A VETERAN PERFORMER’S ADVICE: NO COMPROMISES

Experience has made Corliss Taylor-Dunn a veteran in show business survival. In her 30s, Taylor-Dunn is a performer who acts, sings, dances, writes and teaches--and is still looking for that big break.

She plans to give aspiring performers tips on surviving the struggle in a three-part workshop for young adults beginning today at Turtle Rock Community Park in Irvine.

Poised and confident, with expressive brown eyes and a ready smile, Taylor-Dunn takes her subject seriously.

“I burst a lot of bubbles. I tell young people to remember that the expression is “show business .” It’s important to keep a business sense about you, be on time, be professional and well-rounded. When the phone rings you never know what you’ll need.”

Taylor-Dunn began performing as a child in Cleveland, when teachers recommended that her parents seek an after-school outlet for her exceptional energy.

“They said, ‘You’re going to be raising a juvenile delinquent.’ I was 4 or 5.”

She was enrolled in a performing arts school. As a teen-ager, she moved to the adult theater department and started singing opera.

She attended Central State University on a music scholarship, did a year of graduate study in opera at the University of Michigan and kept her foot in the stage door by doing regional summer stock.

A quick move to California following graduation was the result of one hard lesson--she had signed a bad contract with a “crooked management company” and was advised by her family lawyer to drop out of sight for six months, until the contract became invalid.

“There are a lot of crooks out there who come on with a wonderful song and dance, because that’s their livelihood--getting something for nothing from you.”

Taylor-Dunn stresses the importance of not looking like a victim. “You can’t look like a tourist in the theater. You’ll get ripped off. There’s a thing called the ‘New York Attitude.’ It’s a whole demeanor you drop on yourself when you hit the streets of New York so people will leave you alone. If you look like you’re saying, ‘Oh man, I’m in New York!,’ they’ll knock you down.”

Living in New York--and traveling around the world--is something Taylor-Dunn can talk about with some authority.

She was a part of the international tour of “Raisin,” took over the ingenue lead in “Bubbling Brown Sugar” on Broadway, has performed in jazz clubs across Europe and has toured with Doc Severinsen and the Tonight Show Band across the U.S. She did “Tintypes” for the Alaska Repertory Theatre and portrayed Billie Holiday in Stephen Stahl’s “Lady Day” in Boston.

Yet her large collection of notices, ranging from respectable mentions to raves, point up another hard fact of life: acquiring a “name” that makes a performer a hot property is an elusive prospect.

“You have to keep working, be visible, make contacts. And of course, luck has a lot to do with it--there are no guarantees. Until you get a big enough name, you’re starting over every single time.”

Another factor vital to survival in any field is money. Taylor-Dunn says a second career is a must, not just for money, but to back up an ego that takes a constant beating.

“If you’re struggling to make it and you don’t have a decent income and you’re rejected by casting people, producers and agents, it can become a really heavy-duty black time in your life. But if you’ve got something else you can work at for a short time and make decent money, you can get your mind off that rejection.”

“I have friends who (make money) doing word-processing on weekends, so that during the week they can concentrate on their lessons, go to shows, keep current with this profession and buy necessities like the trade papers or this little goodie to take to rehearsals”-- she points to a large cassette-recorder.

There are many who decide the struggle for recognition isn’t worth the pain. Taylor-Dunn’s husband of 11 years, once a performer himself, is now a police officer, though they work together on writing projects.

“He’s a wonderful singer, a cross between Bing Crosby and Perry Como. We met in a little church in Burbank one weekend when I just happened to have gotten a postponement on an engagement in Hawaii--on the one day he happened to come there as a singer.”

As to her future plans, Taylor-Dunn and her manager, Dan Collins of the Colony of Performing Arts in Garden Grove where she teaches, are working on a tribute to Leontyne Price, Marianne Anderson, Billie Holiday and Sojourner Truth.

Taylor-Dunn says that Price, whom she’s never met, was the inspiration for her own interest in opera. “I just wanted to do musical comedy until I saw her perform. I was overwhelmed by her range and the way she carried herself.”

Taylor-Dunn will demonstrate her own range at the start of the workshop, singing opera and jazz as an “attention-getter.”

Aside from lessons on choosing agents, reading contracts, and how to audition, above all, Taylor-Dunn says she hopes to instill a sense of worth in her young students.

“The industry here is often perceived as something sleazy. You read about the drug situation in Hollywood, and the casting couch. It’s sad that there are enough people like that who make it appear that’s what theater is all about.

“I want young people to feel pride in what they have to offer as a performer and never compromise.”