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Turning Tables on Broadway Like many actors, Kate Shindle (S99) spent a lot of time waiting for her break after arriving in New York City last fall by waiting tables. Unlike many actors, of course, she had already pulled down a six-figure salary as the 1998 Miss America. Those two facts guaranteed her a flurry of media attention when she was "discovered" by a New Jersey newspaper — and later, the New York Post — slinging pastrami sandwiches at Artie's New York Delicatessen on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Friends insist the job was not a cynical bid for attention. "She was thinking, 'I'm going to earn my keep and let my talent and ability speak for me.' And they did," says choreographer Mark Hoebee (S82). Shindle applied that pragmatism to her Miss America reign, too, stumping for AIDS prevention programs, advising high school kids to wear condoms if they were sexually active and advocating needle-exchange programs. She's not bashful about admitting that being Miss America has helped her career. She credits the honor with helping win her an audition for her current role: understudying the lead in the Broadway production of Jekyll & Hyde and singing in the musical's chorus. She's also not bashful about asserting that it was her ability that actually landed her the job. Being Miss America "provided the entry spark," she told the New York Post. "But I'm not so jaded as to think that it's the only reason I got the part. They put me through the paces at the audition." In February, she got a chance to play Lucy, the doomed prostitute, in a performance. As the Post reported, "With just a two-hour rehearsal, Shindle went on for the first time. ... She received a standing ovation — and a very public pat on the back from the show's director, Robin Phillips. ... "During the curtain call, Phillips ran on stage, held up his hands to stop the applause and told the audience: 'Ladies and gentlemen, today a star has been born!'" — K.J. |
