By Spencer Kayden

"When I was eight years old I was in my first play. I was The Elfen Queen in THE HOBBIT at Fountain Valley Community Center. Twenty-five years later, I got my Equity Card. Hey, sometimes you have to be patient.

I had performed regularly, doing shows with friends, always with a day job or two to support myself. I sold marble peaches in SoHo, taught SAT and GRE test preparation in Chicago, temped at Citibank in Long Island City. I was happily working as a children’s magazine editor at Scholastic when Greg Kotis and Mark Hollman wrote URINETOWN. They asked me to play Little Sally in the New York International Fringe Festival in 1999 and I was lucky enough to remain in the cast as the show moved Off-Broadway in 2001. I joined Equity on the first day of rehearsal and for the first time in my life, my job was to perform.

When URINETOWN opened on Broadway, I would stand on stage marveling that less than nine months before I had been sitting in my cubicle every day wondering what would become of me. I am ever grateful to Equity for helping to make my new life possible."