Motherhood helped prepare actress for 'Ragtime' role at Drury Lane

Acting has many downsides: low pay, few jobs and long periods of unemployment. But one of the upsides is that the craft allows for a lot of personal growth. It even, in a way, encourages it.

That is what Cory Goodrich had found. Currently appearing as Mother in Drury Lane Oak Brook's production of "Ragtime," Goodrich began her career in the mid-1990s playing a lot of young female characters.

"I started at Drury Lane as Maria in 'The Sound of Music'," she says. "And then I played (the female lead) in 'Carousel.' I was the Rodgers and Hammerstein girl for a while."

Then she had kids. And being a mother changed her - physically and psychologically.

"I remember (Chicago actor) Susan Moniz said to me when I was pregnant 'you are now going to understand what love is,'" Goodrich says. "She was right. It changes everything. Suddenly there is someone you would die for. From that point on it informs everything for you."

For one, the world is no longer just about the actor. "I learned I had to do what I do and not lose track of my children," Goodrich says.

It also put her career in perspective. "It used to be devastating when I didn't get a show," she says. "But now if I don't get a job I realize I get to spend more time with my family."

However, the biggest change had to do with the roles she landed. Suddenly she was playing mothers - and other grown-ups.

Three years ago she played the mother in Drury Lane's "Meet Me in St. Louis." Now she is back in a role that is literally named "Mother."

Mother plays a pivotal role in the complicated plot of "Ragtime," based on E.L. Doctorow's best-selling novel.

"She finds a live baby buried in her garden and she is horrified," Goodrich says. "She finds the mother of the child and she takes the mother and child into her home."

She also wakes up to issues related to race and the treatment of women in the early 1900s.

"She sees all this ugliness going on around her," Goodrich says. "She changes a great deal and she has quite a journey."

The production, too, is quite a journey.

"It's the biggest cast we have ever had at Drury Lane," Goodrich says. "There must be 33 characters. And they have changed around the theater. They put in this lift on stage. They built an enormous bridge that will descend from the ceiling. We also have an enormous orchestra."

And Goodrich got to be part of this because she allowed life to change her, and prepare her for a new set of acting challenges.

"Whatever you experience in life," she says, "you are able to bring that to the stage and experience and express so much more."

• "Ragtime" is currently running in previews. It opens March 24 and runs through May 23 at Drury Lane Oak Brook, 100 Drury Lane, Oakbrook Terrace. For tickets call (630) 530-0111 or (800) 745-3000, or visit the Web site at www.drurylaneoakbrook.com.