We were lucky to catch up with Devon Perry recently and have shared our conversation below.

Devon, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

During the pandemic, I, like many people, was abruptly unemployed. I had been working as a professional actor and musician in NYC for about 8 years at that point, and it felt like my career was just really hitting its stride right when everything shut down. For over a year, it was very unclear if/when/how theatres would reopen and what that would mean for the careers of so many actors. In fact, several incredible theatres that had helped shape my career never came back from Covid-19. In the meantime, thousands of people were dying, and thousands of others were putting their lives at risk every single day to help the sick. Needless to say, I sat alone in lockdown in my Brooklyn apartment, listening to ambulances rushing past at all hours, and wondered if I ought to be doing something else with my life.

I’ll save you some of the painstaking identity crisis details and cut to the point where I had enrolled in American Sign Languages courses through Sign Language Center, meeting weekly over Zoom, and expanded my view of the world by learning not just ASL but also so much important information about Deaf culture. After a Deaf Culture lecture on professionals that could and should help advocate for Deaf children and their families, I figured out what I wanted to do with my life: become a speech-language pathologist and use my knowledge of ASL to support Deaf and Hard of Hearing people.

Of course, in the midst of applying to school and taking required pre-requisite courses, the theatre industry opened back up. And, of course, just as I had decided to phase out of the career I’d been hustling so hard for for over 10 years, the theatre industry came knocking at my door with offers to play my dream role – Carole King in Beautiful: The Musical. Funny how that timing worked out. But I said “YES!” – let’s do it all. Why not play my dream role AND go to graduate school? And that’s what I’ve been doing for the past year or so.

Cut to now: graduate school has taken over my life full-time, requiring me to put my career as a performer on the backburner. For now? Forever? I guess I have to wait and see – which is terrifying. Currently, I feel like I’m in no-man’s land: not yet practicing as an SLP, not currently practicing as a performer. So who am I? How will it all turn out? What will I be when I grow up? [Mind you I am in my mid-30s].

So I’ve taken a risk – to work hard toward a new and rewarding career in something I feel passionate about. And I’ve taken a risk – to leave behind (at least temporarily) another career I feel passionate about. I’m trusting in the universe to lead me through the next 2 years in the way that serves me best. Maybe at the end of it, I’ll be BOTH an SLP and a performer. But, for now, to answer your question, “how did it turn out?” I can’t wait to find out :-)

Devon, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am an actor-musician, based in NYC. I received a BFA in Musical Theatre from the University of Michigan and moved to NYC to begin auditioning and working about 5 days after graduation. During my time in NYC, I have worn many hats. Since acting jobs can come and go so quickly, many of us have to reinvent ourselves and find ways to utilize our skills to pay the bills in between gigs.

Most notably, I have been a piano accompanist for classes and auditions, a backup singer for emerging pop artists’ recording sessions, a vocal coach for professional actors, a teacher of children’s camps and workshops, a music director of concerts and shows, and, when I’m lucky, the lead in a musical taking place somewhere in the country.

Some of my favorite roles have been Carole King in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun, Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, and Natalie/Ed in All Shook Up. I’ve performed in theatres from New York, to rural Missouri, to California.

What sets me apart from others is my ability to reinvent myself and my resilience, particularly because, when I work any one of those jobs listed above, I learn a new perspective to bring to all the other jobs. It is such a gift.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I had to unlearn: don’t wait for others to carve out your path. Though they may open some doors for you, they are not here to build the journey for you – that is up to you.

As an actor, it can be so difficult to keep picking yourself up after rejection. That can easily lead us into a thought process that we’re waiting for someone else to say YES in order to make us worthy, valid, talented, etc. I fell into that trap for many years. I kept waiting for the right person to come along and “really get me” and open some big door to a special project. And it never happened. This doesn’t mean that I wasn’t working hard in the meantime – I was working my a** off every single day. But I put all my worth in someone else’s basket. It was a long, deep spiral into losing track of what makes me ME.

Funny enough, I very rashly chopped off all my hair at a low point in my career, and I am not a rash person. But in my head I felt like shedding something and giving a big old middle finger to the industry that wasn’t giving me what I wanted or seeing me for who I was. And thank the high heavens I did. Suddenly, I transformed. My big middle finger to the business empowered me to find my SELF again, to be authentic, to stop caring what others thought, to stop waiting around for someone else to open the door for me, and to get out there and kick the doors open myself.

And it worked – pretty soon after that, my career was off and running, but this time with me at the wheel, not in the backseat watching someone else drive. I still sometimes get down on my own worth, talent, you name it, but I bounce back faster and put myself in the driver’s seat again, where no one can stop me.

Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

My view on NFTs is that I cannot wait to meet the right person who can explain them to me in a way that actually clicks in my brain. Could it be you??

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @_devonperry_

Image Credits

For the two production photos: Ryan J Zirngibl