Introduce Yourself : A Self Rediscovery by David James Mignogna

I am David James Mignogna and want to give a warm salutation throughout the large community of stage 32. It was not too long ago that I realized what my true calling in life is. It took me a journey of self-exploration and loosing passion, to figure I am an American Actor. This is a short Bio of my life. I was born in Arcadia CA, but I was raised throughout the east, mostly in a small town in the OBX (Outer Banks) named after Kitty Hawk (Chickahawk) one of the Native Americans that first lived among the north eastern region of North Carolina. Maybe breathing in the famous California air for my first breath coming into this world did something to me, because throughout my life I always had a drive to perform. Most little boys were playing sports, while I was playing house with the girls next door. I always enjoy playing in a world of fantasy, at least in my imagination there were no limits. Unlike most children I did not start speaking until I was 5 years old. I was born with a cleft palate. After hard work and dedication I was able to overcome a setback, in order to communicate with the world. As a kid I was constantly the center of jokes, because of how I spoke. There were days I would sit alone and just watch the other kids play and imagine what if I was one of them. Little did I know I was exploring the world of me philosophy in my head. In middle school, Drama class was my favorite class throughout the dreadful day. In that class I was not a child that had a speech disability waiting to hit puberty, instead I was my character. Whenever we did a scene I would bring all my built up energy to that stage and release it. In high school I continued to take theater arts class, in order to express myself and to be around sexy girls. As mentioned before I come from a small town, however my small town has big history. Our community’s big history is what brings in big tourism to the community. One of the most regarded attractions in the Outer Banks is the Lost Colony. I bring this up because the Lost Colony Theater Company is one of the many stages that my teach Mrs. Kraft performed at. Although I only had the pleasure of having her as a theater teacher for a semester, I was lucky. She was the main drive for First Flight High school having a well-funded theater program. Seriously I auditorium must of cost more than a million dollars. We were a super small high school and we had a fully functioning auditorium. Our stage was used all the time throughout the community. It had a catwalk, a back drop, multiple dressing rooms, a loading dock to bring in props; we even had two spot light rooms. Although this was really cool for a high school fine arts department, this is not the main reason why I was lucky to have Mrs. Kraft. By my 2nd semester of high school she passed away after going into a diabetic coma. Although her death was sudden and it brought a theft of wisdom to the young expressive minds of the Dare County community, she still set a major precedence of what it means to be a part of something bigger then oneself. My first high school play she cast me as an extra, while I also made varsity on the wrestling team. Little did I know at the time of starting both extracurricular activities that I was going to eventually have to choose one over the other. Eventually to my surprise I had my first varsity match the same night as our semester play. When I brought up this dilemma to Mrs. Kraft, She reminded me I made a commitment no matter how small the role. Now as a14 year old seeking for peer approval, and coolness I rejected that. What did influence my decision is she told me to follow my passion. My passion was the stage no matter how small the role. She taught me to pursue my passion, something that I just recently started doing again. After her death we had many teachers that brought their own twist to theater, however unfortunately none could fill the void of Mrs. Kraft. This was not fair to either parties, but that is what theater is all about reacting to a powerful situation By the time I was getting time to graduate my father was planting the idea of pursuing a stable career before doing what my heart desires. At the time I was working at a pharmacy so I immediately clenched on to dream of being a pharmacist. So I attended Arizona State University majoring in biochemistry. After my freshmen year of college, life of course happened and a year later I am on a bus going to Ft Benning. At the time I hated who I was and I was trying to change myself by becoming property of the government. Luckily I was a little smart about joining the military, because I joined the National Guard with the hopes of being an elite officer in the Army. Once I graduated Infantry school I enrolled in the ROTC program at ASU, while declaring a criminal justice major. During my sophomore year I could not help but hear a whisper telling me that this is not me. I foolishly ignored the voice mistaking it for weakness. As time went by a rumor of a deployment was coming up, part of me wanted to go. That summer I went to Uzbekistan for three weeks, when I got back I declined signing my cadet contract and transferred to a line unit. By my junior year the whisper of doubt got louder. Every day I went to class doubt was filling my mind even more, soon the doubt became waits, and needless to say I stopped prioritizing school. By the time my unit’s deployment was canceled I eventually stopped caring about training. I was unconsciously aware that I was walking on path of self-rebellion. After changing my major two more times I decided to just drop out of college in order to do an independent study. This independent study was my self-passion. I fortunately met a man commonly called Fumasa at studio Movie Grill during my last semester at ASU. He was and is currently a model; he frequently took me to entertaining events where people itching to get in to the entertaining industry were hanging out at. As I spent more time with these people my shadow self-destruction was popping out pulling me to the light to mingle and entertain. It was at these moments of abandoning fear and mainstream patterns pursuing security, I realized I am not meant to solely be a soldier, a cop, a lawyer, a school teacher, or an academic scholar. I am what I was when I was a teenager, which is the physical embodiment of inspiration. I was born without the natural tool to speak let I am more than willing to walk among crowd and openly express myself and the ideas of others. Without knowing I guess I been acting all a long constantly fooling myself until now.