One morning when she was about 10 years old, Mary-Margaret Duggan sat on the living room couch of her Hattiesburg home while her mother combed her hair.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” her mom asked.
Without hesitation, Duggan replied, “A legend.”
Looking back now, she smiles at that answer.
“(That is) such a weird thing to say when you’re like 10 years old,” she said. “But I said it anyway.”
Now a junior majoring in theater at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Duggan just wants to survive and be the best person she can be. Back then, though, she added, “That was kind of like my mindset—I wanted to perform.”
She did just that in sixth grade, landing the role of Jasmine in Sacred Heart Catholic School’s play production of “Aladdin,” for which she had the opportunity to belt out lyrics from “A Whole New World,” a duet.
‘I Didn’t Feel Very Smart’
The transition into seventh grade brought changes, though. “Center stage was only for people in elementary school, and I was in middle school now,” Duggan explained. Wanting another way to perform, Duggan moved on to cheerleading.
That year, someone from Mississippi School of the Arts—a special boarding high school in Brookhaven focused on creative areas like acting, singing, dancing and more—visited her school. Applying to the program was an opportunity Duggan couldn’t pass up, but reality hit when she checked her grades to see if she qualified for MSA.
“I had alphabetical grades: I had As in maybe history or English, and then Bs in the sciences,” Duggan said. “The sciences and maths always messed me up. I was just not very good at school.”
Her struggles, however, went deeper than grades. “I didn’t feel very smart,” she said, pausing.
“And I have a learning disability—I have dyslexia,” she continued. “I do remember struggling a bit in theater and having to memorize my lines as soon as possible because reading aloud is something I still struggled with.”
Even so, she refused to let that define her. She kept pushing, determined to reach MSA, and along the way discovered that the skill she’d fought hardest to master—reading—had become her proudest accomplishment. “I love doing it,” she said.
Last year alone, Duggan dove into 85 books, yet admitted that reading took a long time for her to understand how the words on the page and how they related to each other.
“I remember everyone trying to help me by reading words I was struggling with, but overtime it felt condescending because I can understand, it just takes me longer than others,” she said.
As a child, she found reading and writing particularly difficult compared to her classmates, not mastering writing her name until age 7. She felt the odds were stacked against her.
“Everybody else knows how to read, and I’m the odd one now,” she remembered.
‘Would Still Love You’
Now, at 20 years old, she considers herself a strong reader, though dyslexia still affects how she processes words, especially aloud or on stage. That challenge became evident one day, when doing a cold read, she stumbled over the word “chest.”
”Somewhere in my brain, I read the word ‘chest,’ and I said ‘closet,’” she said. “Not because I saw the word ‘closet,’ but because ‘chest’ is similar to the word ‘closet.’”
Reading scripts without preparations remains a hurdle, but Duggan stays confident thanks to her family’s unwavering support.
“My family has just been so kind to me and has always taught me that I can be whatever I want to be, that they’ll love me no matter (what),” she said. “Like, my family has always been like, ‘OK, you’re gonna be able to read, but even if you couldn’t read, I would still love you.’”
That mentality, she said, made her feel important and cared for regardless of her abilities—and gave her the motivation to conquer reading. “And that’s what made me realize, ‘OK, I’ve got this,’” Duggan said.
Her twin sister, Betty Duggan, echoes that constant support, especially when Mary-Margaret is struggling with cold reading. “She’s gotten really great at doing it on her own,” Betty said of her sister. “But we are always there for her when she needs somebody.”
Still, there have been times when Mary-Margaret has faced rejection, as reading struggles closed off opportunities. “She’s had to practice things that like somebody (else) could do easily, but it’s taken her a long time to do and a long time to perfect,” Betty said.
That effort, Betty explained, has left her sister feeling both rejected—for working harder just to keep up—and proud in mastering her craft as, if not more deeply, than the rest.
“She knows how to read a script on the fly,” Betty said.
Whenever Mary-Margaret reads a script, she automatically studies its meaning and structure.
That skill has shaped her path in the university’s theater program. Betty said her sister has appeared in three mainstage productions, learning all the lines for the women’s roles in “Big Fish” and “Rhinoceros.” She also plays as an ensemble member, playing ukulele and singing.
Betty added that Mary-Margaret has worked both on stage and behind the scenes, balancing university shows with community theater.
“She’s always working on something—there’s rarely a time when she’s not in a play or doing something (to be involved),” Betty said.
That dedication to her craft, Duggan said, comes from how much theater fulfills her. It challenges both her mind and soul, she said.
“Theater is a place where I am constantly learning and challenging myself, and that is why I love theater so much,” Duggan explained. “It is my safe place where I can work to become a better person and connect with people from many different backgrounds.”
This article originally published in The Student Printz. This version has been edited for the Mississippi Free Press. Read the original article here.
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