Class of 2008, Theatre Major
Hometown: Bowling Green, Ohio

To January Blank, all the world’s a stage.

She began her acting career at age 2, when she got a bit part alongside her mother, who was playing Charlotte in a Bowling Green State University production of “Charlotte’s Web.” January was the tiny spider who crawled up next to her and asked, “Are you my mama?”

One could say she was bitten by the acting bug then and there. But she didn’t consider studying theater in college.

“When I graduated high school, I was already doing theater and teaching dance classes, and really had no desire to go to college,” she said. Blank traveled around the country doing productions, but at one point, ran out of work. “It was just being stuck and not having anything to do in theater, and I thought, ‘Maybe this is a sign.’”

In Oklahoma City at the time, she decided to go for auditions to attend Oklahoma City University, which has a large theater program, and attended three years before she ran out of money.

Blank moved on to manage restaurants for the Red Lobster chain, opening restaurants all over the country — and she found plenty of applications for her theater skills. “I think that is exactly like theatre – when you are managing a restaurant, you are on stage all the time,” she said.

But her dad became ill, and she decided it was time to be near her parents — John and Rebecca Blank of Bowling Green — but elected to move to nearby Findlay, and came to auditions for the Findlay Light Opera Company’s production of “Camelot.”

When Dr. Micheal Anders, director of music at UF, and Vicki McClurkin, adjunct professor of theatre at the University, noticed she didn’t have a degree, “they said, ‘what are you doing in the fall?’’ The pair told her that scholarship funds were available to help her finish her education. “I completely credit Dr. Anders and Vicki for my finishing. It seems like things kind of work out the best way.”

The big difference between Findlay and her previous institution has been in the opportunities. “I’ve had so many roles; at Oklahoma City University, only grad students get on stage. That’s one of the best things this program has to offer – you don’t have to wait until you’re a senior.”

Curriculum in Findlay’s theatre program is a mix of liberal arts and humanities courses. Blank, who is carrying a GPA very close to a 4.0, also sings in the UF Concert-Chorale, plays the piano and takes voice lessons. But the biggest focus for a theatre major is putting on productions.

With the demands of the theater life — coming in early in the morning, and working “tech time” 10 p.m. to midnight three days a week, as well as the pressure-cooker times of productions themselves — handling academic requirements can be a challenge.

Handling those competing demands is good preparation for life, Blank said; she’s developed an already strong work ethic further to make the most of her talents.

“In this profession, you don’t have someone saying this is due then, and that is due then. It’s up to you to make your own schedule, to work on things to work to your highest potential,” she said. “There are a lot of people out there that have just as much talent as you, but if you work just a little bit harder you might get the part.”

Of Blank’s many major roles at UF, which was her favorite?

“I think for the uniqueness of it, ‘Lucky Stiff,’” in which she played Rita LaPorta, a chain-smoking, wild-living Puerto Rican mob wife in the Bronx. “It’s definitely THE show that I’ve done here that if I saw auditions for it in New York, I would definitely do it,” Blank said. “She was a good time. She’s by far not the largest role that I’ve had here, but she was fun.”

January Blank portrays Rita LaPorta in “Lucky Stiff” at UF.

During the spring semester, following the close of “Gypsy,” Blank was working on four productions simultaneously: “The Vagina Monologues,” “Of Thee I Sing,” and “The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui,” while beginning choreography for the Findlay Light Opera’s summer production of “The Pirates of Penzance,” which will provide her first professional job in Findlay.

Blank said she’s had tremendous one-on-one mentoring and support from the arts faculty.

“Dr. Anders really should be getting an agent fee for me,” she said, noting he helped her to be hired to play Elizabeth Taylor for the grand opening of the new Von’s Jewelry store on the east side of Findlay, and Steven Brown, new dance instructor, helped her to get a job teaching dance with the Toledo Ballet, where she teaches creative movement to 3-5-year-olds and tap and jazz for 7-10-year-olds. And the connection to the ballet offers important New York and other connections that will help to advance her career.

She expects to move on to work in theater in a larger city such as Cincinnati, but would encourage aspiring theatre majors to consider The University of Findlay.

“I would recommend Findlay for the number-one purpose of the hands-on experience. Of all the schools that I have had friends go to, I’ve never heard of another school where as a freshman, you can be in four shows a year. You can get so much stage time,” she said.

In addition, the faculty have deep and varied backgrounds in their fields, and the professional talent that is brought in — Hugh Panaro, Dixie Carter — as well as young Findlay grads such as Ryan Shively who are working in the field in Los Angeles and New York, add a richness many programs lack.

“I got to talk with Dixie Carter one-on-one — not in a big lecture hall. We got to be on stage with her, and go to lunch with her,” Blank said. “They’re Tony Award-winning artists, and just to be able to listen to how they approach theater, and that they struggled too — it’s fantastic.”