When you lookup Linedy Genao, you will discover many variations of the identical—albeit unimaginable—story. The 32-year-old had given up appearing professionally when a pal’s mother informed her about an open name for Broadway’s On Your Ft! By that time a banker with no up-to-date audition supplies, Genao printed out a selfie to make use of as a headshot—and booked the position.
Each time she tells it, the story’s ending adjustments—and this one is a cliffhanger. After she’d spent 4 months originating the titular position in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Dangerous Cinderella, the Broadway present closed, leaving Genao to surprise when her subsequent gig will come. She’s undecided, however she is aware of what it’s going to take to get there.
A way of hope.
When Genao did not get into the performing-arts schools she wished to attend, a part of her assumed she wasn’t adequate, however the different half discarded that make-or-break angle. “I at all times knew that you did not have to go to highschool to pursue appearing,” she says. “I may nonetheless fulfill that a part of my soul in my neighborhood via the humanities. That is after I joined the neighborhood theater and the neighborhood refrain in my city.”
Genao describes herself as a sponge, who soaks in every part her artistic friends can train her. “Every part I do know now could be due to the individuals I have been surrounded with and work with,” she says. In Dangerous Cinderella, she shared the stage with appearing veterans—one in all whom has a level in enterprise administration (identical to her) and a resume that is 16 reveals lengthy.
With the assist of her family and friends, Genao determined banking was a “protected” alternative, however by no means stopped believing in her huge break. “Deep down, I knew it was going to occur sometime,” she says. “I simply saved telling myself, ‘When it is meant to be, will probably be. It’ll occur. I do not know when, however it can.'” The voice inside Genao informed her to maintain up with vocal classes, doing neighborhood theater, and rising within the arts—which she did whereas residing along with her grandmother in Brooklyn from Monday to Friday to be nearer to the financial institution, and commuting dwelling to Connecticut every weekend.
The flexibility to let go.
Earlier than her sudden audition, Genao skilled a case of imposter syndrome. “I simply thought, ‘Take a look at this woman. She sounds higher than me. Take a look at her. She appears higher than me.'” And her self-doubt kicked into overdrive: “‘What am I doing right here? They’re by no means going to select me.'”
Then she began singing. And as quickly as she started, doubt made method for discovery. Genao recollects a “wave of confidence” overtaking her: “I used to be identical to, ‘Let me floor myself and present them who I’m.'” As soon as she discovered the flexibility to let go of who she thought they wished her to be, and as an alternative present them who she was, she landed that present and extra. The actress went on to star in regional theater productions and movies, and e-book nationwide excursions.
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Countless gratitude.
Genao likens her profession to “being shot out of a cannon,” which is how she is aware of how rapidly issues can change. “This might all go away like this,” the actress says, snapping her fingers. “If I lose my voice, if I get harm…. There are 50,000 different ladies which are extra certified than I’m, who’re in dance class daily, who’re in appearing class daily. So I simply proceed to remind myself that I’ve labored arduous to get right here, and to be current.”
Dangerous Cinderella ended its run in June, sooner than she had hoped, however Genao is ceaselessly grateful for the expertise. “I’m so grateful for all the alternatives this present has offered me,” she says. “To have executed all of those interviews, to have sung with such gifted actors, to have collaborated on a model new track for the present…. All of this stuff are a lot greater than something that I ever imagined.”
She’ll maintain practising her craft to fulfill the “the starvation and the success” of her soul, simply as she did years in the past in her neighborhood. A staunch believer in destiny and in herself, Genao is aware of one thing nice is on the horizon. “I will proceed on this route, and when it is meant to be, will probably be.
Pictures by Zackery Michael; Artwork Route by Michael Sarpy; Artistic Manufacturing by Hannah Miller; Expertise by Jennifer McLawhorn; Styled by Sarah Slutsky Tooley; Hair by Xavier Velasquez; Make-up by Tracy Alfajora
Rebecca Strassberg
Becca Strassberg is a author, editor, and Brooklyn native. She has been the Senior Way of life Editor at HearstMade since September 2021. Most significantly, her canine’s title is Brisket.
