Happy Holidays Everyone!
I hope you are having a peaceful and joyous time, wherever you are. Holidays are sometimes fraught with anxiety for me. But I am totally psyched for the New Year!
I've been a bit remiss in my blogging of late. (Apologies to anyone who has visited and seen the same old post.) But there is an excuse. And that's what I'm going to talk about now.
Some time in late October I got this idea that I should look into graduate schools. It was a combination of events that led me to it, but primary among them was the desire to resume my teaching. I had been teaching with Joseph Chaikin for eight years, and I desperately want to get back to it. I miss the exchange of ideas, the exploration, the challenge. We teach what we most need learn, n'est-ce pas? But teaching positions at the university level require an MFA. At least. I've only a measly BFA which puts me, well...nowhere. This was a shocking revelation, and I was in denial about it for a long time. But I've come to embrace reality. If I want to teach I need the degree.
When I consider the possible MFA programs, I can't imagine myself studying acting. I think I've come too far for that. I'm already competing with MFA grads at every imaginable level, so I don't see that as a wise investment. (If a degree in theater at all is a wise investment!) So I of course am led to directing. And the thought of that excites me.
Now it's a mad dash. I'm behind schedule, but not so far so that I can't catch up. I've scheduled interviews through U/RTA in January. I'm most hoping to meet Travis Preston who heads up the directing program at CalArts. Mr. Preston is a director I've been following for years, and the CalArts program, to me, looks like the best in the country. (I know - Yale Schmale). The CalArts theater program is headed by playwright Eric Ehn. For those of you not familiar with his work RUN, do not walk, to read any of his plays you can lay your hands on. He's a bona fide genius, and one of the best playwrights working in America today.
But the thought of uprooting to the west coast is disconcerting. Here in New York, the only game in town seems to be Columbia University, where Andre Serban is the main directing professor. It looks like a terrific program, but at $50 grand a year, I'll just keep looking. Rutgers seemed like an option, but they never answered my emails so that tells me something about their department.
UMass Amherst is very intriguing. They offer full tuition waiver and stipend with teaching assistantships. And it's in a great town. And it's within driving distance to New York. What could be better than that?
Maybe Brooklyn College. My colleague Miriam Eusebio has her MFA from Brooklyn, and spoke very highly of the department. She introduced me (cyberly) to Professor Thomas Bullard, who heads up the program there. Now here's a guy with credentials! He has directed at nearly every major theater in the country, every major theater here in the city, began the Lincoln Center Director's Lab, and managed to earn a PhD (from Yale) somewhere along the way. I cannot imagine a more accomplished mentor, and I'm greatly looking forward to meeting him. Besides, Brooklyn is here in good old New York where I've already laid down my roots.
I may not get into any of these programs. They are extremely competitive, accepting only a few students each year. But just going through the process of applying - writing essay, reworking my resume, writing a personal statement, attaining transcripts, submitting essays, boning up on many classic plays - has been a journey that I'm grateful to be on. Taking the GRE sucks. But other than that it's a great challenge. And who knows what may happen. Perhaps the writer's strike will end! Nah. I'm banking on education.
