9/16/2013

A New Yorker for 20 years!

I knew nobody when I arrived on that plane from Sweden exactly 20 years ago yesterday. I had a place to stay for a couple of nights (on the couch in a friend's colleague's music-studying son's upper, upper west side apartment) and I had a purpose -- I was going to study acting at The Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute.

I had found out about the acting school by chance from an guy I had meet in Paris earlier that year. And since I wanted to study acting and loved the idea of living in New York, I immediately applied.

Living in New York City, and spending my days in acting classes, with rehearsals, and reading and discussing plays and characters with my new theater-studying friends was nothing short of amazing. I truly felt like I had found the place where I belonged. 

Me outside Lee Strasberg Theater Institute in 1993. 

Having grown up in a small town in Sweden, where I would never have dared to express my hopes of becoming an actor out loud (for fear of being ridiculed), it was incredible to arrive at Strasberg and meeting my new classmates from all over the world, all sharing the same hopes and dreams. 

For many, many years, I used to look back at my two years at Strasberg as the happiest time in my life. And though I lost touch with many of my friends from that time, others are until this day some of my favorite people in the world: Gaƫl in Paris, Eva in Falkenberg, Angela in Los Angeles, and Daniele in New York. Love you guys!


Casper takes Manhattan -- since 1993.