NSB Vice President:

On Stage At Work And Play

By Nancy K. Crevier

Her office may be in the Main Street branch of Newtown Savings Bank, but Karen Tracy’s heart is on the stage. The vice president of retail sales and services in Newtown, with 13 branches reporting to her, minored in theater at Palm Beach Junior College and has been acting on stage around the country and regionally for 40 years.

She is best known the past ten years for her one-woman shows that include Mark Twain, Zelda Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, and one of her favorites, Amelia Earhart.

With history and movie buffs eagerly awaiting the fall opening of the movie Amelia starring Hilary Swank, Richard Gere and Ewan McGregor, her one woman show of Amelia Earhart’s life, performed most recently for Derby Historical Society’s 19th Annual Silver Tea on July 13, is a particularly timely one.

There is much to be admired about the 1930s woman pilot who disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 attempting the first around the world flight at the equator, said Ms Tracy.

“Amelia Earhart was really a forerunner when you hear things she said, like ‘We women have to keep our hand in things or there won’t be anything more for us,’” said Ms Tracy in a recent interview. “She is often heralded as the first woman to cross the Atlantic by air, but that was not alone; she was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, in 1932, to Ireland, and she set many records in her lifetime,” Ms Tracy said.

As a child, as a teenager, and as a young woman, Amelia Earhart encountered much turmoil in her life, but was never daunted by the challenges of life. Born in 1897 to a woman of wealth married to an alcoholic husband, and feeling that her lust for adventure and a decades early awareness of discrimination between men and women set her aside from many, Amelia Earhart’s desire to take to the skies began with her first glimpse of an air circus as a very young girl and was nurtured with flying lessons under the tutelage of pioneer aviatress Netta Snook in the early 1920s.

“Amelia dealt with a lot in her life: her father’s alcoholism, her parents’ divorce, a marriage of convenience, taking care of her mother, and constantly feeling out of place,” Ms Tracy said. “But she always wanted to be ‘up there.’ She never took her eye off of her goal: to fly around the world at the equator.

“She questioned the discrimination between men and women and bucked it whenever she could. She believed that while men were flying for careers, for example, that the women were flying because they loved it,” Ms Tracy said of the pilot’s determination.

“She once said, ‘Women have got to do the things men have tried. And if they should fail, their failure should be seen as a challenge to other women,’ and I think that she inspired other women with that,” Ms Tracy said.

 Goals are something that Ms Tracy understands and wholeheartedly endorses. Goals and thinking outside of the box are why the banker and actress feels that her own life has been successful.

“In a way, I can relate very well to Amelia Earhart. I was a single mother and got my kids through college, saw them married, and I did it my way. I have always forged ahead to do what I had to do. I was a little bit like her in high school, too, always the one being excited about something and wanting to do it and having others think I was crazy. Things that excite me still don’t always excite others, and it was like that for Amelia, too,” Ms Tracy said.

In work and as an actress, Ms Tracy said she has always been willing to take on challenges. “I started as a teller and worked my way up to where I am today. Even at Newtown Savings Bank, I started as the manager at the Stony Hill branch, then became the business development manager in Danbury, and now as the vice president of sales and service,” she said. She had been acting in regional theaters for 30 years when a director asked her to consider doing a one-woman show.

“I didn’t think at first that I could do it, but I did. You have to break the barriers, and step outside the box every day. Don’t get inside the box too much,” she advised. Setting goals, as did Amelia Earhart in the face of much adversity, is just as vital for people today, said Ms Tracy.

“I don’t think that there is a seriousness about setting goals until we get into the working life. How many people ask themselves, ‘What will I do to get to my goal? What am I willing to do to get there? Do I have a goal?’ Amelia Earhart did, and look at all she accomplished,” said Ms Tracy. “Those are the people who stand out as successful people.”

Her banking work keeps her very busy, but she compares what she does with being on the stage. “I’m always talking to people, showcasing people or myself. People love to come in and talk to me and I love to see them. I’m always with people, which is what I love about banking,” she said.

She has been lucky that all of the banks in which she has worked have allowed her to pursue her outside interests, she said.

“I have even taken my outside interests and used them inside. I get to be very creative in my job with motivational workshops, and making sales fun. I think you can learn through fun and get better results when you are enjoying what you do.”

She uses an example of a conversation she once overheard following a performance, when one woman asked another, “Did we pay her for this show?” The other woman answered that yes, they had paid her a lot, to which the first responded, “Just goes to show, you get what you pay for.”

It is the same, she tells her workshops, with every job. People will get as much out of what is offered as the person puts into the job.

Even working full time and attending many early morning and evening events,  Ms Tracy makes time to do over 24 shows a year in the tri-state area.

“The missing link for me is the time to market myself. Mostly, I depend on word of mouth for people to find out about my shows. The good thing about doing the one woman shows, though,” said Ms Tracy, “is that I can practice alone, anywhere I find time and space — in my car, in my home, anywhere. And I never stop practicing, no matter how many times I’ve done a performance. I never get cocky,” she said.

She is looking forward to the movie and is curious about how it will unfold, having played the part of the woman aviator hundreds of times. What the movie stars will not find first hand, as she does, however, is the first hand response to the performance.

“I meet a lot of interesting people along the way. They send me notes, photos, and after a performance I have had people come up to me who knew Amelia Earhart, or who had a friend or relative who actually knew her. It’s exciting. The high I get is when I’m done with a performance and someone comes up to me and says, ‘I learned so much about her. It was fun and enjoyable.’ That is just terrific.”

Ms Tracy will appear later this summer at venues in Massachusetts, and is available for performances locally. For more information about her one-woman shows, call 417-5974 or 729-8422; or e-mail her at moxnix1@sbcglobal.net.