Here at OnStage Blog, we spend months compiling, researching and comparing college theatre programs to come up with what we feel are the very best colleges in the country. While names like Tisch, Juilliard, Emerson and Baldwin Wallace get plenty of attention, there are a ton of schools out there with incredible programs that deserve more. 

I’m a college theater major in a relatively small liberal arts college in Syracuse, NY. On my campus, we have two theater companies: the staff run, and the student run. The staff run has predominantly professors as directors and designers (occasionally students are used as assistant designers), and students make up most (if not all) of the cast and crew. On the other hand, there is the student run theater company. Everyone from the executive directors, to the directors, actors, crew, designers, etc. is a student (we still have faculty moderators, but they mostly make sure we manage the space, funds, and supplies properly). The faculty run company usually uses our larger stage space, and the student run uses the smaller, more intimate, space.

The link appeared in my feed, advertising an opening for a full-time, tenure-track teaching position in Design and Production. The school was Wittenberg University, located in Springfield, OH, about an hour drive from my home in Columbus. I’m embarrassed to say that I was not familiar with Wittenberg, but I visited their website to see if this was a job worth pursuing. I wasn’t optimistic, having seen so many postings over the years that didn’t quite match up to my needs or qualifications.

I love theatre. I always will. I am still relentlessly pursuing a career in it. Yet we can’t ignore that it is an elitist major and career choice.

No matter how much I dreamed and worked, I will never make it to Broadway, I simply don’t have the money. I have had to turn down several freelance jobs and great opportunities because I had to choose economic stability over artistry, and it stings every time.

To the graduating Theatre Majors of 2017,

My commencement speaker’s most memorable line:

“Titles don’t matter, it is what you do with those titles that matter.”

Thanks for telling that to a bunch of people that just spent thousands of dollars to get these titles.

“Small businesses are the future of America!”

While that might be true, she was speaking at the College of Arts and Science ceremony.

Graduation is terrifying, and it doesn’t help when your commencement speaker seems to be talking to everyone but you. Deeming titles meaningless and small business empowerment doesn’t help the woman that spent four sleepless years to graduate Suma Cum Laude as a Theatre Major.