During the past 4 years, whenever im meeting someone and tell them what I do, the conversation usually goes like this.
“I currently go to San Francisco State University.”
“Oh, that’s nice. What are you studying?”
“Im studying theater. Acting.”
“OH. So. How do you feel about the ‘gays’?” or “OH. So. What do you plan to do with that?”
More often then not, I get both questions but I usually get the latter no matter what. When I first started hearing ‘So what do you plan to do with that?’ it made me a little angry inside. I know a lot of people who aren’t educated in the world of art, English or theater don’t really understand the education process and what going to school for theatre really means. I mean, they write songs about people like us. 'What do you do with a BA in English?' Of course the people who write them, see the topic as a farce. But really thinking about it, no, you don’t NEED a BA in theater to be an actor. What I have learned to tell people is that, when we study theater, we study different methods of acting. Differently styles and types, much like learning algebra or calculus. When we learn about the history. And ultimately, we learn how to find the different types of actors we are. We find our strengths and build those to be better. We find our weaknesses and build those to be better as well.
My usual response to the question is, ‘act.’ I want to be an actor. I have been given a great opportunity to study with so many wonderful people while at school. Some of the people are famous actors like Fiona Shaw, who was in the Harry Potter movies. A lot of people don’t realize that many film stars went to school for theater.
While on stumble upon, I found a site that shows 25 things that a person learns for being in theater and how they can become a major asset to the normal 9 to 5 job. One of my favorites is number 3, More Than “getting it done.” One of the golden rules we learn when doing theatre is that you have 3 options: fast, cheap, easy. Everyone would want to be able to have a project that is all three, but you can only have two. Pick two. Not three. Being a theater major, we learn to do things well. Our work is presented to the public for weeks at a time, and you never know who will be seeing it. So we are taught to have it always be at our best, nothing less.
The bottom line is, theater helps in every sense of a job. So to the people who ask me what im gonna do with ‘that,’ Im gonna be an excellent human being and be a wonderful asset to every aspect in life I can be.
