The arts are in my blood

Okay, maybe I’m bragging a little, but I would like to tell you something about my family and their involvement in the performing and visual arts.

• My grandmother on my mother’s side was a singer who performed in vaudeville. She toured the Orpheum circuit as Linda Preston with comedian Gene Sheldon. If you have an Orpheum theatre in your town, chances are she performed there! She was also a member of SAG under the name Audrey Arent, and she did a Mitchum deodorant commercial and appeared as an extra in the movies King Kong (1976), Network, and The Turning Point.
• My grandfather on my mother’s side was Johnny Drake of The Modernaires– yes, Glenn Miller’s Modernaires who appeared in The Glenn Miller Story.
• My grandmother on my father’s side, Helene Greene, was an interior designer and an award-winning painter.
• My grandfather on my father’s side, Ernest Greene, played trumpet and harmonica in jazz bands as a young man.
• My mother, Jonni Greene, sang in musicals throughout high school and junior college. She has sung in choruses of one form or another since I was 10.
• My father, Andrew Greene, took some painting a sculpting courses and supported a friend in teaching and promoting her art classes.

I am grateful to my family for passing down their tradition of performing and visual arts, and for encouraging me in my artistic endeavors.