Sam Gold

Well, so I'd love to start us off by asking you, how did you first become interested in theater?

Um...

Doing school plays, you know, I was interested in the theater in like, maybe my freshman year of high school, I did, started doing school plays and started with acting as most people do.

But actually, by the time I was... like a junior in high school, I was already like kind of sure I was more of a director than an actor and doing that even at that, even at like 16 or 17, I was directing stuff.

And what sort of made that change happen for you? I mean, I kept

acting in various little things for, you know, all through college and even a little after that.

And, um, but I kind of just temperament wise, um, It was clear I wasn't a very talented actor.

I was always very interested in kind of everything else that was going on.

And a lot of sort of mentors and people that I would meet would sort of notice that I sort of had a director brain and encouraged me.

And how did you decide sort of where to study in terms of college and all of that? I went to college,

I went to Cornell University thinking I might be pre-med and went there in the first, my first semester at Cornell, I actually, I played intramural soccer.

I had all these biology and pre-med kind of classes.

And then I tried out for the play, like the first or second week of school, And I got cast in David Ives all in the timing.

And I wound up sort of, as soon as I did the play and quit intramural soccer, and I started to realize that like that was where my people were and I was going to have friends and I would keep doing that.

And I really enjoyed doing the play and I really enjoyed the theater department there.

And so then after that, I just sort of lived in what was like the theater film and dance building at Cornell University for the next four years.

and then how did your Broadway acting debut come about in the Diary of Anne Frank so when

I was in high school I moved into Manhattan when I was 16 and I did acting classes and school plays in high school but I also started sort of like backstage magazine going out on auditions being in student films doing some more professional stuff and I was cast, I was a junior in college and was cast as a understudy in the Diary of Anne Frank on Broadway.

So I left Cornell In April, like a couple of months before the end of the semester, I left Cornell and I finished my classes from New York and I was taking a lot of theater classes.

So it was really fun.

I would like ask the actors backstage a lot of questions and write papers on things that Austin Pendleton was in that production and you know, I would sort of barrage him with questions about the old days and write papers for my theater classes on.

I sort of finished my junior year from backstage at the Music Box.

But that was also a time when I felt very clear I was not an actor.

I had this little walk-on part at the end where I would push Anne Frank down a flight of stairs and call her some horrible name in German.

But most, the whole rest of the time, I watched the show a lot, I sat backstage.

Well, so I'd love to start us off by asking you, how did you first become interested in theater?

Um...

Doing school plays, you know, I was interested in the theater in like, maybe my freshman year of high school, I did, started doing school plays and started with acting as most people do.

But actually, by the time I was... like a junior in high school, I was already like kind of sure I was more of a director than an actor and doing that even at that, even at like 16 or 17, I was directing stuff.

And what sort of made that change happen for you? I mean, I kept

acting in various little things for, you know, all through college and even a little after that.

And, um, but I kind of just temperament wise, um, It was clear I wasn't a very talented actor.

I was always very interested in kind of everything else that was going on.

And a lot of sort of mentors and people that I would meet would sort of notice that I sort of had a director brain and encouraged me.

And how did you decide sort of where to study in terms of college and all of that? I went to college,

I went to Cornell University thinking I might be pre-med and went there in the first, my first semester at Cornell, I actually, I played intramural soccer.

I had all these biology and pre-med kind of classes.

And then I tried out for the play, like the first or second week of school, And I got cast in David Ives all in the timing.

And I wound up sort of, as soon as I did the play and quit intramural soccer, and I started to realize that like that was where my people were and I was going to have friends and I would keep doing that.

And I really enjoyed doing the play and I really enjoyed the theater department there.

And so then after that, I just sort of lived in what was like the theater film and dance building at Cornell University for the next four years.

and then how did your Broadway acting debut come about in the Diary of Anne Frank so when

I was in high school I moved into Manhattan when I was 16 and I did acting classes and school plays in high school but I also started sort of like backstage magazine going out on auditions being in student films doing some more professional stuff and I was cast, I was a junior in college and was cast as a understudy in the Diary of Anne Frank on Broadway.

So I left Cornell In April, like a couple of months before the end of the semester, I left Cornell and I finished my classes from New York and I was taking a lot of theater classes.

So it was really fun.

I would like ask the actors backstage a lot of questions and write papers on things that Austin Pendleton was in that production and you know, I would sort of barrage him with questions about the old days and write papers for my theater classes on.

I sort of finished my junior year from backstage at the Music Box.

But that was also a time when I felt very clear I was not an actor.

I had this little walk-on part at the end where I would push Anne Frank down a flight of stairs and call her some horrible name in German.

But most, the whole rest of the time, I watched the show a lot, I sat backstage.