In Just a Month at Fordham...
Written by Performance Major & Freshman, Austin Spero
Long before Rachel Berry set her sights on NYADA, I dreamed of going to school in New York City. As an actor, I couldnât think of a better place to train than the city where even real life feels like a performance. Every single day, I just want to tell that little kid with postcards of Times Square on his wall that one day pretty soon heâll be able to just walk outside his dorm and be in the heart of adventure. Sometimes I think Iâm just really lucky. But really I think Iâm just exactly where I have always needed to be.
In just a month at Fordham, I haveâŠ
...fallen in love with my company. After spending the whole summer talking on Facebook, finally meeting the people I would be spending the next four years with felt like reuniting with old friends. From Jersey to Germany, the thirty-two of us come from many different worlds, yet have already united in our love for telling stories. Fordham is unique in that the actors, directors, playwrights, stage managers, designers, and costumers all get to be thrown together twice a week to form our classâ company, creating a true community of artists unlike any other undergraduate program. We get tacos in Hellâs Kitchen, we watch American Horror Story, we have each otherâs backs when the training gets tough. I am so grateful to have already found a family in these people. Â Â
...met my older self in my mentor. Every freshman in the theatre program gets an upperclassman mentor to help ease their transition into the community. I was nervous to see who the Powers at Large would deem my apt counterpart for the coming months and itâs almost a little bit scary how well my mentor and I were matched. For better or for worse, he is literally just like me (I hope Iâm not flattering myself). I love just having someone to to talk to about things outside of my company, to wave to between classes, or to buy me cheesecake. Itâs sort of like dating yourself.
...experienced a ton of great theatre. Living just ten minutes from the outskirts of the Great White Way can be dangerous on a college student budget, but with digital lotteries and student rush tickets to see amazing professional theatre for cheap, call me Ado Annie because âI Cainât Say No.â From Deaf Westâs Spring Awakening to Keira Knightley in ThĂ©rĂšse Raquin, every show I see motivates me that much more to delve more deeply into my work.
...stood on a Broadway stage. Our first weekend at Fordham, a group from our company went to go see Hand to God at the Booth. Itâs a show with a voice unlike anything else on Broadway and I knew I just had to discuss it with the actors at the stage door. One of my friends mentioned that we were acting students at Fordham, and next thing we knew, Marc Kudisch, who plays Pastor Greg, was whisking us backstage and onto the set. He told us to look out into the audience. âItâs just a stage,â he said. âItâs nothing special. You come in and you do your work. Just like any other space.â I think about that every day. Itâs a nice reminder of what it is that weâre really working towards.
...spent thirty minutes exploding my heart out. Thank you, Stephanie DiMaggio. The little man is driving.
...been cast in my dream role. Alongside the mainstage season, Fordham produces twenty studio shows each year. The studio season is a great opportunity to work with upperclassmen on projects before they head out into the professional world. As a freshman in my first semester, I didnât know the likelihood of getting cast in one of my favorite plays, Athol Fugardâs "Master Harold"...and the Boys, yet everyone encouraged me to audition. I found out I got the role in the elevator when I got a text from the director saying, âOnly speak in a South African accent for the next three months.â Rehearsals start next week and the show goes up in December; I am so excited to live with Hally and tell this story that means so much to me. And in just my first semester of training.
...walked a Broadway opening night red carpet. When one of my best friends offered me a ticket to go with her to see the opening night performance of Harold Pinterâs Old Times, I took no pause in saying yes. I mean, how fun is it to get dressed up and enter a theatre alongside Jane Krakowski as reporters frantically check their notes to see if youâre worth taking a picture of? (A bystander asked to take my picture and I may or may not have let him.)
...seen the Pope. It took waiting in line for four hours to see Papa Francis for a mere two seconds, yet I have never felt such an electric presence since maybe the Miley concert. I can tell you one thing, I am not meeting the leader of the Catholic Church back in North Carolina.
...won the Fun Home TodayTix lottery. Just kidding. No one has.
...felt inspired by my friends. I am amazed at the Fordham Theatre communityâs ability to listen. The current mainstage season has been at the forefront of sparking important conversations for the greater Fordham community. I love seeing the artists Iâm in class with being a part of these conversations. Fordham Theatre has astoundingly put up three shows in a month, each featuring such bravery, such vulnerability. The Great Work here does not stop.
...found a whole lot more joy. Training as an actor all day can be hard. The wonder of this program is that every day I am rediscovering the joy of play that brought me to theatre in the first place. Whether itâs Becky making you resew your snap for the third time or spending half of acting class as a killer chicken, I have learned to love what I am doing.Â
Sometimes the worst part about living in New York is feeling like thereâs almost too much to discover. Broadway! Celebrities! Concerts! Restaurants! Tinder! But something tells me Iâll find a way to cope. Next week, our acting class is having a workshop with a master clown. The circus is right outside my window. My friends and I have tickets for Colbert in November.
In the meantime, cue up QuvenzhanĂ© Wallis. I think Iâm going to like it here.
