Actor johnthecho (BA ’96, English) had his eureka moment visiting friends at UC Berkeley in 1991. “I said, ‘My god, I need to go here.’” He dropped out of the school he was attending, moved to the Bay Area, and transferred to Berkeley to study English in the College of Letters and Science. “It was the first independent, proactive thing I did for myself.” “It’s a big university, which was great for me. There’s so many different kinds of people and ideas floating around. You could put on any t-shirt you wanted, and I mean that in the identity sense.” One day his roommate brought home a flyer for a student production. On a whim, John auditioned, winning a role in his very first play. Then came a life-changing production. eastwestplayers, a regional theater company, was bringing The Woman Warrior to life and needed Berkeley’s stage. The university agreed on one condition: use our students. John landed a role alongside professional Asian American actors. Without meeting these actors, “I...