Thursday, November 19, 2015
When A Top Tier Performing Position Isn’t The Goal of Your Education
Butts In the Seats: Last month I pondered if there was any worth in giving up a little time in the conservatory/university training of arts students in favor of providing instruction/experiences in career management. Instead of graduating and then seeking out instruction in accounting, contracting and self promotion, etc., they would have a base in those skills but may need to seek out “finishing” training in their discipline.
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I think that a lot of conservatory programs have already started moving towards providing more career management education. The change that has taken place in career paths and university training has developed drastically and rapidly in the past couple of decades, leading to an immense increase in specialized degree paths. More realistic career management training goes hand in hand with heavily specialized career paths in general, and modern university programs are definitely aware of this fact. There is no way that any specialized university program (A BFA program, for instance) would simply not be able to retain credibility without providing at least a small amount of training for career management. Alumni would not be nearly as successful and certainly not as satisfied if they graduated with a super specialized degree which ended up not working out in their favor and then were completely stuck with no where else to go and no additional training to back them up and help them find an alternative.
This article offers an interesting perspective, especially reading this as someone in a BFA Drama Conservatory program. I would say that most of the people here are looking to be a “top- tier” performer (or designer, director, etc), because the program is so intensive and esteemed, I feel like it would be silly to go here if you weren’t looking for theater to be the main focus of your career. The idea of learning through doing, and experimenting in your field as you gain experience is very tempting, although I think it’s probably very rare for someone to be able to do this. These are the stories we as artists hear a lot, since they’re the most interesting; someone pursuing their passion in lieu of trying to “train” for it in an expensive conservatory setting. I think these stories feed a lot into the preconceived ideas people have about the ridiculousness of art school (Why do you need to get a degree in that? Why don’t you just go and do it?), when in reality, and in particular the reality of theater arts, there are very few people who already have all of the necessary tools and skills needed to already be successful and self- sustaining. While I admire people with the bravery to go this unorthodox route, and I realize that I am speaking from the hugely privileged position of having the financial support to go to a conservatory school, I do think that it makes sense to get formal training if possible.
I’ve always wondered about why someone would go to an art school if it wasn’t going to get them straight to the top of the art food chain when they graduate. Most people went to CMU just for that reason, and so did I. Although I also think about the fact that we are considered the best of the best and being one of those students seems a bit daunting at times. I have a friend from high school who is going to an acting school which trains you to be part of a chorus. I know that if I did that, I would be constantly depressed by the fact that I wasn’t good enough to be center stage, and neither were my colleagues. But looking at, it is a hard skill to be in a chorus. Being able to blend together into one unity and be in sync with each other does seem like a good thing to practice, and of course, someone has to be in the chorus anyway.
This article hits on something, I myself and many others here had to really think about. I know that I love theater and it is something that I really want to do with my life, but just that passion cannot always pay the bills. When applying for colleges I applied to so many different kinds of places, here - being a very competitive BFA program, then also places like DeSales which have a pretty good theater program where I could double major. I think the author does not mention something that was imperative in my deciding to come here. And that was the experience. I wanted a school that would challenge me and would bring about new experiences in the world of theater. A career will come after college, the amount of success, well who knows, but right now I just want to focus on learning and more over experiencing. That I believe should be on top of everyones list when choosing a college.
Fantastic for her, it means that she and like-minded people have the opportunity to live how they would like to live. The thing that is difficult about the expressions of this article is that it doesn't take into account, particularly with performers, the ability to go find more training when they're out of school. Of course, they should, and many do, but most are too poor to afford spending more money on training, and too young to be spending their castable years doing a different job. Yes, of course we will all need day-jobs out of school. But the prospect of beginning a different kind of career path, and taking time away from the money being spent on rigorous theatre training is something that I have a strong resistance to. Train me to do what I want to do, train me to do it well, teach me the real-life practical skills of the business that I am trying to make it in, and put me through hell so that the world is easier, but don't teach me to, and force me to settle for skills in jobs that I do not want to do, simply because we are scared of making it work in the jobs that we truly want.
I'm not sure that I understand his point. It seems like he is saying that conservatory students would be better off learning more about the business side of a performance career (I agree), but somehow equating that to the lifelong learning that this amateur dancer has provided for herself and others...? The whole point of attending a conservatory program is to become a professional performer, and it doesn't seem like that's what the dancers at Lisa Mara's company are there for. That being said, I suppose it does say something about the opportunity that one can create for themselves by being business-savvy and having basic instruction in the numerous skills needed for performers to do well offstage as well as onstage. I know that our program includes Business for Acting in the senior year curriculum, and I'd be curious to know how that class is structured and which things they touch upon.
One of the best qualities of art, in my opinion, is that it is a space meant for everyone. As someone who is getting top tier training in her art, it might sound a little bit weird for me to say, but I think amateur art is so important. It’s about learning and growth, and it’s not always necessary to dedicate your every waking moment to it. Passion doesn’t have to mean consumption, although that’s a mindset a lot of people take on. I know here at CMU people are always making fun of those who refer back to their high school theatre program. It’s usually a joke about how freshman come into the program thinking their past productions were good, but really are nothing compared to CMU’s standard. And that’s something I really hate because everyone who was putting up those high school and community theatre productions were amateurs. What everyone is doing by poking fun at these shows is saying that only theatre produced from a big name school/company with a $40,000 budget and professionally trained and highly selective staff can be good. Which is entirely untrue. My high school theatre often had budgets of $0. We won trivia competitions and got free rights to shows. We begged and borrowed and used donations for our supplies. We were mostly untrained, unskilled, and still learning. We put on objectively awful shows. But they were better shows to work on than most of what the professional world has to offer. It wasn’t about the budget, the resources, the talent, or the paycheck. Everyone was there simply because they wanted to be there. That kind of raw dedication goes vastly under recognized by the theatre community. The arts should be about opening our arms to anyone and everyone, regardless of skill or professional status. If more spaces for amateurs, like the one mentioned in the article, are created, the artistic community would be better off.
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