Rebuilding a Life After Facial Cancer: A Conversation with Kathleen Watt

On this month's myFace, myStory podcast episode, host Dina Zuckerberg is joined by Kathleen Watt, an opera singer on some of the biggest stages whose life changed when she was diagnosed with bone cancer in her face. She will speak about her memoir, REARRANGED where she writes about coming face-to-face with mortality, disfigurement, having her face reconstructed, and the meaning and uses of beauty. REARRANGED is a tale of letting go to hold on, of putting old pieces to new uses—and of the unlikely arrangements that make it all work out.​

 

- [Narrator] Welcome to "myFace myStory, voices from the craniofacial community" with your host Dina Zuckerberg.

- Hello and welcome to "myFace myStory, voices from the craniofacial community." Whether you're watching on YouTube or listening on Apple Podcasts, click Subscribe now, so that you'll never miss a future episode. And if you're a fan of "myFace myStory," rate and review the program on Apple Podcasts, so that we can get our message of inclusivity and empowerment to more people. I'm your host, Dina Zuckerberg, the director of Family Programs at myFace. I was born with a cleft lip, a hearing loss, and no vision in my left eye. "myFace myStory" is about people like us being seen and heard, about sharing stories within the cranial facial community and with others. Today I will be joined by Kathleen Watt. Kathleen Watt sang principal roles with various opera companies and in the extra chorus of New York's Metropolitan Opera, before her singing career was severely ended by osteogenic sarcoma, bone cancer in her face. She recently wrote her memoir "Rearranged," which tells of leaving the operatic stage for a starring role opposite the Big C. Bone cancer in her cheek, ended her career and brought her face to face with mortality, disfigurement, the meaning and uses of beauty, and a lot of leftover pieces. "Rearranged" is a story about letting go to hold on, of putting old pieces to new uses, and of the unlikely arrangements that make it all work out. Since retiring from performing, she has written frequently on performing arts and cultural issues, including features, profiles, and essays. As a writer and cancer survivor, Kathleen has collaborated with doctors and artists on a range of projects, including an appearance on a BBC Four series about facial disfigurement. Formerly an assistant art director in publishing, Kathleen attended Rhode Island School of Design, Brown University, and Brigham Young University, earning a double BFA in art and music, with postgraduate studies in opera performance at Boston University. Kathleen now writes from a windswept hay farm in the Catskill Mountains of New York, where she resides with her partner, 10 chickens, three dogs, and on occasion her two grown stepchildren. Welcome, Kathleen. I really look forward to our conversation.

- Thank you, Dina. It's a delight to be here.

- Yes. So why and how did you become an opera singer?

- Well, my mother was a classically trained singer, so I grew up with the sound of that kind of a voice in my ear early on. But I personally, I took a long way around. I went to several different schools, as you just recounted. I got a BFA in art and a minor in voice, but I chose to prioritize singing, because it has, you know, supposedly it has an expiration date. And also with serious singing, I had to come to the grudging understanding that the only way to get paid was to get hired by a company, so that meant opera. But once I got into it, I was really hooked on grand opera, One of the things I liked about it, besides the comradery of other musicians and the music and the lights and the costumes and everything, was the way that operatic singing is almost like an athletic activity. It's full-bodied, muscular and musical and lyrical all at the same time. So I really enjoyed all of that, so I was hooked. So I had to get a job.

- Right, right. I fell in love, the first opera I ever saw was "Madam Butterfly," and I fell in love with the opera after that.

- Oh, that's one that will make you fall in love.

- Yes. So take us back to the day when you learned that you had bone cancer in the face. What was going through your mind?

- Well, my tumor was identified by my dentist, as often happens with head and neck cancers or serious head and neck conditions. I asked my partner, Evie, to help me identify a bump in the gum line over my back teeth, and we agreed that I should ask my dentist about it. But he sent me to an endodontist who thought it might be a condition requiring a root canal, and then he sent me to an oral surgeon, who thought it might deserve a biopsy. So by March, I had my diagnosis, and I first heard the news on my answering machine. It's not something you're ever really prepared for, even if you've seen it in others and you know it might be coming. We took one step at a time as it was revealed to us, what else ca