A Hopeful MT Major with little experience

KatMT
Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:26:23 +0000

I think you will find that at times everyone who pursues a career in the arts struggles with the idea and the reality of a career in the arts ;). There is lots of discussion on this topic on the Theatre and Musical Theatre forums. If you search through old threads I think you will find lots of advice and support.

Most performers do not make the entire income off of performing, but supplement with other jobs… sometimes in the arts (teaching, accompanying, etc…), sometimes waiting tables, temping, etc… This is the reality. I do not say this to be discouraging – I worked as a performer for 6 years before deciding that I wanted to go to graduate school for Directing… I spent most of my 20s and early 30s balancing performing and directing work with other jobs… at first waiting tables and temping, then teaching part time. Now I teach acting, directing and musical theatre at the college level full time, and direct professionally when I can fit it into my schedule. So, I have been lucky to build a life working at a career that I love.

Some people I graduated from college with (BFA – Musical Theatre or Acting) have followed similar paths to me… some still perform professionally pretty much full time… a few work in TV and Film often enough that they support themselves solely off of performing work… some work in film/ TV production… some work as producers, publicists, agents, managers, etc…

The skills you would learn in a college theatre program are skills that will be useful in many fields that you could ultimately pursue. Majoring in theatre or musical theatre in college does not mean that you will never be able to do anything else if you choose to do so in the future. I graduated from undergrad with people who eentually went to medical school, law school, graduate school, and now work as doctors, lawyers, counselors, education, etc…, some did not go to graduate school, but now work in non-arts related fields…

From your posts on this forum and the Theatre forum I agree with advice that has been given that you may prefer a BA path for college. The BA route would allow you to double major if you choose and allow you to pursue a more well rounded undergraduate curriculum. If you have doubts going into college a BFA path may be more intensely focused than you would like during college.