(Picture Below- Silent Sky, directed by Professor Brendon Fox, March 2017.)
I want to talk a bit about the arts at WAC today. I really love them, which makes sense as a Theatre and English major with a music minor. I’m a bit of a theatre geek, and I am more than ready to just devote my life to theatre, even knowing the odds of being truly successful.
So WAC theatre has been a huge part of my life. It took me from a smart-ass high school theatre kid who thought she knew everything, to a slightly older, and hopefully slightly wiser, theatre person who is more than aware of how much she still doesn’t know, but also knows what she can offer.
In the theatre and dance department at WAC you don’t choose a track. You aren’t just an actor or designer or director. In order to graduate as a theatre major you have to take classes in performance, directing, design, technical work, and history and analysis of theatre and plays. You have to participate in shows as an usher, help build sets, take them back down, and work on shows in a fuller way too in your time. It’s the complete experience, and truly prepares you for the outside world.
I declared my theatre major fall semester freshman year. I knew where my life was headed and didn’t feel like denying that. A lot of people say a theatre major is an easy or useless major, but trust me it’s not.
For starters, on top of writing/directing/performing a full show for your thesis, you also have to write a five-chapter thesis paper. Some are about 60-70 pages. Mine’s currently about 105 (there’s a lot of historical information about Macbeth that needs to be discussed). You start your thesis your junior year, and though the professors are always there to help you, it’s your baby. You put the team together, you figure out the logistics. It’s all yours.
And it’s not a useless degree. Even if you don’t end up onstage theatre training is incredibly useful. I know a lot of people who were theatre majors who have gone on to be great teachers and lawyers because they know how to hold their own in front of a crowd and speak convincingly. I know some theatre majors who have become doctors or engineers, but say they carry that confidence with them from being able to be onstage in front of people, and use it in their lives and careers. Being a theatre major doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll end up onstage someday.
I love the theatre and other arts programs at WAC here and could (obviously) talk about them all day. I won’t though, cause this is already getting long. But I will end with this. When we get theatre and dance department emails they are always addressed, “Dear majors, minors, and family.”
No matter who you are, or what your major is, when it comes to the arts at WAC, you are always part of the family.
