Friend Friday – Meet Paula Murray Cole

(http://sherri NULL.machighway NULL.com/~heidiros/wp-content/uploads/Paula-Bio-Pic-BW NULL.jpg)

On Fridays, I’m going to introduce you to my friends–one at a time.

I’m going to do this because I believe when we are introduced to someone with words from the heart, they become a part of our community. Our community grows. Our circle of care extends.

So, I’m going to introduce you to people I love. And it may inspire you. You may have something to offer. You may have a message for someone I introduce. He or she may have something to offer you. I want to offer the dance of connection. I want to grow a community that is steeped in love and inclusivity and care.

Meet Paula Murray Cole.

Paula is easily one of the top five most brilliant women I know. She is smart, smart, smart. But here’s the glorious part. Over the last 20 years, I’ve gotten to watch her blossom into her compelling, deep, generous WISDOM. And it’s a sight to behold.

Paula and I were in the same graduate school class. There were 4 women and 8 men spending 24/7 together for 3 years. At the end of it all, we were either going to love one another or never want to see each other again. I’ll love and admire Paula always.

When I first met Paula, I would have described her like this:

Brilliant
Edgy
Crazy fabulous actress
A little wary
Precise
Worldly
Like an orchid underneath armor

She was the only one of the graduate students who had actually taken a year or two off after college before returning to school. And she was there with a great seriousness of intent. She’d ‘been out in the world’ and knew what she wanted to learn. It was amazing to watch her hunger to be better, to learn more, to perfect.

We got to be in several shows together and again, I got to experience her work ethic and her curiosity. She was never satisfied with what she had created until closing night. And sometimes not even then. She was always looking for ways to make the performance richer.

Paula’s resume is something to behold. Since graduation, she has taught theatre at Ithaca college, NYU, Hofstra University and University of Illinois to name a few. And she is an incredible teacher. Her intelligence, eye for subtlety and understanding of the entire world of theatre makes her a teacher students simply do not forget. (In fact, in our crazy small world, my friend and former student Chris Haro (http://sherri NULL.machighway NULL.com/~heidiros/2010/friend-friday-meet-christopher-haro/) became Paula’s student at Ithaca. I remember a conversation Chris and I had singing Paula’s praises.)

But there’s more. Paula is a ceaseless explorer and pioneer. As she puts it, she is fascinated by “researching the benefits of bodywork in facilitating the progress of performers-in- training; comparative studies in emotional and psychophysical techniques in actor training practices; studies on emotion and the brain, body, and senses as they pertain to the practice of acting, actor training and theatre making.” She co-developed rasaboxes training (http://www NULL.rasaboxes NULL.com) methodolgies based on the work of Richard Schechner. (I’ve been wanting to do a workshop with her in this forever.) You just have to read about it. It’s fascinating stuff.

And last year she got married! I flew out to NY with Dylan and my dear friends Jolie (http://sherri NULL.machighway NULL.com/~heidiros/2010/friend-friday-with-a-twist-meet-jolie-kobrinsky/) and Elizabeth (http://sherri NULL.machighway NULL.com/~heidiros/2010/friend-friday/) and I all drove up to the wedding. It was gorgeous. And it was a wedding where I could breathe deeply and joyously because I knew they were perfect for one another.

Oh, one more thing! It’s just my own little happy story. Paula actually taught at Trollwood Performing Arts School (http://www NULL.trollwood NULL.org) in Fargo, North Dakota. I played a munchkin in The Wizard of Oz in their very first summer in 1978. It’s a magical place and it tickled me to no end to know that Paula was there 20 some years later working with the kids. It was two of my favorite worlds colliding. I loved it.

Paula and I have stayed close since school though we don’t get to see one another often. I think about her all the time and appreciate what she is doing in the world. She is indelibly in my heart.