City's Young Actors Juggle Schoolwork and the Spotlight

While his peers took classes and navigated dorm life, Groff did summer stock and waited tables. He sometimes wondered if he'd made the right call. "When I first moved here I was really intimidated by people who have gone to college," he says. "I thought, They've spent four years preparing for this. They probably know so much more than I do. But I found an acting teacher here and a voice teacher. I was able to make my own education here in New York." He still mulls attending college, though now he thinks he would do something other than theater —"maybe history," he says. In the meantime, he describes the backstage atmosphere for Spring Awakening as "singing in the hallways and laughing. At intermission, my dressing room fills up with the cast; we're talking and we're eating Gummi Bears." Overcrowded rooms, too much chatter, junk food—Groff may not earn a degree, but it sounds like he's having bright college days after all.