When “A Chorus Line” opened on Broadway in 1975, audiences first heard the opening strains of “I Hope I Get It,” in which performance hopefuls sing about how badly they want a chance to strut their stuff on the Great White Way. Almost 50 years later, actors’ dreams have expanded beyond the stage and screen to encompass platforms ranging from streaming services to TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. And with new technologies coming down the pike every day, the way we watch—and the way we perform—is bound to keep evolving.
With such massive changes to the media landscape, are traditional college acting programs still valuable for aspiring performers? Here, five professors from some of the nation’s top drama institutions explain why they believe pursuing a degree in the craft is more pertinent than ever.
Anita Dashiell-Sparks
University of Southern California School of Dramatic Arts
Professor of theater practice in acting; associate dean of equity, diversity, and inclusion; vice chair of performance
“I’ve been reflecting upon the past couple of years of our admission cycles for our BA theater program and our BFA and MFA acting conservatory programs,” Dashiell-Sparks says. “It’s kind of unique that we have all three; a lot of theater programs have maybe two. Our students have a voracious appetite, and we offer the type of intensity and rigor of training that they’re actively seeking in a conservatory degree program.”
She adds that drama students have a burgeoning interest in business and technology courses so they can be well-versed in marketing and entrepreneurship across various platforms. In response to this heightened demand, USC is introducing a creative entrepreneurship major. “It was really important for us at the School of Dramatic Arts to meet that challenge and equip and empower our students with those skills as part of their training so that they can really feel confident in working in those mediums in this creative economy.”
27 Acting Colleges You Should Know But even though students can now learn how to master self-promotion, the School of Dramatic Arts remains focused on stage work. Dashiell-Sparks believes that the visceral human desire to tell stories is central to student interest in the program. “The value of a theater degree now is that the training really stretches and strengthens our capacity as storytellers,” she explains. “We literally create something out of nothing, all the time. That’s the magic of theater. We make the invisible visible through the power of imagination, the act of creation itself, collaboration, and the power of empathy and compassion.”
She adds that the art form “allows us to imagine what it would be like to be in somebody else’s shoes, to live somebody else’s journey, and to experience lived history as if it is our own. I think there’s no part of our lives that isn’t affected by stories.”
Quin Gordon
School of Drama at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts
Acting and directing professor; director of recruitment
“I see a more widespread focus among our student body on being more front-footed about their careers. I think part of the reason is that this is a generation that’s grown up with a phone—and thus a camera—in their pockets,” Gordon explains.
He says that his students tend to take cues from critically acclaimed actor-creators like Michaela Coel (“I May Destroy You”) and Phoebe Waller-Bridge (“Fleabag”), who write material for themselves and wear many other hats, as well. “We’re fortunate in that we share a campus with a highly ranked school of filmmaking. So even given the rigors of our students’ schedules, we’ve really opened up possibilities for them to participate in student film productions way more than they did before my time. And that’s really a win-win, that our students get experience being on set.
“We’re quite unique in that we’re literally the [first] stand-alone public arts conservatory in the country—so when you’re on our campus, you’re surrounded by fellow artists,” Gordon adds. “Every student, every faculty member, is coming from an arts background.
“The other thing our school provides, and has for decades, is a two-week period at the end of every first semester after regular classes have ended called Intensive Arts. It’s completely devoted to students creating their own work—short pieces that then get presented at a two-day festival. It’s really where we realize we’re training artists, so it’s important that we open up the sandbox and allow our students to play and follow their best—and occasionally, worst—impulses. And some really profound work has come out of that.”
Michelle Lopez-Rios
The Theatre School at DePaul University
Chair of performance; head of voice and speech performance
Lopez-Rios has noticed that young actors are increasingly interested in taking a holistic approach to the craft. “I definitely feel like 10 or 20 years ago, folks were very focused on acting, singing, and dancing. And I do see that, even in their first year of training,” she says. “But they really want to take writing classes and they want to produce their own things. There’s this idea of embracing stories that have not been told or have not been told often.”
The Theatre School at DePaul also offers its pupils the unique opportunity to learn alongside inmates at Chicago’s Cook County Jail as part of the university’s Inside-Out Prison Exchange program. “In the class I teach at the jail, half the students are DePaul students and half are incarcerated students; and it is always a tremendously powerful experience for everyone in the room. That is the power of theater and humanity connecting.” (She urges everyone to watch Greg Kwedar’s recent film “Sing Sing,” which depicts a similar program for incarcerated actors.)
What Degree Do You Need for an Acting Career? Your Top Options Lopez-Rios says this synergy is a reflection of the times we’re living in, when political and social issues are deeply intertwined with the arts. “I now see more acting students with minors or double majors. And I might argue that all art is political, but there are definitely students who are interested in [topics like] Gaza, Latinx studies, queer studies, feminism, and gun violence; and I do see them combining these urgent matters into their art. It is all storytelling, and universities are a great place to have those debates.”
Marcus Johnson
Florida State University/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training
Interim director
According to Johnson, FSU’s drama program is responding to student interest in exploring social justice issues through performance. “What I’m seeing is that folks want to have more rigorous and disciplined training; and I think students are so much more socially aware than they have been before,” he says. “They’re interested in questions like: How do I fit into the greater scheme of society? How do people benefit from my art? How can I make sure the way I present my art is sustainable, equitable, and inclusive?”
He adds that the aftershocks of the pandemic have created a desire to tell personal, timely stories. “It’s really exciting for me as a professor and conservatory director to think of other ways to help our students reach those goals and find their place in this post-COVID world.”
Asolo Conservatory accepts only 12 students per year—roughly 2–5% of all applicants. “Ours would still be considered a classical training program. In our acting classes, we primarily use the Demidov technique, which puts an emphasis on imagination and the excavation of the text: deeply investigating characters and why they say what they say based on what we know from the text.”
Another vital aspect of the program is making sure that participants feel they’re in a supportive environment before diving in. “Students are hungry to be in programs that are hands-on, but there’s also this need for validation, in a healthy way,” Johnson explains. “It allows the students and teachers to take those first few steps together before letting go. Sometimes there’s a little bit of running back to pull on that pant leg, but then reminding them, ‘You’re OK; we’re here to catch you if you fall.’ There’s an excitement there once they start to feel steady ground under their feet.”
Andrew Smith
Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama
Associate professor of acting; associate area chair of Acting/Music Theater
Smith believes that traditional performance practices go hand in hand with new media. “I actually feel like the passion for theater is as charged as ever, and the era of YouTube has had a lot of [impact] on the cultivation of our artistic craft,” he says. “But as much as social media may accentuate short attention spans, it also really spreads the craft and the art and stories far and wide. And I am noticing that, just in the pure base of knowledge and ability to reference certain performers and shows that exist between our students on Day 1, they’re really coming in much more informed.”
Carnegie Mellon drama students continue to be hungry for regimented performance training. “It demands the development of empathy and asks you to be present and pay attention to the moment while also trusting your process,” Smith says, adding that this approach “asks you to understand the use of text and how to speak so you can be heard. These are skills that expand into any profession and are at the very core of theater: listening, observing, bringing your full self to an exchange of energy with who you’re talking to, learning how to stand in your power, and overturning the need to push or be inauthentic.”
Carnegie Mellon’s Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation recently revealed a startling statistic. “They told us that 70% of the jobs that these students are going to have over the course of their careers have not been invented yet,” Smith says. “Now, it’s about creators and entrepreneurs, and your audience is sitting out there waiting for you to connect with them.”
He adds that the ability to stay present in the moment is going to be more vital than ever. “It starts to become about: What voice do you have? Do you have the ability to read a room and speak to an audience in a way that actually allows you to be heard? No matter what your direction of interest, the skills [taught in acting school] are priceless, and they are the basis of leadership.”
This story originally appeared in the Oct. 3 issue of Backstage Magazine.
Dr. John R. and Joyce L. Watts Theatre: Jeffrey Carrion/ DePaul University; Dashiell-Sparks: Chris Shinn; Lopez-Rios: Jeffrey Carrion/DePaul University; SMITH: Deborah Lopez