My family was in the audience, including someone very special who is no longer with us: my uncle, Jimmy. He was visiting from Kentucky and I was especially nervous to perform in front of him. When I heard his full-belly laughter, I heard it over the entire audience. I’d never made him laugh like that before, and I hadn’t known until then how much it meant to me. That moment remains one of the proudest of my life.

There is a confidence in youth that I often look back on — this time when a huge regional theatre supported me and gave me resources and told me they were interested in what I had to say. I remember performing. I remember how proud I was to feel some kind of “ownership” of the performance space and how the rehearsal space began to feel like home.