On being an Acting/Theater major

Hello everyone,

So recently I’ve been interested in pursuing a major in acting or theater. I have always been interested in performance, but this past year my interest in film and the craft of acting has really strengthened. I’m currently a freshman biology major.

I have really wanted to do a double major. I am currently on the pre-med track, and I feel as if Biology along with a performing arts major would be too much. I still will apply to medical school, but I want to explore my other interests while in college.

How stressful do you think a psychology major and a performing arts major would be? (In this case, theater or acting) How likely is it that I would be able to complete them in four years?

My current school that I am at offers a theater major, but the other program I am looking at offers an acting major which requires an audition. To anyone who is a performing arts major, what is your major like? Are you required to participate in your productions? How much time out of class do you dedicate your time to this major?

Would you recommend any performing arts major to someone who has no background with ever performing? (Except once in middle school as an understudy)

Looking forward to the responses

Hi @boycrazyonc - I would reccommend you get some performing arts training and experience before you consider whether a performing arts degree is a good fit. Every college has opportunities for people to audition for plays or shows or be in student films and many have acting or dance classes that a pre-med can take. Try that route before you contemplate transferring majors. There are a lot of dedicated actors out there and competition for slots at auditioned programs can be fierce - it’s too tough a field to enter on a whim.

@CaMom13 Thank you for the insight. You are certainly right about these programs being competitive, and how well equipped I should be prior to entering them. My current school has many performance classes for non-theater majors. I’ll definitely look into them.

Another thing to consider–what are your priorities? Most of the students I know trying to get into med school make getting into med school a full time job. I know you’re considering majoring in psych instead of bio, but you’re still going to have to take a lot of super heavy science classes (organic chemistry–I did it, and it was rough) to prepare for the MCAT and as med school prerequisites. Most of the theatre majors I know treat their training the same way.

Theatre performance (acting) is also an incredibly demanding major. I think you’ll find that most theatre students have been acting and training since childhood. My son is an undergrad theatre performance major, and there are a lot of weeks and months where he has multiple projects going on and over 40 additional hours of rehearsals a week on top of his class work. He sleeps, eats, does his homework, goes to class, and rehearses–that’s it. In his program, he’s required to audition for certain shows (others are optional) and if he’s cast, he has to accept the role. Everything else in his life has to be organized around his show schedule, and not the other way around.

I’m not trying to discourage you, but I think you need to really consider if making that type of commitment makes any sense with your pre-med goals. I would strongly urge you to talk with theatre students and faculty about the expectations in your local program and their experiences. I’d look into auditioning for shows at your school open to the full student body to see if this is something you’d actually enjoy, and what you really want. You could also look at a minor in theatre for fun–it would be much less demanding. You can always go to grad school for a MFA down the road if you change your mind and decide you want a career in performance.