Many of our departments are labeled “Theatre,” which hides the ball a bit. In fact, we are largely training people not to do theatre but to do things—act, direct, write, stage manage, design, run a shop, hang lights—that can be done inside or outside a theatre space. Increasingly, today’s artists are using 21st-century tools like self-tapes and digital portfolios to secure employment in film, TV, new media, immersive events, and the corporate world, alongside theatre work. Yet many departments don’t have any classes geared specifically for working on camera, and, among universities that have both film and theatre majors, there is often no interaction between the two departments.
Even when schools do offer camera-based classes, they aren’t always up to date. Matt Koenig, now assistant professor of acting at Baldwin Wallace in Columbus, Ohio, recalled a “camera class” he took: “We got a handwritten call sheet and were told, ‘That is what you’re going to receive every time you go on set.’ I had just done my first movie, and I went, ‘Handwritten? What? No.’”
There are signs of change. At the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA), which only offers performance-based degrees, all students leave with a reel and professional headshots. Louisiana State recently implemented a BFA in film and an optional camera track for its acting degree, both housed within the theatre department, and they produce two to four “departmental films” every year, alongside a season of plays. Tyler Kieffer, assistant professor of sound design at LSU, uses the multiplicity of his profession as the cornerstone of his teaching philosophy. The uncertainty in the industry, he said, is forcing students to look at other career avenues “that might not be in a building with four walls with stage lights.” His takeaway: “I’m trying to prepare students for how to be better listeners and recognize where they can use the power of sound in whatever avenue they’re trying to pursue.”
For many students and faculty, 21st-century industry training also means modeling new ways of working rather than reinforcing archaic and harmful practices. The past 10 years have seen the advent of #MeToo, intimacy coordination, social-emotional learning, trauma-informed practices, and a labor-based awakening in the industry demanding living wages and a healthy work-life balance, not to mention diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Addie Barnhart, assistant professor of theatre of Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, noted that training in intimacy coordination can be undertaken online, so professors everywhere have no excuse for dismissing it.
“These practices are the way of the future, because it’s consent-based work, and those tools are integral in this industry regardless of what your role is,” she said. The training she mentions is not free, but Sonya Cooke of LSU proposed that one way to “fix the problem is for administrations to fund additional education.” While there is a general sense among students and faculty that programs lag behind the industry in preparing students to work in camera-based mediums, the academy seems to be ahead on practices around gender, race, class, and consent. A colleague who recently returned from a national Equity tour told me that, perhaps because of activism-minded Gen Z students, undergraduate programs are generally more attuned to 21st-century social and labor issues than the industry is.
