#theater major

[trauma-insence]

“can you be quiet?” no actually, i can’t. im a theatre major and im practicing for my professional yapping classes

[studyingsocialjustice]

can you give any theatre/acting related advice that you have learnt through your studies as a theatre major? thanks

Anon I am SO sorry - this ask is from a year ago and I literally JUST saw this and I have absolutely no idea how that happened. I hope that you are still following me and will see this!

EDIT from May 2023: Haha. Oops. This ask is now from maybe like two years ago? Possibly almost three? I genuinely don't know. But I am so sorry that it's taken so long. I remember exactly what I was doing while typing my original response to this: I was folding laundry and trying to get ready to move back in to school, and I was procrastinating doing the folding by typing my response to this, and then my parents came in and were like "why aren't you folding laundry" and I remember saying to myself that I would come back to this ask and then I never did. But you probably don't care about that much, so here we go:

My top three things I have learned, in order:

Number One: Script analysis is everything. It will help you connect to and understand your character, it will help you to connect to and understand the world of the play - it is the foundation for understanding everything. Look at the historical context of when the play was written and where it stands in the playwright's repertoire chronologically. Look at word choice. Look at how the characters interact with each other. My favorite books I recommend for this are A Practical Handbook for the Actor by Melissa Bruder, Lee Michael Cohn, etc. and Backwards and Forwards by David Ball. I read these books in my senior year of high school, so four years ago now, and I still use their methodology for all of my script analysis. Their methods are incredibly useful and I highly highly recommend reading them. B&F was also required reading for my Script Analysis course at my university this year, and it is still just as useful. The books are old enough that they aren't too expensive to buy, and you could probably also find copies online, though I'm not sure of that.

Two: One of the best, and in my opinion most accessible methods of script analysis (especially if you don't want to read a whole book) is the Question Words Method: Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? This works for monologues as well as general script analysis, and is usually applied to one character at a time.

For monologues: Who is speaking? Who are they speaking to? What are they trying to achieve by speaking? Where are they while they're talking? When in the course of the story is this happening? Why are they talking about this now? Why not later, why not sooner? To quote one acting teacher I had, why are they opening their mouth? And finally, how are they going about getting what they want? What tactics are they using, what's their word choice? What actions are they taking as they speak?

For characters: Who are they? This includes, name, title, relationships, basic biographical information. What do they want? What is their goal throughout this story? Where does this story take place? When? For a particular scene, where and when does that scene take place (general setting) and when in the course of the story does it take place? Why do they want whatever it is that they want? And how are they working to achieve it?

The most essential part of this, in my opinion, is what does the character want, and how they are going about achieving that. It's the objective and the tactics.

Three: This comes from one of my professors from this past school year. There is this idea in the world of theatre that if there's anything else you can see yourself doing, you should go do that because acting is only for people who can see themselves doing nothing else and just really really want it. Which is stupid because just because you might be able to imagine yourself taking a different career path doesn't mean you would be happy doing it. So, from my professor: "If you could see yourself doing anything else, do this anyway, because it's better." Again: If you could see yourself doing anything else, do this anyway, because it's better. If this is what you love, who cares about what else you could be doing? Do the thing that is fulfilling and makes you happy. It doesn't matter if other people think that it isn't a good career or won't make you enough money. If this is what you love, do it, because it's better than anything else.

I sincerely hope that this advice was helpful to you! Again, I'm so sorry that it's taken me so long to answer your ask; time unfortunately is not my friend and I've had a lot of - for lack of a better word - bullshit happen to me this year. Best of luck going forward, and please know that although it may sometimes take me a while to respond, my inbox is always open! I love giving advice, and am always happy to provide it!

[literarydesire]

My life as a dramaturgy major

[amporalicious]

yall this is gonna be kinda niche and ill lock out a lot of people on here, but i fucking hate uncle vanya. bad play.

"its a classic play!" its also a very boring one. theres no story or plot and things just happen. its just "here's the conflicts. okay now things happen" and thats the entire thing.

oh and the characters are garbage? "oh but toby, thats the whole point!" yeah??? ok??? well bad point lmao. bro did what he wanted when making the play- good on him. but that dont make it less boring or less enjoyable to read.

i literally hate uncle vanya so much. it and rent are the two plays i can absolutely go off about how much i hate them for hours.

if you ask me about rent, you'll get a kankri ass essay on it.

[valenthetines]

An Introduction To Valen:

HELLO! i am valen!!!!

i am an ongoing Musical Theater Major

Im Aro/Ace ill be posting about a lot of different things i like, and that includes: Animation, Minecraft, MUSICALS, Splatoon, random games, books, my life i guess, Movies??, and Probably much much more So Thankyou and have a nice day - Valen

[lyrebird-sings]

I think I'm holding my happiness prisoner.

I'm no longer trapped in my past no, but in some twisted manner, I'm trapped in my present. And I'm running, and running and running but getting nowhere.

Am I unable to feel happiness or am I not letting myself be happy?

I have planned my life to the very last second and for some reason I have decided that I will be happy only when my life is the way I've planned it out to be.

I tell myself I'll be happy tomorrow. Tomorrow when I'm living better, tomorrow when I'm loved, tomorrow when I love.

And deep down, I feel that maybe I'm not letting myself be happy in my now.

Is it okay to be happy now?

Do I have to wait for every last wrinkle in my life to be ironed out and dealt with, before I can allow myself to smile and live and walk towards my good future?

Am I running and running and not reaching the future I have in my mind because I'm not letting myself be happy along the way?

I don't know.

I'm not happy now, but I think I'd like to be.

[brinlyisasleep]

Thinking about that post that’s like “it’s makes so much sense that the hottest, yet most annoying people you went to high school with are the people who moved to New York”

[doseofnohemy]

Finished my college career on the Tuesday before Christmas at 3:09 pm. This is the only documentation I have of that day. Thanks UNR.

[jtem]

Badly worded, if you ask me, but thus far I’ve been too lazy to make my own version...

“The world owes you 15 minutes of fame. It’s time for you to collect.”

[blood-bagz]

"Wyll's entrance is too corny!!! Wyll's entrance makes me cringe!!!" You are playing DnD: The Video Game.

[silverystardustt]

At its core, every piece of media we ever have consumed and ever will consume — whether it’s art, music, books, movies — is fundamentally about love, or the lack of it.

it’s an inescapable facet of human life. it could be about the love you have for people in your life, or how much you hate your job, or love your city, but the love is always there.

[dxmxuse]

As a writer, the thought of being paid $260 for helping write a show that has over 12.8 billion minutes viewed is sickening. The writers strike is absolutely crucial for the future of script writing, I can’t see anyone in this generation wanting to work for so little when the workload and potential payout is so massive

[bornwholocker]

Phoenix Wright, the only man to somehow be too gay for the arts

[literarydesire]

I feel so sorry for the poli/sci, maths and natural science students at my school right now, they are sweating over calculus during these exams and I get to just sit there and draw stage designs for five hours. I love being a theatre major.

[amporalicious]

my mom just sent me a tiktok that went something along the lines of "i was today years old when i found out they say 'break a leg' because they hope you get cast"

it is taking every fiber of my being to not explain the reasoning of where the phrase came from

[weirdgirlzip]

HEATHER CHANDLER VELS!!! i thought about making this an au but thats a project for the future ....