Tim Barden
1 min readJan 5, 2022

--

Here's one.

There are over 1000 Colleges and Universities offering BFA programs in either Acting or Musical Theatre. All of them tout their student's success by mentioning a few former students that managed to land a role or two in a Broadway production or feature film.

Unfortunately, what they don't tell students is that the effective annual unemployment rate for members of the professional stage actors union in the U.S. is about 86%. For the 14% that do work, the median income from professional work is about $7,500 / year. The figures for the union representing film and TV actors are similar. Yet colleges will gladly saddle students with so many debt payments that they can't afford to live in NY or LA to try to break into the business.

This is a perfect example of a situation where a two-year conservatory or apprentice program would be a more direct and responsible path to take. But, the education industry doesn't much care for such sentiment, because, of course, everyone benefits from college. Even if they wind up working at Starbucks instead of the industry they were aiming for.

--

--

Tim Barden
Tim Barden

Written by Tim Barden

Independent. Heterodox. Passionate about the arts, society and technology. IT Professional turned Arts Professional.

No responses yet