Performers and Education

[Mark Wessels]

hey

i was just wondering. What are the people who post here's experiences with education? What sort of education did you do? Do you wish you had done anything differently? What education advice would you give a youngster? Did you want to be something different when you were a kid than a performer? Ah, so many questions. Answers?

/\/\ark

[The Had Matter]

I'm in the UK about to finish a physics degree and I wish I went traveling for a year before I started

[Mr.Taxi Trix]

I went to Boston University for one semester in 85, dropped out to learn street performing, and have lived in bitter regret ever since, my only solace, the company of the occassional stray dog.
Run. Run while you can to the safety of higher education. Build the hammer of your mind, that you may later smash the unwashed masses. Run.

[firegirl]

my story:

was on tour as a child doing various schmappy-pappy broadway musicals... saw a lot of the usa... was tutored thru high school...

attended a mid-road state university - receiving a bfa in musical theatre and a ba in english litrature (top o' the class) in 1993...

instead of doing summer stock theatre one summer - did a ren faire instead... started sleeping with a sarcastic juggler/fire eater...

attended the prestigious mfa/acting program at boston university (and art theatre) from 1996 - 1999... graduated without auspice.

been doing ren faires/club shows ever since - despite my attempts at more serious careers...

advice - follow your heart & live like you mean it. in all areas of life...

~a slightly tipsy firegirl

[ 05-21-2002: Message edited by: firegirl ]</p>

[Peter Voice]

Wow, Firegirl, you really know things are jaded when the jugglers start looking good.

I did an Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering, then my Master's in Pharmacology and was National Tech. Manager for a major pharmaceutical company when I quit to be a painter/writer. I was thirty when I discovered "Street".
Not one second of my education was a waste but I really only learned one thing, how to learn about something.

[ 05-21-2002: Message edited by: Peter Voice ]</p>

[firegirl]

... i'm not jaded ... i'm a smart-ass ...

sarcastic jugglers are an acquired like ...

if you're a sarcastic, shakespearian trained actor - you should be a good match with a sarcstic juggler.

i always wished i could be a professional student ... i loved university ... mind expanding in many realms of reality and fiction ... a chance for me to putt around in many area i'd have never learned about otherwise ... and, where else can you perform brecht to a sold out house?

i do not regret one moment of my overglorified and little used education (professionally and personaly - what i do reflects my 'training' very little) it was the best ten years of my life thus far... both of my parents are college professors & i could have never gotten away with not going to college/grad school... when i was younger i considered this a burden. now (at the hoary old age of 30) i consider it a blessing.

~firegirl

[Neil Brown]

I'm currently reading Law at Uni here in Southampton. I have always wanted to read law, and now I am doing it and enjoying it loads. Do what you want- if you don't enjoy it, there's less chance that you'll stick it out. Good luck whatever,
Neil

[ben woodling]

Bwahahahaha....!
I just finisherd skool and do mi GCSE's next week! This means i got the rest of my life ahead! so many mistakes to make so much to learn about the sphere shaped thing we call home, wow. Im goin to College to study Physics(for juggling), graphic design(to design props), art (to draw jugglers) and it (to erm....design juggling websites?). College is goin to be experiment time to see if i like performin enough to take it up as a career. But fire gurl ur like just under double mi age!noooooooooooooooooooooooooo............!

"theres more to living than only surviving"-offspring

that is all

[Evan Young]

I graduated High School in 2000, then went to Circomedia Circus School in Bristol UK for a year. Then I worked as a painting contractor, a cook at a nice resteraunt, and a sales rep for Abercrombie for a year.
Now I'm trying to do the street show thing in Boulder. I start this weekend here, but I've been on the road for over a month now.

Way back in the day I wanted to be a Biologist, but I didn't know at that time I was dyslexic, so I gave up on that cuz reading the science text book was too much of a stuggle.
These days people look at me like I'm crazy for not going to real college and getting the same education that they did. I'm all about proving that you don't thave to do the standard thing, so screw school. If I have to bail on juggling I'll be a career cook.

[ben woodling]

kool stuff man, screw the system.
As a friend wrote in my leavers book for skool:

"bound by mandatory education(brainwashing!) and the teachers (goverment brain launders)"

ne ways tell me how the show goes in boulder!
Bye now
Take care! [img]rolleyes.gif[/img]

[firegirl]

...ben... sounds like you'll have a prosperous career in juggling with all the education you're pursuing...

...gawd... i've been flirting over the internet with a mere babe in the woods... gawd... eeek.

~firegirl

[ben woodling]

thanx 4 that! im just goin to sit in my play pen and suk on mi pasifyer!Oh...and while im there i shall watch barney!!!!!!!GRRRR!!!
thanks again
Baby Ben
[img]mad.gif[/img]

[Karen aka Canvas Clown]

I went to New College of FL in Sarasota ... never *ever* expected to be a performer, was always quite shy and stage-frightened. New College requires an independent thesis to graduate and it's a long story that actually involves some of you, but I was in Boston and was watching a busker unexpectedly one morning, and was like "whoah...there's something fascinating going on here..." and called home to my prof in FL and told him I wanted to do my thesis on street theater, and he said okay (albeit with some surprise), and so I started interviewing people and by the time i was back home i knew I wanted to try it myself... So you know, really the educating process happened outside the classroom anyway... and i have to thank all of you Boston buskers for picquing my interest and indulging me in those few months of questions...=)

[Rich Potter]

High School: slacked my way through with brain power alone (as opposed to actually doing any work)

College: one year at a "Harvard-on-the-pike" sorta school. Studied art and writing. Many of the things I learned in my classes during that short college career have stuck with me since I didn't tax my brain with frivolous activities such as studying.

Ringling Bros., B&B Clown College: Learned a thing or two. Did more work because the work was fun.

My first year with their circus was called an "Apprenticeship" but I think that was more so they didn't have to pay me anything.

1988-on, School of Hard Knocks. Thought being an entertainer was a way to avoid actual work. Boy was I wrong.

--Rich