The Importance of Pursuing Your Passions

by Sabrina Furches

Picture this: a college student, and long-time thespian with dreams of living and working in the Big Apple closing her eyes and holding her breath as she presses “send” on a game-changing email. As it turns out, pressing send was one of the best decisions she ever made. I’m Sabrina, and that college student is me.

Back in December I visited Theatrical Rights Worldwide while on a trip to New York City with a group of fellow theatre students from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. I had always been a performer but upon reaching college I found myself more interested in the business aspect of “show business”. During our visit we listened to Mr. Jim Hoare speak about this company and all of the things that go on here and I knew immediately I needed to know more. I timidly approached Mr. Hoare’s office and asked him if they offered any sort of summer internship program thinking it could be a long-shot. To my satisfaction, he offered me his card and asked me to send my resume in the spring and we could discuss it in more detail then. I was elated! I went home to North Carolina and did all of the research that I could on TRW, and theatrical licensing in general, keeping in mind that landing a summer internship in New York was a slim, but possible, opportunity for me.

So I waited until the spring then typed up the email, attached my resume, proof read maybe around 600 times, and pressed send. The chance of this actually working out seemed next to zero. I mean, how often does the perfect arrangement go flawlessly? I tried to remain realistic, but as soon as I received a reply from Mr. Hoare, I knew that I had to make this work.

Now here we are in the summer. Thanks to my email and the support of many incredible people, here I am, sitting at my desk at TRW writing this blog post. I have already learned so much about the art form that I love so dearly and all of the work that goes into creating the musicals that we know and love. Friends from home always ask me what my favorite part of this job is and I can quite honestly answer: “Everything!”. Whether I am proof-reading scripts, learning about marketing and licensing, updating online databases, or working with Broadway scores, I learn something new about this business every day. This internship has been such a growth experience for me. I have solidified my career goals and realized that I can actually make life work here in the Big Apple. I am so thankful that I decided to click send.

I leave you with some advice: Go after what you want to do. Send that email. Don’t think that your dream is too big or unachievable because with the right amount of work and support from those around you, anything is possible. And once you get there? Learn Uptown from Downtown, seriously, it can save you a lot of trouble.