Things I Wish I Had Been Told in Theatre School
by Callam Rodya
[Here is an article everyone is talking about, not only in Canada, but around the world. We asked Mr. Rodya for rights to reprint it here and he very kindly agreed. Enjoy! If you wish to respond to the article and the subsequent discussion, visit Mr. Rodya's website. Or you can add the things you wish YOU had been told to the comments below and we will forward the response to the author. GLC]
Theatre school was great. It is great. But it can omit some of the more fundamental and important career lessons. School is, after all, a bubble. It’s not a natural professional environment.
So, with what little wisdom I have regarding a career as an actor, here’s a list of some things I wish somebody had told me in theatre school. Some of these lessons, I had to learn the hard way. Others simply would have saved me a bit of time.
- “Stealing the show” is not a compliment. The ensemble is more important than your “moments”.
- You’d be surprised how few people are willing to pay for theatre tickets when they aren’t your friends and family and have no personal connection to you whatsoever.
- No, you can’t actually play forty and fifty-year-olds in your twenties. At least, no one will pay you to do it.
- By the same token, there are very few roles in the theatre for twenty-year-olds.
- The stage manager always works much harder than you. And technically, you work for him/her, not the other way around.
- Most people don’t get drunk on Opening Night…because they have a show the next day…idiot. Oh, and cast parties are more likely to be cast dinners.
