Potempa: Actress Goodrich’s memoir turns the page on the complicated matter of her mother
Cory Goodrich checks her wig and costume in her dressing room prior to a February 2018 stage performance of “Steel Magnolias” at Theatre at the Center in Munster. Goodrich played M’Lynn, the character played by Sally Field in the 1989 film of the same name. - Original Credit: Handout (Photo courtesy of Cory Goodrich / HANDOUT)
The first time I recall seeing actress Cory Goodrich take a stage bow was in June 2000, in the wig and colonial guise of would-be First Lady Martha Jefferson at Drury Lane Theatre Oakbrook in the history-filled musical “1776.”
By the holiday season of 2009, Goodrich was behind the apron of Alma, the Swedish captain’s-wife female lead in the musical “The Christmas Schooner,” entertaining audiences during that hit run at Theatre at the Center in Munster.
I’ve crossed paths and conversations with Goodrich at opening night cast parties many times during these decades, and she’s been my interview subject for newspaper cover stories on many occasions. Never did I realize the many layers of personal-life complexity and family quandaries hidden behind her smile. After all, as an actress, she is trained in the art of a crafted and controlled image and guiding others’ perceptions of who she is, or should be, at any given time.
Goodrich, a member of both Actors Equity Association and Screen Actors Guilt-AFTRA professional unions, fits every definition of a successful Chicagoland stage and screen talent.
In addition to her rave reviews in recent show runs at Theatre at the Center such as playing the Sally Field film-character role in “Steel Magnolias” (2018) and her Jeff Award-winning performance as June Carter Cash in “Ring of Fire” (2014), she has graced the stages of Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Mercury Theater, Marriott Theatre Lincolnshire and Paramount Theatre, among others.
This real-life self-described “suburban wife and mother of two daughters,” was featured in national television commercials opposite Marie Osmond for Nutrisystem in 2015, boasting her own more than 30-pound weight loss success story. And the following year, she was dressed in red in front of the cameras in 2016 cast as the smiling mom and wife who gives her husband a new Weber grill for Christmas in a national TV holiday commercial campaign for Ace Hardware.
But it was in 2017, when her aging mother was faced with a risky heart surgery, that Goodrich said she found herself, and the uneasy lifelong relationship with her mother, as the two key focal points to a long-hidden family secret.
While the Chicagoland live theater industry spent most of 2020 shuttered and on hiatus, unemployed Goodrich used her “sheltered-in” time to catch up on her oil painting and also complete the writing and editing of her memoir, the latter as her invitation to the world to delve into and understand the complex family equation that has summed up her 52 years of life.
“Folksong: A Ballad of Death, Discovery and DNA” (2021 Finn-Phyllis Press $15.95) is the 344-page paperback, also available as an ebook on Amazon, written by Goodrich and released earlier this month.
“I’ve always questioned so many things about my family and my life throughout the years, and also about my own mother, who always seemed to be holding back,” Goodrich said.
“I finally decided to ask myself the questions: If a family tree falls in the woods, and no one is around to see it, do I even exist?”
By the holiday season of 2009, Goodrich was behind the apron of Alma, the Swedish captain’s-wife female lead in the musical “The Christmas Schooner,” entertaining audiences during that hit run at Theatre at the Center in Munster.
I’ve crossed paths and conversations with Goodrich at opening night cast parties many times during these decades, and she’s been my interview subject for newspaper cover stories on many occasions. Never did I realize the many layers of personal-life complexity and family quandaries hidden behind her smile. After all, as an actress, she is trained in the art of a crafted and controlled image and guiding others’ perceptions of who she is, or should be, at any given time.
Goodrich, a member of both Actors Equity Association and Screen Actors Guilt-AFTRA professional unions, fits every definition of a successful Chicagoland stage and screen talent.
In addition to her rave reviews in recent show runs at Theatre at the Center such as playing the Sally Field film-character role in “Steel Magnolias” (2018) and her Jeff Award-winning performance as June Carter Cash in “Ring of Fire” (2014), she has graced the stages of Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Mercury Theater, Marriott Theatre Lincolnshire and Paramount Theatre, among others.
This real-life self-described “suburban wife and mother of two daughters,” was featured in national television commercials opposite Marie Osmond for Nutrisystem in 2015, boasting her own more than 30-pound weight loss success story. And the following year, she was dressed in red in front of the cameras in 2016 cast as the smiling mom and wife who gives her husband a new Weber grill for Christmas in a national TV holiday commercial campaign for Ace Hardware.
But it was in 2017, when her aging mother was faced with a risky heart surgery, that Goodrich said she found herself, and the uneasy lifelong relationship with her mother, as the two key focal points to a long-hidden family secret.
While the Chicagoland live theater industry spent most of 2020 shuttered and on hiatus, unemployed Goodrich used her “sheltered-in” time to catch up on her oil painting and also complete the writing and editing of her memoir, the latter as her invitation to the world to delve into and understand the complex family equation that has summed up her 52 years of life.
“Folksong: A Ballad of Death, Discovery and DNA” (2021 Finn-Phyllis Press $15.95) is the 344-page paperback, also available as an ebook on Amazon, written by Goodrich and released earlier this month.
“I’ve always questioned so many things about my family and my life throughout the years, and also about my own mother, who always seemed to be holding back,” Goodrich said.
“I finally decided to ask myself the questions: If a family tree falls in the woods, and no one is around to see it, do I even exist?”
Actress-turned-authoress Cory Goodrich penned her memoir “Folksong,” a 344-page paperback published and released in January 2021, during her stage career hiatus in 2020 during the COVID-19 global pandemic. - Original Credit: Handout (Finn-Phyllis Press / HANDOUT)
As the fourth child of Tom and Ernestine, it was a mysterious photograph connected with a few vague comments by her often-chilly, bristly and abrupt mother which, as Goodrich describes, became “the irresistible breadcrumbs to reveal the truth.”
“I describe ‘Folksong’ as a memoir of love and longing, an ode to self-discovery, an emotional ballad of grief and forgiveness, and a heart-stirring look at the lengths to which a family will go to protect themselves and each other,” Goodrich said.
A promotional description paragraph, penned to capture this riveting rollercoaster account, sums up the book perfectly: “It’s a story about the father who took her in, the father who took her away, the father who gave her away, and her 89-year-old mother, whose broken heart finally gave out while still protecting the secret to Goodrich’s identity. Sifting through the remnants of a life captured in letters and old Polaroids, Goodrich discovers a secret that sets her on a journey with life-altering consequences. In the era of Ancestry.com, DNA testing, and social media, Goodrich was able to gather together just enough pieces of a puzzle locked away for over 50 years to clearly make out the unfathomable image it depicted. Goodrich reminds that while things aren’t always what they seem, stunning fortitude and unexpected legacy can rise from the disorganized ashes of a toppled identity.”
Painted with vivid and juicy details, all framed by direct candor, this book was impossible for me to put down, giving me a page-by-page introduction to her unusual and aloof clan, all of them prone to the craft of keeping secrets. As her new book proves, actress Cory Goodrich’s most challenging role of her lifetime has been herself, masked behind her own smile.
Philip Potempa is a journalist, published author and the director of marketing at Theatre at the Center. He can be reached at pmpotempa@comhs.org.
“I describe ‘Folksong’ as a memoir of love and longing, an ode to self-discovery, an emotional ballad of grief and forgiveness, and a heart-stirring look at the lengths to which a family will go to protect themselves and each other,” Goodrich said.
A promotional description paragraph, penned to capture this riveting rollercoaster account, sums up the book perfectly: “It’s a story about the father who took her in, the father who took her away, the father who gave her away, and her 89-year-old mother, whose broken heart finally gave out while still protecting the secret to Goodrich’s identity. Sifting through the remnants of a life captured in letters and old Polaroids, Goodrich discovers a secret that sets her on a journey with life-altering consequences. In the era of Ancestry.com, DNA testing, and social media, Goodrich was able to gather together just enough pieces of a puzzle locked away for over 50 years to clearly make out the unfathomable image it depicted. Goodrich reminds that while things aren’t always what they seem, stunning fortitude and unexpected legacy can rise from the disorganized ashes of a toppled identity.”
Painted with vivid and juicy details, all framed by direct candor, this book was impossible for me to put down, giving me a page-by-page introduction to her unusual and aloof clan, all of them prone to the craft of keeping secrets. As her new book proves, actress Cory Goodrich’s most challenging role of her lifetime has been herself, masked behind her own smile.
Philip Potempa is a journalist, published author and the director of marketing at Theatre at the Center. He can be reached at pmpotempa@comhs.org.