Stop Shaming People who Major in Theatre

Greg Ehrhardt, OnStage Blog Editorial Staff

This was originally published in the OnStage Blog Newsletter on 4/3/2023. You can receive all of our weekly commentaries in your inbox by subscribing here.

This week, I talked with a neighbor who has a kid about to go to college. His kid wants to major in Theatre. He told me that while he thinks theatre is great, he stressed to his kid that you “don’t want to go through life broke waiting tables hoping to get your break on Broadway.”

My internal reaction was as follows:

He continued to talk through scenarios of how his kid could pursue theatre in college while hedging his bets, perhaps majoring in some other field or double majoring, etc.

Now, I’m on record as saying if theatre is your passion, pursue it and forget all of the noise telling you not to.

There are also plenty of ways to have a successful career outside of theatre with a theatre degree.

But it also got me thinking how pervasive acting is in our day-to-day lives, even if we don’t realize it.

For starters, how many people do you know to perform on social media, pretending their lives are all fun and glamorous and they have the best life ever?

If you have any customer-facing job, you’re acting and performing several hours a day for 5-6 days per week? Even nurses must perform for their patients. For many nurses, care, and empathy for all of their patients is genuine, but as they will tell you, some patients really try your patience and test your empathy levels.

Many call this simply “being professional,” but professionalism is just performance acting on a different level.

How much would a theatre class or two improve your performance for customers, work colleagues, or friends?

Life in theatre is often seen as all or nothing. If you major in theatre, you have to go for a life and career on stage. This is false, and we don’t treat other subject matters like this. You can major in math without devoting your life to studying mathematical theorems at a university.

You can major in history without spending your life going through ancient texts. Same for theatre. Like all other subject matters, you can apply the learnings of your theatre major to any other walk of life and do well.

In reality, every single one of us is acting almost every day. Don’t tell me you’ve never stood there and listened to someone tell a story you had zero interest in but acted like you were hearing the Hamilton soundtrack for the first time.

Let’s also be real: if you have kids, you’re acting in front of them all the time; if they hear a strange sound in the basement, you tell them things will be ok (even if you’re scared)).

If you have to give any presentation at work, school, or in front of prospective customers, you’re also acting and performing here.

Don’t tell me a theatre class (whether in college or adult education) couldn’t help you improve in these situations.

So let’s stop pretending that theatre classes are only for those that want to earn money on stage.

We all act every day.

Let’s encourage the kids who want to be really good at it for the rest of their lives.