By Jill Paice

"I received my Equity card in 2000, quite by accident. At the time I was a junior working towards a degree in Musical Theatre at Baldwin Wallace College. I was hired as a non-Equity performer by Great Lakes Theatre Festival in Cleveland, Ohio for their production of GYPSY, which starred Donna McKetchnie. When I showed up for the first day of rehearsal, the company had lost one of their Equity cast members. There was suddenly an extra Equity contract. The director Victoria Bussert, who also happened to be my teacher at Baldwin Wallace College, pulled me into the hallway and said, "I want you to join Equity. You're ready." I think I told her I had to go ask my mom! My paperwork was filed later that day and I remember feeling grown up, because I was now a member of Actors' Equity."