Onstage > College and Graduate Studies

Is college a necessity?

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RachaelBaciocco:
Hello!

So I have been thinking a lot about my future in theatre, and as of right now I am almost 100% set on being a stage manager.  I have absolutely LOVED everything I have done with stage management so far, and I think I would really enjoy doing it for the rest of my life.  In another post, I was tring to find the right school to go to for stage management, but I was wondering if going to school and majoring in it is actually necessary.  From what I've seen and heard, the best way to really learn and study stage management is through experience.  Is that true?  So if I didn't go to school for it and I just started out stage managing or working my way up through a theatre to eventually stage manage a production, would I end up learning the same things?  Or would I miss a lot of information if I didn't go to school and learn about it at a college?  I'm trying to decide whether or not I want to pursue this career by going to school or if I just want to go out and see what happens.  I already have several people who said they would never hesitate to write me a recommendation letter, including the artistic director of a local theatre, a college professor, and the directors I have worked with, so I am off to a decent start I think, especially considered I was never actually taught how to stage manage, I just learned from books and research.  I just need to hear other stage managers' thoughts on this decision.  So what are your thoughts?  School?   Major in Stage Management?  Just go for it?  Any opinion is welcome! =)

Thanks,
Rachael Baciocco

MatthewShiner:
You don't need a degree to be a stage manager.

But, a good general education in theater - with emphasis in design, tech, basic acting, basic directing, theater history, general production, literature . . . is going to help you be a well rounded stage manager.  To be a good stage manager, a resource/project manager - you need more then just a passing knowledge of the different design departments, different areas you are managing - and will help you feel in the gaps of your knowledge until you gain more practical experience.

Regardless, a good college education will help you be a more well rounded individual.

Jessie_K:
Going to college/ university is also a good way to make connections.  Several of my professors worked for various summer stock companies and were able to facilitate internships for students.

yomanda:
There has been some discussion on this topic in the past.  You can find one such example from 2 years ago here.

bex:
Similar to what Matthew said-

I don't think that I learned the nuts and bolts of how to stage manage in a class in college. I learned how to make a run sheet, how to take good blocking notes, when to speak up in rehearsal vs when to keep my mouth shut, how to deal with an actor having a melt down, all of that by actually being a stage manager. That's not to say that my stage management class didn't help with those things, but I would say that 80-90% of it was learned by SMing shows in college, and interning at various theaters. I'm still learning things with every show I work on now.

HOWEVER.

What I DID learn in college was all of the stuff that seemed at the time to be a waste of time. Why do I have to take Advanced Acting? Directing- do I really need that class? UGH SCRIPT ANALYSIS WHYYYYYYY?! One theater history class wasn't enough??
It was those classes that I didn't enjoy at the time that taught me things I would have found more difficult to learn "on the job." The most invaluable, for me at least, was all of those darn acting classes- I HATE acting, but having to take it and do it and read about it gave me not only an appreciation and respect for actors, but also makes me better able to communicate with them, to give them notes, to understand what the director means when s/he is giving notes, to be able to tell when an actor's preferred process isn't going to mesh well with the way the director is working. The director wants things "more Brechtian," that actor studied Meisner technique, blah blah blah. Yes, I get better at that by doing it, but not having that baseline vocabulary to start out with would be killer.

Same with theater history- yeah, you could SM a commedia piece without knowing anything about it, but how much better would you be if you know the difference between the Dottore & Arlecchino starting out? If you already know what to expect in terms of physicality, blocking, combat?  It'll be a lot easier to SM a Shakespeare piece if you've studied how to analyse the language already.

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