Scheherazade is the heroine of "1001 Arabian Nights". She was a woman who escaped death from the King for 1001 nights by telling him stories so he would let her live. She was a survivor... like myself, who escaped death numerous times at the hand of my abusive father. Her story was also transcribed into an opera, whose arias I have sung many times, and also a ballet, in which my mother played the leading role.

Whether I want to accept it or not, my parents are a part of me, and I am a part of them. I am half my mother and half my father. I live a shattered existence. I live in fear of my father, the monster, who sees me as his worthless, good-for-nothing, only child, and I live in the shadow of my mother, the ex-prima ballerina, whose eating disorders ruined the career she dreamed I could carry on. The only way I can be whole is by playing someone else, in this case, Scheherazade. As a performer, I live my life in costume, portraying characters other than myself. Yet, underneath it all, I'm still a shattered me.