It wasn’t until the review appeared in a major industry magazine, " Weston Hurt was a sympathetic Sharpless, his own real-life physical limitation - he has no right arm - never preventing him from singing with caring and poise.” that I realized our plan had backfired. After talking about the character with the director, we made the decision that this was perhaps why Sharpless had the desk job. Maybe he was injured in war and had been assigned the American Consulate position after being discharged. It made perfect sense, brought a uniqueness to the character, allowed me to be myself on stage, and brought something new to a story that audiences had seen time and time again. Only a year later, I had attained a cosmetic prosthesis and was surprised in what a difference having my prosthesis made in my auditions. One could argue that I had improved as a singer/auditioner over the past year, but I also had industry people telling me (in whispered tones) that they were so happy I had made the decision to procure a prosthesis. My biggest surprise came once I arrived at my first contracted engagement after receiving my prosthesis and was asked by the director if I would mind not wearing it for the role of Sharpless in Madama Butterfly. So, I decided to seek out financial assistance to acquire a cosmetic prosthesis in hopes to level the playing field. It was then when I began thinking about various companies in America that might have been too politically correct to mention anything, but had decided to pass on me simply out of fear that I wouldn’t be able to portray a certain character with only one hand. In fact, there was one audition in which I was told point blank that while I had sung perhaps the best "Largo al factotum” (Il barbiere di Siviglia) that he might had ever heard, he didn’t think that a Figaro with one hand would be marketable to his audience.
My manager contacted me and said that an important opera company in Germany was very interested in offering me a fest contract as long as I had a prosthesis. At the time I didn’t possess one, so I ended up losing out on the offer.
I remember singing an audition in New York City where many different companies from Europe came to the United States to hear singers in audition. It wasn’t until some time later, after I had finished my education and formal training that I really saw his words turn true.
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