Help me Study Shakespeare!

Samuel Adams is organizing this fundraiser.

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Dear friends - I need your help to make it to grad school!

Ever since I first read "Romeo & Juliet" in the fifth grade, I have loved Shakespeare. I have been continually compelled by his language and his drama, having appeared in over a dozen productions of at least 10 of his plays. I have poured over his scripts, memorized hours of his words, and felt the joy of being alive in his great poetry. For me, there are no works of art that are as urgent, truthful, and beautiful as Shakespeare’s. Now, I want to take this passion to the next level.

I've recently been accepted into the Academy of Classical Acting, the education department of The Shakespeare Theater Company in Washington DC. Hosted by The George Washington University, this is a one-year MFA program that focuses entirely on studying performance of Shakespeare's plays. This opportunity is a dream come true, and I am enthralled by the idea of being able to study our greatest playwright in our nation's capital.

Of course, this is where I need your help. Tuition and cost of living are expensive, and I am seeking every opportunity to help defray those costs. Since the program is so rigorous (classes are 9am-6pm, six days a week) there isn't any time to hold an extra-curricular job, so I am seeking out grants, scholarships, loans, and the support of my friends and colleagues.

All-in-all, I am facing about $60,000 worth of expenses, consisting of:

Tuition: $41,000
Housing: $11,000
Cost of Living: $8,000

I am pouring nearly everything I have into this venture, including having already taken out about $20,000 in a federal student loan. But, of course, that leaves me with a remaining $40,000 -- which I am scouring the earth to secure.

This fundraiser is attempting to raise $6,000 -- which is just 10% of my total expenses. It may seem like a drop in the bucket, but - and I mean this sincerely - every dollar counts.

It is my life's ambition to help bring Shakespeare to others. Like so many, I have felt the deep joy, the sense of belonging, and the inexhaustible satisfaction that comes from reading and performing his plays. I want to immerse myself in his works so that I can help share them with audiences and students across the country. I want to be an actor so that I can inspire others, just as so many actors have inspired me. And I want to be a teacher of his plays to open up new worlds to students, just as I have experienced.

I'm an actor, not a poet, so I'll leave the word-craft to better minds than mine. This quote about the theater has always resonated deeply with me. I hope that you recognize some of this spark, and will help me pursue this long-held ambition:

“A letter came to me a few years ago from a long-retired actress who had been taken to see Edwin Booth play King Lear. It seems that towards the end of the play, when the mad Lear was brought face to face with his daughter Cordelia, there was a sharp pause, then - for a second that couldn’t quite be caught or measured - a startled, desperate, longing flicker of near-recognition stirred somewhere behind the old man’s eyes, and then - nothing. The entire audience rose, without thinking, to its feet. It didn’t cheer. It simply stood up. It was as though a single electrical discharge had passed from one body on the stage, instantaneously, through a thousand bodies in the auditorium. Something had been plugged into a socket; two forces had met.” – Walter Kerr