will majoring in actting help me as an actor?

madbean
Fri, 10 Dec 2010 13:57:45 +0000

Each individual’s path as an actor will be different-- so there are many paths to achieve a career in acting and also many many more paths that lead, alas, to none. Whether one attends college, grad school, or just moves to NY or LA and gets a job as a waiter/waitress and tries to find auditions and workshops–many will wind up like the author of this article–disappointed. And, frankly, no one in Hollywood will tell an actress to her face that she needs to lose 20 pounds–they will just not cast her or represent her. Four years later, she’ll still be in workshop productions or looking for an agent and wondering why her luck is so lousy.

For high school seniors who want to pursue acting as a career, you get to choose how your days and weeks will be filled. For talented and creative people who want to study and grow and choose to spend ages 18-22 with like-minded talented peers, and are lucky enough to have family or FinAid to support this education, BFAs and BAs from top programs/universities are the place to start. By the audition process, schools attempt to draw dedicated young people with potential. If you are selected, you will get to live, work, study, and perform among this company of peers. They will be your best friends, love interests, inspirations and network into the business in years to come. OTOH, some 18 year olds are fully prepared to move across the country, find a way to afford to live (work? find roommates among a city of strangers?) and beat the pavement trying to break in.

While it’s true the second method is faster, cheaper, and gets the younger version of you out into the casting world, it’s certainly not for everyone.

As for the tone of this article, it seemed remarkably bitter considering the writer got her MFA 20 years ago. Who, after all, promised the writer that she would gain an acting career if she got an MFA? No theatre department website or brochure I’ve ever read makes such claims.

Finally, I think it does bear considering that talent-based, creative careers do not require any college education or advanced training at all. Which may be shocking for many middle class families with good students, where the idea of college is a given and there is no discussion on if the student goes, but where. My best advice is to decide how strong the individual is, how mature, how competitive and street smart, and how ready they are to step into the real world. The article states the writer was afraid to move to L.A. on her own as a stranger so enrolled in school there–only to regret not just moving to L.A. on her own without paying for school. Huh? I mean we all grow and learn and adapt–so why the bitterness?