I like to make bonfires with all that cash in the fall. Teaching in the arts is especially lucrative these days, y’know!
I don’t think @TheaterhiringCo is dissing those who’s calling is as educators and if you find work as such bravo. We need great educators. What he/she is stating is that the “Acting/Director Professor market is saturated with overqualified people.” I think many in the profession might agree. And I think that many in the theater field who studied Acting/MT, not education per se, found a wonderful career as a teacher/professor/director. Great work if you get it. Like many professions, however, it is saturated.
Right…but I was responding specifically to the comment that it’s a “terrible fallback plan.” Seemed unnecessary. That’s all! Higher ed. is absolutely saturated; I have many young friends with newly minted Ph.D. diplomas who are making the rounds and scrambling for jobs. (Some will end up teaching at the high-school level in independent schools and loving it, by the way–that happens every year too!).
Sorry, IF someone WERE seeing it as a fallback plan, I see it as a poor choice (on many levels) regardless of the choice of wording. And I know several people going into the theater field who see it as such. Just my opinion.
@Times3 - I think you are taking what I said completely out of context. (And overreaching to the max, might I add.) I went to get my MFA in Acting with the intention of being a college professor after my career was over. Hence “fallback plan”. I got out of Acting early. I couldn’t get a college gig so - ironically, as you almost nailed my career path - I have been teaching, happily, at an independent school as their theatre director in addition to my AD job.
My point is that I have worked at quite a few notable houses as an actor and director, been an adjunct, am a member of SDC, have been an Ed Director, and have been an Artistic Director at a historic summer stock for nearly five years. Three weeks ago I had an interview to run one of the largest summer venues in the country yet I still rarely get college teaching interviews (so much so that I rarely apply for them anymore). I have friends with MFAs and Broadway credits who can’t get an interview at a decent school. Look at the resumes of newly hired teachers at most of the mid-level BFA schools - they are impressive as heck.
I just see so much “I am going to get my MFA to be a college professor” and it is incredibly misguided.
@soozievt - As I said, my original post should have reflected that if you can afford it without loans, it is a different story. I just hate hearing about actors going six figures in debt for a the BFA/MFA duo. It can be a career killer.
Just quoted you, Theaterhiring, that’s all. I don’t think I over-reacted (that’s what you meant by “overreaching to the max,” right?) but apologies if I appeared so. It seems a bit extreme to me to state that if a 21-year-old thinks he might want to teach at the college level eventually, that’s “incredibly misguided”–again, just quoting you. Sorry if what I said about my son’s possible goals was confusing; nevertheless, I won’t try to convince him that he shouldn’t even consider hoping to teach someday. 
@theaterhiringco - honest question, would you say you have a better chance of being on bway (or similar) or being a college arts professor? Not trying to be argumentative - I am interested. Statistically being qualified to teach would seem “safer”- but I have no idea how many college jobs/applicants there are vs. auditions etc
Overreaching and over reacting are two different things. And it is also misquoting to say that “seems a bit extreme to me to state that if a 21-year-old thinks he might want to teach at the college level eventually, that’s “incredibly misguided”.” What theaterhiringco said was “I just see so much “I am going to get my MFA to be a college professor” and it is incredibly misguided.” 2 very different things.
OK, I’ll bite on this one. Given that many “standard”, old standby acting jobs - commercial actor/voice-overs, character voices, broadway and regional lead roles, even industrials - seem to be going to celebrities, can the same be said of teaching jobs - at any level, but perhaps especially college level given this thread?
I ask because at S’s PA HS a portion of the MT teaching went to some home-grown talent that had been successful on a national level in various aspects of “celebrity-ness”. Granted they were trying to “give back” to their community and invested some of their own money in the project, but they were not trained as teachers. The HS MT program was theoretically training the students for college MT admissions, but what really was happening was the creation of a Glee-like show choir and very little honing of skills or college audition preparedness. The leaders’ hearts were in the right place, but their teaching skills and understanding of training necessary for MT college admission left something to be desired. I know that many professors at the college level are grossly underpaid adjuncts, but are plum college-level positions going to “celebrities”, rather than to people with years in the business who are actually trained to “teach”? Just curious.
I’m not well versed enough to answer this with information to back up anything but just will comment with some thoughts. I don’t think MFAs are necessarily all trained to teach either. You can get an MFA in Acting and then go onto teach in a college BFA program. I think some of the BFA programs are looking for those who do have years in the business, and not necessarily a proven teaching record or training as a teacher (it is not like there is some teacher certification for it). Where my D went to her BFA program, many of the faculty were professionals in the field and some who had a “name” or major credits. Many had graduate degrees but that doesn’t mean they were trained to teach per se. So, I don’t think it is “celebrities” vs those trained to teach, when it comes to college BFA programs. I think many working professionals are valued as teachers/mentors in such programs. It may be different in a more academically focused BA Theater program where a professor may have a PhD and along the way, has been a TA for many years. Just my thoughts. My own kid has been an adjunct in the BFA programs at Pace and at Tisch and based on her MT skill set, and not on any teaching credential. Of course that is merely an adjunct and not a professor by any means!
Back to the high school anecdote…my kid’s high school was vastly different than your son’s PA high school. My D went to a rural public high school and it did not have any theater classes. It did have a good music program (instrumental and choral music). The person who directed the musicals each year when my kids attended, was not on the regular school staff, but was rather a professional in our community who had been on Broadway and on TV (though he wasn’t teaching, just directing).
Anyway, back to the whole “teaching back up” topic…there are opportunities outside being a college faculty member. An MFA can teach in private theater programs for youth or adults or in public or private K-12 schools and so on. I think the idea of teaching is a good option for those in this field, even if there is over saturation on the college teaching front.
Sorry to read some friction in some posts here but I understand how some people feel who are teachers, as I am a former teacher myself (elementary school, college and graduate school levels) and it is a calling. So, even if people have perhaps inferred meanings that were not intended, it is a sensitive topic for those who teach.
@toowonderful - I don’t think either is easy. I know that is a cop out answer, but, ten years ago Broadway would have been harder by far, not so sure today.
And @mom4bwayboy is right about “stunt” hiring in colleges to an extent - look at Sutton at BSU or Terry Mann at WCU. What great gets for their programs, but not your average Professor.
And one final time, no offense was meant to the teachers on the board. There are a few on this board that know me IRL and would argue that I am more recognized in the theatre community for my work at my HS than anything else, so I certainly didn’t want to put teaching down.
Regarding trained teachers vs celebrities: like it or not, students are going to want to study with Broadway or TV successes. That’s who they’re inspired by and who can teach them the most about their future craft. Also, I don’t think “teacher training” is as important at college level as it is at high-school or lower levels, as it is more about content and craft than it is about child psychology, learning styles, etc. For the college, too, it makes more sense to hire big names as they will attract young talent and full tuition-paying students
From what I have been told, all the teachers at Tisch are adjunct professors (except heads of departments) and they crank out wonderfully talented graduates. Don’t know how many have any sort of degree, but know of two that do not. I agree with @claire74 …working the Broadway professionals is quite wonderful.
From the point of view of the person that will pay for the education, especially coming from the long line of educators (the calling, as well as talent skipped a generation in my case), without a doubt I want a gifted and TRAINED! (In the art of teaching), teacher to guide my daughter at any level of schooling.
Just because somebody ‘can do’, doesn’t mean they can teach (and, of course, vice versa 
)
AlphaScorpii, your response makes me modify my earlier comment. While I think having the cool Broadway stars on the faculty is great, I agree there also need to be instructors who have formal training in education, not just for syllabus origination and course planning, but to help students adjust to college learning styles and meet their academic as well as their performance goals. Successful, proven performers are part of the “gold” in the teaching staff, though, and that–as well as the training the instructor received–is what I encourage my son to look at when reviewing websites. Star power is undeniable however–like almost every young man in MT, my son wants to go to same school as Aaron Tveit and Jeremy Jordan and learn from the same faculty!
That I can agree with 100% @claire74 (well…95%, I have to be true to my Scorpio nature )
I actually think teaching is a great deal like acting. Some people can just “do it”- it’s a natural gift. Others have talent, but that talent needs training to develop into a successful endeavor. Someone who is an expert in a subject can tell others what they know- but that’s isn’t true teaching. I had a professor who spoke 6 ancient languages and knew pretty much everything about the classical world…and was a horrible teacher. I bet every one of us could come with an example.
Well said @toowonderful. It’s all a conundrum! I passed my MFA final written exam on Acting way too long ago and a professor (anonymous to the writer as we were to them) wrote something like “the writer knows a lot about acting but has obviously never been on stage.” Slam/chuckle. And today, I could teach someone how to ride a horse and how to do the movements of dressage much more than I could actually ride those movements. Fun similarities between acting/directing and riding/teaching. For me, the actual acting/riding constantly enhances the directing/teaching and vice versa.
So it is a horse in your picture @puma69! My D has been asking for the riding lessons since she started talking (granted, she started talking late - I miss those ‘not talking’ times terribly). Do you teach <3 ?