“Thankfully, my husband shares a similar sensibility if he didn’t want to talk about grief, or feel comfortable with that kind of bleak absurdity, the very notion of surviving this tragedy would be unthinkable to me.” “In those early days, gallows humor got us through,” says Lerner. The greatest challenge for Lerner and her husband Colin Campbell, a writer and professor, came in June 2019 with the tragic deaths of their 17-year-old daughter Ruby and 14-year-old son Hart in a crash caused by a drunk driver.Įven then, humor provided a small light in the dark, a reminder that grief, pain, and rage weren’t the only things they would be feeling for the rest of their lives. “Comedy has saved my life and that is not an overstatement,” says Gail Lerner ’92, who has spent over 20 years in show biz as a writer, director, and executive producer for shows such as Will & Grace, Happy Endings, and black-ish.Īs the youngest child in a “family with secrets and depression,” she told jokes so she could stay up past her bedtime, and she, like many comedy writers, honed her comedy not just to make people laugh, but also to deflect negativity.Īt Swarthmore, she co-founded the improv group Vertigo-go to have a creative outlet during times of pressure and stress. “It has yet to happen, but I feel like it’s getting close.” “I have this weird fantasy where I’ll be on set and someone will be like, ‘Oh, you went to Swarthmore? With the talent coming out of Film & Media Studies, she says, it’s only a matter of time before her credits overlap with a fellow Swattie. The grind is a challenge, but it’s beginning to pay off: Just this year, Dumdaw has had small roles on the shows New Amsterdam and Gossip Girl, and she’s appearing in her first film - a Netflix Christmas movie. In addition to providing funding for acting and voiceover lessons, the scholarship allowed Dumdaw to purchase her own camera equipment - a necessity since the pandemic all but ended in-person auditions. An Evans Scholarship at Swarthmore also set her up for success. That helps her in front of the camera, she says, enabling her to perform like a stage or screen actor while understanding the perspective of a film director. “As long as I’m acting,” she says, “I’ll be happy.”ĭumdaw caught the acting bug at Swarthmore, where she designed her own major - stage, screen, and new media - combining courses from Film & Media Studies and the Theater Department. With each audition tape comes the hope of her big break: Just a year out from graduation, Dumdaw is in the early phase of her professional acting journey, holding down a full-time job as a photo editor for the SYFY network while auditioning for parts from her New York apartment. “When I put my mind to it, I can get a role.” “That was the moment I realized I should treat every audition like a Succession episode,” she says. Then she propped her camera on her dresser and did take after take until her audition tape was just right.ĭumdaw won the part - and with it, a confidence boost. She reviewed past episodes while drawing on her knowledge of the HBO series. The role was small she would be playing an assistant in a party scene. “I might have just one line, but I need to nail this,” the fledgling actor told herself. Preparing to audition or her favorite show, Succession, Grace Dumdaw ’21 took a Swarthmorean approach to the process.
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