John D.

Hi all,

I’m posting this here because I don’t really have anybody that I can talk to personally about it and I really need some feedback. I’m planning to go to Graduate School but I’m having a very difficult time deciding whether to focus on music or on theater.

My Bachelor’s is from Rutgers University, and although it is technically in Music, the concentration itself was music/theater (it was a fledgling musical theater program that was really just a hybrid of classes from both majors, with few actual “musical theater” classes). On the music side I studied voice, theory, etc. while on the theater side there was acting/dance/tech/etc. My background prior to finishing my Bachelor’s was in both theater (acting) and in music (performing, instrumental & voice). I was accepted into Montclair State University for their Masters program in Theater, but was disappointed to find that it was 99.999999% textbook work and very little ‘hands-on’ theater work, so I decided their program wasn’t for me. Since then I’ve been sort of flailing around, trying to figure out what to do next.

There’s a part of me that would probably like to teach at the college level eventually (I’m not realistically expecting to have a career performing in the arts at this point - even though I do have past experience - since I’m already 38) and part of the reason I’ve not made up my mind is that I don’t know which field has more of a demand for teachers/professors (music or theater). The other part is that some of the schools which I thought I might be interested in attending turned out to not have the kind of program I’d enjoy being involved in (see my comment about Montclair, above).

Can anyone give me some advice/feedback/suggestions on how to decide? I know that’s kind of an obtuse question, but I’m wondering if anyone could give me some pointers on what criteria I should use to help make up my mind (going by whichever I “enjoy more” won’t help, since I enjoy theater and music equally, on their own terms) .Has anyone ever been in this situation, or something similar, and if so, how did you decide? Some people are telling me that a Master’s in Theater is a waste of time for me, others say the same about a Master’s in Music. As you can imagine, hearing such things doesn’t help me make up my mind any quicker. FWIW, I graduated with honors, 3.4 GPA, was awarded a couple of minor scholarship awards from the Rutgers program, & did well on the GRE, so I don’t think I’d have too much of a problem getting into one of the decent schools, except maybe for my age

Anyway, thanks in advance...