Why do I want a graduate degree?

There are a few reasons:

I want to be a stronger actor-creator.  I’ve been trained in IPA, stage combat, ballet, dialects, vocal and breath control and a number of other very useful skills that have come in handy through the years.  But it’s a minor struggle at the moment to weave these skills together to create new works, new opportunities.  While I’ve managed to write and produce my own work, both with professional actors and students, it’s not my current occupation and not as regular an activity for me as I would prefer.  When the hours of the day are limited and our energy must be funneled into a limited number of daily activities, work eventually comes first and “personal projects” tend to take a backseat unless you don’t let them.

Which comes to the slightly selfish reason that I want the chance to focus on myself again.  When you’re cast in a show, you end up performing for someone else, fulfilling their needs, doing the role the way they want, and the real world rarely cares about your personal growth – they care about the job getting accomplished, quickly and efficiently.  When I’m teaching, I’m clearly learning from my student’s growth and it encourages me to see a problem or activity from a more macro perspective, but the focus is entirely on the student’s growth, not my own.  It’d be amazing to have a year or two to focus on my own artistic needs again.

Then there’s the whole “network” thing.  My SMU colleagues are doing amazing things in and around Hollywood and my fellow New World alums are winning awards and kicking ass.  While I have the highest levels of awe and respect for each of them and would love to collaborate on creating a company or project, we’ve all gone in such separate directions that it seems nearly impossible.  I want to be surrounded by other highly motivated creators again, but this time ready to start heading in the same direction, together.

Finally there’s the whole teaching reason: I want to teach theater at a university level.  I’ve taught in conservatory settings and I’ve survived teaching middle school drama, and there are certain life experiences and developmental skills that younger students just don’t bring to the table when working on theater.  To teach university aged students, one has to have a terminal degree in their field.  End of story.

So yeah, that’s it.  I don’t need a degree to keep doing what I’m doing, but it just feels like it could help me do what I’m doing a little bit better.  🙂