“When I entered college, I wasn't sure what I was going to do. My advisor happened to be from the theater department, and he encouraged me to take some classes there, which I did.” ClassHappenedCollegeTheaterDepartmentAdvisors Author:David Selby
“I was interning at a children's theater group in Kentucky - that was my first job out of college. I had jumped around a couple of regional theaters, and I was about to go back to Maine to work at a summer Shakespeare theater there. I didn't want to just jump around the country from gig to gig. I really wanted to go to a city and get involved in a theater scene and a theater community.” WantFirstsChildrenCountryWantedJobsCommunityCitiesGroupsCollegeCoupleInvolvedSceneSummerTheaterGet InvolvedGigsKentuckyMaine Author:Timothy Simons
“I come from classical theater training and when I went to college it was a bunch of kids that were hand-picked from around the world. I was around such brilliant young minds and incredible artists with incredible teachers.” WorldMindHandsKidsYoungArtistTeacherCollegeTrainingTheaterIncrediblesBrilliantBunchAround The WorldYoung Minds Author:Joe Manganiello
“I did a lot of theater when I was in high school and college. I also did stand-up in college, so it was always part of what I did.” SchoolCollegeHigh SchoolTheater Author:Seth MacFarlane
“This sounds so bogus, but I would love to, at some point when my kids are in college, is just go do a whole season at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and do a year of plays. Most actors miss the days of live theater.” YearsPlayWholeKidsActorsSoundMissingCollegeSeasonsTheaterFestivalsOregonLive Theater Author:Donal Logue
“I went to college to be a jock and to play on the baseball team. And then, I got cut and realized that that was it for that. I was really small. The other guys were really big, on that team. I was a bit of a theater nerd, and I was an art history major.” ArtPlayBigsGuyBitsCuttingTeamCollegeMajorsBaseballTheaterNerdOther GuysArt HistoryJocksBaseball Team Author:Charlie Day
“I was always drawn to performing, but I never thought I could. I have no idea what I wanted to do outside of the old cowboy-or-fireman. When I was in college, I got serious about acting. I started examining history and then everything related to the theater. History, art, all the other studies, if I could link them into the theater, then it became alive for me. It just opened up my eyes.” IfsArtIdeasEyeWantedActingStudyAliveCollegeSeriousTheaterNo IdeaPerformingRelatedIf I CouldLinksCowboyExaminingFireman Author:Billy Crystal
“A lot of people I went to college with felt like they wanted to pursue theater exclusively, so I don't think that I really was in competition with people that I went to school with.” PeopleThinkingWantedSchoolFeltCollegeTheaterCompetitionPursue Author:Gillian Jacobs
“I knew I wanted to pursue a career in the theater the minute I graduated from college having not pursued it! So I went back to school and got a degree in music and began working in musical theater.” WantedSchoolCareersMinutesCollegeDegreesTheaterMusicalPursuePursuedMusical Theater Author:Nancy Allen
“I studied theater in college, and I absolutely knew that I loved acting, and I knew that I loved theater.” ActingCollegeTheater Author:Hill Harper
“My background is in theater. I was a theater major in college.” CollegeMajorsTheaterBackgrounds Author:Amy Schumer
“And then it was like, wait, you can go to college and study theater? And act in plays? This is almost a racket, you know. And then when the opportunity came along to do it professionally, I thought I'd won the lottery.” KnowsPlayOpportunityWaitingStudyCollegeTheaterLotteryRacket Author:Tom Hanks
“Having that college-town atmosphere with a live repertory company available was a real gift. I found myself gravitating toward the theater from about the age of nine. I guess it was the environment that got me started.” RealAgeFoundCompanyEnvironmentCollegeTheaterTownsAvailableNineAtmosphere Author:Christopher Reeve
“I ain't never been in no college with famous people. I was a drifter for a while. I just was desperate to fit in with a group. Really, I was swimming. I was lost, treading water, trying to find my way. I wanted to play football. It didn't work out. I didn't really know what I wanted until I found acting in a theater department, and then everything just fell into place, and I had a passion about something. Then, I started living my life.” PeopleKnowsWayTryingPlayWantedPassionFoundLostWaterActingGroupsFootballCollegeFitTheaterWork OutMy WayDesperateDepartmentSwimmingLiving My LifeTreadingDriftersTreading Water Author:John Goodman
“Having grown up in the theater family, having done a huge amount of acting from a very little boy to precocious teenager in Shakespeare festivals that my father produced, I went off to college and fell in with the theater gang. I was already an experienced actor. I became a kind of campus star. I heard all this applause and laughter.” KindLittlesDoneActorsFatherStarsActingBoysHeardCollegeHugeAmountLaughterTheaterTeenagerFestivalsGangApplauseLittle BoysCampusPrecociousOff To CollegeTheater Family Author:John Lithgow
“I always tell that to young people - go to college, do theater, work with an audience. Don't try to learn how to act in front of millions and millions of people. Don't make that your first ambition, to be on a sitcom or get into the movies. Learn who you are as an actor, and the best way to do that is to do it in front of an audience.” PeopleWayTryingFirstsYoungActorsMillionsAudienceFrontsCollegeAmbitionTheaterWho You AreBest WaySitcom Author:John Lithgow
“In my early childhood, I was a performer by nature. I used to do puppet shows as a kid and entertain kids in classes and the teachers would make it a point that I was the entertainer of the class, but only after high school and in college that I started doing theater and acting classes, because I thought it would be fun.” ShowsWould BeKidsSchoolUsedFunActingClassTeacherChildhoodCollegeHigh SchoolTheaterPerformersEntertainersPuppetsEarly ChildhoodActing ClassesAfter High SchoolPuppet Shows Author:Michael Jai White
“As a teenager, I wanted to write novels. By college, it was theater, plays, and then, shortly, it was film.” WritingPlayWantedFilmNovelCollegeTheaterTeenager Author:Richard Linklater
“I went to college as a theater major. But after about three weeks of that, I changed to the school of fine arts as a painter.” ArtSchoolThreeWeekChangedCollegeFineMajorsTheaterPainterFine Arts Author:Dan Fogelberg
“In college, I stopped doing pre-med and went into theater, and then I moved to San Francisco and lived there for five years.” YearsFiveCollegeTheaterMovedFive YearsSan FranciscoMeds Author:Mark Waters
“As a kid, I was fortunate that we grew up near a children's theater, with all different classes and things; so as a kid I took classes there and as I got into high school I did all the community theater stuff. Then I came to college here in New York, going to Marymount Manhattan, and studied acting there. But most of the training I got was from working. Working with really great people.” PeopleChildrenDifferentKidsSchoolStuffCommunityActingClassNew YorkCollegeGrewGrew UpTrainingHigh SchoolTheaterFortunateReally GreatGreat People Author:Andrew Rannells
“I'd done some acting in high school. Then I went to Kenyon College and got thrown in jail and kicked off the football team. Since I was determined not to study very much, I majored in theater the last two years. Got my degree in speech; they didn't actually have a degree in theater. I graduated at two o'clock in the afternoon, and at three-thirty I was on the train for Williams Bay, Wisconsin, for summer stock, and then I did winter stock.” YearsTwoDoneSchoolLastsThreeActingStudyTeamFootballCollegeSpeechDegreesSummerHigh SchoolTheaterTrainWinterDeterminedClockThirtyThrownTwo YearsJailAfternoonFootball TeamWisconsin Author:Paul Newman
“We're trying to get as many people to become interested in seeing it, but if you like the theater and you're interested in seeing what live theater looks like in New York, you probably already set your DVR. It's gonna be a hard ask to get a bunch of college-basketball fans to tune in for three hours to watch the Tonys.” PeopleIfsTryingLooksHardThreeAsksHoursWatchesSeeingFansNew YorkCollegeBasketballTheaterBunchTunesCollege BasketballLive Theater Author:Neil Patrick Harris
“I did all the musicals in high school, and I loved it. And then I got to theater school at college, and was like, "No, I'm a serious actor. I want to do Shakespeare. I want to do classical theater." I took myself very seriously.” WantSchoolActorsCollegeSeriousHigh SchoolTheater Author:Timothy Omundson
“I really only did theater in school in college. I did summer stock a couple of times in the summer, and plays that the school put on. But I knew I wanted to be in movies.” PlayWantedSchoolCollegeCoupleSummerTheater Author:Geena Davis
“I've been lucky enough to be part of some great ensembles in theater - I'd been doing theater since college.” EnoughCollegeLuckyTheaterEnsemble Author:Andy Samberg
“I was a gay kid in high school in the late '90s, and I was in theater club. I was never a thespian. I was much more of a lighting guy or a backstage guy. Because I wanted to do something easy for the rest of my life, I thought, "Maybe I'll go and apply to colleges that specialize in theater set design. I'll do that. That's what I want to do". With theater, really, I'd be around the gays.” WantKidsWantedSchoolGuyEasyDesignCollegeGayLateHigh SchoolTheaterClubsLightingThespians Author:James Pearse Connelly
“I grew up in such a small area that there really weren't any acting classes. So I had to wait till I got to college, at the University of Washington. I was a theater major there and got my training. Then after college, I packed up my Honda Civic and kind of fulfilled the cliché of driving down to Los Angeles, and literally, brick by brick - you know, the slow and painful way - I built my career.” KnowsWayKindWaitingActingClassCareersCollegeGrewMajorsGrew UpTrainingBuiltAreasTheaterUniversityPainfulDrivingLos AngelesFulfilledBricksCivicsActing ClassesHonda Author:Mariana Klaveno
“I grew up doing theater when I was very young - always enjoyed it. Studied it in college, got my degree in it, and never really had the guts to do it professionally. But one summer, a friend of mine was with an extras agency and asked me if I wanted to be an extra with him in a movie, and I was, like, "Sure." At lunch, the writer came up to me and asked me to audition for a role. I got it, and it sort of snowballed from there.” IfsWantedYoungRolesMinesCollegeGrewDegreesSummerGrew UpTheaterEnjoyedAgencyExtrasGutsLunchAuditions Author:Italia Ricci
“When I was in college my improvisation troupe and I did a road trip to Chicago, and went to The Second City to see the classic 'Paradigm Lost' revue - with Tina Fey, Rachel Dratch, Scott Adsit and Kevin Dorff. It blew my mind, and proved to me you can do sketch comedy like you're doing 'Long Day's Journey into Night.' We could treat it like theater.” MindLongNightLostCan DoCitiesComedyJourneyCollegeLike YouTreatsTheaterClassicChicagoParadigmImprovisationKevinRoad TripLong DayFeySketch ComedySecond CityTroupe Author:Mike Birbiglia
“My father went to college for drama in Pittsburgh, and so did my mother, and then my mother was a steadily working New York theater actress. They kind of quit when I was born. They did that for, like, 10 years before they had kids and then I was born and they were not into that lifestyle for kids.” YearsKindKidsMotherFatherBornNew YorkCollegeDramaTheaterActressesQuittingLifestylePittsburgh Author:Ethan Suplee
“I went to New York out of college, and in my day, we were told that was the way you became a good actor. You don't go to Hollywood, you go straight to New York and work in the theater. So that's what most of the people I knew did.” PeopleWayActorsNew YorkCollegeHollywoodTheaterGood Actors Author:Brent Spiner