The young actress talks about her experience studying acting in New York.
Daria Karić, a young actress born in Zagreb, describes what it’s like to study and live in New York in an interview for miss7 on August 5, 2017.
“I was at the cinema with my friend when my phone rang, and, as I had been expecting an email for days, I had to read it right away. From: Pace University, The Actors Studio Drama School, New York.
“We are happy to inform you that the judges decided to offer you a place at the ASDS”.
I started screaming because I was so happy! Is it really possible they want me to be part of their programme? Me?? I immediately started thinking that this was a mistake, so I replied asking if they were sure they had sent the email to the right person and they replied yes. I was still dumbfounded, my heart started racing, and my mind was filled with photos of New York, the stage, yellow cabs, my family and friends…
I started thinking about attending a graduate programme in New York when I was at the second year of my Undergraduate programme of Acting and Puppetry at the Academy of Arts in Osijek because I really wanted to learn method acting – an acting technique that helps actors reach a subconscious part of their minds where the creativity is hidden. Then you use affective memory, substitution or tactile object to achieve a creative game. It helps set your imagination free over and over again and relive the scene and the game. When I was finishing my undergraduate studies, I decided to apply for the Actors Studio Drama School in New York, founded by Oscar winners Ellen Burstyn, Harvey Keitel and Al Pacino, famous for teaching the method acting technique.
The application process alone requires you to send a bunch of documents, including a TOEFL certificate, motivational letter, references, and an audition tape. The hardest part was the tuition and living there that I needed to finance on my own. I knew everything my family had given up for me to study at one of the most prestigious academies in the world, and that’s why I left for New York with an open mind and ready to face new challenges. I had no time to be sad or nostalgic, and how could I miss my friends and family when I had them to thank for this experience? I decided to focus on acquiring new skills instead, meeting new people and discovering their culture, the theatre and film industry. Sometimes we’d spend 12 hours at a time at the Academy. There were ten new dramas to read, essays to be written, plays and films to be seen, inside fears, hopes, and traumas to be discovered. And, most importantly, you needed to learn how to share all of that with the audience stage.
Emmy-award winning show Inside The Actors Studio with James Lipton was filmed at our school, so every guest actor held a Master Class for us, which means that I was taught by Bradley Cooper, Viola Davis, Scarlet Johansson, Alec Baldwin… The most important piece of advice I got was “never give up.” Every failure is a new chance for success. I’d also add that the most important thing is to have the courage to try. Things will work out one way or the other after that. As Paulo Coelho writes in the Alchemist, “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
Hard work and talent are appreciated in America, and, as I was at the top of my class at my second year, I got the Shubert Family Scholarship, they own the biggest theatre houses on Broadway. In addition to helping me financially, the scholarship served as a recognition to myself, and motivation to keep on working.
I even tried my hand at directing and writing. My first short film The View On Life premiered at The Breaking Waves Arts Festival in Canada, and I also submitted it to 2016 Talents Sarajevo competition. The judges loved it, so they invited me as one of the promising young talents.
All photos by Daria Karic
And New York? It’s a city that never stops. The pace you work and live, you’re really motivated to adapt to it. You constantly work and try to get better. I graduated two months ago and finishing school and being on your own is scary, but exciting at the same time. There are auditions and projects almost every day, and rehearsals for Chekov’s Uncle Vanya play start in late September. I’ll be a substitute for an actress who plays Sonya. The play was directed by Estelle Parsons, who is an 89-year-old Oscar winner.
Will I come back to Croatia? I want to create, tell stories and messages filled with love, hope, inspiration, and adventure. Where I do it is totally irrelevant. If there’s an interesting project, I’ll come to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, China, America… Life without a plan and schedule is scary, but isn’t life meant to be full of surprises? I feel ready for whatever comes my way.
Translated from miss7.
