Check Out Dallas Slankard’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dallas Slankard. 

Hi Dallas, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
My story is a little all over the place! As a kid, I fell in love with theatre and dance and I had a dream to be on Broadway. I stuck with theatre throughout school and ended up going to college for Musical Theatre. After college, I moved to New York City to pursue my Broadway dreams. Once I was there, I kind of lost myself and was finding that I was super unhappy. I tried to switch my career paths and traded in my performing dreams for a more behind-the-scenes role. In 2019, I finally realized that it wasn’t my career path that was making me unhappy but it was New York itself, so I made the very difficult decision to leave New York and move back home to Denver. I started doing theatre in Denver almost immediately and found happiness in performing again, without the stress that was put on it in New York. Then the world shut down. When the pandemic hit and I started working from home, I had a huge mental breakdown. It was a depressive episode that brought so many things to light for me, and my family, and doctor. It was when I realized how much anxiety and depression I had been pushing aside, thinking that it was just temporary unhappiness. I realized that it was the root of why I felt like failure for leaving NYC and “abandoning” my dreams. I started seeing a therapist and got on amazing medication and it truly changed my life. 2 years later and I have continued to do theatre in Denver and found passions that I never knew I had! I got the chance to recreate my life once I started taking my mental health seriously and it has been just incredible! 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not. At. All. 

I had my entire life planned out from the moment I was cast in my first play. I planned everything from my college major to the neighborhood I wanted to live in, in Manhattan. Once I was actually living out those dreams, I think I realized that I had created this unrealistic ideal of what New York is and what my place in that world would be. I absolutely had planned my life with rose-colored glasses. Coming to that realization and understanding the reality of it all, was awful. It was heartbreaking to realize that maybe the dream I had since I was a little 8-year-old girl, wasn’t quite my dream still. 

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I chose other because I think that my career and my professional life are actually 2 different things. I have a “day job” that pays my bills and I have a nights/weekends job that makes my heart happy. 

In my “day job”, I work for an incredible company called Inspirato as an Accounts Payable Specialist, probably one of the most opposite things you can do from acting! 

In any free time that I have, I am an actor. I have done film and commercials as well as stage acting. Since I have been back in Denver, I have done both plays and musicals. I have a big dance background so I would say that is one of my “specialties”, but, as actors, we strive to be amazing at everything. It’s really great to have realistic expectations of yourself, haha. Most recently, I was seen in Cinderella at Vintage Theatre, directed and choreographed by the incredible Christopher Page-Sanders. This show is, hands down, the show that I am the most proud to have been a part of. The show was a beautiful representation of diversity and love and beauty. 

Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
My parents. My parents. My parents. 

My parents got divorced when I was quite young, but because I was an only child, I got to create this incredible bond with each of my parents that is just amazing. They have always been my saviors and my biggest supporters. They didn’t question even my wildest dreams, well maybe once when they thought I would be a starving artist. 🙂 

Contact Info:

• Email: dallas.j.slankard@gmail.com
• Instagram: @dallasslankard

Image Credits
Katie Puc
Rachel McCombs-Graham