Nearly a decade ago, I saw Mr. Denzel Washington grace the stage in Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” at the Ethel Barrymore Theater.  I’ll never forget how entranced I was while watching Denzel storm out in a tirade and deliver this captivating, drunken monologue.  There seemed to be an imaginary rope connected between the audience and the stage; with all of us collectively hovering a  few inches above our seats during Mr. Washington’s moment.  I was twelve years old — I did not know who Denzel Washington was; let alone what Acting meant — but I felt something shake me; what I didn’t know then that I know now was that I had fallen in love with the magic of Theatre.

Shortly after that night, I fell in love with the performances of my favorite actor: the late, Mr. Philip Seymour Hoffman. Mr. Hoffman always brought the fullest of himself to everything he did. I aspire to be just as open and vulnerable in my performances as he was.

To be an actor is to have an immense capacity for empathy. Michael Chekhov wrote of “The Four Brothers;” which are specific understandings an actor must have to perform in a play: A sense of form, a sense of ease, a sense of art, and a sense of the whole.  The last one — a sense of the whole — is the most important because the actor is in service to the entirety of the story, not just one’s character or scene. A sense of the whole is where the actor’s empathy lives. Acting is spiritual for me. Eleanora Duse would recite the St. Francis of Assisi prayer before her performances, stating her performances came from above and she was just a vessel.  Great acting is real and feels as though it is happening for the first time when you see it: not polished, but truthful. In order to achieve this, it must cost you something.

My biggest pride is my work ethic and my love for acting — I am an unabashed Acting nerd.  I have no “Plan B” in case this doesn’t work out, this is who I am.