaker B: Not knowing that any minute now I was going to find out that he was running for president. And.
And I thought, what a perfect choice. Because he's humble. Yeah. He takes responsibility.
Yeah. He comes from two very, very big people. John Astin and Patty Duke. And Patty Duke had won the Harold Russell Award in 2002, so.
For her advocacy about mental health.
And I didn't know that until late in the day, but he took this so personally that when he went to announce me in, you know, when he was on stage introducing me and had definitely done his homework. Nobody did that for him.
He apparently went off the prompter to speak personally about me. And I wasn't able to hear everything because Henry Winkler was coming off stage from presenting something to Marlee Matlin. And there was a lot of crowd in this backstage, and they were like, you need to get over there. And I couldn't because Henry was not going to bother Henry, not going to bother the font, but.
So I didn't get to hear everything. But later someone said that they had looked back at the prompter and he had gone off the prompter. And one of the things that he said, because backstage I was telling everybody that while I was out there, I was waiting to hear if my new. My latest granddaughter was born. My second granddaughter.
And I was another blessing.
[00:11:58] Speaker A: Beautiful.
[00:12:00] Speaker B: Oh, thank you. Well, I was. I was nervous for my daughter. I was nervous, you know, I just. Yeah, any minute my phone could say, she's born, because my daughter was already in labor.
So, like, mind boggling. I left for this theater from the hotel knowing my daughter was going into the labor room.
And I was like, just concentrate on the speech, you know. Well, I told Sean that this was happening. And he was like, and you still came out here? And I was like, well, it all just, you know, she's. The baby's early. I didn't know when I got on the plane yesterday that this was going to happen. And so what he said to the audience, he was like, and, you know, she's expecting a grandchild any minute now. And she decided it was important to come out here. And I mean, the way that he just so warmly, like the person that he gives off all that warmth, he did that on stage. So that by the time he introduced the clips, the reel that they showed and then introduced me, I just. I was like, trying not to cry because he was so gentle and earnest. And you can tell that from Lord of the Rings, because I looked back at some of the clips when he says, I will carry you, which I guess is the most famous moment. I don't know all the movies, but of those movies, but I was like, who wouldn't want to be on the same stage?
[00:13:29] Speaker A: Yeah, no.
Actors who are particularly humble are always the bad and most surprising kind, because particularly when you come from big, big names yourself, it's very easy that you could get a God complex.
You could have a massive ego.
And so to hear that he is as humble and delicate and that he does his own research no matter what, what it's very motivating.
I've known you for a long time. I still fawn over your song Cornelia street because it makes me smile and refer to you in my head as the female Leonard Cohen.
And yeah, but you've had a very impressive filmography, Law and order, FBI modes, wanted, and those are just the two big ones I remember off the top of my head.
You do so much.
How do you stay humble and centered and focused? We're on board together of theater breaking through barriers.
And again, how do you, I would say cope, but that's not really the stay sin yet. Anita, how do you cope with the fame and adulation of your parents? I would love to act, merit that, but.
And I know I'm not the only one who would.
How do you keep your ego in check?
But no, how.
How do you, Anita, stay centered and focused on the advocacy, long running, have make and have time to be a devoted mother, grandmother, wife?
I mean, you do so much, it's just mind boggling.
And I have the greatest esteem and appreciation for you.
I hope you know that. And so how did one stay so centered when you're doing so much and that people act so much of you?
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. I'm sorry that question wasn't shorter, but.
[00:17:24] Speaker B: That'S great.
Oh, gosh. Well, first of all, Meryl Streep is a much, much, much, much, much bigger person.
You know, personality, and everyone knows her and, and even. And, and Marlee Matlin for that matter.
[00:17:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:41] Speaker B: And I would say that I knew that when I was going to be getting this award that I would be the least known person in the, in the room.
And I was mistaken actually, because it turned out a lot of people knew who I was. But, but in the, in the bigger world, I'm the one who. Nobody knows what I'm doing there. And, and even certain people were like, so what are you here for tonight? I was like, well, I'm getting an award. And, but of course, after my speech then people, people who didn't know me knew me a lot better and there was a lot more stuff. But, but I think maybe it's, there's a couple of reasons for that whole staying centered or what humble or whatever. One of the things that low expectations.
I've been really good as being a person of low expectations all my life, which I think began when, you know, I wasn't expected to do very well in life because of an iq, low iq. And of course my mom disputed that and made sure that I don't let anybody tell me what I can't do or can do. But.
But this idea that the first audition I went to, she had said I would say don't go in there with any expectations. Just go in for the experience.
[00:19:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:08] Speaker B: Experience.
And that stuck with me through everything is that I don't expect people to know who I am. And I don't do the. The voluntary work, the hours, days, months, years. I don't do that for.
For recognition or for anything in return, except that I want to push the needle forward for everybody, not just me, but everyone.
So the focus when you say staying focused has been outside of myself on we are working like, you and me, we are working on this. We are working on the board of this theater. We are doing what we can to contribute to a better future of inclusion and authenticity. And. And, you know, I was thinking about also this, Keith, in relation to what you said.
I don't really let myself think too highly of.
I mean, I. I love myself, but I don't think let myself think too highly of all of these things that I've done. I use all of the things that I've done to. To either help me get more work or to help somebody else get more work or to.
To be able to speak intelligently about our industry and about our community, the disabled community.
And so everything that happens to me is something I can use.
And I also think of everything, every good thing as a gift.
[00:21:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:02] Speaker A: I mean, the. The whole purpose of this podcast, it's moving the needle forward and, like, relating to what you just said. I take the job seriously and I take my perfection sergely, but once I'm on a stage or on this platform, I'm a goofball.
I'm cocky. I'm.
Because.
[00:21:47] Speaker B: The.
[00:21:48] Speaker A: The older you get through life, if you don't, if you take yourself to search like, you become rigid and you've made a mistake in how you relate to life. So, yeah, I can relate to, like, if Nick and Lou would let me tell jokes in the meeting, I would never stop.
Hint, hint, hint.
But I mean, it. It's like, yeah, I mean, you go to my church and you ask people and they're like, he's so cocky and out there with his flavor of humor. And so, yeah, I. I totally can relate to that. There had to be a balance.
[00:22:59] Speaker B: In.
[00:23:01] Speaker A: How we interact and think about life and the lives of those around us.
What next for you?
[00:23:16] Speaker B: What is next?
Well, it's kind of wonderful.
There are upcoming things in the spring.
I'm the English Consultant on a musical in Paris in France, a Frenchman is writing a musical in English, which he loves to do. He's always been a songwriter. His name is Roman Rachelin.
[00:23:41] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:23:42] Speaker B: He and I, he was in America for a while back in 2013, and before that he. He was getting a lot of work over here as a dancer, singer, actor. He's a triple threat also. He writes his own music, he plays a bunch of instruments, and he's. He's a brilliant young man. And we did Cats together and also Anything Goes. But in it was in Cats that we kind of solidified our friendship. And because. Because I loved Jacques Brell, because of my love of Jacques Brell music. He was like, jacques Braille is the greatest living, the greatest legendary songwriter of all times. Of course, he isn't with us anymore, but, you know, to him I had just spoken the name of a deity and.
And I agreed. I was. And I had done some translating of it and I wanted to. To look at the translations and he corrected me on some of them. And. And then we just got to talking, realized we both write music, we both create our own shows, we both do these things.
He has a fascinating life. And his dance company was one of the finalists in France Has Got Talent, which is the. The France version. French version of America's Got Talent. And because his dance company did things you've never seen a dance company do on stage.
Amazing. And so he's already written one musical. It was a dance musical which he record. He wrote all the music, he choreographed all of it, and he. He made all the recordings that the dancers danced to. It was quite amazing and it did very well. And of course, he has the.
Also the support of Francis Got Talent. So a lot of. He had a lot of help getting it all together. And so the first show was called Stories, and it was in English and he had written a lot of songs in English and we had collaborated on a few songs because I got him a job here in New York doing some music with me. And so we had some time to work together.
So he was writing his second show and he said, would you help me with the lyrics again and make sure they make sense and make sure they're grammatically correct. And is this the right word? Because I was just looking up translate. You know, he speaks great English, much better than my French, I can tell you that. But I try. But French people don't like you to. To do it badly. So.
So he's writing a new show.
Well, actually, he has written the whole first act and They've already actually done a preview of it in Paris, and it's called the Rise.
And there was. There is no more relevant musical than this one.
[00:26:43] Speaker A: It.
[00:26:43] Speaker B: It kind of mirrors what's happening over here. And he. It's happening all over the world. World. Because France has had their problems. And a Europe, a lot of European countries, Hungary, I mean, a lot of countries are having the same trouble with dictatorship, authoritarians, what happens to the people who are not in power.
It's scary, much like the little film we.
The play we did together, but very serious. So we've been working at odd hours because he's six hours ahead of me. You know, it'll be two in the morning and he'll ask me a question and I'll actually answer. And he goes, what are you doing awake? And then I'm like, what are you doing awake?
But.
But it is going to have its premiere in Paris in April. And he said to me, how would you feel about us bringing you over to Paris? Oh, I don't know. Maybe. I don't know.
So I will get to spend some time in Paris. But then after that, another one of the beautiful gifts that have happened this year, and there are a lot of them.
[00:27:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:56] Speaker B: One thing I got to do in August was a reading of another new musical written here by two very talented, a composer and a lyricist. And I believe the lyricist has a disability.
And the Epic Theater Company was going to do readings, a staged reading of just music, not the script, but the music, the songs. And they were doing it at St. Anne's Warehouse on a Friday, and then that Sunday at Joe's Pub at the Public Theater, which are two really incredible, incredible venues.
[00:28:36] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:28:37] Speaker B: Allow you like this when you're unknown. I mean, Epic is not Epic Theater isn't. It's for those who don't know on the pod, listening to this. It's a theater in New York that has mostly people on the autism spectrum and their company. And I've worked with many of the actors, and they're brilliant actors. And some of them were in how to Dance in Ohio, Broadway. Well, I said. They said, would you. The artistic director, she asked Aubrey, she asked if I would be interested in narrating and sort of connecting the songs with narration and also just hosting, just sort of emceeing, introducing the cast, you know, introducing the show at these two venues. And I wasn't busy that week, so. And I said, does it mean a lot of rehearsal? And she said, no, you don't have to rehearse at All I'll have your script already and all you have to do is come and we'll do a run through and then. And then it'll happen.
And I was like, well, I'm free that those days. And I'd be very interested in seeing this. It's 504 the musical, which is a musical about the Judy Human story that you see in Crip camp. But the character is loosely based on Judy, the main character. But it's about all the people who camped out in the San Francisco Federal Building for what amounted to what's 27, 28 days or some ridiculous amount of time, because if they left, they wouldn't be allowed back in. And it was a protest. It was like, get this done. Get the 504Amendment. Get this done. And all over the country they were doing these.
These protests, but each one of them got shut down one after another. And the way they do that musically is brilliant.
I mean, Mason McDonald, I'm getting these names wrong, but Mason is the composer. And Abby Goldberg, I believe, amazing lyricist, like. Like up their highest standards in music and lyrics. I couldn't believe what I was hearing because I just showed up to help them out, you know, I didn't expect to be paid or anything. Just like, he let me help. I've never, I've known these wonderful actors from the Epic Theater, but I've never worked with them. Here's my chance to get two days where I can work with. I go out to St. Anthony Warehouse. We. And some of the actors had talked to me and I was like, oh, you were also in how to Dance in Ohio. You were great. I really. I'm glad I saw the show, you know. Yeah. And then we all go into the room and we all get seated and we do a read through, a run through, and voice after voice. I'm hearing just phenomenal, phenomenal songs, phenomenal lyrics, phenomenal performances. There were 15 people on that stage and I. There wasn't a weak link in the bunch. And it was so well written, so here I am. And I was the right person to choose because at some point, points, Mason, the composer, said, I need you to fit this sentence into two bars, two measures, meaning 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. I was like, I'm so used to doing that. It was like, cool, you know, we found out we both went to the BMI workshop. We both were accepted into the ASCAP workshop. We both had done work down at the NYU Musical Theater Workshop. We had so much in common that he was like, great. You're going to do this. And I had so much fun doing it.
It's funny, the first moment I opened my mouth to say the title, you know, like 504 the musical, all the heads turned around because I'm just sitting there with a mic and someone said, you really do this for like a living, right? I was like, yeah, again, Keith. Nobody knew who I was. It was just this one legged chick came to be the narrator.
It was one song after another. That was brilliant. And of course the audience just broke out into like screaming raving cheers at the end and, or many times in between.
And then on Sunday, by Sunday, I knew it. I knew the piece a little bit better. And I introduced it and Joe's Pub was packed to the gills. It was standing room only with enthusiastic people, in both cases, non disabled and disabled people in the audience. It wasn't one way or the other. So the cheers and stuff, we're not just, just not hooray for our side. It was like people packed into Joe's Pub, which is a classy place and.
[00:33:16] Speaker A: Yeah, yes, it is.
[00:33:19] Speaker B: And so for that reading, the person sitting next to me was one of the major roles in how to Dance in Ohio. And he did a song that I call the Soliloquy because it's about a non disabled brother of a disabled person who goes to the protest. And he's saying, well, all these people have so much more important problems than I have. I'm okay, I'm okay. And as the song builds, you realize he's not okay. But he doesn't want to complain because, you know, this guy's deaf, this guy's blind, this girl's, you know, this one has an artificial leg.
I'm nothing. I'm nothing. And then he just explodes. And when he sat down again, humility.
He sits down and I, and I say my little bit leads into the next song. And then I just looked at him like, because I had heard him do it on Friday, but I hadn't actually seen him because he was way over on the other side. This time he was right next to me and it was brilliantly performed. And I just looked at him like, yeah, speechless. And later we all got to talk a little more, but.
But it's beautiful. And so there's, there are more plans for what's going to happen. And next summer they are doing a production of it and I may be part of that and I'm hoping that I will be. And the composer and lyricists were so lovely. They were like, well, we'll just write you something, huh? I was like, I don't know if it will happen. You never know.
But, but, but it's nice to know. I love to know that there's something on the horizon that, that I've been a part of. And another great thing I did last spring in Alabama, in Birmingham, Alabama, was I. I was commissioned to write music to the lyric to the writing of a group of 15 writers, or 14 or 15 writers that came from all over the country, descended upon Birmingham, Alabama to do.
To perform their writing. But they were not performing performers, but they were going to. And the director combined their writing that they had collected over zooms over a year or two. And boy, this, this director writer was fantastic. Yeah, Suzanne. Suzanne, amazing.
She. She really put it together well. But as I was coming on the zooms to hear the writing, to see what I would make compose, you know, story after story, we're like, well, that's a song and that's a song. And oh my gosh, that's a funny song and that's a really moving song. And if we're going to do that, we should have an opening and we should have a closing. And sooner or later they were like, oh my gosh, you're writing a musical. And I'm like, yeah, four songs. Four songs. She said, well, we need to do a reprise of the first one. Halfway through the show, I'm like, okay. And I was able to go down to Birmingham and be also the musical director. So I was on stage with them and played for them. These people hadn't sung in public ever. And they had. They had a myriad of disabilities, all kinds of range of disabilities. They were very mature and marvelous human beings and all diversities, intersectionally.
Yeah, again, humble and very terrified of singing. But of course, you know me, Keith, I go in there and they meet me and they're like, oh, man, we're singing. Oh, that's a great warmup. And then they're like, we're singing three part harmony. And I said, yeah, isn't that amazing? And you're doing great.
This is great. And when they got on stage, they wowed the crowds. And it was at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. Ali Stroker had performed there before I got down there. And Ali B. Gore, a blind actress, a low vision actress, also has done a lot of New York stuff. She was organizing this whole disability arts festival. And they have this thing called Arts and Medicine where they're studying the correlation of art and medicine. And so this was a festival based on that. And we Were like the culmination, I think we were the closing thing of having these 14 people come from all over the world and rehearse for about 10 days and then boom, you're on stage.
[00:37:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:40] Speaker B: Inexperienced people doing phenomenal work. I mean, I cried every time I'm playing for the more moving song, which the writer is on the other side of the stage and three people are singing her work. And I'm like, hold it together, Anita. Yeah, don't play it badly. Like play the right note so they won't get it wrong. I was hoping that these three people gave it such tenderness.
And then the funny song was just this character, this woman from New Jersey who I could swear is a character actress who is like, has I had. You got a career? You must have had a career. And she goes, no, I've, I've never acted. Yeah, like, what do you mean? You're like snl, you are the funniest person. And so I made her song a funny bluesy thing about being a New Yorker and the thing that happens in a. With a cab driver who says, this is 12 blocks, are you kidding me? And it turns out real funny and real cool. And I got three backup singers from the group. Would you like to be a backup? Sure. I got a guy to play the cab driver. I went, yeah, I'd like to. And suddenly he was the one guy in the group who had a band and he was more accustomed to performing music, but still he wasn't an actor or anything. He just, he was.
Anyways, he was a great musician.
So that was a project that just, just was great to me because here I have, I've had commissions a lot. I've been lucky to have a lot of musical commissions, but this one to me was very special.
More, I mean, I've. I've commissioned, been commissioned to write music for Brave New World Rep out in Brooklyn and incredible theater company who does on site theater, you know, site specific, which is unbelievable. But every time I get a job like that, I mean, you talked about how do I keep focused. Yeah, it's, it's what, it's what motivates me is to get something to do that I might be even afraid of doing because it may not be well, like doing Grizabella and Cats. The first time I did wasn't a done deal that a one legged actress would play a three legged cat as Grizabella, but it was what I wanted to do and what the producer wanted me to do. And it turned out what the director wanted me to do and didn't know how I was going to do it. And then I ended up climbing all over the set. And I was already 48 years old when I played it the first time.
But these are the things that give you the energy to go forward. Just like when they say if you have arthritis, the best thing to do is exercise. When the last thing you want to do is exercise because your joints are hurting and.
And you find that, oh, that Pilates class or that I swam, you know, you know, that quarter of a mile or whatever, I do feel better. I don't feel any pain. It's the same thing in life if, if someone gives you the opportunity. If the opportunity opens up to do something.
And I didn't know I'd be going to Alabama. I have done my show in, in Montgomery, Alabama, but I'd never been to Birmingham. But going there and going to the.
The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, one of, I would say, the best museum kind of institute I've ever gone to. Completely accessible.
Whereas, who knew they had that intensity of accessibility at a civil rights institute? I mean, yeah, civil rights. They included us in the civil rights. And of course, Birmingham was the site of so many terrible things.
Four little girls they had the statues of, and they were right across the street from the church that burned down with the four.
So you didn't, you thought, well, this is going to be about the civil rights movement of 1965. But no, it brought in disability. It brought in Jewish people. It brought, you know, anti Semitism, the Nazis.
I was floored. And it was good thing. We had one day off in our 10 days of rehearsal.
And I said, well, I know I want to go. And someone else said, well, I know I want to go. And. And they just, they just got vans. And we all went and.
And had the most extraordinary experience. So the truth is what I.
I wouldn't have known any of that if I hadn't said, sure, I'll come to Birmingham and, and do this. And it's just I'm so lucky that when an opportunity comes up and the downside is you say yes to too many things. Yeah, I think you know what I'm talking about, Keith.
You don't want to say no to anything because that's a good opportunity and that's a good opportunity, and that feels like an obligation. If I don't do that, I'm. I'm a real cop out, you know, Anything I've ever said is going to be a lie if I don't do that thing. Yeah, I can't Say that having too much on my plate is fun. I don't think that's fun.
I think it's stressful.
However, now I've become a grandma, and I've noticed that my priorities want me so much to leave this element and just go spend all your time with these two beautiful little girls.
[00:43:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
Yeah.
[00:43:10] Speaker B: Mind blowing.
[00:43:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:12] Speaker B: I almost. I. You know, at 21, to be diagnosed with cancer and be told you may not live to see 30. At 21, I'm television. And then at 26, to have an amputation because the cancer came back and have the doctor himself say, I'm really sorry I'm ruining your career. Because I started when I was 8 years old, and I'm like, no, I have a show to open in four weeks. Let's get this done, because let's move it, you know?
And it's a miracle. All of it's a miracle. Getting married. And you can see that's my husband back there watching Netflix on his phone.
And then to have one child, just one child. And when the doctor said, let's have some more, and I'm like, no, no, no. We did great. She's everything we could ever want. She's fantastic. And then 36 years later, she's. She's having children, she's got her second child, and. And that she. She got married and found this wonderful man. And they got married during COVID in our living room right here. And then they had the real beautiful one. This. This was the lawful one because it was on the date. She was having it on the date. But then they had their beautiful beach wedding two years later when they'd already been married two years. But. But it's just one miracle after another, so. And then my gratitude to be alive and to be able to be here makes me feel like there are times I just got to say yes. But I also am.
I'm turning 70 in November.
I mean, unbelievable.
[00:45:07] Speaker A: Gave me TMJ.
[00:45:10] Speaker B: I know. I was. I.
I took a little tumble at the airport. I had gotten all the way to la, to Hollywood, did the whole thing, came back all within 48 hours.
And I was just about where I was going to get that lift. Take me home from Newark Airport. And literally minutes before I got in, get into that car, I tripped on something and flat down on.
On the.
The cement. And it was just like, what?
[00:45:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:45:41] Speaker B: And then it's like, Anita, you. You're not 48 anymore. You're not 36 anymore. You know, you're.
You're a lot more.
And the Thing is that there are times I don't feel that, and then there are times when I do. So I'm. I'm trying so hard, but people keep pulling me back in and saying, well, could you just do another year for this? And yeah, well, could you just do this? But at the same time, if I had not done the 504 musical, which was full of cast members who write their own plays, I wouldn't have done up a play reading a few weeks later with one of the brilliant people who was in the 504 musical. But he wrote this play and it was a cast full of trans actors. And I had been looking around going, who do we have in the disability community who are also trans?
And there they were, sitting right at the table with me, and I'm like, we are totally intersectional.
Disability is everybody. You know, it, It. There's nobody who's left out of this. This fraternity, sorority, whatever it's called, this club. But. But I wouldn't know that if I hadn't done the. Said yes to the 504. And you know, we always talk about saying yes, say yes to life. And I totally agree with it, but I have to learn how to take care of my body and not let it fall, because when I fall, it's always a spectacular fall.
But thank God, what I thought was a serious injury at that moment.
I am so grateful to whoever runs this show that I.
I'm healing in time to go meet my granddaughter tomorrow for a week. And my little nerves are saying, well, don't. Don't be so sure. There's still a little pain involved here.
But.
But I don't know. It's like you always ask such great questions that then I talk and talk.
[00:47:51] Speaker A: And talk better than me. Talk, talk, talk. I remember a large episode which also had your sister that was riot.
Hilarious.
That's dinner together. And I. I would love to hear how you met your husband. I know you have to go.
And you know how each episode usually ends with that very poignant question. But this time I'm going to totally break form and go off script like Sean did.
[00:48:48] Speaker B: Your look alike.
[00:48:50] Speaker A: My look alike.
And give the final word to your father. Would you please read the quote again?
[00:49:04] Speaker B: Yes. My dad said, beyond the welfare of one's family and friends, the enhancement of the lives of others and those yet to come must be the real object of life.
[00:49:25] Speaker A: He would a very large man judge from that one quote. Anita, it's always a pleasure to talk to you. Enjoy your new granddaughter. Say hi to John he won't know who I am.
But anyway, and I would see you at the next board meeting and hopefully we'll see see each other in person very soon. Say hi to your husband in the back watching Netflix on his phone.
He didn't tell me that. I wouldn't have known, but I mean that's just.
Yeah, it's life.
It's always great to talk to you, my friend. And safe travels.
[00:50:29] Speaker B: Thank you so much. Keith.
[00:50:39] Speaker A: You have been listening to Disability Empowerment Now. I would like to thank my guest, you, the listener, and the Disability Empowerment now team that made this episode possible.
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