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1. Expand employment opportunities
With a major in music education, adding a minor in theatre will just help increase my desirability to employers. Many music educators, especially band directors like I aim to be, also have a part in the theatre program at their school. Having this prior experience and knowledge will make me more marketable for director positions.
2. Increase academic skills
Many of my theatre classes require things from me that other classes don't require. I'm required to do analysis papers on performances I see, required to think critically about different aspects of said performances, required to do lots of readings and internalize the information (such as readings on the history of Broadway shows and readings on the Stanislavski acting method), and so on. These skills can be transferred to my other classes and to life in general.
3. Increase personal skills
Many of the classes for my minor also push me out of my comfort zone. I have never really acted before and I am now performing almost every class in my Acting I course. I have to learn how to work with people on creating a whole different world, essentially. I have to learn how to work with people at their most nervous and vulnerable states, and that will help me immensely in my life and my future career. I am learning how to share my ideas in a respectful way, learning how to read people and base appropriate responses off of that, and many other helpful skills.
4. Wanted to take the classes needed for it
I was going to take a lot of the classes anyway (ex. play direction, theatre history, technical theatre classes like lighting and sound design, etc.), so why not get certification for having taken them? There were only a few classes I wasn't planning on taking (the dreaded acting I class), but that was just out of nerves and I'm glad I am going to/am taking them now.
5. Learn more about something I am passionate about
I have rather recently developed a huge passion for theatre, and what better opportunity to learn more about it than from well-educated professors in a school with a phenomenal theatre program? I am learning from some of the best of the best here at Montclair State University, and I know I will learn invaluable things through my classes and active participation and experience here.
6. To make new friends
I am always up to make new friends, and there's no better way to make new friends than exploring a side of campus/a "group" of the school that you usually don't interact with. Without adding a minor in theatre, I probably would have never met most of the friends I have already made in the classes I'm taking this semester for my minor.
7. To be a part of the show
I want to contribute somehow to a show here on campus, and as a theatre minor you are required to do some aspect of crew for at least one show. I couldn't be more excited for the day that comes, because I have missed working on shows as I did throughout high school. It will feel so right to be back on the crew side of things once again.
8. To become part of a family
The music department here is one big family, so I already have a "home" here. But sometimes it's nice to have a backup, another place you can go, and the theatre department is now that for me. I couldn't be more thankful to have two "groups" at school- the music department and the theatre department- that help me grow so much and who have such wonderful people in them.
