| Dotctorjohn - Thank you. Yes, it does help. Now I see the MFA in a different light. From reading your post I suspect my son may pursue the MFA sometime in the future. The comparison between classical theatre training with classical music training makes things clearer for me. My S. loves the challenge of making Shakespeare accessible to contemporary audiences. That is a special kind of magic. To be able to do that, he may be willing to spend three extra years in training. At the age of seventeen, however, seven years is an interminable length of time. To me seven years is close enough that I can touch it with my hand.
Yes, the burden of added tuition was one of the reasons behind the question. Unless Publishers' Clearinghouse shows up at our door with that big check, we will not be able to help him financially as much as we would like. OTOH, paying back student loans on his earnings as an actor is likely to be problematic to say the least! I think this subject was brought up on the MT board recently. In most professions if you have talent and dedication, you can earn a living. In acting it seems to me that you need talent, dedication and a great deal of luck. I believe he has the first two, but luck? Only time will tell on that one. He has an advantage in that he's not going into acting with the expectation of money or fame--he's going into it because he loves to explore the different characters and different worlds. He can do that in the smallest of black box theatres on a shoe-string budget so as the saying goes "it's all good."
I've read two articles recently about an actor's ability to earn a living. One was with Richard Dreyfuss who said that it was not difficult for an actor to make a living in this country if he was not focused on being a "star" and was willing to work in smaller theatres. (My thought on this is that it may be true for Richard Dreyfuss, but then that man does have quite a bit going for him.) The other interview was with Kevin Bacon who said that when he is between projects, the thought pops into his mind that this is no way for a grown man to make a living! (My thought on that-- this man is connected to the whole world within six degrees of separation so what does that say about actors who don't have his kind of connections!) It's definitely a profession that is only suited to those who believe in stepping out in faith. |