A WALK IN THE WOODS - University at Buffalo

One second of silence, and thenSpitznagel plays two dramatic minorchords.“It is spherical!” Lindahl declares, followedby two more suspensefully modulatingchords.“It is globular,” Mathes emphasizes.Chord, chord …“It is the plaything of children,” Keancries. Chord, chord …“It is cooovered in muuuud,” intonesthe final team member, Patrick Reidy.After a few more rounds of invocation,the pianist begins a jaunty tune, andLindahl starts singing along: “We’re havinga great day … We’re haaaving a great day.… And things look sooo optimistic … We’rehaaaving a great day!” Mathes and the othersjoin in for another round, harmonizingas if they were reading off a sheet of musicand building to a grand finale of, “We’rehaaaaving a great day!”For young actors in New York City,“having a great day” does not come easily,but Mathes, Raymond and McDowall areimprovising their own creative identitiesand careers with tenacity and commitment.Last fall, the three close friends who metat UB decided they weren’t going to waitaround to be cast in their dream roles.Instead, they launched their own theatricalventure: The Radium Girls, a companydedicated to promoting women’s roles andwomen’s voices.Act One:School GirlsEver since she can remember, Raymondhas wanted to be on stage. She dates herconscious decision to become an actor toage 7, when she performed in the musical“Annie” and cried all the way home afterthe last show, because she didn’t want it toend. “It’s a strange thing that kind of picksyou,” she muses. From her home in SaratogaSprings, she followed her older sister,Monique Raymond Cohen, BA ’05, to UB.There was no question that she wouldmajor in theater.One year later, Mathes arrived at UBfrom the Rochester suburb of Fairport,where she had fallen under the spell ofMidge Marshall, Fairport High School’sbeloved drama program director. (Claimto fame: Philip Seymour Hoffmann was aMarshall protégé.) As a high school sophomore,Mathes had seen a touring productionof “Rent.” Her face soaked in tears asScene from The Radium Girls’ recent production of “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress.”Mimi and Roger confessed their love, shedecided, “I wanna give people that feeling.Not crying,” she clarifies, “but feeling.” Afew days later, her father asked what shewas planning to do in college. “Theater,”she said. And that decision never changed.Meanwhile, in Queens, McDowall wasfollowing a similar track. The deal wassealed for her when she won admissionto one of New York City’s performingarts-focused public high schools, the FrankSinatra School of the Arts. She, too, cameto Buffalo to be a theater major, one yearafter Mathes.The three women got to know eachother well in the very selective and intimatetheater program. Faculty like Maria S.Horne, an internationally known masterteacher, became powerful role models forthem. “We had kick-ass female professorsin our department,” says McDowall.One of Mathes’ favorite roles at UB wasJuliet in a Shakespeare adaptation that she,Raymond and other UB students staged ata UNESCO (United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization)theater festival in Romania. Raymond,meanwhile, enjoyed meaty roles like theheadstrong Lydia Bennet in a stage versionof “Pride and Prejudice.” McDowall ran theannual student review, “From the Wings”(good preparation, it turned out, for runninga theater company), and starred in theboundary-breaking play “Tattoo Girl” bycontemporary playwright Naomi Iizuka.The three women worked with enormousdedication, balancing heavy courseloads,rehearsals, work and classes. Aftergraduation, they all moved to New YorkCity—trained, confident and ready foranything.Act Two:City Girls“In school, they told you, ‘You can playevery role you want, and that you have thepotential to book any role,’” says McDowallone recent day in her Harlem apartment,which she shares with Kevin Zak, BFA ’10,a fellow Buffalo theater alum.“But I’m at this audition, and there’s300 of me,” she says. “What do I have to doto make myself stand out of the crowd?”That, the three women have all found,is the essential challenge of making it as anactor. Talent, training, energy, passion—they simply aren’t enough. Among thereasons they cite for not getting a part are:1 inch too short; 1 inch too tall; didn’t likethe shirt you were wearing; wearing thewrong perfume; hair the wrong color. “I’vehad so many moments where I’ve been sittingin a casting office and been so close,”says Raymond, “but ultimately didn’t get it.It feels tangible yet so far away.“In school,” she adds, “you learn techniqueand craft. You watch all of the greatperformers, and you read all of the greatplays. When you get out, you have to learnhow to market yourself. You only learn thatby jumping in.”18 UBTODAY Fall 2013 www.buffalo.edu/ubt