Hate to break the news, while you are spending $25,000 – $40,000 a year pursuing a college degree on that beautiful college campus in that magnificent college town, your competition is earning their degree of hard knocks, auditioning, training and working in TV, Film, Theatre and commercials in New York and Los Angeles. Earning actual Film, TV, Theatre credits on the resume, as opposed to college credits to get you out of school. Will an agent care that you have a theatre degree from XYZ college? I am confidant that they will not.
There are certain schools and profs that are adamant that you also learn about the business as you train and learn your craft. Coming to mind, Richard Gang and Fred Rubeck at Elon College, Robert Cohen at University of California/Irvine, in DC, Henrietta Edmunds at Howard and Gail Humphries Mardirosian at American University.
Of course I am leaving out many others, but what really upsets me is the majority of mid-West college theatre faculities that insist their graduates go first to Chicago to gain some experience. What there professors do not recognize, there is little union employment in film, TV or theatre in Chicago so there alum are now further from gaining paid employment in the two major entertainment markets, NY and LA.
Enjoy this post, run and buy David Mamet’s book, ” True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor “.
One caveat to the above post, a college degree is a must in today’s society, and a theatre education at a four year school is an amazing opportunity and experience to learn the craft in an educational environment, just do not expect a talent agent to be over joyed that you just graduated with a degree.
I’m currently in college for musical theater. I was just wondering, for someone from a small town like me, it seems like getting really good training in college will help me do better in the future and gain more exposure. Any tips on how to get out there when there isn’t much theater around you? I don’t have the ability to move to New York right now. What do I do?
Good training, yes, maybe? Exposure? If your school is in a small town I am not sure what sought of exposure you would expect
If you ever want to have the option of teaching Theatre at a school, you pretty much have to have a degree. Even if you have 20 years of hard core theater experience, most schools (High School or college) require you to have a degree to teach it.
As for acting itself? People in charge of casting, just want good dependable actors. Period. Degree or not.