College Not My Major

[Isaac]

I just graduated with a BS in computer science this year. The only issue is that that's not really where I want to go anymore.
I started out college never having worked in theater (because my high school didn't have a space or program) and now that I have graduated I have been involved in a technical or design role in 12 productions as well as acting in some of them as well. All of that is to say that I have found that my true calling is technical theater. The only issue is that I didn't fully acknowledge this calling until the end of my junior year when I really couldn't fit any theater courses into my schedule.
I am very interested in pursuing an MFA in technical direction, and I am looking for some advice about what I should be doing to make myself a better candidate for these programs.

 

[MNicolai]

Go out and do work in the field. Don't jump on an MFA on a whim or it'll end up like your Computer Science BS -- you'll make it to the end and realize it's not exactly where your heart is.

Even if you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that theater is what you want to do, I'd highly discourage you from pursuing an MFA immediately after your Bachelor's. To get the most out of an MFA program, you need to know which questions to ask and which specific areas you want to focus in, and you can't know those things without a few years in the industry.

Another caution I have for you is that, ideally, you want the MFA to help you take a leap from the lower tiers of the industry into the upper tiers (more $$$, higher profile work, etc.). If you put the cart before the horse, you'll be too expensive to hire and without enough experience for someone to be able to justify hiring you. You don't want the only job you can land to be one that pays $35k/yr just because, while you have an MFA, you don't have the necessary on-the-job experience. You may even have trouble landing those lower-wage jobs because employers may look at your resume, and quickly toss it to the side when they discover you have an MFA -- because they'd expect someone with an MFA to cost more than they're willing to pay.

I have a friend who did his MFA in Tech Dir right after his BFA. He came out of his MFA with hardly any on-the-job experience and has had to start out on the lower end of the totem pole. For what he's doing today, his MFA did little but cost him multiple years worth of on-the-job experience he could've otherwise been doing, and I assure you he's not being compensated at the level someone with their MFA should be. Cynical though it may sound, possibly the only thing he got out of his MFA was a wider network of friends across the industry, but friends don't (usually) pay the rent. I can't use friends as currency when I go to buy groceries, or when I send my various checks in to pay my insurance premiums. Friends in the right places can help you land future jobs -- but again -- without that portfolio of on-the-job experience, you're not going to be getting job offers you'd want to be getting.

If you want an MFA, by all means go after it, but save that for 5-10 years from now. This isn't a research field where you're expected to get your undergrad, your grad, and then your PhD one right after the other. You will gain nothing from going after an MFA at this point in your life.

 

[TuckerD]

Or you could use your CS in the industry. Someone has to be hiring the programmers who are innovating in the industry. There are some opening at ETC, but there are other companies as well. You should check it out.