Theatre is my life line

Episode 189: Theatre is my life line At 15, Amy Oestreicher believed that she was going to be a performer and go to Broadway. Life threw a curveball at Amy to make Broadway the farthest possible goal imaginable. How did she use theatre as a life line?  How was she able to harness her creativity?  You don’t need to think you’re an artist to create. This is a story everyone should listen to. Show Notes Drama Teacher Academy Follow Your Detour Ted Talk Amy Oestreicher, Great Comebacks Recipient Theatre and Empathy Amy’s website Episode Transcript Welcome to the Drama Teacher Podcast brought to you by Theatrefolk – the Drama Teacher Resource Company. I’m Lindsay Price. Hello! I hope you're well. Thanks for listening! This is Episode 189 and you can find any links to this episode in the show notes which are at Theatrefolk.com/episode189. Today, we’re talking about lifelines. How many of you have ever thought of theatre as a lifeline? I have, for sure. I meet students every day who tell me that theatre saved their life in one way or another. I remember a particular student telling me, after being through two hurricanes, that being in a play was the only thing getting her through. Our guest today has a deep connection with theatre as a lifeline for very good reason. So, I don’t think I’ve ever done this before so I don’t know if I’m going to do it right or wrong. I’m just going to do it. This is really a warning because I don’t think you should be warned away from intense topics but this podcast contains intense topics and mention of sexual assaults. But, at the end of it, we have theatre as a lifeline. So, let’s get to it, shall we? LINDSAY: Hello everybody! Today, I am talking to Amy Oestreicher. Hello, Amy! AMY: Hello! LINDSAY: Hello! Tell everybody where in the world you are located. AMY: I’m in Connecticut. LINDSAY: All right, cool. Amy has a story. It’s something that really… I think it’s really a good story to share. But then, also, the aftermath, I think the aftermath of your story is what’s really interesting. I think it’s what’s going to be really interesting to our listeners. We’re going to get into the bulk of this and we’re going to talk about empathy a little bit and you will see, you will see, dear listener, why empathy is going to be the hallmark of our conversation today. All right, Amy. What happened to you when you were 17? AMY: All right. Well, you know, I was born a Theatrefolk. LINDSAY: You’re one of us, eh? AMY: Oh, my god, don’t even start but I was definitely born a musical theatre ham and extremely, like, Type A driven. That was what I knew my life was going to be – I was going to go to college and study musical theatre at the University of Michigan and be on Broadway and that was it. When I was 15, I’d been studying with a really big voice coach in New York who I really, really looked up to. When I was 17, he molested me and that was obviously a complete shock to me and I completely just left my body and don’t remember anything that ha...