Alumni SpotlightAugust 2011Zuzanna Szadkowski,1997 YA Winner in Theater / Spoken & U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts

We recently caught up with Zuzanna and asked her to share some insights about the YoungArts program and the life of a actress:

1) How has YoungArts prepared/affected your life?

DuringDuring YoungArts week in Miami, I was told for the first time that I am an artist. From sixth grade on I knew that all I wanted to do in my life was act. However, it felt like a wish and a far off dream. The validation, encouragement and empowerment that the YoungArts experience imparts allowed me to see that I was already building my life as an artist. Ever since that week, allowing for the ebb and flow of a life in “showbiz”, I have been living my dream and it is awesome.

II have to say that the most important thing in my life that came from YoungArts is my deep friendship with my fellow actor from that week in Miami, Andrew Rannells. We became best friends that week and later moved to New York City at the same time to go to college. We have loved, supported, protected and celebrated each other for fourteen years. He is now a Tony Nominee for his performance in “The Book of Mormon”, and I feel his huge success as though it were my own. I learn from watching him work. He is one of the sharpest and most powerfully funny performers I have ever seen. I wouldn’t be the actor or the person that I am if it weren’t for this friendship.

2) As an act2) As an actress, what obstacles have you faced in your professional career? How did you overcome them?

Professional acting sometimes feels like one huge obstacle. After my time at YoungArts, I went to Barnard College and earned my liberal arts degree. Without conservatory training I had great difficulty securing representation upon graduation. After two years of floating around a few friendly theater companies I chose to further my educa-tion and earned an MFA in acting from the A.R.T. Institute at Harvard. After completing this program I was able to sign with an agent and the process of looking for acting work began.

I am often asked if I feel pigeonholed considering the decidedly eastern-european-serving-wench-ish bent of my career. I don’t feel that having a “niche” poses an obstacle. I am very grateful for the opportunity to work. I am lucky in that the characters that I have played have been layered, and I try to pump everything that I have into each moment I have with them.

3) Who has inspired your work?

II have been inspired by most every teacher and director that I have ever worked with. For example, I was recently in a reading directed by Tovah Feldshuh. She had so many amazing nuggets to share, so many crystal clear and unique thoughts on the work that we were doing that I filled up half of a notebook during one rehearsal. I have been so lucky through all of my training. My teachers at Barnard and at the A.R.T. were incredible. I hear their voices whenever I approach new material. I hear Marcus Stern, Robert Woodruff, and Sam Weisman whenever I face a challenge.

II am very inspired by film , television and NYC stage actors. I love the work of Toni Colette, Melissa Leo, Edie Falco, Kathy Bates, Amy Ryan, Amy Morton, Elizabeth Marvel and Shirley MacLaine. I also get a great deal from comedians… Kathy Griffin, Steve Carell, Jason Segal.

4) What is the best part about working on Gossip Girl?

I love working in fI love working in front of the camera. I find the scale of the work tremendously freeing. Gossip Girl is an amazing place to work with a great familial atmosphere. I have learned a lot about timing and comedic energy working with Leighton Meester. I love to work with Margaret Collin and Wallace Shawn. I am in awe of what they do. Of course, it is a huge thrill for me to be on a popular show. The fans are amazing and surprisingly diverse. I love when an older man wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase stops me on the street and admits to being a closet Gossip Girl fan.

5) What are your future projects?

ThisThis summer I will be in “Love, Loss and What I Wore”. It is a really cool play written by Nora and Delia Ephron. There is a rotating celebrity cast. I am so excited to see who I will be working with! I have missed being on stage!

Suzanna’s other television credits include Guiding Light, Law and Order, Criminal Intent and Law and Order.

She also fights a lifelong war with the alarm clock every morning. And her favorite New Yorker is Al Pacino as Milton in The Devil’s Advocate perched on that rooftop with the infinity pool.

She lives in Brooklyn, New York. And we’re so glad she’s part of our YoungArts family.

When Zuzanna Szadkowski was asked if she’d be interested in an American teen drama series based on the trials and tribu-lations of a motley group of well-healed Manhattanites, she never thought it would become the success it is. Recently featured in Rolling Stone’s 50 Reasons to WWatch TV, Zuzanna Szadkowski is now considered a performer that is revolution-izing acting in American television. She was the unforgettable “Elzbieta” in the final season of HBO’s iconic series The Sopranos, and she is currently plays “Dorota” in the CW Network’s hit Drama Gossip Girl.

But her story started elsewhere. Zuzanna was born in Warsaw, Poland and moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana at an early age. She attended the prestigious Barnard College in New York City where she graduated Summa Cum Laude as a theater major and was awarded The Kenneth Janes Prize. SubsequentlSubsequently, Zuzanna went on to earn her MFA in acting from the A.R.T. Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University.

Her experience in theater is extensive and continues to grow. She has performed in New York City and abroad, including world-class venues in Warsaw, Moscow, Edinburgh and Jerusalem. Her favorite regional credits include Olly’s Prison directed by Robert Woodruff and The TransfigurationTransfiguration of Benno Blimpie directed by Marcus Stern. Recently, Zuzanna performed in the Commonwealth Shake-speare Company’s “American Voices” series.