Bank Square Books presents a weekend book signing with Christine Barker for the book Third Girl From the Left
About the Book
As a middle child in a large military family, Christine just wants to dance. Her parents support her dreams, even if they seem beyond their comprehension. At 20, determined and talented, Christine heads across the country from Santa Fe to New York City and, in a made for-Hollywood story, is chosen for the London cast of A Chorus Line.
While unwilling to fully cut ties with the traditional life her parents envision for her, she finds a new family with the dancers and more fluid, open characters that fill the theater world in London, and later New York, in the '70s & '80s. Christine learns that one member of her family is equally at home in her new world: Laughlin, her older brother--divorced, a father, ex-military and a corporate lawyer--also makes his way to New York City, where he meets, and begins to build a life, with rising fashion star Perry Ellis. The two men enjoy a partnership and a financial success that Christine both admires. and envies.
She spends much of her free time in their Upper West Side brownstone and Water Island retreat. Soon everyone is talking about a mysterious new disease. As deaths of dancers, theater folk, and eventually friends start to mount, Christine realizes she's in the middle of an epidemic that neither her traditional family nor the public at large is ready to reckon with. As the AIDS crisis cuts closer and closer, eventually impacting those she loves most, Christine does what she has always done: she strikes her own path.
This memoir is an emotional, honest examination of what it takes to succeed in the competitive world of New York theater, how hard-won dreams can be quickly lost, what it means to redefine family, and the devastating toll AIDS exacted on a generation of artists.
About the Author
Christine Barker spent her childhood in Naples, Italy and in various locations across the United States when her father was an aviator and Commander in the U.S. Navy. When he retired from the military, Christine was about to enter high school, and the family moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Santa Fe had always been considered home since her paternal great-grandparents had settled there in the late 19th century. Her great-grandfather, N.B. Laughlin, was an illiterate young man from Illinois who had learned to read and write, eventually studied law, and became a territorial judge in New Mexico. Her grandmother, Ruth Laughlin, graduated from Colorado College, was an active suffragette prior to 1920, and an author of essays, magazine articles, and a historical fiction novel. The western-pioneering spirit also characterized Christine’s mother’s family, the McClatchys, who had settled in California in the 1850s. Her great, great-grandfather, James, founded a newspaper, The Sacramento Bee, where her great-grandfather, V.S., contributed to the growth of the enterprise, and her grandfather, Leo, worked as a journalist. Family and history were woven into daily life as Christine’s parents frequently spoke of their ancestors in the present tense. From them, she inherited a legacy of adventure, grit, and individualism.
After attending two years of college at UCLA, she headed east to pursue her dreams of a building a career in theater and dance in New York City. At first, Christine roomed at the Salvation Army Evangeline Home for Girls on 13th Street and studied with Alvin Ailey, Luigi and at the American Ballet Theater school. She eventually worked jobs in summer stock, dinner theater, and national tours. After dancing alongside Tommy Tune and meeting Michael Bennett, she was hired for the London production of the Tony award-winning A Chorus Line. From London, she joined the Broadway cast. Over the course of her Broadway career, she also appeared in numerous national television commercials.
Life in New York changed when the AIDS epidemic claimed the life of her older brother Laughlin, his companion Perry Ellis, and many close Broadway friends and colleagues. After their deaths, she retired from her theater career and turned her professional sights to another dream – writing. She went back to school and earned an MFA in Creative Non-Fiction at Sarah Lawrence College.
Christine is married, has two children, and divides her time between Santa Fe and a home in Connecticut. In addition to working on her own projects, she teaches writing to high school students.
As a middle child in a large military family, Christine just wants to dance. Her parents support her dreams, even if they seem beyond their comprehension. At 20, determined and talented, Christine heads across the country from Santa Fe to New York City and, in a made for-Hollywood story, is chosen for the London cast of A Chorus Line.