Her Theater Made Me a Better Playwright: Remembering Tanya Berezin

I don’t remember how I first became aware of Circle Repertory Company, but growing up in northern New Jersey, I got into New York City as much as I possibly could. In my twenties, I discovered a theater that would (cliché alert) change my life.

The first thing I did at Circle Rep was audition for a role, and I even remember the part I wanted — that of a Yugoslavian immigrant trying to reconcile her old life and her new one. The actors I auditioned with had astonishing concentration and made me feel as though we were already in the play. It was one of my favorite auditions, though I did not get a callback that day.

I did, however, leave the company thinking about how much I wanted to return. It wasn’t so much about being part of an established theater. It was about finding a theater where the kind of work they were doing matched the work I wanted to do.

As I stepped outside of 99 Seventh Avenue South, watching crowds of people avoiding other crowds as they do so well in New York, I made a pact with myself:

Some day, I will stand at the door of this theater, and be invited in to be a part of it.

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Photo by Martin de Arriba on Unsplash