Expert: J. Spyder Isaacson - 11/26/2008

Question
Our graduating senior has dreams of doing musicals in Seattle, Chicago or NY.  She was recently approached by a Fine Arts Recruiter from a state college in a small city of 51,000 to apply to their Musical Theater program.  She visited the school, and was well impressed with the faculty and a dramatic (non musical) production they put on while she was there.  But there are NO other professional or community theaters in the area.  They have said that some of their students are sent off to other areas to participate in plays/musicals, but there are no local theater groups in town.  The recruiter was very excited about her talents, and felt she and another of her friends who was also approached at the Drama festival would be the "cornerstones" of their department. They wanted the two young people to sing for the department heads so that they might plan their upcoming season with these incoming freshmen in mind for leading lady and man roles.  Although flattering to hear, it raised a red flag with me.  I am a musician.  Normally when someone is bowled over with my abilities, it means the rest of their associates (rest of the orchestra, in my case) are not as capable, thus I will not learn from them or enjoy playing along side them.  Our resources are limited, as we have several children.  We want our daughter to have the best shot at going for her dream that is possible.  There IS another option, and HEREIN lies my question.  There is another state college which she feels has a less than exciting theater department (it is in a town we used to live in) that we could afford to send her to.  The thing about this option is that there is also a professional theater group close to the university, which employs actors and actresses from Chicago, NY, Seattle in their five summer Broadway Musical productions!  They apprentice teens in lighting and other tech and costuming, and they employ teens in their musicals.  Some of these young people become equity actors through their experience with this theater.  There seem to be teachers at the college who have starred on Broadway, and the college puts on two full musicals each year, (the same amount as the college that is trying to recruit our daughter).  There are also a couple of community theaters and a melodrama theater in town.  Here is the question:  Which will benefit her better --- a college that MAY possibly have better training and CLAIMS to have connections in all of the big theater towns (whatever this means, and if it is even possible for connections to get parts) or the college option where there are opportunities for her to work with professionals and in more shows.  It is possibly Stronger Education vs. most likely Stronger Experience. I should have mentioned that our daughter has already been in around 18 musicals since she was seven years old, and is now eighteen.  Some of these were for an organization that is a feeder into this town professional apprenticing theater.  Where ever we go, her VOICE truly impresses onlookers.  When she was 16, she did a difficultly woven in solo with her madrigal choir back in the town we lived in where the latter college resides, and the choir director from that college choral department was in the audience.  He approached her and told her she had done a better job of it than most of his college students could have, and said in confidence that she had a full ride scholarship to that institution, if she wanted to major in vocal music when she graduated.  Thank you for considering providing an answer to my question.

Answer
WOW!  You really believe in providing detail, don't you?

This is really a difficult question.  There are two attitudes towards theatre, and you approached both - experience or education.  As to which is more important, the answer is: Yes and No.  They are *both* important.

To give you an idea of why I answered it that way, consider that I received some good advice (ironically, from the worst theatre professor ever): if you want to be an actor, get as much experience as you possibly can.  It kept me regularly working for better than 30 years, and even if a lot of it was community theatre it got me *invited* to audition for full professional productions.  Nevertheless, when I got badly burned out in my career (information technology), I decided to get the education I had put off . . . and discovered how little I really knew about theatre!

As you didn't mention the names of the colleges in question, I can't give you a recommendation as to which your daughter should attend.  Still, from the descriptions you gave (and thank you again for so much detail), it actually sounds like the less impressive program is more likely (from a pragmatic view) to keep her working regularly.  Don't discount a program because they don't have "credentials" - a director I encountered once had outstanding credentials but mounted only somewhat successful (monetarily and artistically both) productions.  Also, there is a VERY highly respected school locally to me that produces performers I have yet to work with in professional theatre, and one former student had nothing good to say about the program; hence, reputation and "credentials" don't really mean all that much, in my own personal opinion.

Ultimately (sorry) the decision is hers, but it can be an informed decision.  Pass this along to her, and discuss it.  If she's unhappy with whatever program she's in, it will hamper her chances for success in the future.

Tell her to break a leg, and let me know how she does!

-- Spyder