BY ESTELLE PYPER
@ESTIEPYPER
@ESTIEPYPER
MAY 2 0 2 1 I BOROMAG.COM 15
Photo by Michael Blaise
Ten years ago, Ashley Kate
Adams was living her
dream. Fresh out of college,
she had just hit the jackpot:
a speaking role in a Broadway
show — unheard of for a
young actress. Not even 24
hours into her new gig in “La Cage
aux Folles,” the producer announced
the show was closing.
This is the memory longtime
Long Island City resident Adams
beautifully illustrates in the opening
of her new book, “#BYOP: Be Your
Own Producer,” and so much has
changed since that day. As she puts
it in the book: “This experience was
the beginning of my bountiful and
unexpected path as a creative in New
York City. It was time to be brave.
Even braver than before. It was time
to figure out my own path, and create
the ability to do so again and again.
It was time for me to be my own
producer.”
Photos by Michael Kushner Photography
And that’s exactly what she did.
Having everything and then nothing in
the span of one day lit this unsettling
feeling inside of Adams that led
her down a path of advocating and
creating for herself.
“It broke my heart when I began to
realize that that’s what auditioning is
in New York City: If someone doesn’t
say ‘yes,’ there’s a roadblock of you
even getting to be creative. That was
something on my heart that began
to hurt me,” said Adams. “That was
the lightbulb that was like, they don’t
actually have to tell me to start writing
my own screenplay or starting my
production company — I can take
matters into my own hands. Rules are
made to be broken!”
That “lightbulb moment” actually
came to the actress right in the heart
of Long Island City, while on a walk in
Gantry Plaza State Park. “I was feeling
this solemn grief about what I thought
my career was going to be as a
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