I stood in line at Actors Equity, holding my contract, and my membership form. I was so excited. This has been a day I have long awaited – not that it means anything – not really – but it is definitely a step forward. I have waited a long time. I got a bit choked up when I left the office, emerging onto the throngs on 46th Street, the cold wind whipping across town from the Hudson … feeling: Just remember this moment. Take a second to revel in this moment. Actors Equity, by the way, is right next door to my favorite church in the city. It’s on 46th in between 7th and 6th. If you’re ever in town, and like beautiful churches – this one – squished in between two massive office buildings – is a MAGICAL spot. I walk in there and I literally can’t even hear the traffic anymore – even though I know that that’s just an illusion. It is a true enclave of peace. I even feel like my heart rate slows down when I pass through the big front doors. It’s a nice block – and now that block will be MUCH more in my life in a regular way. Which is cool. I can also visit “my” church more often. Equity card goes hand in hand with church-visiting. Good stuff.<\/p>\n
But my main anxiety was that my name would already be taken by someone else in the Union. I’ve talked about this before. I already had a couple of names in my head – to use in case Sheila O’Malley was already taken – but … I don’t know. It would be quite stressful. To suddenly have to have a new name, professionally. To have to change everything – my voice mail, my photos, yadda yadda. Also, I just like my name. I think it’s a nice name. I’m not Englebert Humperdinck (and please – let us all remember that his name was actually Arnold George Dorsey and he changed it to ENGLEBERT HUMPERDINCK- Eddie Izzard does a brilliant bit on it – “I just wish I could have been in the room when that decision was made.”) But anyway. I had my fingers crossed.<\/p>\n
I got in line in the bustling membership department. There were a couple of windows open and two windows became available at the same time – so there were two of us getting our membership at the same moment – and she (the girl next to me) was 30 seconds ahead of me in the process – so as MY representative was looking to see if MY name was taken – she was already getting word that HER name was available. She breathed a sigh of relief, we made eye contact, and she said, “Sometimes you just get lucky” and she showed me her membership application, and her name is, indeed VERY common. I said, “Congratulations! I hope that my name … well … my name is Sheila O’Malley.” I saw the look cross over her face. She winced. hahahaha There are a gazillion Irish people in Actors Equity – not to mention a gazillion O’Malleys – the majority of whom are my cousins – and Sheila O’Malley is not an uncommon name. She said, “Uh-oh. Good luck with that.” Then came a laughing conversation about ridiculous names that we would have chosen if our real names had been taken. I made some STUPID joke about changing my name to something in the Xhosa language <\/a>– which was SUCH a stupid joke, but everyone just started cracking UP. SO DUMB. Like – you walk into the audition room: “Hi, my name is click!!CLOCK-clock-clickclick and I will be doing a monologue from Macbeth<\/i>. Thank you.” SO STUPID. But it certainly broke up the tension of waiting to see if there was another Sheila O’Malley on the books.<\/p>\n Then my lovely representative said, with a tone of surprise, “Your name has not been taken yet!” It shocked even HER. I said, “Yay!!” And the other girl got so excited – and we actually hugged. “Congratulations, Sheila O’Malley!” she exclaimed.<\/p>\n hahaha One of those random moments of warmth that you sometimes (very rarely) find in the middle of a bureaucracy.<\/p>\n So now I can still be me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I stood in line at Actors Equity, holding my contract, and my membership form. I was so excited. This has been a day I have long awaited – not that it means anything – not really – but it is … Continue reading