Reflection #2: On Grad School

Graduate school is a fun topic, because it is constantly being informed by the experiences and opinions of directors I meet, panels, job opportunities (or lack thereof), and the other artists who are in or have been to graduate school. Over the summer, I planned trips to SoCal and Chicago (surrounding football games) in order to visit grad schools I was interested in, namely UCSD with a possible trip to CalArts in SoCal, and Northwestern and DePaul in Chicago. However, the closer the trips came, the less I wanted to go. I love Naomi Iizuka's playwriting program at UCSD, but it turns out the Directing program is now very avant-garde & believes in the director as auteur, which is not at all what Les Waters ran back in the days when all of my favorite female directors went there, and the word on the street is that the two programs don't get along. One of my biggest priorities in grad school is a strong collaboration between the directing and writing programs, so all of my UCSD dreams began to fall apart when faced with reality and I decided it wasn't worth the trip. Three years in San Diego does not have enough to offer me without a strong belief in the program.

As I distanced myself from what I had believed to be my ideal school, I became disenchanted with the idea of grad school entirely. A trip home (part of the initially planned SoCal trip) included a meeting with my college advisor who asked why I wanted to go to grad school anyway. The only answer I could come up with was the community of other student-artists. He asked if that one reason was worth the time, money and effort in grad school. As I considered the community and world I have begun to build in New York, the answer was clearly no.

On returning to NYC, I wondered to myself under what circumstance I would still want to go to grad school. And the answer was Yale. Oh Yale. Do I need Yale? Probably not. Would I get into Yale? Probably not. But the incredible playwrights, actors, designers, managers and other directors I would meet plus the prestige of that degree weigh so heavily in my mind, as I meet time and time again people from all disciplines whose work I love and whose careers I would love to follow and/or take part in, who share that honor.

So despite my disenchanted view, when the time came around to register for Visiting Day I hopped on the wagon. If nothing else, I have never been to the campus, and I was sure to learn a lot. Plus I convinced two actor friends to go with me so I wouldn't have to make the journey alone. And last Thursday I hopped on the Metro North to New Haven and embarked on a day of networking, note-taking and knowledge-gaining.

I think I got a great balanced perspective of the School of Drama, and with it, what to expect from any MFA Directing Program to some degree.

• The Dean will know how to sell his (or her) school. That doesn't make it any less awesome, but does need to be taken with a grain of salt. As he stood there trying to convince us why it was the best school, one had to consider that 900 actors applied last year for 16 spots. It's not like they're begging for applicants.
• Liz Diamond was incredibly inspiring. I loved the feeling of sitting around the table in the tiny classroom above the Yale Cabaret and listening to her talk- I could do that for three years. Leadership and collaboration. I'll listen to lectures on those any day of the week.
• Reality check #1: You may have to direct plays that just aren't ready for a production, or that you're not in love with. It's certainly something to remember that just because you're in grad school doesn't mean that you have your pick of what you want to do... and it's also a potential downside to a relationship with a writing department. You may not click with the writers, and then what? So much for the benefit of that collaboration between programs I hold in so high regard.
• Reality check #2: I truly believe that in order to get the best possible experience out of grad school, you have to be in a place where you can take three years out of your life to devote to it. Those shows you've been collaborating on, or that long distance relationship? Not going to happen while you're in grad school. Not for directing. It's a 100% commitment. Which is thrilling. But also a reality check in the sense that I know I'm not ready to do that right now. I would really need to hit a point where I felt so stuck or so in need of further education that I could afford to throw everything out the window. And I think the people who can do that are the people that succeed in grad school, as well.
• New Haven is really not that far from New York. I should go there to see theatre more often. But once you're in New Haven for school, I would not expect to go to the city at all.
  
• Prospective Yale directors are pretty awesome people. This is an important note. :-)
• You have to know why you're going to grad school. An MFA in directing is NOT something to get for the degree. Even though it really may seem like that's a good enough reason 364 days of the year.
• The pizza at BAR in New Haven is pretty fantastic. But generally I should eat more than a croissant at 12pm and half a large pizza at 8pm. This is more of a note for my personal well-being.
  

The takeaway? I am still interested in an MFA. Yale is still a dream... were I to eventually be in a place where it would work for me and fulfill a true need beyond the desire for the connections and future employment it might enable. But not right now. We'll see what happens.