I have huffed and puffed many times about the negative feedback I get being a theatre major. I hear all the time that it's not a realistic subject to major in and that it doesn't require any real work. The new semester started just a week and a half ago, and I am already worn out! As I looked around at my fellow performers, I noticed that they too are exhibiting signs of exhaustion. I began to assess the amount of work and time I was investing into the semester, and here are a few things that I found relate to most if not all performance (vocal, instrumental, theatrical, etc.) majors.
1. All of your classes are in the same two buildings, so there's a whole side of campus you have never visited. I'm pretty sure there's an education building on campus, but I couldn't tell you where it is or what it's called.
2. You basically have a reserved parking spot in front of the music building since you're there every single day, and you get irrationally angry when someone else parks there.
3. Every semester you say that you don't have time to participate in anything "extra", but every semester your friends convince you to audition for numerous plays, choirs, and ensembles.
4. Speaking of not having time-- it's a rarity that a performance major will be taking less than 18 credit hours a semester.
5. The dreaded 0 credit classes... Performance majors are forced to take multiple time-consuming classes in which they get no credit. I'm pretty sure these only exist to force the students to do 21-23 credits worth of work in a semester while bypassing the maximum credit stipulation.
6. Due to these 0 credit classes, ensembles, choirs, voice lessons, musical rehearsals, and normal classes most school days last approximately from 8:00 AM till 10:00 PM.
7. In order to survive through the 14 hour school day (not considering the actual homework you still have to do), every ounce of your being is crying for caffeine, but you know if anyone from the music building sees you with it, you're going to get a look so fierce it could send you straight to hell.
8. Most wouldn't guess this, but some of the healthiest people are those who are performance majors. Try singing and dancing two hours straight without losing your breath. Performance majors are required to have a strong body, mind, and heart as well as impressive endurance.
9. The struggle of needing to be sensitive enough to be moved by art so you can express the emotion of the piece you are presenting, and need to be heartless enough to handle common critique and rejection.
10. More often than not you love what you do, and you are surrounded by wonderful people who also love performing. You break into random songs, slip into foreign accents, and greet each other in numerous over-dramatized reenactments of movie scenes. We're more than ok with being the weirdos on campus because we know that the connections we are building with each other are going to last well outside of college.
