How I switched genders - In the acting industry
By Geraldine Dimalaluan
from Jersey
I'm a performer. I will tell you a story, a story of how someone I love introduced me to The Secret, and how it changed my work in the theatrical business.
A few years ago I had a best friend named Chris, and he was a firm believer of The Secret. He tried so many ways to help me understand and stop being so narrow minded. I didn't believe him. I didn't think something so simple could create such complex and amazing things. For my fifteenth birthday, he gave me the book, and inside he wrote and pleaded that I take it seriously and that it was only for my own good. So, I took his word for it, and I read it.
Immediately, I was incredibly skeptical. The book lay in my bookshelf collecting dust until the summer of my junior year.
As I said prior, I am a performer. In my junior year of high school, our school was doing the show "Les Miserables". Now, I am very tiny, and it was a slim chance for me to get any kind of lead role, especially since the competition was so fierce. Prior to this, I played "Chip" from Beauty and the Beast, and knew I could play Gavroche, the young boy, if I tried hard enough.
Callbacks passed, and I didn't get one. I was extremely disheartened. I wanted to be Gavroche, and even though they had already chosen a boy to play the part, and that me, a girl, would have no chance, I still believed that I could play it. I remembered the book Chris gave to me so many years ago, and when I got home I immediately picked up, read it, and incorporated it into my daily life.
Now, when I say there were slim chances to me getting the part, I mean it. There were boys who could play it better, and reach the notes and not sound womanly. Me? I am a girl, and was limited in things that boys could do, that I could not. I didn't know how I could do it, but I didn't care. Every day I went to practice, thinking, "I am Gavroche, I will be playing that role." I kept a good attitude, and though nothing happened that summer, my faith in The Secret did not falter.
In the beginning of the school year, things changed. Around October, my director approached me and asked me if I would feel insulted if she considered me for the part of Gavroche. I didn't know what happened, what changed her mind, and what caused her to believe I was better. I was ready though, and I was incredibly shocked and happy. I immediately took the offer and became the Gavroche for our school musical.
After the show ended, we were graded from a national theater company based in London who had heard about our school's performances, and gave away scholarships to certain individuals for their theatrical school. I was graded high, and my options were instantly opened.
I owe my success to The Secret.
About Geraldine Dimalaluan from Jersey:
Just a 17 year old girl getting through life with a guitar in one hand, a ukulele in the other, and a voice loud enough to reach the skies.
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