WHY ME? WHY THIS? WHY NOW? by Gerry Vega
I moved to New York City to do one thing, and one thing only— to fulfill my dream of bringing another artist’s heart and soul to life on a Broadway stage.
It was somewhere between training an 18 month old to sleep while her mother was was opening her own restaurant and having an 8-year-old defiantly pee himself on a crowded, afternoon D train when I began to ponder, “Why is this what I’m doing instead of Broadway?’
I never thought I’d be an unemployed actor. I never considered a survival job. Furthermore, I never thought I’d spend several years as as one of Manhattan’s (self proclaimed) most coveted male babysitters— a manny in professional terms. I never considered how much of my time would be committed to children (aged toddler through Sophomore in High School).
Life of [a] Manny is a silly sitcom I derived from my experience as a gay, Latinx male in present-day New York City, chasing his Broadway dreams, while doubling as a manny. You see, while Broadway continued to not call, I continued to manny, and, instead of resisting my survival job purgatory, I began to write about it.
In this world I was creating, I had permission to be the lead character.
The children would make me laugh. They would definitely make me cry. They would draw pictures of me on that Broadway stage. I’d make sure they got from Point A to Point B safely. They’d make sure to drop wisdom on me, mainly about how I was overcomplicating life. One thing was certain, their magical imaginations and inherent presence allowed me to swallow that Actor rejection nobody else could erase for me.
And I continued to laugh, cry, and (most importantly) write through the rejection.
I continued to write until the end of last audition season where I admitted to Mom and Dad (Lindsay and RSO) that I had lost motivation in chasing my Broadway dreams. What would I do next?
I solidified the story of Manny Suarez, a gay babysitter who was impacting the lives of those “affluent New Yorkers”— who had gotten such a bad rap after our last election— and their children.
What if we grew up in a world where a person like me was able to affect the life of our current president? What if he got one more “I love you” or “let’s talk about an alternate solution”? That’s what a nanny, or manny, is to there be when a parent out running their empire. This is the story Manny is trying to tell, but, this time, it’s 2019, where the conversation has clearly become more complicated.
Parents everywhere can agree. They just want to raise good human beings.
Once I stopped resisting my circumstance, I discovered how quickly a grown-up could impact the life of a child— their immediate audience. What I get to do as a manny in 2019,—as a gay, person of color— is teach the next leaders of our nation about love, patience, rejection, imagination, problem solving— to name a few. It’s time for grown ups to redirect how we talk to children.
I’d like to put a lens on how many different types of people are changing the lives of these children. “It takes a village”, like an African proverb (and Hillary Clinton) teaches us.
GERRY VEGA is an Actor, Singer, and Writer who has most recently performed and produced his two solo-cabarets: Growing Up? and Pennies from Heaven — at The Duplex and Don’t Tell Mama. A proud member of Actors’ Equity Association, he has performed at Santa’s Village (Berry the Elf) and as Brother Bear in the National Tour of Berenstain Bears Live: in Family Matters! The Musical. He will use this next chapter to produce is his self-written Pilot, Life of [a] Manny. @vegager