My Story
In 7th grade, I joined the drama club at my middle school. I loved it. I was obsessed with the adrenaline rush I got when I was on stage. I loved the camaraderie of the people in the cast, the bonds we made, the jokes we had, and (I hate to admit this) I loved the way an audience made me feel. And so, that year, when my drama teacher told me, a 7th grader at a small school outside of Philadelphia, that studying theatre in college was something I could do, my mind was made up. I decided right there: I was going to be an actor for the rest of my life (I was naive).
I started at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee in 2020, making the risky decision to continue my plan to move to Boston at the height of a global pandemic. Alone, I lived in the heart of the Back Bay neighborhood in a studio apartment— small enough to make dinner from my couch. I was taking acting classes on Zoom, meeting my fellow ensemble members through my computer screen. learning their life stories, and sharing my own, separated by pixels on my Mac. I spent that year deciding if this— acting, creating, art, theatre— was really what I wanted to do. It was.
For the next two years, I made up for lost time on Zoom by auditioning for every play, volunteering my time to work backstage, supporting my friends sing in their recitals, and visiting theaters throughout the city to see professional productions of my favorite works. I was cast in parts. I worked on beautiful and profound plays. I devised theatre with my classmates and experimented with eclectic forms of performance. I loved it. I loved being in rehearsals late at night. I loved being in classes at all hours of the day. I loved learning about new forms of theatre and companies that were pushing boundaries. It felt like 7th-grade me was learning about theatre for the first time again. But at the same time, something wasn't right; something was missing.
During the second semester of my Junior year, I decided to stop acting. I wanted to see what was on the other side of the stage. I was brought on as a lighting designer for an original musical— which led to more and more opportunities for designing shows. I stage-managed for student productions and worked backstage for professional ones, and I assistant-directed for the first time. For the first time, felt a sense of belonging and empowerment in my artistry.
When my senior year came around, I knew I would have to pitch a project for my Capstone. I pitched directing God’s Ear by Jenny Schwartz— a play that I was introduced to in 2018 and had since fallen madly in love with. I was infatuated with the words' poetic rhythm, the characters' wild complexity, and the vast and intricate way the plot bounced from one end to another in my mind. During the process of directing this show, first in an academic environment and then professionally at the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, I learned what it means to be a leader, navigate such intricate text, and bring humanity and emotion into the play in a way that I didn't know was possible. It was during this production that I truly realized that theatre and directing is something that I can do for the rest of my life.