"You like theatre, so you must be gay. And that means God is going to send you to Hell," he spoke the words jeeringly, smirking as our fellow middle-school classmates laughed uproariously at his jab. I was shocked into neutrality and resolved to bow my head and continue reading Tom Sawyer, and yet inside my head was spinning. The disapproval inflected in his voice stung, poisoning my mind and thoughts for weeks to come. The idea of "gay" as an...

Throughout high school I have taken advantage of the opportunity to participate in a program called BCA Ambassadors, through which my classmates and I brought performances in the arts to mentally and physically handicapped students at the Bleshman School, a specialized school within our district. Through these performances, I witnessed the unmatched joy that our artistic interactions could provide. We sang nursery rhymes, danced to popular songs, lip-synced the words to Justin Bieber's “Baby”, and made little crafts to play...

Ever since I can remember, I have desired to pursue a career as a professional actress. I believe that the development and maturation of my own artistry has shaped me as an individual creatively, personally, and interpersonally. I began pursuing my theatrical aspirations early on, performing in school, community, and regional productions galore as I followed my insatiable passion. Over time I amassed a circle of close friends, who I considered my comrades as we delved fearlessly into our artistry....

Ever since I can remember, I have aspired to be a professional actress. I believe that NYU is the perfect place to work towards achieving my aspirations. The Tisch School of the Arts offers an incredibly rigorous and extensive conservatory-style program which would provide me with innumerable opportunities to be immersed in theatre. Through a wide variety of classes ranging from acting technique and voice and speech to dramatic literature and theatre history, I would be provided with the tools...

My favorite course thus was was a WGS course titled "Popular Representation of Queer Sexuality", which focused on mainstream representation of the LGTBQ community in the media. The class was...

I am planning on transferring schools because I have realized that I am no longer set on becoming an actor. I want to expand my horizons and study theatre in a broader context (likely through the pursuit of a Bachelor of Arts degree). I have found that my school's conservatory-style program is very limiting, particularly in that you are only allowed 2 classes outside of the conservatory per semester (simply because conservatory classes take up so many credits), and one of these must be music theory. I've felt my intellectual curiosity being stymied by this unfortunate fact, and I know now...