Decisions... A Year Later

A year after Decisions Are Hard, do I regret my decision to be a Tharts Major?

As we learned in my blog, Decisions Are Hard, Boston University School of Theatre BFAers are tasked with declaring their major within the school around Spring Break their second semester freshman year. It's been a year since I wrote that blog and officially made my decision to be a BFA Theatre Arts major. In that year, I lived alone in Boston, moved out of the dorm into an apartment where I learned how to cook and take care of myself, worked on my relationship with myself and with others, fell back in love with the idea of home, did physical therapy every single week, explored to my heart's content, took classes in all my major areas (Acting, Directing, and Playwriting) as well as my minor areas of emphases (Social and Racial Justice and Communications), and experienced nature and other artistic media (as well as how they are intrinsically interconnected) in ways I never let myself before.

Also in that year, I wrote four full-length plays (one of which will be presented as a staged reading at the end of this semester and two will be presented as staged readings next year 2023/24 ), Assistant Directed and Music Directed a production at BU, reengaged with acting in multiple ways including acting in a two-person production at BU, auditioned outside of school in person and via self tapes nearly every week, began my work as a Communications Assistant for the BU College of Fine Arts Communications team, networked and gathered strong connections with professionals in my fields, grew my social and cultural consciousness, re-immersed myself in the Deaf and Disabled communities, and began to incorporate my social justice work into my art.

A year after declaring my major, and with the growth I've seen and felt within myself and everything I've learned, do I regret my major decision? Do I regret choosing Tharts? Short answer: Not one bit.

When making my decision last year, I was worried that, in choosing Tharts, I wouldn't be able to further develop my trust in myself as an actor. Oh, how wrong I was. In the Tharts major, I can take any and all Theatre classes I am interested in, including but not limited to all the coursework BFA Acting students take (Acting, Voice and Speech, Alexander, Movement, etc), directing classes, playwriting classes, design classes, and production classes. Thanks to Tharts, I've had the privilege to take classes and opportunities I was highly interested in, all because I wanted to, rather than be prescribed a specific set of acting only focused classes each semester (of which the only the BFA Acting students take). For example, Tharts students who chose to take an acting class Fall 2022 semester were given the opportunity to take a Directed Study: Acting taught by renowned Director, Playwright, and Deviser, Malika Oyetimein. In this six-person class, we focused on preparing for the rehearsal room, diving into the dramaturgy and working on scenes from Suzan-Lori Park's play f-ing A.

This class was the first time since pre-COVID shutdowns three years ago that I had the opportunity to act alongside a real-life scene partner (not over Zoom) and on a "stage" (aka class studio). It was so important for me to re-engage with my abilities and trust in this way: low risk/high reward, as long as I put my mind to it, and I definitely did. Everything I've learned about myself in and out of theatre since I was last on stage three years ago goes into every single thing I'm now able to do and interact with as an actor. I am not the same actor or artist I was then, and I couldn't be more proud of myself.

Because I'm not an acting major, I have the freedom to take breaks from acting classes-something I know is integral to cementing further learning for myself-and decided to only take Movement classes from my acting track this semester. This has been super beneficial and has allowed me to be able to focus on racking up my Gen Ed classes (known as Hub Units at BU), specifically my Quantitative Reasoning classes. The CFA has a Career Development for Artists and Arts by the Numbers class where we quantify sets of data to further our understanding of art making, self-branding, and the trends in the art world. In the former, I solidified my artistic focus:"I am a storyteller who acts, directs, and writes, gravitating toward stories expressing dynamic and dysfunctional interpersonal relationships and social commentary. I aspire to make stories and storytelling more accessible to marginalized artists and patrons." In the latter, I researched and mapped out equity theatres in the United States, following the question as to where the main theatre hub cities and locations are. These classes have truly helped me ground myself in my dreams and I'm very excited to use the information I glean from it in my career.

I do not know the acting major experience, but I know-from what I have observed in my acting major friends-that I would not have nearly as much freedom in following my curiosity nor in my actual schedule to pursue my artistic, personal, and learning needs. Nearly two years into my time at BU, I am very happy with my decision to come here, stay here, learn here, and be a Tharts major.

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