Warning: Long post! If you want, my advice is really at the beginning and end or read my post here
http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/education/10698-what-do.html#post117830.
Part of what you need to consider when choosing a career in theater is this, what kind of life do you want to have? I am married, with children (and not a shoe salesman), and the sole bread winner for my family, by choice. What does this mean, I probably should have chosen a different career. That being said, yes, you can have a career in theater.
What do you want to do in theater? If you like doing plays, like you are doing currently in school, you will have an extremely limited career choice. Most likely, you will choose the path of working in education or work in community theater. I would say that neither of these will provide you with a lot of money in your pocket (and thus stress about paying the bills), but you may find that you will love what you do. On the other
hand, you can take your theater experience and work in corporate audio-visual and make a better wage, but dread what you do (oh, and you have to love getting up early if you work in the hotel environment).
I can fill you in on a variety of career choices with theatrical experience through my own choices. I loved working backstage in HS and even got some paid gigs (I skipped my senior prom to work
followspot for REO Speedwagon). In college, I had plans on going into archaeology, but tech theater offered better scholarships, so that's what I chose. I worked on the school's shows as well as doing summer
stock and continuing to work freelance (state fair concerts, worked with the activities council bringing in comedians and bands for the school, plus some touring productions). After 2 1/2 years, I took my Associates of Arts in theater and moved on to archaeology (and a new state).
I would have been happy at that, I had done a lot and was satisfied. I went to a university where the touring Broadway shows played on campus. OK, now I knew where to get my work study. At the time, they found it easier to hire non-theater students to work at this
road house than re-train the theater students. It's not that the program was bad, but working a
road house is different than producing your own shows. Since I had worked outside of my theater, I was accepted to work there. Man was that a great experience. However, my paycheck fluctuated greatly since there was limited work for non-union crews on the Broadway shows, and there was not always other work to do. By working along side the union, I was asked to join. At first I said no since I was still planning on going into archaeology. However, I was married, had one child already, and needed work.
I got my first hook by being a manager of a multi-plex cinema (25 screens). There I gained experience in running crews, running 35mm projection equipment (including splicing film and maintenance), but not much else "theatrical". Guess what, I still freelanced because it didn't pay the bills. After that, I was able to apply my theatrical and archaeoligical skills by building exhibits for a natural history museum. It was more my theater skills that got me the job (you can see one of my other posts about having "marketable skills"). Again, it didn't really pay the bills and I kept freelancing, and joined the union. Luck would have it, the month I was sworn in to the local, one of the older guys fell during opening weekend of Phantom of the Opera and I was put on for the rest of the run. I decided to quit the museum and try only doing union work. Well, in Phoenix, union work is mainly "industrials" which are also known as booth shows. That's usually in a convention center where the client is hosting a multitude of suppliers of a certain type of materials - home and garden shows, gift shop shows, or things like
LDI. Needless to say, many of the stagehands didn't have as much theatrical experience. I wasn't making enough and supplemented my income in a cabinet fabrication shop.
Next came my big break into theater. I was a TD (along with two other guys) of a two theater complex where there were five resident companies and we did rentals as well, this was non-union, but the union didn't mind me being there. This was great! I thought I was the cat's meow. And then I realized what regional theater was about. Most of their funding was from grants, suplemented by their ticket sales. The money they spent went towards the administration mostly and sets resulting in low paid technicians. Well, low paid technicians are usually inexperienced since the experienced people usually go elsewhere to get paid better. My first year was scary. I brought it to the attention of my administration that there was all kinds of
safety concerns. I quit. Well, a few months later, they asked me back. They told me that things were going to improve. At first they were. We were able to start mandating new
safety procedures, requiring the resident companies to come and have their employees and
overhire to be trained in the facilities fall protection and personnel lifts. We turned the rehearsal
hall into a blackbox performance space and had the
pipe grid professionally inspected after it was installed. Well, there were still accidents and near accidents because the technicians were still untrained. I was allowed to implement a training program, gratis to any technician who wanted to work there. I convinced the theater companies to give a bonus to techs who took my class. I also convinced the companies to hire union stagehands to fill their calls for
load-in and
strike to ensure that there were qualified people working. Things were getting better. Now I focussed on the
safety concerns of the building itself. I pointed out to my boss that we had
OSHA violations and that they needed to be fixed. Nothing was being done, so I contacted
OSHA to do a walk through. I got fired.
I was in my rights to get my job back. I sought legal council but was told that I would end up getting my job back but losing money in the long run (long story) especially since wages were low (I was making around $30k as a TD). If I had taken the job under union protection, then the union would have fought for me, but since I didn't, I was on my own.
I had enough of a good reputation in town, plus my union membership, that I was able to get enough work until I got another job. I went into corporate AV at a large luxury hotel. I learned a lot more about sound (most ballrooms are extremely accoustically different from theaters) as well as digital projection systems. I tried working my way up, but eventually I hated being at work at 6AM evey day so I moved on. I went to work for another AV company prepping and repairing their video equipment. I got a lot of new contacts in the industry since this was a more reputable company.
One day I get a
call from a former co-worker who has a job offer for me in Las Vegas. Now, having a family, I knew that pay was better here, but never really considered moving here. Well, I sent my resume off anyway and ended up being offered a lead position. Cool. Six months after I moved, I got a
call from my old university, one of the TDs retired and they wanted me to apply. I didn't because I would have had to take a significant pay cut.
What's the moral of my story? Well, it's kind of up to you. The short answer is that you can be successful in theater through a lot of perserverance and dumb luck. Your work ethic can be recognized and bring you some jobs even when ostrisized from others. If you really think about it though, there are probably as many stagehands graduating from all the colleges and universities and trade schools in the country each year as there are full time jobs in technical theater (not including the part-time/freelance work). That goes to show you that there are going to be opportunities, but many people use their skills in other fields. In addition, many of the high budget shows in LA, LV, NY,
etc. are using more and more specialized people in hydraulics, electrical engineering, IT, and other non-theatrically related fields.
I'm still paying on my student loans almost 15 years after graduating. I have had constant work (as you may have read unless you skimmed as advised) but it hasn't all been great paying. Union stagehands in Phoenix make about $18/hour. That is better than the non-union stagehands who make $10-13/hour. I made $17 an hour as an AV tech (plus tips). I was considered to be doing good making $30k a year as a TD. Unless you are with a large company (most theater companies are non-profit and are far from large), you will pay more for your benefits. When I worked at the museum, it was a city job and so my families health insurance was around $150/month. When I was a TD, I was paying about $600/month for my health insurance. Same kind of coverage. I have yet to be able to make enough to put towards retirement (as with many stagehands I've known who were married, with children). I never went out on the
road, but have many friends who have. Sometimes you get a good gig, sometimes you don't. I was offered a job with the circus more than once, but always turned them down due to payscale. That's me. For you who are not married and have less responsibility, go for it. Like I have said many times, try to figure out what it is that's important to you in life. Theater isn't always the easiest thing to get out of once you are in it. I don't want anyone to be scared out of theater, just to know what they are getting into. We are still really trying to make this career choice to be seen as a reputable one. I have often been politely mocked by other professionals because they "did theater when they were in HS." With the help of Discovery
Channel and A&E, some people are getting wind that there is some extremely technical equipment that needs very talented people to run it, but unless you work on a "named" production, you will probably end up getting treated as second rate outside of our community.
If you are like me, however, theater is in your blood. I tried to turn my back on it for other desires, but failed and was drawn back in. It's what I do. It's what I am passionate about. It helps define me. I hope that I have helped the OP as well as anyone else who has put up with my ramblings. Man, it really helps me to envision myself in a rocking chair someday, repeating the same stories over and over. . . [/URL]
Good luck to all of you and I hope you all make the best decisions. Time will only tell.