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    The Arthropologist

    The halfway point: Houston performing artists experience the joys of mid-career careers

    Nancy Wozny
    nancy wozny
    Feb 22, 2013 | 8:00 am

    When Houston Ballet first soloist Kelly Myernick dons her harem pants and takes the stage as Gamzatti, the mysterious murderess of La Bayadere through March 3, she will completely own the stage, with a combination of her dazzling technical skills and ability to fully plumb the role for its complexity.

    "What I love about Gamzatti is that, unlike so many classical female characters, she is not waifish or fragile,” Myernick told me in a 2012 Pointe Magazine interview. “She is commanding, sensual and proud."

    It's not a role for a 17-year old, which is the age most ballet dancers start their professional careers.

    Mid-career is about honing your chops, hanging in there and moving past mediocrity to mastery.

    As a middle-aged middle child in mid-career, I'm slightly obsessed with life in the half zone. The life span of an artist doesn't always travel the usual trajectory. Just mention the word "emerging" and listen to artists groan. It's the most overused word in the arts lexicon, mostly because of what happens after the emerging part, which is submerging mostly. Few hold out long enough to get to the middle.

    Mid-career can be humbling place. There can be good years when you get your coveted residencies, roles and grants, and years when rejection is the name of the game. Mid-career is about honing your chops, hanging in there and moving past mediocrity to mastery.

    That's why I wanted to visit with Myernick, Philip Lehl and Karen Stokes, three Houston artists living life at the top of their mid-game.

    Myernick dances up a storm with killer snakes

    In La Bayadere, Myernick knocks off the "other" girl with a poisonous snake with such finesse. You really wouldn't want a youngster doing that. You can also find a more tribal Myernick in Stanton Welch's The Rite of Spring, March 7-17.

    Because ballet dancers have short professional careers that begin during the teen years, a ballet dancer reaches mid-career at an age when other artists are just finding their voice. As one of a handful of dancers over 30 in the company, Myernick feels the full gravitas of life at the center.

    "The conflict is that I enjoy rehearsing less and less, but I enjoy performing more than ever," Myernick says.

    "The universal truth about this career is that just as you find confidence in your artistry, begin to enjoy your individuality, and have a few revelatory moments about technique, your body can start to let you down," says Myernick. "The time when all of these elements come together can be so fleeting."

    Yet, the ballerina is moving into her strengths with confidence. "Part of maturity is recognizing your best attributes and enjoying them," she says. "True enjoyment is so palpable to an audience, not in the expression on someone's face, but the way that dancer indulges in a movement or a phrase of music."

    Time is short, so these days the "what" matters more. "During The Nutcracker, I looked at myself in the Lead Flower costume with that goofy antennae headband and I thought, 'Well, it's official. I'm too old to wear this outfit,' " quips the ballerina. "I know very few dancers who will be satisfied playing 'Happy Villager #9' their whole career."

    Recently married, Myernick ponders a family and her next career. "The schedule and the discipline require a great deal of generosity from your family. The conflict is that I enjoy rehearsing less and less, but I enjoy performing more than ever. I'm really proud of this art form and I need to share it while I can."

    Lehl can play two guys in one play

    Lehl is one of Houston's most recognizable actors. For the past decade, he's worked non-stop at such theaters as the Alley Theatre, Stages Repertory Theatre, Classical Theatre, Horse Head and Stark Naked, the company he founded with his wife, Kim Tobin.

    Mid-career holds a sweet spot for the Juilliard School grad. He just finished rockin' the Alley in the dual roles of Karl and Steve in Bruce Norris' Clybourne Park. During the run, Stark Naked won a Houston Press' Mastermind Award.

    Friday, the troupe opens Yasmina Reza's biting comedy God of Carnage in Studio 101, the space they call home. Then its off to Classical Theater for Shylock The Jew of Venice, adapted from William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, where he plays,"Venice", meaning every character other than Shylock. Lehl wraps up Stark Naked's season playing Macbeth, June 6-22.

    "Now, I'm able to take risks because I know that if I crash and burn, I'll probably be forgiven by the Houston community," says Lehl.

    According to Lehl, the biggest perk of mid-career is not having to audition. "As a young actor, I worried a lot about not only where the next job was coming from, but that any work I did be absolutely perfect, so that I would get hired back. The result, often, was work that was not risky at all," he says. "Now, I'm able to take risks because I know that if I crash and burn, I'll probably be forgiven by the Houston community."

    Lehl has discovered a love for directing and teaching in the last decade. "I really didn't see that coming," he explains. "But as I've matured as an artist, I've found that I've developed some strong ideas about what's good in my own work, and I want to test that, and share it with others."

    The actor has also made his peace with what's not going to happen. "Ah, Hamlet. I've aged out of some great roles. But I've had amazing casting in my life so far and would be a fool to pine for some of those roles I've missed out on. I started off in New York and thought for a long time that my destiny was there, and that if things went well, I might appear regularly in new plays and musicals there, and maybe even do some TV and movies.

    "But, the fact is, I've done all of that right here in Houston."

    Stokes embraces the big questions

    Stokes is head of dance at the University of Houston School of Theatre & Dance and Karen Stokes Dance, her small but spunky company. She's fine with the fact that she's probably not going to dance with Paul Taylor Dance Company, her dream troupe as a young dancer. Like Lehl, she also just won a MasterMind award, and enjoyed a banner season last year with her company.

    She jokes that mid career has its perks. "I have a house, a husband, a Prius and the ability to shop at Whole Foods for organic veggies."

    Stokes jokes that mid-career has its perks. "I have a house, a husband, a Prius and the ability to shop at Whole Foods for organic veggies."

    These days, she finds that by focusing on the integrity of her work, it's possible to find great satisfaction. "Happiness does not rely on attaining a future goal," muses Stokes. "As such, my goals are not about getting my work to Lincoln Center or the Kennedy Center."

    Instead, she focuses on key questions: What is this work about? Can I make movement do this? Does this structure work?

    The choreographer has found comfort in the great unknowns of middle age. "Early on, I felt it was important to know what I was doing, where I was going. This gave me a sense of direction and a sense of accomplishment. Now, I'm more comfortable with the fact that I’m not sure where I’m going and I don’t really know that much. What is knowing anyway, other than an obstacle to growth?"

    Stokes reminds me that she still has a lot left to do as a dance maker, an educator and a wildly curious person. "I still have half of my career to go. That’s a lot of possibility to conquer. What am I learning? Am I being generous and kind? How can I be a more compassionate teacher, choreographer, leader? Am I being flexible in body and mind? Am I taking new risks, new challenges?"

    Watch Houston Ballet first soloist Kelly Myernick fly through the air

    Houston Ballet's Kelly Myernick and artists in La Bayadere

    Nancy, life in the middle, Houston Ballet, La Bayadere, Kelly Myernick
      
    Photo by © Amitava Sarkar
    Houston Ballet's Kelly Myernick and artists in La Bayadere
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    Movie Review

    Tom Cruise goes all out in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning

    Alex Bentley
    May 22, 2025 | 3:30 pm
    Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, and Hayley Atwell in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
    Photo courtesy of
    Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, and Hayley Atwell in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning.

    Over the course of 30 years and eight films, the Mission: Impossible series has proven to be the most reliable of any action movie franchise. Not all of them are equally good, but with Tom Cruise in the lead as Ethan Hunt, they can be counted on for at least a couple of mind-blowing stunt sequences per film, enough to keep fans clamoring for more.

    Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning has the feel of being the last film in the series, and not just because the 62-year-old Cruise is getting up there in age. Following up closely on the events of 2023’s Dead Reckoning Part One (Part Two changed to The Final Reckoning for unknown reasons), the film has Hunt trying to stop an A.I. villain known as The Entity from taking over the world’s collective stash of nuclear weapons.

    To do so, Hunt and his cobbled-together team — Luther (Ving Rhames), Benji (Simon Pegg), Grace (Hayley Atwell), and Paris (Pom Klementieff) — must hopscotch around the world, tracking villain Gabriel (Esai Morales) and trying to figure out a way to get The Entity’s source code, which is located on a sunken Russian submarine. Oh, and they also have to evade capture by a disgruntled U.S. government, led by now-President Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett).

    Written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie and co-written by Erik Jendresen, the film might just be the most convoluted one in the series so far. The filmmakers layer on tons of exposition, with lots of flashbacks to previous events in the series to explicate the events of the present, as well as providing unexpected connections to previous films. The plan for stopping The Entity and the references to the past are so dense that the first half of the film is relatively boring.

    Things pick up in the final 90 minutes of the three-hour film, mostly because that’s when the majority of the action takes place. More than other entries in the series, the film considers the geopolitical implications of Hunt’s actions, and he has to negotiate with a variety of high-powered people to do what he deems best. While his efforts are somewhat preposterous, even by the standards of the series, they lead to a bunch of fun sequences that provide levity among the world-changing drama.

    Ultimately, what makes the film succeed are its action scenes. Cruise has done stunts on planes/helicopters before in the series, but what he does during a biplane sequence toward the end of the film is almost beyond belief. Yes, he’s attached to the plane with harnesses that are digitally erased, but he’s still doing it hundreds of feet in the air at great bodily risk considering. While the series has always featured spectacular stunt sequences, this one deserves to be near the top of the list.

    The flashbacks to scenes from throughout the series underscore just how much Cruise has changed in the past 30 years, but also emphasize how amazing it is that he’s still willing to sacrifice his body as much as does to make these films. No other actor goes as far as he does to entertain the masses, and the events of the story even give him opportunities to show off his dramatic acting skills.

    The supporting cast is more packed than usual, and all of them enhance the film. In addition to Hunt’s team, the President has a group of advisers that includes actors like Henry Czerny, Holt McCallany, Nick Offerman, and Janet McTeer. Other recognizable faces like Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso), Trammell Tillman (Severance), and Katy O’Brian (Love Lies Bleeding) show up for impactful roles.

    Whether or not this is the last film in the current incarnation of the series, The Final Reckoning has a lot to offer longtime fans, with action set pieces that remains some of the best Hollywood has to offer. The story may be completely baffling, but with Cruise and other appealing actors leading the way, there’s more than enough great entertainment to go around.

    ---

    Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning opens in theaters on May 23.

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