Diversification or specialization - which is more important in business these days? Independent professional Donna Ison is doing both. Armed with a sense of humor and a love of the arts, she
is a playwright
for museum theater, an actor, a choreographer and has branched into public relations and magazine writing (Bluegrass Dog and Keeneland).
"On my list of priorities, freedom and creativity came before stability and vast financial gain," she said of choosing her career path. Although she has occasionally wished she had a penchant for numbers so she could be an accountant, that was never an option. The arts are her life. A native of Mount Sterling, Ison earned a degree in theater at Morehead State in 1991 and has a semester of UK grad school, also in theater, under her belt. She wanted to be a soap opera actress, playing a villain, but didn't quite make it to that arena in New York.
She performed in Shakespeare festivals in Lexington and in industrial films in Cincinnati, then moved to the Big Apple to audition for plays. She was almost cast in Macbeth, after auditioning with 300 others for the role of Lady Macbeth. "I was 25, but they thought I looked mature and would add an oedipal element to the play," she said. "They asked if I would be willing to be a witch. I said, 'I will not be the third witch from the left, no.'"
In 1995, Ison decided to be a writer instead of an actor. She wrote sketch comedy, had four one-act plays produced in the New York and wrote a show for the medieval festival at the Cloisters Museum in Manhattan. And yes, she was an elf at Macy's. She moved back to Lexington, and a friend offered her a $100,000 investment to produce a movie based on a screenplay she had written. "With no knowledge whatsoever - did I want 8mm, 16mm, or Super 16? - I went to Joseph-Beth to get books and learn the vernacular of the industry," she said. She made the independent film, "Passion Fruits," in two weeks. However, just before the final edit, the investor was caught on insider trading charges and the film was never finished.
Her first foray into non-fiction museum theater was writing a one-woman show on Mary Todd Lincoln for the Mary Todd Lincoln House, which she has also performed for the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, the Kentucky State Fair and the upcoming Battle of Perryville on October 11. She has written museum theater pieces for the Kentucky Historical Society, the Hunt-Morgan House, the Callahan Museum in Louisville and the Institute of Texan Cultures based in San Antonio. She is writing and performing for the Bluegrass Mystery Theatre's October production of "Racing Toward Murder" and leading a "body love" workshop on October 4 at the Carnegie Center, where women will write about body image issues, then pieces will be chosen for a one-act play during November's Gallery Hop. One of her goals for 2009 is to write and produce an "immersion theater" show that involves audience participation.
Ison keeps up her acting chops by portraying patients with various diseases for medical students at the Clinical Skills Training and Assessment Center at the UK College of Medicine. She is one of dozens of trained actors who help med students gain experience with their exams and communication skills. The program may have her acting as someone with emotional issues or drug abuse one day and dealing with domestic violence or smoking cessation the next. She used to apply makeup for the actors who were supposed to have bruises when she coordinated the program five years ago.
In 2003, Ison wrote a novel titled Miracle of Myrtle: Saint Gone Wild. "My ultimate goal is to see someone clutching my book and laughing during a long layover at the airport," she said of her yet-unpublished work of fiction. Be careful what you wish for. This summer Ison had a publisher keenly interested in another manuscript - if only she would add some steamy scenes. "I realized it takes a certain talent and thesaurus I did not have," she said. "As open-minded as I thought I was, I found myself blushing with every keystroke."
Ison considers herself very blessed to be making a living doing what she loves. "In our society, most people work to make money to be able to afford to do what they love," she said. "You seldom get to combine both."
To learn more about Ison's work, visit www.DonnaIson.com.
Kathie Stamps is the co-founder of www.ISBO.biz, an online directory of independent/small business owners. Contact her at stamps@isbo.biz.