Suzanne Shepperd looked at me across her New York apartment and said:
“You have to find yourself, Melina. You remind me of me and I didn’t start working until I was in my 40s.”
I had no idea what she meant.
It took me decades to figure it out.
I’d gone to her apartment to audition for her legendary acting class. You didn’t just sign up you sat across from her and she decided if you were welcome to take her class. Past students included Christopher Meloni, Bebe Neuwirth and Joan Allen…
She let me in. I thought I’d made it to the big leagues.
Every Tuesday for six hours, students would perform entire acts of plays they’d memorized between classes. I admired their discipline.
But honestly?
I’d sit there reading Backstage magazine.
Sometimes I’d fall asleep.
The day she caught me, I was mortified.
I loved rehearsal when we were discovering things, trying new approaches. But once everything got locked down and we were just repeating the same blocking night after night? I shut down.
During live shows, actors complained I wasn’t following the blocking exactly.
I couldn’t figure out if I lacked discipline or if my brain just worked wrong.
It took me years, Suzanne. Years.
My creativity shows up in generation, not repetition. In the new idea, the quick solution, the play and iteration. Not in the 47th performance of the same blocking.
So I found work where the way I’m wired actually fits. Where coming up with ideas quickly matters. Where iteration and play aren’t just rehearsal before the “real work” …they ARE the work.
This is exactly what I bring to my clients. When they’re preparing for a high-stakes presentation or a critical conversation, I don’t help them rehearse what their audience felt months ago.
I help them anticipate what their audience will feel in the room in real time.
Polls and past data tell you where people were. I help you read where they are right now and meet them there.
Sadly, Suzanne passed away three years ago.
I don’t know if she would have remembered the student reading Backstage while everyone else performed Chekhov. But I wish I could have told her: you saw something in me that took me decades to see in myself.
It just took me a long time to figure out what you meant.
Have you ever had someone tell you something true that you couldn’t hear until years later?
Suzanne, You Were Right
