*HelpBenAttendNYU

Hello! My name is Ben Friesen, and I have just suddenly received a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attend an incredible grad program at NYU. Four years ago, after a hail-mary application, months of working multiple jobs, and incredible support from my home community in Chicago and beyond, I attended the National Theater Institute at the O'Neill Center, studying musical theatre. It was there that I strengthened my skills as a performer, developed a love for writing and directing, and worked obsessively to create an opening number for an original murder-mystery musical entitled On The Record. In response to that number, my composition instructor, Scott Murphy, recommended that I submit an application to NYU's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing program. I humored him (for what felt like another hail-mary application), and to my amazement, I was accepted there as well. Although I would have loved to spring-board straight to NYU, there was absolutely no way I could afford the tuition, let alone live in the city at that time. Instead, I deferred my acceptance, in the hopes of someday either earning enough money to attend or receiving enough scholarships to do so. In the 3 years since then, my career as a performer has taken off, and I've been blessed with 18 professional productions as an actor and countless opportunities to work with kids across the country as a director, music director, and choreographer. Theatre became my full-time job, and I sought ways to connect with and invest in the many communities where my work took me. Maybe I played violin for your church, taught your kids, or simply helped a cast bring a little more joy to your town. While on one such contract, on opening night playing Emmett in Legally Blonde with Crane River Theatre Co, just a few days before watching Moana as a proud director of 23 middle-schoolers, I received a call from New York informing me that enough scholarships had become available for me to join NYU at last... in 4 weeks. This 2-year program signals a fork in the road that will allow me to take the next steps in my career: I'll learn so much about writing for stage and screen, dialogue and score; I'll have the time and focus to bring to life so many ideas that have thus far been confined to my Notes app and Google Docs; and perhaps most importantly, I'll be connecting to New York City, where Broadway has been known to call upon students of this very program to impact and improve its shows. And that brings me to the purpose of this campaign. I'm incredibly grateful to NYU for their investment in me--but I also have to find a way to cover room and board, and they have repeatedly emphasized how little time I'll have to work outside of class and labs. Having received this news so close to the start of the program, I'm hard-pressed to find the funds to support myself in one of the most expensive cities in the world. Fortunately, having spent the past 3 years as a traveling stage actor, I know how to pinch pennies--based on my calculations, if I can keep my budget tight and find work where I can, this campaign should last me through both school years. I'm so grateful for the ways I've been cheered on over the past few years, and any contribution to this total would mean so much to me. I feel confident that this is the next big step in the right direction for my life and my career, and I can't wait to share my first original show with all of you soon.