Fellow artists and musicians, this one is for you.
Family members, friends, and colleagues, this one is also for you.
My degree is in theatre. That is what I have chosen to do with my life. I'm a storyteller in every essence of the word. I want to write stories. I want to direct stories. I want to act stories. I'm not choosing this as an "out" to avoid doing math or science for the rest of my life. I'm choosing this because I can't see myself doing anything else.
Choosing to major in theatre was perhaps one of the most difficult choices that I had to make during my college admissions process. I had to decide between a BA or a BFA. Then I had to decide which schools were the best for that degree. Then I had to decide what material I would interview with. People often forget that applying for the college and applying for the program are two separate applications.
Side note: I hate the phrase "getting accepted academically." Theatre is my academics. That's what I'm pursuing a degree in. Stop treating it like it's not. Academics and athletics are two separate things. Academics and the performing arts are not.
Thankfully, I didn't get a ton of pushback from family when I told them of my plans to major in theatre. It almost felt like they were expecting me to tell them that. I had been doing theatre at a community and pre-professional level for the entirety of high school, and continuing this into college seemed like the logical next step. However, the one thing that I kept hearing over and over again was how "fun" and "easy" my major would be.
Fun? Sure. Some elements of the process are fun.
Easy? No. Someone who says being a theatre major is easy doesn't understand what it entails.
Being a theatre major is having to schedule your classes between the hours of 8 A.M. and 4:30 P.M. because you can't have rehearsals past 4:30 P.M. because you'll be in rehearsal all evening. Being a theatre major is struggling to fulfill your general education requirements while also balancing your major requirements. Being a theatre major is sitting in rehearsal until 10:30 P.M. every night then rushing back to your dorm to finish an assignment that's due at 11:59 P.M. Being a theatre major is going for weeks without seeing your non-theatre major friends because you have to spend every ounce of your free time reading theatre theory, analyzing a play for script analysis, or staging a short sequence for directing class.
In high school, it was easy to say that theatre was a hobby. I went to school for eight hours a day where I had my English, math, science, and social studies classes. Then I went to work at the local Wegmans where I worked nearly twenty hours a week. Every ounce of free time that I had was spent at the local theatre either acting in or working on a new production. Sure, theatre was a hobby.
But in college, theatre is not a hobby. It's my major. It's my job.
My day doesn't end when everyone else's does. I still have rehearsal. And in a field where the next source of income is so unpredictable, I have to have multiple projects going on. So, stop telling me that I'm "taking on too much" when you see me with bags under my eyes.
This is my life.
I'm not complaining. I'm not special. This is how it is for everyone that chooses to pursue a degree in theatre, whether it be acting, musical theatre, technical theatre, etc. We all have an unspoken agreement that this is how things are. But when people who have no clue about what I do try to give me advice on how to handle things, that is when I get irritated.
And while we're on the subject, being onstage and performing is not the only thing that matters in a theatrical production. When I am working behind the scenes, I am putting in just as much time and effort (sometimes even more depending on the production) as the actors onstage. For family members and friends who will only come see a production that I've worked on if I'm visible onstage, that hurts. You are valuing one thing over the other, and that is difficult to hear.
How many times have you heard the phrase "I want front row tickets when you make it on Broadway"?
Hah.
If you can't support me when I'm doing theatre on a collegiate level, why would you support me if I were ever fortunate enough to make it to a Broadway production? And do you even know how tickets work on Broadway? As an actor, director, producer, etc. I am not going to be able to get you front row tickets, you cheapie. Also: Broadway is not the end goal for me and the same can be said for many, many others in this business. It all just goes back to the utter ignorance that some people have about what we do as artists.
I'm not saying that I am guaranteed work or that I am owed a job because of how hard I work. A lot of my career field is unpredictable. But that doesn't matter to me.
What I worry about is being able to wake up each day and look in the mirror and be content with who I am and what I'm doing.
The point of this article is not to say that theatre is more important or harder than other majors, but just to show how difficult it actually is. Every major, career field, job, etc. has its hardships. It's recognizing that each one is unique and comes with its own challenges that matter the most.
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
