
During his years studying theater Tom Hanks met Vincent Dowling, head of the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, Ohio. At Dowling's suggestion, Tom Hanks became an intern at the Festival, which stretched into a three-year experience that covered most aspects of theater production, including lighting, set design and stage management. Such a commitment required that Tom Hanks drop out of college, but with that under his belt, a future in acting was in the cards. Tom Hanks won the Cleveland Critics Circle Award for Best Actor for his performance as Proteus in Shakespeare's The Two Gentlemen of Verona, one of the few times he played a villain.
