Maxine Richardson
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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.
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