Older theatre student?

connections
Sun, 02 Dec 2012 16:35:44 +0000

Agreed absolutely about the age–I think your age, 22, would make you an asset to the community, and you would be able to be more focused and mature. I’m sure you’d connect with some of the students.

As an English teacher, though, I feel I have to strongly discourage you from going into teaching. The system is being decimated, arts are being slashed, and it’s extremely difficult to find any jobs (my last job, there were 700 applicants for one position). Whole theatre departments are being destroyed and anyway, the job itself is horribly low morale–you are part of a top down bureaucratic machine that constantly tells you how lazy you are and how you must be punished. The ONLY way I’d go into full time teaching is if you can’t see yourself doing anything else–your passion would carry you.

What a lot of folks do here is supplemental directing, getting hired by public or private schools for one or two show. HEre, that’s around $3000/show (at most) and even then there are all sorts of politics involved in getting it–you usually have to have a huge resume and lots of connections. Occasionally, you can luck into an arts school, but it’s extremely, extremely competitive and you usually have to know someone. Sigh. Not to discourage you from going into theatre at all, but please reconsider going into teaching if it’s a practical decision. It used to be, but it’s not anymore.