New School for Drama student Christian Jacobs, class of 2010, spent his summer days as a witch and his evenings as a drummer / wild-haired, dirty mountain man. Such is the life of an apprentice with the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival: young actors hired to play roles in the company that performs on a majestic bluff overlooking the Hudson Highlands while they continue their studies.

"I knew the festival from back in the day, growing up in Cortlandt," he explains. "When I saw the audition notice at Drama I was like, 'Why not? I'm never going to get it, but why not give it a shot?' All the upperclassmen were auditioning and I figured they'd get picked."  The on-campus auditions were coordinated by Robert Hoyt, Drama’s director of professional development, at the invitation of Terry O’Brien, artistic director of the festival. 

Because the shows were presented in repertory, one night's Cymbeline gave way to another's Twelfth Night, in which Jacobs played the drum.  In Cymbeline he performed as Guiderius, an outwardly rugged but inwardly noble mountain boy who was kidnapped at age three and raised in the mountains by a banished soldier.

Jacob says the biggest thrill of the summer was getting the job in the first place, and says it's been eye-opening. "I love that the things I've learned in school I've been able to put into practice and try out in a real environment," he says. "It makes so much more sense when you actually have to do it.”