Some people were just born for the stage, but even they need a theater degree to learn the required skills and hone them as close to perfection as possible. If you are one of these people, you’re in luck. You can get a theater degree from a conservatory or a college.
Which one should you choose? It depends on your needs. There is a very close focus on skills and access to professionals in a conservatory setting. But at a college, you can generally tailor your education more to what you want and find some variation in your studies.
Either way, stage performances are an essential part of getting a theater degree. However, before we talk about that, let’s take a look at why getting a theater degree is so important.
Reasons to Get a Theater Degree
If you are oozing with talent, that doesn’t mean you have honed your skills. An Olympic figure skater is talented, but that person still spent hours upon hours on the ice before they were good enough for the Olympics. If you are good on stage, you will want to get better. You will also want to make connections and become part of the community. A theater degree will help you do all this and more. Here are the reasons to get a theater degree:
- A good theater degree program will provide you with diverse training in every aspect of theater. You won’t just learn about performing on stage. You will also learn about writing, set design, production, direction, and all the other parts that go together to make a great show.
- The training you get will open you up to a range of career options. You can be a writer, actor, producer, director, stage manager, and more. You can even wear more than one of these hats, and many people in theater do just that.
- The theater community is essential. When you launch your career with the proper education, you will become part of that community by default. This will make it possible to network, collaborate, and perform in your school setting and beyond.
- You will learn how to nurture your creative expression and embrace your creativity to let it shine through.
- You will build a diverse set of life skills by attending a theater degree program. This is incredibly important because an artist of any kind needs to be a well-rounded person with a lot of life experience to draw from to feed their work.
- Practice with auditioning is critical to your success, and you’ll get it while pursuing your theater degree. This is one of the most important skills you will ever develop. No matter how good you are, if you can’t get that across when you audition, you won’t get cast in any roles.
- You will gain access to industry professionals when you are doing a theater degree. This includes your teachers, but it also includes guest lecturers and theater professionals.
Of course, you will also have the opportunity to perform. This is something that everyone training in theater needs, and it is worth looking at in more detail.
The Importance of Stage Performances with a Theater Degree
The only way you will learn what you need to know in theater is to perform. Even if you are planning on being a producer, director, or writer, it is essential to get performance experience. There are two ways to get that experience when you are enrolled in a theater degree program.
First and foremost, you will get experience in the full creation of a stage performance when you get to be on stage. Or at least you should. The very best theater degree programs offer you the whole theater experience with all the facilities needed for set design, construction, costuming, and production.
The second way to gain experience with stage performances is through performance opportunities outside your college. The best theater degree programs will help students find internships and auditions off-campus, which will provide you with real-world experience outside the classroom. This experience is invaluable and prepares you for the real world of the theater after graduation.
The experience you will get with stage performances and the other aspects of theater during your studies is critical. It will help you know for sure that the focus you have chosen is right for you. For example, maybe you started acting but realized through an internship that producing or writing is more your thing. Or maybe, when you were demonstrating a character you wrote, you took to the stage like a duck to water and excelled in performance.
You won’t know the experience the best theater degree programs will provide until you actually do it. And before you take to the stage, you will learn all the acting theories and practices you need.
If a career in the theater is what you are after, then a theater degree is your best route to getting there. Just be sure to do your research, so you will be able to choose the college or conservatory that best suits your needs and ambitions. Once you do, you can put your best effort into your studies and be ready for the successful theater career that is waiting for you.