Drama is in my blood. I don’t know exactly how or why I got into it. Actually, I believe it was drama which chose me to be its servant. It’s not that I started anything. Drama started me.
Drama gives me insights into human nature. It makes me understand myself as well as other people.
I got a Fulbright Scholarship to study the Teaching of English as a Second Language. But when I told my professor, Prince Prem Burachat, he insisted I study nothing but drama. I went back to the Fulbright institute and asked if I could change but they asked “How can you apply for a masters degree in drama when you have no background in this field?” Back then, there was no such thing as a dramatic arts department.
Still, I managed to pull it off. During my first year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I had to take all the prerequisite courses from acting to directing and playwriting. And I got to play female leads in almost all the plays.
Sondi Sodsai was my alias in the entertainment business. My last name was too difficult for foreigners to pronounce so I opted for that name. It started when I was singing in a musical and the audiences started shouting for an encore. From there, I got approached to be on the Jack Parr Show in New York, got an offer to make a record for Liberty Records in Hollywood, and a chance to star in the Mike Hammer TV show in an episode called Siamese Twinge. So my advisors at North Carolina suggested I transfer my credits to UCLA in Los Angeles because I would have more opportunities for work.
I got offered a seven-year contract by Fox Studios. The casting director came to see the play that I was in and offered me the contract and US$500 a week. At the time I was getting B1,050 a month from Chula. But, when my father found out, he tore up the contract.
He didn’t want me to stay in the States for another seven years. My advisor helped by talking with Fox, getting them to change the contract to a kind of scholarship and training program. It allowed me to study everything from playwriting and editing to making background music and acting at Fox Studios for two years.
Why would I have wanted to be a Hollywood star? My country is here. My father was here. My mother was here. I had my time in the US. I had to grow up and move on to something else.
It was difficult to start a dramatic arts department in Thailand. But nothing is too difficult if you truly love it. I started by making English plays so students could practice English. At first, we didn’t even have a theater.
We were like nomads, we performed under the trees, on the verandah, in the attic. Practically wherever they allowed us.
I like to be a nobody. I don’t long to be a star or to be famous. I have refused to be interviewed by so many people. I don’t like big social gatherings. You’ll never see me there.
Maybe I’m the most foolish person in the world, but I don’t see the importance of fame or money. To me, it’s more important to be with my three children and to have students whom I love and who love me. I’m happy this way.
Miss Thailand? Actress? Singer? Why must a girl’s dreams have to be so empty? To have someone that you understand, and that understands you is worth more than having the whole world. It’s a life worth living.
A teacher is like a boat. Your job is to help the students cross the river and get to their destination. But all of your students are sea ferries.
My students are more talented than I am. I’m so happy when I look at my students and see that they are going further than I’ve been.
I never aim for success. I just do whatever I have to do and do the best I can. That’s it.
Don’t look for fame or success. If you want to be in the theater, you have to love it. Play your part as well as you can.
There’s no place for pretense in the theater, so don’t fake it. You can’t fool the audience. You’ve to be sincere in your acting. Don’t try to read the lines and put on some actions. You’ve got to turn everything that you have read and swallow it. Let it belong to the character, not the pages of the script.
You can’t run away from hard-work in whatever you do.
I am so old now. I am 75. I am very forgetful. I am so thankful if someone thinks I am still active. I really want to hear that.
I am a mother, a wife, a teacher and nothing else.
