The Phantom of the Opera.

Growing up, I loved two musicals the most: The Phantom of the Opera & Les Miserables. I think that was pretty typical of every teenage girl from my generation. I loved other musicals too: West Side Story, My Fairy Lady, etc. but those two were the ones that I had seen and knew by heart.

While I was in Charlottetown, Livent called. They wanted me to audition for the role of "Meg Giry" in the Phantom of the Opera. I couldn't believe they actually did remember me! I was over the moon. It was Phantom! I was going to have to work on my pointe work and audition again in September.

When I got home from Charlottetown, I re-enrolled in university. The details in this timeline are getting a bit blurry, so hopefully I'm not mixing them up. It was almost 20 years ago. Yikes. I went back to ballet class and starting working really hard. My audition came - which coincided with their general auditions in Vancouver. People were there to be seen for any openings in any Livent shows and were only required to sing one song. When they saw me come in with my dance attire and pointe shoes, they started freaking out - "Do we have to dance for this? I'm not ready!" I know that feeling so well. Auditions are terrifying.

This audition was especially terrifying. They had me sing for them, and then I had to do a SOLO dance audition and do the opening number en pointe for the Resident Director. I was peeing my pants. I guess I did all right though, because I got the job! I was to start rehearsing in January for the International Tour that was going to Singapore and Hong Kong. I was 19.

So off we went to Toronto, my dad and I this time, and he set me up in a hotel for the rehearsal period. I was so green. I had no idea what a big Production Contract was, and I was just a kid. I didn't come from a show-biz family, and my parents didn't know what to tell me. I learned pretty quickly though. I was also the only "ballerina" in a company of girls from the National Ballet and Winnipeg Ballet, so I was way out of my league at this point - having not taken regular dance class since I left for Charlottetown 2 years before that.

Phantom of the Opera played 4 months in Singapore and 4 months in Hong Kong. It was amazing. They had a challenge finding a shade of blonde that worked on me for my wig, so I had 3 or 4 different wigs with different shades. I'm happy to say I made a better blonde than a redhead. I had an incredible time and loved playing "Meggy". I didn't call out sick once. That is remarkable to me. Mostly because I was young enough to not get sick, and also because I was afraid to call out sick. My understudies must've been so bored of me.

When Phantom finished, I came home to Vancouver and started thinking about going back to school again. All my scholarship money was gone now, and I hadn't even finished one full year of credits. I had money from Phantom & Charlottetown, so I began the process of re-enrolling. I had barely got started when I was asked to join the Toronto resident company of Phantom.

This time I was MOVING to Toronto. Off we went again, and I got my first official apartment, a sweet brand-new bachelor on the top of an old building around Yonge and Eglinton (or Young & Eligible, as they used to call it.) It took a while to find it though -- and I cannot tell you how many cockroaches my dad and I saw in the search.

I loved living in Toronto. I had bought a car, my wonderful "Joe" - a Green Ford Explorer, and I was 20 and on my own. I got some cats. My friends came to visit. I took the subway, I went to Ikea, I made dinner, I did shows - I sewed ribbons on pointe shoes.

Around December, I broke my foot in the middle of the show. The stage for Phantom is full of little trap doors for candles, and I had stepped right on the seam of one. My ankle went over and I snapped my 5th metatarsal. I've got a really high pain tolerance - which is part of being a dancer, I think - so I didn't know how bad it was. I went downstairs into stage management and they started taping it. They asked me, "Do you think it's broken?" I said, "I don't know - I've never broken anything before." So they said, "Well, if you don't know, it's probably not broken." I went upstairs and finished the show.

After the show, the Equity Deputy and the Dance Captain and I walked across the street from the Pantages to the ER. Turns out I broke it. They put me in a cast up to my knee and said I would need to come back for more X-rays. The funniest part of all this? I had worn jeans into the ER, and had to take them off to get the cast. I looked at the nurse and said, "How do I put my pants back on?" She just shrugged and said, "Gee, I don't know. But you're free to go." Thankfully, the Dance Captain had worn stretchy pants, so we traded for the evening and I cabbed it home to my little apartment. I was out of the show for at least 3 months.

I started re-hab, pilates, pool training, and all kinds of things. The doctors I worked with wanted to be sure my foot wasn't just strong enough to walk on, but strong enough to dance en pointe on. The timing couldn't have been better. It was just about Christmas, so I got to go home and spend Christmas there - albeit in a cast - and let me tell you, there is no better way to navigate a mall at Christmas time than in a wheelchair.

As I was recuperating, I started to hear rumours about a National Tour of Phantom that would open in Vancouver about the same time I was slated to go back into the show. Since I hadn't yet performed as a professional in Vancouver, I asked if I could join the tour when I got better instead of going back into the Toronto company. They reluctantly agreed, and I moved back to Vancouver. My dad, Joe & I were going to be driving across the country with boxes of stuff again!

Phantom opened the Ford Centre for the Performing Arts in Vancouver (now just called the Centre) and quite a few of the performers from the International Tour were in the cast. We had so much fun - and I made so many great friends.

Unfortunately, the National Tour only ended up playing a few months in Vancouver. They had been hoping for an extension, but the sales didn't support it, and hadn't booked anything further. We were done. Guess I should've stayed in Toronto. At this point I had spent 3 1/2 years with Phantom of the Opera. It was time for a new adventure!


I started to sing in a restaurant, I sang with a rock n' roll cover band, and I started to think about going back to school. I wrote some songs and the bass player in our band placed one of them in a movie - I joined SOCAN. I got more involved in pop music and song writing.

And then a friend of mine from Toronto called and asked if I wanted to come out there and audition for "Les Miserables"...