Personal Statement to Juilliard (any thoughts?)

Please write a personal statement of approximately 500 words about why you have chosen to become an actor and your personal artistic goals. We encourage you to write frankly and openly about: your life, your connection to your art, how you see your art connecting to the world. Share your passion about people, politics, other art forms, or about anything that speaks to you.

I didn’t want to become an actress. In fact, I’ve spent the past five years talking myself out of it. But, despite myself, here I am, applying to Juilliard, because I can’t keep myself out of a theatre. This all seems odd though, because for most of my life, my primary goal was to become an Egyptologist. Egypt had been my passion since before I could read, and I worked my ass off in high school in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program so that I could pursue a career in Egyptology at the university with the best department in the country. Life for a student in IB is intense; I woke up most days around three in the morning in order to finish my homework. But I didn’t hate the time commitment—I loved it! If I could have had my way, I’d have studied every moment of the day, but that would have easily driven me insane. Instead, like most IB students, I found something to do that I enjoyed and that kept me from studying constantly—Theatre.

Theatre was like taking the analytical ideas I was learning in my literature classes to the next level; you needed to know the symbols, archetypes, themes, and so on, but then you had to make them apparent and truly meaningful to an audience. On stage I found a way to release something inside of myself that I didn’t even know was there. I felt a connection to the people in the audience through my work on stage, and I was able to use my intellect in such a way that I could share it directly with others.

But I was the smart kid who was going to college to pursue a life in academia. How could I not fully realize my intellectual potential? How could I turn down an opportunity to attend one of the most rigorous academic programs for undergraduates in the entire country?! Well, I couldn’t. I went to the University of Chicago, and I excelled in most of my classes. But, by the beginning of second year, I found myself spending all my time in play rehearsals and none of my time doing my Middle Egyptian Hieroglyphics homework.

It was then that I finally realized how much I love acting, but, more importantly, how much I love connecting to people through performance. I think that’s what makes doing theatre genuinely worthwhile. On the other hand, the longer I pursued Egyptology the less appealing it became: being an Egyptologist wouldn’t help anyone but myself. I remember my priest quoting Mother Teresa once, saying that, “In the West there is loneliness, which I call the leprosy of the West. In many ways it is worse than our poor in Calcutta.” I think that theatre helps counteract this sort of sickness; it helps remind the audience members that they are connected to each other, and to the actors, through their shared experiences. This is what I want my art to accomplish. I want to touch people, change people, and interact with people honestly. So, here I am, soon to graduate from the U of C, ready to start over and do something that’s important, something that I love.