LASER SURGERY REFOCUSES ACTOR'S LIFE; GIFT OF SIGHT MAKES DIFFERENCE.

Byline: Donna Huffaker Staff Writer

As if auditioning for a commercial isn't nerve-wracking enough, imagine not being able to read the script.

Or see the cue cards.

``You don't get a lot of parts if you can't see what you're supposed to say,'' said Mary Ellen Carson, an actress and Burbank resident who has been nearsighted since she was 11 years old.

Unable to wear contact lenses for very long because of dry-eye syndrome, the 52-year-old has sported eyeglasses every day of her life since childhood. But Friday, when Carson slid her trifocals down the slope of her nose and tucked them into her purse, it marked the beginning of the end of blur.

Carson underwent a laser eye surgery called Lasic surgery in Irvine, where a doctor performed the operation for free. It was part of the Gift of Sight program, which brings perfect vision to people whose jobs require 20/20 vision but they are unable to pay for it.

Dan Tran, an ophthalmologist and medical director of Aris Laser Vision Institute, peeled back the outer layer of Carson's cornea Friday afternoon and aimed the laser onto her eye. Carson's vision would be perfect after the surgery, Tran said.

``This surgery was on my wish list. I'd never have been able to afford it,'' Carson said. ``My eyesight is in my thoughts all day long. This is a life transformation.''

Aside from acting jobs, Carson needed better vision for the hours of research she does every day on her book of family history. For the last year, Carson has pored over microfilm, newspapers and e-mails looking for every snippet of her family's past. Clear vision is almost essential to follow paper trails, she said.

The laser eye procedure typically costs $3,500 to $4,200, Tran said. Most health insurance plans don't cover the surgery, so Tran said he is only able to perform it for free two or three times a year.

Carson, the first person who received a free operation from the program, was chosen by after she submitted a compelling essay on why she needed the surgery.

``In her field, in order for her to function, she needed perfect eyesight,'' Tran said. ``This surgery makes a difference in her life and that's what I mean for this program to do.''

The 15-minute operation never frightened her, Carson said. All she could think about was seeing a clear reflection of herself in the morning, seeing a non-blurry bar of soap in the shower and not having to worry about trying to stick contacts on her eyes an hour before an audition.

Because Hollywood's idea of corrective eyewear may best be summed up in her agent's request, ``lose the glasses,'' Carson kept contact lenses with her in case she got a last-minute call-back.

But all contacts feel as if she's pouring sand into her eyes because her eyes don't produce enough tears, she said.

Once, Carson said, laughing, she was on stage during a play where her role allowed her to wear glasses. During a scene another actor grabbed her and pushed her into a wall. Carson's glasses flew through the air and slid across the stage. She finished in a blur and found the glasses only after the audience left.

Then there was the time she fell out of a tree.

Carson was trying to get her cat off the garage roof so she climbed up a nearby tree and the branch broke, sending her to the ground and her glasses into the unknown. Hours later, she found them beneath a pile of leaves.

She calls her glasses her lifeline and will have to get used to talking about them in the past tense. It shouldn't be a problem.

No longer her lifeline, Carson's glasses and all the spare pairs that have cluttered her bedside table drawer for years will now be someone else's salvation. Carson is donating them to her church where the glasses are given to those who can't afford to buy them.

``This operation is a blessing,'' she said.

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Photo: Mary Ellen Carson

Now she can read cue cards