Hollywood writer/director Andy Wolk (“Gossip Girl” and “The Sopranos” are among his many film and TV credits) recalls arriving for graduate school at the Royal Holloway College of the University of London and hearing a talk by a director of the National Theatre. “I was enthralled. I introduced myself, told him I had this great scholarship, and all I wanted to do was work in the English theatre and I didn’t need any money because it was all being paid for. Did he know a theatre I could start in? Did he ever! He said, why not start at the National? I went to work and never looked back. I became an assistant director on one production after another — learning like crazy — until I got to direct my first professional play in London. I was 22 years old and a Thouron Scholar.”
