How This Happened
Hello, friend. Thank you for joining me! This is the story of how I went from being a Broadway actor in New York City to a farmhouse renovator in rural Minnesota. I am writing to you to document the journey.
My husband, David Andrew Macdonald, is also an actor. We met while playing Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby in the stage adaptation of The Great Gatsby. We have a 5 1/2-year-old daughter named Finley. Prior to this move, we were living just outside New York City in Maplewood, New Jersey. We both worked On and Off-Broadway, as well as at regional theaters across America, and on film and television. We had a good thing going, and we knew how lucky we were.
Except.
Even before the worldwide pandemic of COVID-19, we felt a longing for more…
More meaning? More joy? More control over our choices? As actors, there’s a lot of waiting for someone else to say yes, which is not the most comfortable place to live. But we both love what we do! How does one reconcile the two?
Way before I was comfortable with the idea, David thought we should move to a secondary market, meaning a place where we could still do theatre (and maybe some film and TV) that is not New York or Los Angeles. He researched. He presented ideas. I didn’t really like any of them. I was definitely not convinced. Until…
We found this farmhouse.
It is in my home state and near family (bonus). It is on 7 acres and was built in the 1880s (swoon). It is a mess and a marvel (I’m a sucker for decaying beauty). When I walked onto the land for the first time, and saw my daughter run through the tall grass with light breaking through the clouds, it was...magic. That was it for me. I have always been a person who is led by feeling—for good and sometimes for bad, if I’m being honest. But I had a sudden, heart-bursting vision as my girl giggled and ran free: this could be our forever home. And so, after spending only one hour here, we bought this crazy place (that needs so very much work!!) and changed our entire life.
I should mention that there were also many logical reasons for moving, but they’re a little boring to report: property taxes and schools and overcrowding and the sheer exhaustion of the NYC rat-race, etc. These reasonable arguments fell away in the face of the dream I saw. They did not matter. I’m not sure if the intellectual case would have ever swayed me, but I can say with certainty that I have always been moved by flashes of clarity in my mind’s eye, and I have often found a way to manifest them when they felt right, even when they also felt crazy.
And that is what brought me here, to my next stage.
XOXO
MM
I think I sort of floated into the word of ‘pandemic sharing’—mine through writing— without understanding all of the possible consequences… I have to ask, does creating equal consent?