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ENMU Graduate Attains Full-Service Entertainment Business
It has been 25 years since Lori (Silverman) Hurley (BFA92) was a freshman at ENMU. She recalls how much she appreciated feeling like more than just a number and attributes much of her current success in life to the Theatre Department Chair, Dr. Patrick Rucker, not only as an advisor and teacher of her music theatre major, but as a father figure as well (even though he was unaware of this).
By her sophomore year, Lori discovered she was accepted to travel around the world with Up With People and spent a lot of her time fundraising to earn her $10,000 travel tuition. Taking 18 credit hours and operating a singing telegram business, it wasn’t uncommon for Lori to show up for class dressed in costume and balloon bouquet in tow. Fortunately, by the end of her sophomore year, she had reached her goal and was able to travel with Up With People to 86 cities in five countries on two continents.
According to Lori, the international cast of 130 people from 18 different countries taught her more about herself and the world than she could ever learn elsewhere. It also landed her in Sarasota, Fla., where she was introduced to the director of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College.
Another opportunity then presented itself. Although Lori always had the intention of returning to ENMU, she applied to Clown College where entrance is statistically difficult and found herself accepted. Being a theatre major, Lori felt Clown College would be a fun way to learn new skills and since only one-third of the graduates are offered jobs with the “Greatest Show on Earth,” she was certain she would be back at ENMU soon. She was wrong. Lori was offered a contract to tour with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus through Japan.
During this time, Lori exchanged letters with Dr. Rucker because she worried about getting off course in her life. Even though worlds away, Dr. Rucker’s commitment remained constant. Her favorite advice from him was that life isn’t just about the destination or getting some prize. He reminded her that the sweetest moments in life come from the journey itself.
She completed her tour with Ringling, turning down the offer to remain for another year and returned to ENMU. Two and a half years had passed and most of her friends were gone.
However, the faculty remembered her, and it felt like home. Community members also remembered her former singing telegrams, and her business picked up right where it had left off. Within two years Lori completed her degree, married a fellow student and accepted a job with a premier educational children’s theatre company, CLIMB Theatre, in St. Paul, Minn. Lori worked for the theatre for seven years, eventually becoming an administrator, while running her business part-time on the side. While expecting her second child, she made the leap to run her business full-time, and she has never looked back. Her 20th wedding anniversary is right around the corner, she has three children and continues to run a full-service entertainment company in the Twin Cities. She tours the country as a speaker and comedy entertainer while fully engaged in the lives of her children and husband. It’s a wonderful, adventurous life, and in the end, Lori contends Dr. Rucker was right. The journey is just as important as the destination.
