Last week, I did a summary of my four years of involvement with Eastern New Mexico University's Theatre program. As I previously did with my Radio/TV experience, I will now offer the more positive aspects of the department as a means of explaining how I did not fully comprehend the tools that I was being given during college that would have helped actually have a career in the theatrical industry.
I realize now that the point of getting the degree was not to become a better actor, but to become a well-equipped member of a theatrical organization. If you do more than act, that is, if you are able to do lighting design, costume design, set design, set construction and have an understanding of theatrical history, you become more valuable as a member of the team. I can recall Dr. R, Dr. W and Mr. H telling us time and time again that we were not going to become very well-known as actors. When a group of actors was auditioning for the Southwest Theatre Conference, Dr. R was so disappointed with what the actors were giving him, he went into this rant that they all needed to learn how to really audition, because when they got in the real world, they would be auditioning so much, they would start thinking that "auditioning IS acting." Dr. R also encouraged us to take some basic business classes because Theatre is a business. If you know the basics about business, you become even more valuable to an organization. If you have these skills, you should always be able to get work in the larger metropolitan areas.
The department's main asset was Dr. R. Dr. R was able to make our young minds see Theatre in a whole different light. He encouraged us to think outside the lines that were written on the page. He inspired us to become better performers and technicians. I once heard Toilethead tell someone, "Yeah, Dr. R's actually too good for this school, but don't ever tell him that because he'll want to leave." Dr W was also an excellent professor and made the theatre history classes very lively, but it didn't really seem like much of a challenge to impress him.
A somewhat positive aspect of the department was that none of the professors would ever tell anyone that they couldn't act. Dr. R and Dr. W would say something like, "You're not giving me what I want," or "You're just doing plastic acting." But never, "You are not an actor. Get off of my stage!" I guess the thinking was that if they ever told anyone that, that person would go on to win an Oscar, a Tony or an Emmy and the acceptance speech would be something like, "The professors at Eastern New Mexico University told me I couldn't act. IN YOUR FACE!" Something like that would permanently damage the reputation of the department, so they would be as diplomatic as possible. Although, I do remember one time when Dr. R dicated his rehearsal notes into a tape recorder and criticized an actor's performance by saying, "You have the emotional capacity of a fish!" Dr. R apologized for the remark and said that when he writes the notes, he's more able to determine whether or not they be read.
I have to admit that the Scenic Design class actually helped me out a little later in life. In that class, I had learned to account for the width of any wood that would be used in building the sets. At one job (not theatrical), a co-worker and I were told by the boss, "Here's the wood, here's the hand saw, the hammer and the nails. Make shelves." With my knowledge of how to account for the width of the planks, we made really good shelves and impressed the boss, who was actually expecting a cruddy job from us.
So they did warn us time what to expect in our goals to become artists. I think the main issue was that ENMU's most famous graduate was Ronny Cox. Everybody thought they could be the next Ronny Cox. That didn't happen to anyone.
And for good reason. I'll write about that in tomorrow's post.
No comments:
Post a Comment