How We Got Here
By: Erin
Disclaimer: Okay, Cassandra belongs to me, anyone from Rent belongs to Jonathon Larson and such, Wherever I Go, Coming of Age, When Happily Ever After Ends, Les Mis and any other play I happen to mention belong to whoever wrote them, who the rights are held by and etc. Mooing America is copyright to Erin Weir and Karen Sadler. Hmm... I think that's it, and if I missed anything, please don't sue me, I have nothing other then a whole bunch sparkling water. Now, on to my story...
"Cassandra Wilson (Ashley)- A 23 year old Toronto native is glad to be here". "Favorite previous roles include: Original Workshop "Natalie" (Wherever I Go), Original Workshop "Deedee" (Coming of Age), Original Workshop/Off-Broadway "Mariam" (When Happily Ever After Ends) and "Eponine" (Les Misérables)". "She would like to thank her family, friends, the 'Bohemians', her Angel and Mark for all the support".
By just reading my bio, people can pick up all that up, plus various other information bits, and feel as if they know me. They may not understand all the references, but they'll have those little bits of information.
Then there are the people who take the time to stage door. They'll learn that my reddish-brown hair is actually very long when not done up in the elaborate "Ashley" style, that my eyes actually are blue and that I'm deceptively short. If they talk to me, they'll learn that I'm generally very friendly to fans, I'm close to a good deal of the cast and that I'm perfectly willing to tell long stories about something that anyone and I have done. And it seems to be common knowledge that after every performance a blonde man with glasses, sometimes joined by other people, will come pick me up. Sometimes he's seen the show, usually he hasn't, but he always comes to pick me up just the same.
The rather gung-ho people who know a lot about me come next. These people have read magazine articles, interviews, conducted interviews of their own, some of them have "fan pages". They can go around saying things with authority. "Cassy and her boyfriend are probably going to be engaged soon." "One of Cassandra's dream roles is "Jemima" in Cats but if she were a guy she would love to play Grantaire or Enjolras in Les Mis." Of course, they're usually right, although there always is people wandering around saying totally untrue statements. "Cassi and her boyfriend met in Paris when she was playing the first female Grantaire." I hate having my name spelt like that, by the way. "Cassi", ugh!
The truth is, even these people who seem to know a lot about me don't know much at all. They have no idea how I got here. I'm a very private person and I always think hard before replying in interviews so I don't reveal too much.
How did I get here? My story begins when I was 17 years old…
First off, I'm not technically a Toronto native, I just say that because it's so much easier. We moved around a lot when I was younger, but I started school and then moved back to and spent a chuck of my teen years in Calgary, Alberta. 2 years before I graduated from high school, we moved to Toronto, so since I graduated from high school there (in grade 12, because I had the proper number of credits), I refer to myself as a Toronto native. I then proceeded to go to university in New York because A- it had a good musical theater program and B- I was offered a full scholarship.
Now, in order for my soon-to-be-coming comments to make sense, you must remember that I began school in Alberta, where the cut-off date is February 25th. My birthday is January 19th, so I was 17 for almost half of my freshman year.
During my freshman year I met a lot of people but I only remained friends with a few of them- the closest (and most important) being a young musician named Roger Davis and his friends. Roger didn't go to my university- he didn't go to university at all- and I can't really remember how we met. I think he was performing some place off-campus or something. I enjoyed hanging out with him and his friends because they were so different from any of my friends back home. And just to clear up a popular rumor, I never ever dated Roger. We were close friends but that's about it.
Anyway, just after my 18th birthday my scholarship fell through. The program had lost funding and it felt that the arts weren't as "worthy" as athletics or academics. (Even though I did get good grades in high school, I swear!) Now, I could have had my parents pay my tuition and just continued on at university- my parents could have afforded it- but I decided that it wouldn't be worth it to pay for an experience I could get being out working. My mother was okay with that, as long as I could get an audition within a month.
That marked the big change in my life. The audition was no problem because one of my ex-directors had moved to New York and was opening a theater company/workshop production. I auditioned for him and the writer and landed my first lead in a "real" musical- Deedee in Coming of Age. Now that I was out of university I couldn't sty in the dorms anymore so I moved in with Roger and his friends. Life as I know it began.
At the time there were 6 of us living in the loft. Looking at the loft now I don't know how we could stand it but ah well. It was less expensive and we were happy. We were an interesting group but we generally got along well anyway.
There was me, of course, the youngest and the one most in the public eye- at times. But, you already know about me, so I'm not going to ramble about my many virtues for pages- you'll get enough of that anyway.
As you already know, there was Roger. Blonde, tough and a budding "rock star", he was my closest friend for awhile, and the one who "officially" "gave" me permission to move in. And, no, he wasn't the blonde man I mentioned earlier.
That honor goes to Mark Cohen, a filmmaker and one of the "original three" who rented the loft first- Mark, Roger and Benny, who you'll meet later. After about a year I got to be very good friends with Mark and told him everything, as you'll see.
There were two of us who were in university- Tom Collins and Benjamin Coffin. Collins, as we called him, was at least 4 years older then me and in his final year. He was basically an anarchist but that isn't exactly a paying job, so he was getting a teaching degree. Once Collins tried to explain to me exactly what he was planning to teach (some kind of philosophy) but I didn't quite get it so, being the sweetheart he is, he let me change the subject and helped me with characterization for my current role.
Then there was Benjamin Coffin the III, otherwise known as Benny, who as in his second year, working for a business degree. He was an incredibly attractive boy (because at the time he really was only a boy), sweet, charming, funny… if you can't tell, I liked him more then just a little. Unfortunately, sometimes I thought Maureen did too. (Even though I got the boy. Ha)
Ah, Maureen Johnson, the only other girl and my sometimes enemy. We never got along that well, we were too similar and yet too different at the same time. Maureen would stage a protest or perform a free performance art piece and I'd ask her why she was "wasting" her talent, when she definitely had the skills to make it on Broadway. (Wow, that girl could belt!) Or I'd land a role in a show and she'd ask me why tickets were so expensive- the homeless enjoy theater just as much as the rich. But, whenever we weren't fighting we'd bond and have girl-talk, something we so desperately needed in an apartment full of guys.
And so, that was us. As I said before and you can now see, we were an interesting group, but we got along well anyway.
There was this restaurant- the Life Café- that we'd always go to to celebrate. If I got a new role, if Roger finished a song or Mark finished a film, if Maureen had a successful protest, if Benny or Collins did well on a test/exam, we'd go there to celebrate. Depending on exactly what we were celebrating, sometimes we'd get really into and jump and dance around the tables to accent our point. Luckily we didn't do it often enough for the staff to hate us and we generally got hyper later at night, so it's not like we disturbed anyone.
And so, for us, life went on in its happy-go-lucky way. That's not to say
that we didn't have troubles- God knows we did. Some months we almost didn't
have enough money to pay the rent. (A couple of times I had to call my parents
to send down some rent money- since they were the most willing to pay.) During
the winter the heater would often break and we would be near frozen. Roger had
gigs whenever he could get them- his only source of income- and Mark always
ended up with crappy jobs while waiting for someone to buy one of his films. I
got cast in dozens of non-developed, unfinished musicals, with only a few
somewhat successful ones. And about 2 years after I moved in, Collins contracted
AIDS, which scared the hell out of me because I thought he was going to die. He
didn't, and for awhile there I had worse health then him, but still! Despite our
problems, life was… well, life and we just kept on living it.
