A North Texas woman who garnered a spot as an extra for a Dallas Opera production says the experience has changed her life.
Thirty-year-old Stephanie Rucker, who had not performed since high school, said she never thought about doing something like it.
"I hadn't even looked at a possibility like that," she said. "It hadn't even crossed my mind, and then, just one day on the four o'clock news, there you guys were talking about the opera and how they needed extras."
Rucker went to the open casting call and got a call back the next day.
"I thought in a million years they would never ask me, because I have weird hair and I'm not exactly the skinniest person in the world, but apparently they liked that I have a little background in it and asked me to be in 'Romeo and Juliet.'"
Rucker is now an extra in the Dallas Opera's production of "Boris Godunov," which opens April 1.
"I'm a supernumerary, which is basically an extra for any production that they need me for," she said.
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Rucker said she has made new friends and contacts and is looking to take voice lessons over the summer and audition for the next season.
"I'm married, but I don't have kids," she said. "I was going to college but really wasn't going anywhere. I felt like maybe it was time to take a stab at something different. I didn't want another desk job, and I've always had kind of a creative bug. I've been into art my whole life, so it felt right."
"It's a rush of adrenaline," Rucker said. "When I go home at night, it takes me two or three hours to calm down after being up there. It's an amazing feeling. Even if I'm not saying anything or singing, it's really a rush."
