When I began attending New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, I was an excited and bubbly 18-year-old eager to leave my small Florida suburb that I had only known beforehand. However, I got a cold dose of reality when I began acting school that I wasn't the ideal ingenue for a multitude of reasons. I would audition for shows and never got cast. I used to think, "All actors deal with rejection. What makes me different?" On the other hand, with every rejection, a burning desire grew within me to create my own work. When my figurative frustration jar was full, I decided to take the leap and create my own work.

 

First, I created the gender-swapping benefit cabaret Tisch Twisted. Inspired by Broadway benefit concerts such as Broadway Backwards and MTC Miscast, I wanted to produce a cabaret that gave new meaning to musical theatre songs by taking the concept of gender out of it and twist the meaning of the songs on their heads. Additionally, I wanted to raise money for one of my favorite charities Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, a nonprofit organization that provides emotional, spiritual and financial assistance to artists diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and their family and friends. With the two Tisch Twisted performances in 2010 - 2011, where the whole show was directed and performed by NYU Tisch students, we raised over $1000 for the charity.