Maxine Richardson Alto

Years ago, Maybe 60, I revealed to my father that I wanted to perform on the stage in NYC.  He gave me a very stern noooo!  I was studying dance and the piano at the time; from about age 6 to 13.  This desire never left me.

By 1950 I enrolled at Indiana University at Bloomington.  This was the first year the University integrated women’s dorms.  I read all over campus that they needed dancers to audition for the Operetta Recital.  Being selected for this performance was the first great overwhelming moment of my life.

When I transferred to Morgan State University, I choreographed a dance performance around a swimming pool.  At Baltimore’s Harlem Theater I won a dance contest.  My teacher thought I would never stop my lessons.  Unfortunately, I was moving to DC.

In 1988 my counselor advised me to study voice.  My teacher at Peabody asked “what took you so long?!”  While studying voice, I sang in student recitals, joined church choirs and sang for weddings and had solos.  After I moved to Columbia, MD in 1991 I joined the Columbia Dance Theater.

By 1997 I heard of the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange.  Liz did not care how old you were, so I leaped to Takoma Park, MD and was selected after my audition.  I performed in the plays: “The Talk Show Host”, “Amen Corner”, and “The Night of January 15”; from both Baltimore and Columbia.

Now I have found Center Stage Opera.