< < Story continued from previous screen

Jeffrey Stevens: Opera Singer

Opera singer Jeffrey Stevens, here seen as the Vicar in Benjamin Britten's "Albert Herring", specializes in comic parts.

Viewers of the 1999 Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon were treated to a beautiful performance of an aria from "La Boheme" by opera singer Robin Chavez, who has dermatomyositis. Chavez isn't the only person affected by one of the diseases in MDA's program who's making a career in the world of opera.

Jeffrey Stevens is 44 and lives in Tempe, Ariz. He's a baritone, or, more specifically, a buffo baritone, which refers to his special ability to assay comic characters.

Music and opera are lifelong passions, although as a kid Stevens was equally interested in athletics and might have pursued a sports-related career if not for his physical difficulties. He knew something was wrong early on.

"I could snap my fingers at the beginning of eighth grade, but, by the end of the year, I couldn't," he remembers.

He didn't receive a diagnosis of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) until his 20s. Now he wears leg braces, which help him walk and perform on stage.

"The braces kind of saved my life, because before I got them I was having a hard time walking," he says. However, sometimes he experiences discomfort from the braces rubbing against him. He also says he experiences fatigue that he thinks is linked to the CMT.

He studied music in Texas and Arizona and went on to earn a doctorate in music studies at Arizona State University in Tempe. His studies gave him a chance at performing opera from age 18 on, a pursuit he continues to this day.

"It's taken me a while to find a niche in the opera field," Stevens says.

He was once told by a woman running an opera program that he would never have a career because of his braces. "I thought, well, you watch me," he recalls. Today, although he makes no claim to be a huge star, Stevens has sung opera in cities like Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, and gotten paid for doing it.

Although he has the looks and the voice that might have qualified him for leading man parts, his disability has interfered with his chances at getting those kinds of roles.

"I move funny onstage. I mean, I have my own certain gait. It's really knocked me out of contention for some roles, but then it created a whole path toward character roles. I've been playing old men and comic characters for about 20 years."

The irony is that the character parts often require more physicality than some of the leading roles. "The characters I play aren't the ones that just stand there and sing," he says.

"I deal with my physicality every day," he says. "I think a lot of people without disabilities take that for granted, so I often end up looking better onstage than other people with all their abilities."

The other irony is that Stevens' career path may have helped ensure his longevity as a working opera singer. "With a lot of leading men, there's a large percentage who sing for a couple years but then fade away.

"You have to have the voice to do it, and you have to have the desire, and you have to be willing to take the criticism," he says of undertaking opera as a living. He says that skepticism about his disability comes from people who run the companies, not from fellow performers.

"I get such support from my peers, I guess because they admire that I can do these things."

Stevens is involved with a Phoenix program called Operatunity that goes into schools to introduce children to opera. He also enjoys teaching music.

"I think eventually I'll have a full-time job in academics. That's part of the reason I got my doctorate. I want to be able to teach in a large university setting. I'd like to be in a place where I can sing if I want to, and also teach."

Sylvia Harman: Film, Stage and TV Actress

Actress Sylvia Harman, who has Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, relies on talent and tenacity when pursuing film roles.

Sylvia Harman, who lives in Virginia Beach, Va., has been a working actress in theater, TV and film for three decades.

"I became a professional when I was 30, meaning that's when I was finally admitted into the unions — the Actors' Equity Association, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists," she says.

Her first love is theater and she's been cast in more than 80 productions. After giving many years to the theater, she began to switch her focus to movie acting, because she felt that film work was less demanding in terms of the time it required and potentially more financially rewarding.

She went to Los Angeles and studied film acting, partly to better her own skills, but also with a mind to teaching others. Soon she began landing character roles. In the past few years, she's had parts in an assortment of films, from "Super Mario Brothers" with Bob Hoskins to "Eddie" with Whoopi Goldberg. She has also done made-for-TV movies and appeared in TV series opposite stars ranging from Andy Griffith to Andrew Dice Clay.

Harman received a diagnosis of CMT about five years ago. "I didn't start using my cane until about two years ago," she says. Now she uses it full-time.

She's concerned that her CMT may be having an impact not on her acting skills, but on the perceptions that others have of her abilities.

"Since I started using my cane, no one has cast me in a film," she says. "I've had five callbacks — which means you do your initial audition and they like you, so they call you back for another audition — but since using the cane I have not gotten one part. Usually, I get nine out of 10 things I audition for, so I knew something was wrong."

Harman says she's often able to perform the audition without the cane if no movement is required. She didn't use it during a recent audition for a commercial, a role she didn't win, although she felt she'd made a great impression.

"I could stand in back of this table and do what I had to do, so I didn't use the cane. But then they saw me walk out with it."

She says the Screen Actors Guild is a strong advocate for the hiring of actors with disabilities.

"I have a call in to SAG. They will track it down and find out about these last five callbacks and what the reasons were for not getting them. The union is adamant about this kind of thing. If it has to do with your talent, if somebody was better than you, that's one thing. But when you know you're good and you think you didn't get it because of the use of the cane — that's another issue."

Harman supplements her income by teaching acting at her studio in Virginia Beach, The Actors' Place, and by doing voice-over work. The voice-over work, in which her voice is heard but she isn't seen, pays well and is a pursuit that isn't affected by her physical disability.

She's confident that she'll be able to continue with film roles, regardless of any obstacles. One of Harman's favorite quotes is: "There are no failures in the world — only people who give up."

"That's the story of my life," she says. She set out to become an actress despite a lack of support or encouragement from family members, including, initially, her husband.

"It wasn't until my early 30s that he realized that, my gosh, she's good and she's not going to give up," Harman says. "He did a complete turnaround, and, bless his heart, he's been very supportive ever since."Tenacity is the name of the game."