I looked at schools like NYU and Yale, but after doing the math and I saw no way I could afford them.
At NYU they would take about 12 new lighting design students each year and weed them out to just a few and then maybe offer some financial aid.
At the University of Michigan they only took 2 lighting students each year and if you got in you got a full fellowship.
Even as a kid I knew about the University of Michigan and Michigan Football, got to love those helmets, but I had never thought I would end up there.
But I applied and waited to see what would happen.
I was surprised when I soon got a letter inviting me for an interview.
I put together a portfolio and flew out to Michigan.
I stayed at the house of the former Buffalo student who was just finishing up his MFA there.
I got the tour, saw a play in the big theatre and even went to a party one night and most important I survived the interview.
I laid out my work; drafting’s of light plots, ground plans and various working drawings, plus a few painted set renderings and my simple watercolor of a paper bag.
I remember the Costume Design teacher, Zelma Weisfeld, picking it up by the edges as if it was dirty and asked me if I painted it.
I said yes.
Paper Bag Watercolor 1978
She made no other comment good or bad.
I was not sure what to think but I felt I had done OK.
I returned to Buffalo and waited.
A few weeks letter I got a letter from Michigan and was excited and anxious to open it.
I was second runner up and put on the wait list.
Oh well, I was not sure what that would mean so I focused on the current play or concert, went back to work and waited to see what would happen.
There were plenty of other things to keep me busy, good and bad.
College can be isolating, no really do not see many children or old people and the real world seems to be out there but not on campus, but a few events happened to bring me back to reality.
One of my housemates had to leave school because he had cancer and needed treatment.
Wow, very scary and strange and nobody knew what to say or do except wish him well.
Also in the middle of the semester my friend and former roommate Matt was working in the Theatre when he had an accident.
Now a few years before someone had cut his finger on the table saw and I got a nice big electrical shock, but this was serious.
Matt was working in the Theatre, working up on the lighting catwalks when he fell through the trap door that led down a ladder to the floor.
He fractured bones in his back and hip and was in the hospital for the most of the rest of the school year.
He easily could have been killed or paralyzed; although he recovered I know he is in pain until this day.
These events smack you in the face and cut through the fog of youth and make you face the real world whether you want to or not you are ready.
Sometime near the end of the year I got another letter from Michigan, someone had declined admission and I was offered a place in the fall class.
My future, at least for the next two years was set, and I was very happy and excited, and during my last few weeks at college everything I did was fun and looked great to me.
Spring 1978
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