I WAS THRILLED. I had been admitted to college at one of the top theater schools in the United States, in the conservatory's most competitive year ever.
Freshman year I took theater classes all day long with the same group of 15 students. The program was designed so we would get to know each other intimately, and we formed a very tightknit ensemble together. In our classes and outside of them, we laughed, cried, mourned, and celebrated life together.
We had many projects assigned to us that helped make us better actors. My favorite project was my "Life River," in which I performed for my classmates some of the key events in my life. The work was meant to give each of us a better understanding of ourselves. The theory was: If we knew ourselves better, we'd be better actors.
