GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — When the curtain rises on a show at the Grand Rapids Civic Theatre, you may just recognize actor and performer Ruth 'Ru' Ann Molenaar.
That might be because she said she's only missed 15-20 shows out of the last 40 years — nearly half of the lifespan of the GR Civic Theatre.
Ru has only taken two long breaks in that time, one to become a DJ and the other to be a mother.
"When I had my son I stepped out" Ru said. "Because [being a] single mom is a commitment."
But like mother, like son.
"He did come to rehearsals with me as a matter of fact." she said.
And the theatre, most likely recognizing the talented lineage her boy already had, took the opportunity to take him aboard.
"[The theatre] was like, 'Your son is just sitting there, do you think he'd be interested [in working]?'" Ru laughed.
"I don't know, ask him!" she said.
"And [my son] goes, 'Yeah! Can I do it?'
"And I said, 'Oh that's my boy.'"
Ru said she saw the same love for theatre she had back when she was young in 1987. She recounted pacing back and forth in her room reading.
"I became the characters of whatever book I was reading," Ru said. "I would do all the voices and I would walk in my bedroom back and forth and act it all out. But I never actually saw myself being onstage and doing this."
Yet here she is, amidst an illustrious career.
"I'm constantly running my lines all day long," Ru said. "Even at night I wake up in the middle of the night and I'm still speaking lines from Clyde's (her most recent show) right now."
But no matter her experience or talent, her world is just as competitive as it was in 1987.
"I still have to audition," she said.
"And you best believe there is always somebody out there that can out-sing you, out-dance you or out act you," Ru said. "You just pray to God that they're not in the same room as you when you audition."
Ru's world has been competitive in many other ways throughout her life.
"I've always fought back then to fit in," Ru said. "I didn't like being different."
Ru was adopted into a loving, interracial family in 1968 when she was just a baby. Rare for the time, she recalled memories where her community discriminated and racially profiled her.
"They didn't know who my parents were," Ru said. "They didn't know where I grew up. They just saw me as another black woman."
Ru was anything but. She was a performer at heart.
"All of a sudden, there was this feeling of, 'Oh, it's okay to be different. It's okay to be weird.'" Ru said.
And she had found a community that accepted her for who she was at the Grand Rapids Civic Theatre.
"Being accepted, being different. It's happening more now than it was back when I was growing up. But being different still isn't 100% accepted." said Ru.
But until difference is accepted, Ru will take the stage as a performer, a character, and an icon of the Grand Rapids Civic Theatre.
"To feel just what I feel every time I step onstage and hear the audience clap and hear the audience laugh and hear the audience gasp clutch their pearls or shed a tear — my job is done," Ru said.
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