Eileen Merle-Rao:  

Life This bio - as is my life and everything about it - is a work in progress. After H.S. I studied Cantorial Music & sang as part of an Internationally Performing Choir & was Soloist w/them for 17 years. I studied Musical Theater & sang in the 1st Opera Company to do a fully staged production in Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, NYC. For some of this I even convinced Michael Katz - F.L.'73 - to join w/me! :-) I sang in the Worlds first (& maybe only) Kosher/Japanese Restaurant Nightclub "Shalom Japan" for 4 1/2 years. Then I started singing, acing & doing stage-combatant in "The New York Renaissance Festival" as well as "The Medieval Festival at Fort Tryon Park" in NYC. I performed in both for 9 years. I also sang in other Festivals, Clubs & on lots of stages, worked in the Newsroom at NBC & bred & raised show cats. My "odd-jobs" include running an Ice-Skating Rink, bursar for a Concert Hall/Performance School & bartending. Yes, most actors do this or wait tables. But do they bartend, then change into a gown, headline in the show in the same place & then finish bartending in that gown? As a NYC straphanger I even had the opportunity to "tee off" '76's own Peter Fleischer & then got up in very public NYC meetings to "complain" to his boss. A few times... But I digress... I did lots of shows (paid my dues - including playing "Almira Gulch/T.W.W.", sang Light Opera Off-Broadway (lots of G&S) for almost a year which led to getting my Actor's Equity Union Card. A very proud moment, but then my Father died & I didn't realize that my life would start to fall apart. Went to work in a Jewelry store, but then my boss passed away & my Mom did too, just 4 weeks later. (Should I be taking the deaths of all these important people in my life personally?) A few years later I started (I thought) on my way back to my Singing Career by Off-Off Broadway Stage Managing, Set Design & Prop making. I later made what should have been my Singing Comeback Début, only to be diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma 6 months later, just one month after getting engaged for the 1st time on my 40 birthday. I am now The One & Only "UptownWench"! Since 1994 I've been The Performance Director of "The Medieval Festival at Fort Tryon Park" (in which I sang for 9 years) in Manhattan, in-between chemotherapy & radiation experiences. I did manage to throw together a small wedding (Aug'98) before my 1st round of chemo. Whew! Just in time cuz I didn't want to be a bald bride! And then there are those 7 fabulous frozen embryos... (Isn't that the way everyone does it???) Please see the (albeit somewhat rosy-ish) version of part of my cancer "story" thru '02 on a wonderfully informative "page"; Healthology Dott Calm; (Health Information Library) "Life With Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma: One Woman's Story" But don't blink or you'll miss the "Wench with the whip"! ;-) So now it's Valentine's Day 2006 & my embryos are 7 1/2 years old! I've gone thru 3 different rounds of chemo in just over a year. Today I start on the experience of a Stem-Cell...Expand for more