I am a junior in high school, enrolled in a private school, specifically in a curricular theatre program with about an hour of class a day in my schedule, plus special guest artist workshops and of course extra-curricular productions throughout the year. I am in the classical theatre track (the other tracks being musical theatre and tech) and I would say that the main goal of the program, besides fostering a love of acting, is to prepare students to audition for BFAs at competitive schools their senior year of high school. Our graduates are all over the place including Tisch (NYU), Northwestern, Juilliard, and even one studying at HB Studios in NY right out of high school.
There’s a lot of pressure to get into a selective and highly-regarded program, but sometimes I find myself questioning if a BFA is really necessary in the industry at all. Can I really become a believable character if the only experiences I have to draw from are four years of studying how to act?
I actually emailed someone who works with Second City Chicago about this, and she said the most interesting actors — and most of the actors they hire — have college degrees in history or something in the general liberal arts category, which allows them to understand and relate to a broad field of experiences.
Sometimes I wonder, if I’m really serious about acting, if I should defer going to college. I’ve heard that the time period where you are 18 to 22 is one of the best for breaking in and being successful in the industry. If that’s true, wouldn’t it be hard to try and balance a career and college? I realize there are opportunities to do smaller student films and productions during college, but that’s not exactly the same as really getting yourself out there and committing to your profession.
I know that education is important, but I could always go back, right? If I chose not to pursue a BFA in college, I could still try and get an MFA afterwards too. So, I guess my question really is: How valuable is a BFA or an MFA or a degree at all in the acting for film or stage industry? Is there a difference in what casting directors and producers and other type of people look for education-wise based on the type of project?
First off, good for you, looking at all of this so seriously while you’re in your junior year of high school. That’s wonderful! Seeking out the advice of those in the industry as well as alumni from your school is a great way to build up information, as you decide what it is that you would like to do. Obviously, no one is going to be able to tell you what decision will be best for you and the life you have stretched out ahead of you. But their perspective can certainly help you create a gameplan you’ll feel comfortable following.
Now, there are a few specific points I’d like to address from your email.
Can you “become a believable character if the only experiences [you] have to draw from are four years of studying how to act”? Sure. Because even as you work on a BFA, you are still required to take courses in other areas, which will help round out your experiences somewhat. And, even though you’ll be a fulltime student, you’ll still have “real life” time to do other things, which hopefully will include learning about people and places and things that aren’t directly affiliated with your course of study. There are both actors who have never taken a single acting class and those who got MFAs from league schools whose performances are real, engaging, and significantly meaningful. And there are both actors who have never trained and those who have trained every day of their lives whose performances come off as disconnected from reality somehow.
In a career that is built on natural talent as much as learned craft, it is possible to achieve great success as a performer without ever having taken a class. Possible. Never easy.
The reason I added “never easy” to that last bit is because of something you said in your email about the 18 to 22 age-range being “one of the best for breaking in and being successful in the industry.” I know you didn’t say it’s “easy” then, I just want to be absolutely sure that I reinforce that point that, yeah, actors who are 18 to 22 and who still look like they’re 16 years old can work a great deal, there is no blanket “truth” to how much success anyone, at any age range, will find in this business.
The good news is, colleges and universities and conservatories are as eager to accept students of “non-traditional age” as they are to accept teenagers fresh out of high school. Yeah, there are pros and cons to starting a BFA program in your 20s, but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible. It’s also possible to earn a degree in anything at any age. Academia is cool like that. It’s always there. Of course, the experiences you have as a “college kid” will be very different if you’re there at a “traditional age” than if you wait and decide to go back to school later. Different. Not better. Not worse. Just different.
Now (finally), I’ll get to the questions you posed at the end of your email.
How valuable is a BFA or an MFA or a degree at all in the acting for film or stage industry? Is there a difference in what casting directors and producers and other type of people look for education-wise based on the type of project?
The answer is: It matters to those for whom it matters.
Mark Sikes and I did a Pilot Season Prep seminar for SAG LifeRaft last month. One of the actors in the room asked about including her non-acting college degree on her resumé. I said, “Go for it!” I love getting to know a little bit about who an actor is, outside of “this acting thing.” And items in the Education and Special Skills sections of the resumé help me understand the whole person, somewhat. Mark, on the other hand, has absolutely no interest whatsoever in knowing you got a degree in anything other than acting. “That shows me,” he said, “that you spent four years on not acting. I wonder how serious you are.”
So, he’d be someone for whom a BFA or MFA on your resumé — especially from programs at the level of those you mentioned in your email — really could make a difference and get you called in, even if your work is “an unknown” for the CD. I, on the other hand, look to see what sort of work you’ve already done and with whom you’ve trained (professionally). Sure, I notice a BFA or MFA from a league school. But I’ve met actors with those pedigrees who range from “okay” to “brilliant.” And that’s the same range of the actors I’ve met who never stepped foot on a college campus (or who did, but not to get a degree in the arts).
What a BFA or MFA shows most of us is that you have discipline. You’ve worked the classics. You’ve really honed your craft. Whether that translates to success in a place like Hollywood is up for debate. There were several actors that my partner Blake and I interviewed for Acting Qs: Conversations with Working Actors who specifically talked about the JOLT that was in store for them, coming from academia to Hollywood. Some actors never went to college. Others tried professional acting only after receiving an MBA. One actor even commuted from Berkeley to Hollywood for auditions, never even telling her agent she was “away” at school!
The person you need to be sure you’ve checked in with, regarding how much a degree matters, is YOU. You’re never going to be able to create a resumé that pleases every single potential buyer in the industry, no matter how much research you do into what those folks like best. Hollywood is a fickle place and for every CD who loves an advanced degree, there’s another who doesn’t even look at an actor’s resumé before booking her.
My recommendation would be that you see what you can do to book professional-level acting work already and begin to connect with working professionals out there. If you can already “hang” with the big boys, maybe there are professional opportunities just waiting for you to have more time to pursue them. And maybe there would be even more, if you were to get a degree. No way to know for sure. One thing I do know: I’ve never met anyone who has regretted getting a college education. And luckily, you can always go back to school.
Bonnie Gillespie is living her dreams by helping others figure out how to live theirs. Wanna work with Bon? Start here. Thanks!
Originally published by Actors Access at http://more.showfax.com/columns/avoice/archives/000817.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the author’s personal archive.