Melissa Bruder

Summer Intensive alum Charmaine Bingwa (“The Good Fight”) discusses how the program prepared her for the rigor and dedication required by a professional career in TV and film.

About a week after the ball dropped in Times Square and ended 2020, I swore off acting on Zoom. It had been a good run. I hadn’t reached the decision out of frustration or disappointment. I was just burned out. From the beginning of lockdown in New York to the start of 2021, I was acting into my computer anywhere between two and nine times a week: improv shows, improv classes, sketch shows, character classes, a Shakespeare play, a film noir radio play—if I had the time I would do it. While these shows and classes were fun and stimulating, acting day after day in my bedroom, to my laptop, was getting exhausting. I planned to step away for a little while to choose my next move. Enter: Atlantic Acting School.

Andrea Solonge reflects on a life-changing scholarship for Atlantic Acting School offered by the Equity Foundation. ALIVE. That's one word that almost barely yet solely encompasses the energy of New York. People say exactly what they're thinking, millions of people are swarming from one place to another, the subway is bustling and everybody is walking with purpose.