By Kirk Baird
LAS VEGAS SUN

Fortuitous. It's a word actress Lindsay Korman is very familiar with.

Performing in musicals since she was a teenager, the then-20-year-old Korman switched agencies at the beginning of 1999 to help jump-start her acting career.

The result? In the first audition with her new agency, the former Las Vegas resident landed the role of Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald on the new NBC daytime drama "Passions" (2 p.m. weekdays, KVBC Channel 3).

"It was a lucky moment in time," she said in a recent phone interview from her home in Los Angeles. "It's like pulling the slot machine and hitting the jackpot ... you don't think it's going to happen to you."

But it has. And like those instant jackpot winners, the now-21-year-old finds herself in a different world than the one she lived in a few years ago.

There's the designer clothes she wears, the hair and makeup people to make her look her best, and the beautiful people she works with Monday through Friday.

Sure, all three benefits are work-related, but it's a job many people would kill for.

Still, Korman hesitates to call her life glamorous. In fact, she said she feels the same as before she landed the role.

"I have my own life. I hang out with my girlfriends and go to the movies," she said. "When I go to my job, this is my life and this is my passion. It's like a whole other side of (me)."

While she has taken a fairly levelheaded approach to her success, she's quick to credit her parents for her outlook.

"They've been the best, most supportive parents a kid could ask for," Korman said. "Anything I've done, they've always been there for me."

Her dad, Jeff, who owns and operates Little Baja, a Las Vegas store specializing in Mexican imports, is quick to return the compliment.

"She needs reality checks like anybody, but I think she handles things really well," he said. "She's more mature than her 21 years, (and) has a great work ethic."

Which is something Korman has had plenty of time to develop.

Born the youngest of two children in Southern California, it was while performing in a school play that Korman was noticed.

"Someone suggested we put her in beauty pageants," her father said. "In pageants, you have to have a talent, and that's how she got into music."

So as the family moved around California, and later into Las Vegas when Korman was a junior in high school, she studied music and developed her singing voice.

At the age of 17 her diligence paid off when she made her debut in "Viva Las Vegas" at the old Sands Hotel. A year later, after one semester at UNLV, she joined the cast of the Broadway production of "Grease!"

It was Korman's first time away from home, so her mother would visit her often. When Korman left, she went to Austin, Texas, where she performed as Maria in "West Side Story." She then came back to Las Vegas for a short period of time, only to head off to L.A., where she's been ever since.

If it seems like a whirlwind success story, it doesn't appear to have gone to Korman's head. She is quick to praise her co-workers and very grateful for the opportunities she's had. Still, it's very easy to hear the determination in her voice, the kind that says in between the bubbly conversation that there is a tough-minded individual who knows what she wants and is willing to work hard to get it.

It's a trait not unlike the character Korman plays. In fact, Korman says there are a lot of similarities between her and Theresa.

"We're both really dedicated people, really passionate and lovable with family and people who surround us," Korman said. "We do go with the heart -- whether it's good or bad."

It's that latter characteristic, however, that seems to plague Theresa the most. An aspiring fashion designer, the 17-year-old is smitten with an older man, Ethan, 24, (Travis Schuldt) who is engaged to someone else. Of course, in the world of soap operas, this cruel twist of fate isn't enough. Ethan comes from the richest family in Harmony (a mythical New England town in which the series is set) and Theresa's mom is their housekeeper. So now it's a love between classes.

To make a long story as short as journalistically possible, Theresa has become a bit obsessed with Ethan and has a knack for showing up wherever he is, so he thinks he's being stalked. This leads to trouble with Ethan's fiance, Gwen (Liza Huber), who begins to suspect there is more to this relationship than coincidental meetings.

Theresa, however, maintains she has a boyfriend and is not interested in Ethan -- both lies.

Eventually, Theresa is called to task by Gwen and asked to produce her boyfriend at a party. When the time comes, Theresa doesn't have a significant other and prays for some divine intervention to save her from being exposed as a fraud.

In typical soap opera fashion, that intervention comes at the expense of someone else -- in this case Theresa's estranged father, who plunges to his death at the party. Now Theresa is riddled with guilt that she somehow caused her father's death.

While Theresa may seem like a dream patient for Freud, the story arc of her father's death has left very little for her to do lately but lay in bed emoting despair, while uttering lines such as "Papa fell through the ceiling and died ... it's all my fault!" and "We have each other and we have our faith," as her family gathers 'round her bedside for a group hug.

OK, so it's probably not award-winning material, but there's no denying that the raven-haired beauty looks good saying it, alternating effortlessly between despondence and joy with an occasional sultry pout thrown in for good measure.

Still, the actress wants to be known as something more than a soap opera queen. Like many of today's up-and-coming talents, Korman wants to be multidimensional. In her case, she pines for a singing career, which she recently worked on while developing some songs with a record-producing friend in New York.

In the meantime, however, she said she is just fine where she is, and after a holiday break was "looking forward to hopping back in to my Theresa mode.

"It is a wonderful experience being on this show," Korman said. "I'm so happy, I'm so grateful -- how can I complain?"