BroadwayWorld: We are officially 9 weeks into the fall semester, and I am burnt out. So I thought it would be a good time to look back on how I got here. Coming back to school was great, and I was so ready to get started. I had a million things I wanted to accomplish this semester. I did really well accomplishing those same things over the summer, so why would this fall be any different?
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I did not realize that Broadway World had student blogs on its website. I’m really interested in applying to be a writer for this blog page now! Regarding the article I read, I feel like this student said the painful thing we all really do not want to hear when we feel burnt out: it’s up to us to schedule rest and recovery. As much as we want to keep pushing towards our goals with the unhealthy mindsets of “I’ll rest later” or “I should be doing something productive rather than something just for me” or the never-ending loop of “I’ll rest after I finish this project” that turns into “I need to start working on my next project now that I’m done.” This industry moves very-fast paced and sometimes we forget that we as humans aren’t made to always be living life in fast forward. Planning time to rest is essential to nurturing our creative process because it helps us from losing all of our energy and falling into a burnout slump that stops us from reaching our full potential as artists.
Burnout is such an unfortunate thing to have to deal with. As theater students, we will likely be burnt out at one point or another because of the sheer amount of work we do. It is hard to do anything outside of schoolwork because we are here so late into the night working crew calls and doing projects. One of the things that I know causes me to burn out the fastest is not getting enough sleep. I am working a load in, and I have also had to stay up past that to write papers. I have had to be really careful with how late I am up, because I know I can't push myself too hard. I have definitely learned more about time management this semester, and I am adjusting my expectations of myself to our late schedules, which has been helpful in keeping me from burning out.
Burn out is always such a hard hill to face and try to overcome. In college especially when we are so independent and in charge of our own lives there is this constant weight to work and live properly. We stack our days with so many events and tasks in pursuit of a productive day. I think that for a while there has been this idea that sitting on your phone for even a second to breathe defines you as lazy. We are constantly faced with the rising geniuses of the world who are in constant states of productivity (or so we see) who continuously encourage people to go out and do. Start now, make something of yourself now, stop sitting on your phone and move. I think we as the people of the future feel a constant pressure to always move and create action that we burn ourselves out so quickly cause we never stop until we are halted.
This is probably the most useful article ever published on this site, because it speaks directly to such a large problem that students at CMU School of Drama face. We stay extremely busy, and particularly for some declarations (TDs), free time is quite a luxury and doing academics at the same time as theater, let alone other things like working a job or exercising or just relaxing is very difficult and could definitely lead to burnout. I think one thing this article highlights that is very important is not just physical exhaustion, because that is frequently talked about, making sure you get enough sleep and the like (although that doesn't mean we always actually do), but also mental exhaustion---constantly thinking about assignments or crew or just stress, without ever getting a chance to consciously relax, whether solitary or with friends. It's bad if every day, you get home, conk out in bed, and then get up the next day and do it all again; that won't help your mental help and you will probably burn out. That's why I love this article's suggestion that get into a routine for your activities, and then give yourself a break sometimes. Just because you love or need to do an activity doesn't mean you can't take a break; if you don't take that break, your body may force you to.
This article is so relevant to all of us. We have so many classes and there are always other fun things like guest speakers or this weekend hosting usitt that it is hard to find time to rest between all the classes and assignments. Similar to this student I have found that I was very good at being productive at the beginning of the year and as we get further into the semester I have been more exhausted starting my week making everything feel more daunting than it otherwise would. At the beginning of the semester I had more time to meet the other people in my dorm and I even made the entire slide deck for my community theatre’s awards night. Today all I managed to do was finish my drafting and do some newscomments. I didn’t talk to anyone other than my classmates and I didn’t leave campus.
Burnout is something that a lot of passionate people can experience quite easily if they do not take care of themselves and their body. As theatre professionals, theatre is our life. I’ve thought about theatre most days for the past 8 years since I started, and have occasionally come close to burning out because of that. It is super important to take breaks and time off from your work or studies and to enjoy the other aspects of your life. One thing that I like to do is go out and embrace nature. Walking through my local park. Camping for a weekend at a state or national park. Even just partaking in a different hobby like gaming or other crafts work to get your mind off of work work work. Our school schedule will consume you with ease if you let it, so I is super important to make sure you get your time away.
I absolutely agree that resting is super important. Sometimes even when someone thinks they are fine and are proud of juggling so many things at once, it catches up to them. I have so many over-accomplished friends who ended up experiencing burnout by getting very sick, or just disappearing for a few days for a mental break. Taking rest is super important, and this article reminds me of that again. Honestly, for me sleep is so important. Sometimes if I am sleep deprived I can no longer socialize the way I want to, or the efficiency in doing things greatly decreases. The thing about our program though, we basically get home around 11pm every day and have morning class the next day. On paper it looks like we have eight hours of sleep at night, but what about homework time? Sometimes I am quite sleep deprived during the week. I also recently learned that meditation helps with focus, and that mindfulness in general is good for people. So I highly recommend anyone to start meditating!
Burnout is something that I find so many of my good friends experience, especially in theatre, because almost everyone in theatre is in it for the passion and has a hard time separating the work-home balance that comes way easier to other industries. I think a critical thing that causes this si as the article discussed the lack of a mental break, there is always worry here especially about what crew I will be on will I have time to do XYZ, which even when you're physically separated from the spaces and may not be experiencing physical burnout, which I can attest to is most definitely a real thing, there is a constant wear on your person from the stress and assignments that theatre can bring to oneself. I think I also fall vicitmt ot the mentality that taking breaks and spending time outside of campus or not having all my work done ages ahead of time is somehow making me a worse DP, and that mentality can be such an untrue and big reason for me to feel burnt out.
Burnout is a very real thing that I do not feel like gets enough attention or care from people, especially since some professors/older people have the mentality of “we used to be able to work 36 hours straight multiple weeks in a row and we were fine” (even though they probably were not “fine”). It is so hard to try to combat burnout when you are constantly being made to feel like you are just being lazy or that you should be doing more. It can be especially hard for neurodivergent students who have to work twice as hard to retain information and get their work done. I feel like we are starting to go into more of an understanding wave of how to work and how to have a work-life balance, but there are a lot of people, especially people in higher positions, that are not being good examples of it or are pushing back against it while still saying “try to get rest and just don’t burnout.”
This article means a lot to me as someone who deals with really bad burnout. In a way theater throughout high school and especially into my senior year has prepared me for this. Juggling stage managing a massive show, rehearsals six days a week, getting home at 9 pm two hours of homework and on top of that writing probably over 15 essays in the span of a month just to try and get passes pre screens for a school. It was a lot. Here at CMU throughout the whole university there is a certain vibe of work work work until you drop. And that has not changed in the school of drama. Though the BFA education here is amazing, I do not think it is entirely sustainable. I try to discuss it with classmates but again, the environment here is very hush hush about burnout. There is truly not really anything you can do. Though I am immensely grateful for this education, that is the one thing I think needs to be fixed.
This is one of those subjects that appears to be nearly impossible to manage, although it can always come up again and again as it changes based on the semester you are in or the show you are involved with. I believe that the feeling of urgency gets reinforced more than in other fields just because of the collaborative nature of this particular industry which makes the need for involvement even more necessary! There's this weird connotation we've created where you seem like you are a bad person/ a slacker if you choose to rest instead of pushing yourself. What I find really interesting about the writing produced by students is that it is considerably more authentic than that of generic wellness articles because the writers deal with the stress they’re writing about at that moment, rather than refer to it after having overcome it. I’d be interested to see if authors rely on practical scheduling techniques in their writing or if they address broader ideas and challenges.
Over the past week, I have been feeling the pressure of burnout. With my first calls of the year, starting work, finishing Line and form, writing papers for class, managing my social life, and trying to remain healthy with good food and sleep, I feel like I am constantly dropping something. I know this is a common feeling for most college students, but I think in theater this is even more present with the hours we have to put in to make a production. I am unsure of how to fix this unbalance but I think Anna Porter’s point on finding space in your day for yourself and to look for little ways to de-stress is very important. I work hard to make sure that my weekends are as free as I am able to make them by doing work earlier in the week or semester, even when it's frustrating, because I know by the end I will have carved out time for myself to just relax.
I found this article extremely relatable and soothing to hear that others in a BFA program struggle with academic burnout. While doing theatre and also balancing clubs, college applications, and a very rigorous workload in high school, I easily became very burnt out. While I eventually did overcome the wall I hit years prior, I find this article very helpful in case I run into this issue again. As author Anna Porter states, BFA education usually results in very few breaks or time to rest. I think this especially rings true in a rigorous, conservatory-like program such as CMU’s School of Drama. I find it soothing that students such as Porter are still trying to find the balance between not falling into burnout and achieving personal goals, as this is something I have heavily struggled with in the past and will probably continue to struggle with in the future.
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