Student Blog: 'So, What are You Going to Do with a Theatre Degree?'

What are you gonna do when you graduate? I have a love-hate relationship with this question. I love talking about my degree and my career and I love getting to talk about what I want to do because I love what I do. But at the same time, this question has so much pressure behind it. Pressure to know exactly where I’m going and what I’m doing and pressure to be smart and reasonable. But sometimes I feel silly when telling people what I want to do when I graduate, because frankly, I don’t always know what I wanna do. My answer to that changes all of the time. To quote Phoebe Buffay, “I don’t even have a pleh.” I have a general idea and direction of where I want to go, but all of that is subject to change. With the career field we are in, whether you are a theatre or tech and design major, you can’t necessarily plan out your life like other students with other majors can do. We go where we can get a job for the most part. There’s nothing wrong with that. So why do I feel so silly when I try to answer this question?

First, let me start with my current “post-graduation plan.” Right now, I want to spend the summer after I graduate at home working, and saving up money, and then by September or October I want to move to New York with my best friend and start trying to find work anywhere I can out there. When I tell people this, they react in various different ways. Some people are very excited for me and they can’t wait to see what I do. I’ve had other people straight up tell me that I shouldn’t do that and I should try and go anywhere else. People tell me that it's too risky and I shouldn’t do that. And that’s when I start to feel silly and embarrassed. Embarrassed for wanting to move to a city that I love and create work that I love. I also feel silly about it sometimes because I feel like that is the most basic theatre kid answer ever. Like that sounds ridiculous. Everyone and their mom wants to go out to new york and be an actor or work in the theatre. So sometimes, even though I have friends who are actively in the city and have come from my college and are doing it, I feel like it’s unattainable. But it’s not. And it’s not silly. It’s what I love. It’s what I want to do. I’m passionate about it. I can see myself living there and doing all the things. And going after what I want and what I want to do, isn’t silly or ridiculous in the slightest. I also am allowed to change my mind at any point in time and that doesn’t make me any less of an artist. It does not mean I failed. I will not be letting anyone down. The only person I could possibly let down is myself, if I don’t at least try. I have to try. 

We had a masterclass at my school last semester with the artistic director of the Saint Louis Muny, and he said something that I think about a lot every time I start to doubt myself and what I want to do. Someone asked if he recommended staying where we were from and trying to get work there or if we should move to another city or place and he told us to make our world bigger. To see what else there is to do in this world we get to live in. I found that so reassuring and comforting. Because he’s right. If I don’t move now while I’m still young and have it in me to move, I never will. I want to make my world bigger.

Now, I would like to say that everyone's post-graduation plans are different. You don’t have to go to New York, you don’t have to go to Chicago, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. You just have to do what is right for you, as a person. We are all different, and that is okay. It’s okay to live at home for the first couple of years after graduating. For me personally, moving to New York is what feels right. I’ve been to New York multiple times, I’ve done work there and I know in my gut, that is where I want to go and be. It just feels right. But it doesn’t feel right for everyone. And that is okay.

Cara Rose Dipietro just posted a video, linked here, about how as artists, sometimes we think “oh there’s no way I could do that, there’s no way that could be me”, but why can’t it be me? Why not me? So, when people ask me “What are you going to do with your theatre degree?” I tell them. I tell them exactly what I want to do. And yes I still feel silly sometimes, and yes I am terrified. I am so so scared. And I don’t think the fear that comes along with moving to a city after college for theatre is talked about enough, but that's another tangent for another time. I tell them I want to move to New York. Because I love it there. I don’t care how corny or insane it sounds, it’s what I love. And what I want to do.

Don’t be ashamed or embarrassed about going after what you’ve always wanted to do. No matter what it looks like. I know it’s hard and it doesn’t always get easier and this sounds super corny, but please, chase after your dreams. If you are being drawn to a certain place, go there. At least try. And answer that age-old question with pride. Because what you want matters. So so much. And it is attainable. And as always, go do great things.